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To begin, all you need to know is that the Watchword
Technique is a game of word association. Make sure
that you are comfortable and will not be disturbed for at least half an hour.
You may wish to turn off your phone. Ideally you should be alone
but, in any case, do not allow anyone to watch or comment upon what you are
doing, or to interfere in any other way.
Now try to
clear your mind of any current preoccupations. Close your eyes and focus gently
on the sensations of breathing slowly in and out. Relax any obvious tensions in
your body, adjusting your position if necessary. You should be aiming to achieve
a state of relaxed, vacant attentiveness. Try to forget what you are about to
do. Above all, if you have carried out the Watchword technique before, avoid
rehearsing any responses you may think to make. Simply pay attention to your
breathing. Just two or three minutes in this kind of mental preparation will be
found more than to repay the time spent.
When you feel ready, take a copy of a
Blank Matrix Form and proceed as
follows:
Step 1
Place the
form horizontally and write eight
different words, from left to right, in the boxes along the
top of the sheet. You may write any
words at all – just the first words that come into your head. Try not to censor
your thoughts in any way and don’t spend too long thinking what to write. Also,
don’t write a sentence or grammatically connected sequence. Simply write eight
separate words.
Step 2
Write
another eight different words, from
left to right, in the boxes along the
bottom of the sheet. Do NOT turn the
sheet upside down to do this. Again, just write the first words that come
into your mind.
Step 3
Refer to
the Sequence of Connections and consider the two words that you have written in boxes 1 and 2. Now think of another word that, in your
opinion, somehow connects the two
words that you are considering. The connection can be of any kind at all as long
as it makes sense to you. Don’t worry if another person might not understand the
association you make.
If you think of more than one connecting word, choose the
one that provides the link which, in your opinion, is the most personally
meaningful. The word you choose must be different from the two you are
considering but it may, if so desired, be the same as a word written elsewhere
on the sheet. If you cannot think of a single word that makes an appropriate link, you may use a short phrase instead.
Now
write the connecting word (phrase) in box 17
Step 4
Repeat Step 3, by following the Sequence of
Connections. Do not run ahead of
yourself – make sure that each connection is written down before proceeding to
the next. Also, once you have written a connecting word, do not change it.
QUESTIONS
When you have now completed the Watchword matrix, you can begin to interpret
(1) your psychological type and (2) your
personality dynamics. Before doing this, however, you might like to consider
these questions:
- Did you feel that, as you progressed through the exercise,
you seemed to be tapping deeper and more psychologically meaningful layers of
thought?
- Do the eleven words that appear within the rectangular
outline seem in any way significant to you, perhaps when understood as metaphors
or symbols?
- Do the central three words in particular seem to
encapsulate or symbolize something very basic about your personality or present
situation?
If you can
answer ‘yes’ to these questions, then you should find the interpretive process
interesting, relatively straightforward and, hopefully, informative. If, on the
other hand, the words you have written seem trivial or meaningless, this does
not necessarily indicate that the exercise has not ‘worked’ for you. It may
mean, however, that the process of interpretation will require some effort on
your part and a willingness to explore indirect or symbolic associations.
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