Psychology of motivation and symbolic reading of myth

1. Introduction

Version followed: Paul Diel's original Psychologie de la motivation: théorie et application thérapeutique (PUF 1947; 2nd ed. 1962), supplemented by Le symbolisme dans la mythologie grecque (1952) and La peur et l'angoisse (1956). For clinical practice it follows the Dielian lineage as currently described by the Association de Psychanalyse Introspective (API, founded 1994 by Jeanine Solotareff and Jacques de Saint-Georges). Diel's own Association de la Psychologie de la Motivation (APM, founded 1964) is not drawn on, so APM training content is not represented here [uncertain]. Inclusion among FF2P-recognised methods was not verified [uncertain].

Plain statement: this is mainly a theory of motivation with a therapeutic application. It is not a manualised therapy. Diel describes a method (introspective analysis, the 'psychological calculus', symbolic translation of dreams and myths) but no session protocol. Where I turn it into session-level steps, those are marked [synthesis].

What it is: a depth psychology that explains mental suffering through the person's hidden motives. Diel broke with Freud and Adler and set out to make introspection a disciplined method for studying conscious and unconscious deliberation [source: Universalis; Wikipedia FR]. Desires begin as a single vital drive, the 'essential desire', which splits into many desires (material, sexual, spiritual) that judgement has to put in order [source: aprisme summary of Diel 1947; Caen MBA dossier]. Imagination can inflate desires beyond reality ('exaltation'). Vanity, an unrealistic overvaluation of oneself, is the root distortion. It swings into its opposite, guilt (self-devaluation), and is projected outward as sentimentality (overvaluing others) and accusation (devaluing others). These four poles drive morbid rumination [source: Universalis; API].

How change happens: in the API's account, what is repressed is not trauma or forbidden wishes but the truth about oneself and the conditions of life. The analyst helps the patient see how subconscious errors in their 'calcul de satisfaction' (the ongoing weighing of motives toward satisfaction) produce their suffering. False justifications lose their pull ('contre-valorisation'), guilt can be borne instead of repressed, and the patient gradually takes over introspective self-control. The result is less anxiety and a steadier joy of living [source: API therapy page; aprisme]. The API attributes to Diel the line "L'essentiel n'est pas ce qui nous arrive, mais la façon dont nous le vivons" (what matters is not what happens to us but how we live it) [source: API].

2. Framework

The sources give no formal phases, session count or criteria for moving between stages. The API describes an overlapping progression, given below. The goals and transition markers are my operationalisation [synthesis].

Format [source: API]: face-to-face dialogue between analyst and patient. Part of each session goes to translating dreams, as much as the patient brings. Treatment is often long-term with no fixed end. Frequency and session length are not specified [uncertain]. Weekly sessions of 45–60 minutes is a reasonable default [synthesis].

Progression [source: API, steps 1–4; goals and markers: synthesis]:

Inventory of the inner world. Early on, the patient learns to name what fills their inner world in the method's terms (vanity, guilt, sentimentality, accusation, exalted desires). Goal: a shared vocabulary and a first map of the patient's dominant poles. Move on when: the patient can label a recent upset with at least one pole without prompting [synthesis].
Understanding mechanisms. The patient learns how mood swings between anxiety and joy, and how an exalted promise of satisfaction leads to disappointment, guilt or accusation. Goal: the patient can trace one sequence from motive to suffering. Move on when: the patient starts linking episodes to their own share in amplifying them, not just to events [synthesis].
Working through resistance. A struggle with subconscious resistance, supervised by the therapist, alternating with growing adherence. Each session aims to end in relative relief, and repeated relief strengthens adherence [source: API]. Dreams track progress and warn of likely relapse [source: API]. Move on when: dreams and day-to-day reports show the patient catching vain justifications on their own [synthesis].
Consolidation and autonomy. The method becomes 'une seconde nature positive' that works without deliberate analysis. Joy of living is grounded in self-esteem tied to meeting one's life task. This state is never permanent, so the method stays available for when guilt or vanity return [source: API]. Ending criterion: sustained self-correction between sessions and stable mood. Taper sessions and offer return visits [synthesis].

