I was very recently sitting with a patient who was reviewing an incident she had with a coworker.   She had been treated in a hostile and disrespectful manner during a work meeting.  This wasn’t the first time, but only one in a series of negative experiences for this patient and the co-worker.  We had spent time during a previous session trying to game plan an approach for the meeting, knowing that this other individual was toxic and would try to manipulate things in such a way as to gain control of her in their interactions.  Knowing intellectually how one should act when one is being attacked did not prevent the incident from happening, unfortunately.  She saw this last interaction, correctly, as a re-enactment, and not just with this individual but with all of the other individuals and situations she had found herself in over the years in which she had not stood up for herself.  As we were talking, she asked me, pointedly, “Dr. Stepkovitch, what am I SUPPOSED to do?  And I am not talking about him.  I am talking about ME.”  She had cut to the heart of the matter.

 I found myself saying, “Slay the dragon within.”

     I was referring to the story of Saint George, the early Christian saint who is the patron saint of the English as well as the Georgians, and still venerated by the Orthodox as well as the Catholics to this day.  The legend goes as follows: 

     The dragon demanded tribute from the villagers.  After they had run out of livestock and trinkets, they started to give up human tribute once a year to satisfy the dragon’s demands.  The villagers, while not at all happy living under the thumb of the dragon, had decided that it was safer to live in servitude than to risk everything by disobeying the appetite of the dragon.  One year, the dragon chose the princess to be sacrificed, horrifying the villagers.  Saint George, a Roman soldier, heard about the dire situation of the princess.  He found the dragon and slew it, thereby liberating the princess.