A guest post by Jay Scarlet
I’ve recently been re-reading a number of books by Terry Brooks, in part to refresh my memory ahead of the upcoming adaption of his Shannara series on MTV (so excited!!), in part out of a desire to revisit some of the books I had loved while growing up. In addition to Shannara books, I also read Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold! for the first time in probably 20-25 years.
This book is the first in the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, which deals with the adventures (and misadventures) of Ben Holiday, a Chicago lawyer grown weary of life who finds new meaning after purchasing the kingship of Landover, a fantasy world with knights, witches, dragons, fairies, etc.
As often happens, re-reading the book as an adult led to an entirely new level of appreciation for the author’s work – in this case, I was struck by certain similarities between events in Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold! and some of the elements of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
Interestingly, Magic Kingdom for Sale – Sold! was published in 1986, right around the time that psychologists were putting together the concepts of ACT, which is usually described as having been developed in the late eighties.
—Spoilers ahead—
When the novel opens, Ben Holiday is barely managing to go through the motions of his life, as he is stuck mourning the loss of his wife a couple of years prior. He is good at his job, but no longer finds joy in it, and as a result decides to take on the new challenge of becoming king of Landover, after seeing the position advertised in a catalogue. This is a challenge indeed, as Landover has lacked a strong ruler for many years, resulting in the kingdom being faced with a number of problems, both mundane (such as no money in the royal treasury) and magical (such as a Demon who is trying to take over). Ben’s initial attempts to restore order have, at best, mixed results, and he begins to think he may have made a huge mistake.
While in this frame of mind, Ben is tricked into entering the Fairy World with very little preparation. There, he experiences several manifestations of his fear of having failed everyone he cares about. Although distraught by these encounters, which seem real to him, Ben eventually is able to recognize that what his interactions with the partner at the law firm he left behind, his deceased wife, etc. are merely projections of his fears. Having realized this, he is able to defuse from these thoughts – to take a step back and not get caught up in them – and accomplish his mission.
Unfortunately, while this is happening, several of his friends are captured and in grave danger…which could be seen as his fears actually coming to pass, but Ben has now turned a corner and is able to focus on the task of mounting a rescue. In order to do so, he needs to face the dragon, Strabo.
Strabo surprises Ben by being able to talk, and in fact he seems quite eloquent, speaking about how dragons have been persecuted and slandered against for hundreds of years, “until it became easier for me to be the thing they thought me than to try to survive as the creature I once was.” This is a great example of attachment to a conceptualized self (a.k.a. self-as-description), because he has come to accept the labels given him by others, such as “enemy” – to such an extent that he fully intends to kill Ben at the end of their conversation.
Faced with this threat, Ben remembers (not for the first time) that he has a way out – when he purchased the kingship, he was given a powerful magical medallion, one of the properties of which would allow him to return to our world by simply removing the medallion. This seems remarkably like experiential avoidance (an attempt to avoid or escape unpleasant thoughts or feelings), which would remove the immediate danger to Ben’s life, but would bring an end to his attempt to construct a new self, and would leave his friends in peril. This type of short-term-relief, long-term-problem situation is common to many instances of experiential avoidance.
Ben is later faced with the same choice again during the climactic confrontation with the Demon, and he again chooses to accept the risk to himself in order to live according to his core values, such as meeting a challenge and protecting his friends. It is the committed action (purposeful action in service of our values) of choosing not to escape, but rather stay and fight for Landover that enables Ben to unlock the magic he needs to be able to defeat the Demon.
Ben knows that there is still work to be done, but he has successfully built up a number of the skills an ACT-oriented therapist might have suggested in order to become a psychologically healthier person, had ACT existed at the time the story was being written. The fact that it did not merely illustrates the principle that great art often anticipates scientific analysis.