Form of deviation to assess early [source: Caen MBA dossier; aprisme]: nervosité turns toward the inner world. It shows as inhibition, constant self-justification and perfectionism, and it can tip into neurosis when repression fails. Banalisation turns toward the outer world. It shows as open exaltation of material and bodily desires and insatiability, with the essential desire under-energised. The emphasis of the work differs between the two (see 4.4).

3. Guiding principles

[source: API therapy page, aprisme, Universalis, Caen MBA dossier, Solotareff listings on API resources page; one-line practical meanings: synthesis]

Motive is the cause. Psychic reactions have inner causes, the motives. Practice: always ask what the person was hoping for or valuing, not only what happened.
Introspection is the instrument. Hidden motives can be studied only through self-observation, supported by intuition. Practice: train the patient's self-observation instead of only interpreting for them.
Understand yourself first. Understanding another person goes through understanding your own motivation. Practice: the therapist checks their own vanity, sentimentality or accusation toward the patient before intervening.
What is repressed is the truth about oneself. It is not primarily trauma or forbidden wishes [source: API]. Practice: look for the flattering self-justification that covers the painful insight.
Vanity is the core pathogenic process. Practice: in every symptom, look for the inflated self-image or inflated promise of satisfaction.
Ambivalence has four poles. Vain overvaluation and guilty self-devaluation of oneself, sentimental overvaluation and accusatory devaluation of others. Practice: when one pole appears, look for its opposite and its projection.
Guilt is a signal, not a punishment. Vital guilt ('coulpe vitale') signals lost balance. Vain guilt arises when that signal is repressed [source: Caen MBA dossier]. Shame is a separate, social emotion. Practice: help the patient bear and use guilt, never add moral blame.
Rectify misjudgements patiently. The aim is a patient correction of errors in judging oneself and others [source: API]. Practice: go step by step and correct one judgement at a time.
Show the patient their share. The analyst offers a more objective view of a distressing situation and shows the patient's part in amplifying their reaction [source: API]. Practice: describe the situation neutrally first, then the amplification.
Contre-valorisation over prohibition. Exalted promises are dissolved by showing their false nature and real cost, set against the freedom gained without ambivalence [source: API]. Practice: never forbid a desire. Show what it really delivers.
Each session ends in relative relief. Practice: close each session with something the patient can bear and use.
Translate dreams, don't interpret them. Dreams continue the day's deliberation in symbolic language [source: API]. Diel rejects sexual reductionism [source: aprisme]. Practice: treat dream images as statements about the patient's current motives.
Directive but collaborative. Solotareff's case dialogues show an approach that points out the patient's errors directly [source: API resources]. Practice: name errors plainly but invite the patient to check them introspectively.
Autonomy is the goal. Practice: hand over the work progressively, so the patient does the calculus while you check it.
Healthy, not morbid, introspection. Solotareff distinguishes the two [source: API resources]. Practice: stop self-observation that turns into self-accusation or rumination.
Ethics as biology. Diel treats the moral task as the human form of adaptation toward satisfaction [source: Universalis]. Practice: frame change as healthier satisfaction, not virtue.

4. Intervention inventory

The sources name the interventions below but do not script them. Their names and purposes are sourced. The step-by-step breakdowns are my operationalisation [synthesis] unless a step is tagged otherwise. All example language is illustrative. No technique beyond these appears in the sources. Diel's books may describe more [uncertain].

4.1 Situating the complaint in motive (opening inquiry)

Purpose / when: at intake and whenever a new upset is brought. The aim is to move from 'what happened' to 'what I was expecting and valuing'. Motives are the inner causes of reactions [source: aprisme; API].
Steps: (1) Get a concrete recent episode: situation, reaction, mood after. (2) Ask what the patient hoped would happen, what they believed they deserved, and how they wanted to appear. (3) Ask how they judged themselves and the other person afterward. (4) Note which of the four poles shows up (see 4.3). (5) Don't interpret yet, just collect.
Example language (illustrative): "Before it went wrong, what were you counting on?" "Afterwards, what did you tell yourself about you, and about him?"
Watch for: answers that stay on external events or on others' faults, which points to the accusation pole. It is working when the patient starts naming their own expectations.

