A few days ago, over a cup of tea at a sea front café, an acquaintance of ours narrated an interesting story about a circus elephant that had once visited his hometown in Northern Greece. The elephant, which had arrived from some country in Northern Europe, just moved in circles around the small stake it was chained to.

It reminded me of how childhood schemata and internalised messages or internal working models can keep us stuck in certain patterns and can influence our current experience and perception. It was an image that powerfully depicted the dynamics of early past learning and trauma. It also automatically brought to my mind a story written by the Argentinean writer and psychotherapist, Jorge Bucay. Below is an extract from his short story The Chained Elephant from an illustrated by Gusti Limpi and translated into Greek edition that I own.

(Ο Αλυσοδεμένος Ελέφαντας, 2008, Χόρχε Μπουκάι, Εικονογράφηση Γκούστι, Εκδόσεις OPERA)

‘I closed my eyes, and imagined the small, newborn elephant, chained to the ground. I imagined the small elephant pushing, pulling and tugging with all his strength, trying to escape. Despite his efforts, he would fail again and again, because the stake proved too strong for him.

Then I imagined the little elephant tuckered out by all this effort and falling asleep. All his attempts would fail the next day and the next, and on many more tiresome, exhausting days. Then one day, the saddest day in the little elephant’s short life, he just gave up and accepted his fate, deciding that it was a futile battle. He was now certain that he would never be able to escape.

I understood why this huge and powerful elephant that I saw in the circus remained chained and did not run away. It was because the poor animal had been convinced that he could never free himself from the stake………’

The sense of powerlessness he had felt a little after his birth was now deeply etched in his memory…………..’