4.2 Teaching the vocabulary of the inner world

Purpose / when: early phase. The patient is invited to identify what fills their inner world 'using the therapy's terminology' [source: API]: vanity, guilt, sentimentality, accusation, exaltation, the essential desire and the many desires.
Steps: (1) Introduce one or two terms at a time, always tied to the patient's own episode, never as a lecture. (2) Give the healthy counterpart too, for example vital guilt as a useful signal. (3) Ask the patient to find one example in the coming week. (4) Correct misuse, especially using 'vanity' as an insult toward self or others.
Example language (illustrative): "In this approach we'd call that a 'vain' expectation. It's not a moral label. It means a promise of satisfaction bigger than reality could keep."
Watch for: intellectualisation (fluent with the words, no felt recognition) and self-attack using the terms. It is working when labels arrive with a sense of relief or recognition, not shame.

4.3 Mapping the four ambivalent poles

Purpose / when: throughout. The patient's affect falls into four poles: vain self-overvaluation and guilty self-devaluation, accusatory devaluation and sentimental overvaluation of others [source: API; Universalis]. Diel's analysis works along four lines: guilt, accusation, sentimentality and vanity [source: aprisme].
Steps: (1) Draw a 2×2 with the patient: self over/under, others over/under [the grid format is synthesis]. (2) Place recent thoughts from the episode in it. (3) Show the swing: inflated self-image leads to failure, then self-devaluation, then accusing others or idealising a rescuer. (4) Identify the patient's preferred pole and the one they avoid seeing. (5) Revisit the map as material changes.
Example language (illustrative): "On Monday you were sure you'd shine. By Wednesday you were 'useless', and by Friday it was all your boss's fault. Can we see these as one movement?"
Watch for: the patient defending one pole by moving to another, for example admitting guilt in order to accuse oneself theatrically, which is still vanity. It is working when the patient spots the swing as it starts.

4.4 Assessing the form of deviation: nervosité or banalisation

Purpose / when: early, to set the emphasis of the work [source: Caen MBA dossier; aprisme].
Steps: (1) Ask whether exaltation stays in imagination, with inhibition, perfectionism, self-justification and a heroic self-image never acted on (nervosité). Or does it run outward, into insatiable pursuit of material, sexual or status satisfactions with the inner life neglected (banalisation)? (2) Note mixed pictures. (3) For nervosité, focus on the gap between ideal and reality and on self-justification. For banalisation, focus on insatiability and the under-energised essential desire [focus split: synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "You describe the person you'd be 'if only'. How much time goes to imagining him compared with taking small real steps?"
Watch for: symptoms severe enough to warrant standard psychiatric assessment. Diel noted that nervosité can turn into neurosis when repression fails [source: aprisme].

4.5 Objectifying the situation and showing the patient's share

Purpose / when: whenever the patient brings an upsetting or anxiety-provoking situation. The analyst offers a more objective view and shows the patient's part in amplifying their reaction [source: API].
Steps: (1) Restate the facts as neutrally as possible, separating them from the patient's commentary. (2) Name what in the reaction is proportionate. (3) Identify the extra charge: the exalted expectation, wounded self-image or accusation. (4) Ask the patient to check this against their own experience, not just accept it. (5) Close on what the patient can do differently, the 'relative relief'.
Example language (illustrative): "The facts: she cancelled, for the second time. Being disappointed fits. The hours of replaying it seem to be about something else. What did her cancelling seem to say about you?"
Watch for: the patient hearing 'it's your fault', which turns into guilt or rupture. Separate share from blame. It is working when the reaction to the event drops in the next account of it.

4.6 The psychological calculus (calcul de satisfaction)

Purpose / when: core explanatory work in the middle phase. The analyst explains, session after session, how subconscious errors in the patient's satisfaction calculus produce their states [source: API]. The patient learns to recognise the calculus behind their defences [source: aprisme].
Steps: (1) Take one episode. (2) Spell out the implicit calculation: "If I do or get X, I will have satisfaction Y". (3) Show the error, whether an overvalued expected satisfaction, an ignored cost or a contradiction with other desires (the many desires 'getting in each other's way') [source: aprisme]. (4) Trace the result, from disappointment to guilt, anxiety or accusation. (5) Rework the calculation with realistic values. (6) Have the patient redo the calculus aloud on a new episode.
Example language (illustrative): "Let's write the deal you made with yourself: 'If I'm perfect at this presentation, I'll finally feel I'm worth something.' What did it actually pay out?"
Watch for: arid intellectual sums with no affect, which call for slowing down and staying with the feeling. It is working when the patient catches an exalted promise before acting on it.

4.7 Contre-valorisation: dissolving exalted promises

Purpose / when: when a vain escape keeps coming back, whether compulsive pursuit, fantasy or grievance. The analyst clarifies the exalted promise of satisfaction behind it, shows that it is false, links it to the resulting failures and anxieties, and sets it against the freedom gained without ambivalence [source: API]. This is how obsessive motives are dissolved [source: aprisme].
Steps: (1) Identify the escape and the justification the patient gives for it. (2) Make the promise explicit: what it seems to offer. (3) List with the patient what it has actually delivered over time. (4) Link the escape to the specific anxieties and failures that followed. (5) Describe concretely what the patient gains by giving it up, which is the counter-value. (6) Leave the choice with the patient [synthesis: no prohibition].
Example language (illustrative): "This fantasy of being proven right promises you peace. Each time you've run it, you came out more tense. What would it be like not to need the verdict?"
Watch for: compliance without conviction, or the counter-value turning into a new exalted ideal, such as becoming a perfectly 'unvain' person. It is working when the escape loses its pull, not only its frequency.

4.8 Working with guilt: bearing instead of repressing

Purpose / when: when self-devaluation, anxiety or self-punishment dominate. Diel's aim is for the patient to 'bear guilt instead of repressing it' [source: aprisme, paraphrasing Diel 1947]. Vital guilt is a natural signal of lost balance. Vain guilt comes from repressing that signal, and shame is social and different [source: Caen MBA dossier]. Reducing vain escapes and their false justifications is the key to relieving guilt-based anxiety [source: API].
Steps: (1) Separate the plain recognition ('I acted against what I value') from the self-punishing story ('I'm worthless'). (2) Treat the first as information worth keeping, and the second as vanity turned inside out: an inflated standard, now failed. (3) Ask what the signal points to that could be done. (4) Separate it from shame: whose opinion is involved? (5) Anchor in a realistic, limited step.
Example language (illustrative): "There's a part that says 'I let him down'. That's worth hearing. Then there's the part that says 'I'm a monster'. Which of the two helps you do something now?"
Watch for: guilt flooding and morbid self-accusation (see 5). Screen for depression and suicidality with standard risk assessment. It is working when guilt becomes shorter, more specific and tied to action.

4.9 Introspective self-observation between sessions

Purpose / when: throughout, increasingly in later phases. It builds 'l'auto-contrôle introspectif' (introspective self-control) [source: API]. The published case, Journal d'une psychanalyse, shows the analysand keeping a diary of his life and reflections on sessions [source: Shambhala description]. A diary as a general prescription is [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Agree a short daily or after-upset review. (2) Prompts [synthesis]: What did I want? What did I promise myself? Which pole did I go to (inflated, guilty, accusing, idealising)? What was my share? What is a realistic next step? (3) Bring entries to session. Review one entry together using 4.6. (4) Over time, shorten the written review into an in-the-moment check.
Example language (illustrative): "Not a confession, just a few lines when something stings. What did I hope for, and where did I go with it?"
Watch for: reviews turning into rumination or self-prosecution, which is morbid introspection (Solotareff's distinction) [source: API resources]. If so, cap the time to 10 minutes [synthesis] and end on a realistic step. It is working when entries show the patient catching motives on their own.

4.10 Dream translation

Purpose / when: part of every session, depending on what the patient brings [source: API]. Dreams continue the day's deliberation in symbolic language. They show the therapist the state of unconscious deliberation, including progress, setbacks and likely relapses. For the patient, a well-translated dream can be an emotional encounter with their essential self [source: API]. It is translation, not free interpretation, and Diel rejects sexual reductionism [source: API; aprisme].
Steps [source: API for the three planes; ordering: synthesis]: (1) Get the dream as told, with the day's context and the patient's current preoccupation. (2) Go image by image and phrase by phrase. (3) For each element, consider three planes: the object's function in reality, its symbolic meaning, and the nuance of the words the patient used. (4) Ask the patient's own associations and how the image felt. (5) Put the translated elements together into a statement about the patient's current motives and conflict, typically between sound and vain motivation. (6) Link it to the waking episode it continues. (7) Offer it as a hypothesis for the patient to check introspectively.
Symbol guidance from Diel's myth work [source: Caen MBA dossier; examples only]: wings mean sublimation; a bird can mean vain aspiration; a mirror or shield means objectifying an inner state so it can be faced; serpents in place of a crown mean the essential desire usurped by vanity. Use these as leads, not a dictionary [synthesis]. Solotareff's Le symbolisme dans les rêves works through more than twenty dreams symbol by symbol [source: API resources].
Example language (illustrative): "You're climbing a ladder that keeps getting taller. In real life a ladder gets you higher than you are. You said 'I had to get to the top before them'. What in your week felt like that?"
Watch for: forcing a translation, or the patient using dreams to avoid waking material. Recurring vain-resistance motifs [source: aprisme] can mark a coming relapse. It is working when the translation 'clicks' with felt recognition and the dream series changes over time.

4.11 Myth translation as a mirror

Purpose / when: Diel read myths as an ancestral psychological science that pictures the conflict between sound and false motives [source: Caen MBA dossier; critiqueslibres]. Le symbolisme dans la mythologie grecque is the core text. Using myths in session is not described in the sources [uncertain]. The guidance below is [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Only with patients who find imagery meaningful. (2) Choose a myth that matches the patient's pattern. Perseus and Medusa fits a patient frozen by vain self-images: Medusa as perverted imagination, Athena's polished shield as objectivation, looking at the problem indirectly without being petrified [source: Caen MBA dossier]. (3) Tell it briefly. (4) Ask the patient which figure they recognise in themselves. (5) Bring it back to concrete motives.
Example language (illustrative): "In the story you can't look at Medusa directly or you turn to stone. You look at her in a shield. Maybe that's what we do here: look at the self-image in a mirror instead of being frozen by it."
Watch for: aestheticised discussion with no personal link, and religious sensitivities (Diel also translated biblical texts). It is working when the image becomes a shorthand the patient uses on their own.

4.12 Closing on relative relief

Purpose / when: end of every session. Each session ideally ends with 'soulagement relatif', and repeated relief strengthens adherence and lowers resistance [source: API].
Steps: (1) Leave 5–10 minutes [synthesis]. (2) Sum up the one insight of the session in the patient's words. (3) Name a realistic step or observation task. (4) Check how the patient is leaving.
Example language (illustrative): "What are you taking from today, in one sentence?"
Watch for: the patient leaving flooded by guilt, which calls for more containment next time.

4.13 Relapse monitoring and consolidation

Purpose / when: later phase and after ending. The therapist watches for relapse [source: aprisme]. The method is a safeguard when guilt or vanity reappear [source: API].
Steps: (1) Use dreams and between-session reports as early-warning signs. (2) Identify the patient's characteristic relapse sequence, for example success, then exaltation, then fall. (3) Rehearse the self-calculus on it. (4) Space out sessions and agree return criteria [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "When things go well, what's the first sign that the old promise is coming back?"
Watch for: the patient treating relapse as total failure, which is itself vain guilt.

5. Handling problems

The sources address resistance, the role of relief, relapse and morbid introspection. Everything else here is [synthesis].

Resistance (sourced). The API frames therapy as a struggle with subconscious resistance, supervised by the therapist. Repeated relief at the end of sessions builds adherence and lowers resistance. Diel saw vain resistance and the conflict of motives expressed in dreams [source: API; aprisme]. Response: don't argue the point. Return to the episode and redo the calculus (4.6). Make sure the session still ends in relief (4.12). Track resistance motifs in dreams instead of confronting them directly [partly synthesis].
Resistance as defended vanity [synthesis]. The patient insists 'I have no vanity, I'm just realistic'. Response: drop the word and work with their own terms, such as expectations or what they felt they deserved. The concept matters more than the label.
Overwhelm and guilt flooding [synthesis, grounded in the sourced bear-guilt principle and Solotareff's healthy/morbid distinction]. Response: slow down. Separate the signal from the self-punishing story (4.8). Shrink the scope to one realistic step and suspend homework. Assess for depression and suicide risk with your standard risk assessment and safety planning. Introspective work is no substitute for that.
Morbid introspection and rumination [source: API resources, Solotareff; responses: synthesis]. Response: time-limit self-observation. Require each review to end with a realistic action. Shift attention to dreams and concrete conduct.
Stuck in accusation [synthesis]. Everything is someone else's fault. Response: validate the real wrong first (4.5, step 2). Then ask what the grievance gives them, for example being right or exempt. Look for the hidden self-devaluation the accusation protects.
Stuck in sentimentality [synthesis]. Idealising the therapist, a partner or a cause. Response: map it as overvaluation of others (4.3). Check what self-image it feeds, since Diel ties sentimentality to self-love [source: aprisme].
Intellectualisation [synthesis]. The patient is fluent in Dielian terms but nothing shifts. Response: ban jargon for a session and work only with felt states and concrete episodes. Dreams often get past the intellectual defence.
Non-adherence to self-observation [synthesis]. Response: check whether the task has become another standard to fail, a vain ideal of the perfect patient. Shrink it to one line, or review in session only.
Ruptures [synthesis]. The directive style of naming errors [source: API resources] can feel accusatory. Response: own your share explicitly, modelling the method. Separate share from blame. Check your own vanity (needing to be right) or accusation toward the patient before responding.
Moralising risk [synthesis]. Words like vanity, guilt and 'the essential' can sound like moral judgement, and Diel's ethical framing is strong [source: Universalis]. Response: frame everything as satisfaction and adaptation. Never use the terms as verdicts.
Spiritual and religious material [synthesis]. Diel translated religious symbols psychologically and did not treat God as a literal person [source: critiqueslibres]. Response: with believers, present myth and biblical translation only as one psychological lens and only if invited. Don't argue theology.
Dated content in Diel's texts [source: aprisme notes that some of the author's remarks may shock today]. Response: don't import period-bound views on sexuality, gender or 'normality'. Keep to the motive analysis.
Severe presentations [synthesis]. Psychosis, mania, severe personality disturbance, active addiction and acute trauma are not addressed in the sources. The method assumes the patient can observe themselves. Response: stabilise first, refer or integrate with appropriate care, and use Dielian work only once reflective capacity is available.
Couples [synthesis; Solotareff applies the method to couples, source: API resources]. Partners may use the vocabulary against each other ('that's your vanity'). Response: each partner analyses only their own share in session.
Endings [synthesis]. Treatment is open-ended [source: API], which risks dependence. Response: agree autonomy markers early (Section 2, stage 4), taper sessions, and offer return visits.

Sources

Sources:

Further reading (not drawn on): APM site (psychomotivation.free.fr), API 'Psychologie dielienne' page, OpenEdition chapter on Diel's method of analysis, PubMed abstract [uncertain].

Further reading (not drawn on directly):

Diel, P. (1947). Psychologie de la motivation: théorie et application thérapeutique. Paris: PUF (2nd ed. 1962; Payot reissues).
Diel, P. (1952). Le symbolisme dans la mythologie grecque. Paris: Payot (preface G. Bachelard).
Diel, P. (1956). La peur et l'angoisse. Paris: Payot.
Diel, P. (1964/2018). Journal d'un psychanalysé / Journal d'une psychanalyse. Plon / MA-ESKA.
Diel, P. (1968). Culpabilité et lucidité. Paris: Payot.
Diel, P. (2013). Penser sa vie: la démarche introspective. Paris: Payot-Rivages (posthumous).
Solotareff, J. (1991). L'aventure intérieure: la méthode introspective de Paul Diel. Paris: Payot.
Solotareff, J. (1994). Le symbolisme dans les rêves: la méthode de traduction de Paul Diel. Paris: Payot.
Solotareff, J. (2006). La conquête de soi (Dialogues analytiques). Ellébore.
Gimenez, R. (1989). An existential view of Paul Diel's Psychologie de la motivation. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 49, 87–89.

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