Gedankenexperiment: Give me your phone!

If any clinicians run group therapy sessions and would like to try out something fun, here's a group to try (along with an evidence-based summary and references):

TITLE:
​Thought Experiment: Spontaneous Vulnerability
This group therapy session combines elements of philosophical counseling and techniques from narrative therapy to help clients rehearse an imagined moment of vulnerability. The clinician explained the principle of Gedankenexperiment [thought experiment], the “term used by German-born physicist Albert Einstein to describe his unique approach of using conceptual rather than actual experiments in creating the theory of relativity” (Brittanica). He then provided the following thought experiment.

• Imagine you are on a date
• You are sitting across from the person. You’ve just met in person for the first time.
• You find the courage to ask, “Would you be willing to let me look through your phone for 10 minutes?”

Clients then responded to the following questions:

• What feelings come up as you imagine this experience?
• If the person says yes, how likely are you to hand your phone over as a matter of courtesy and reciprocity?
• When you’re holding the other person’s phone, what do you look for, and why do you think you choose those things?
  

The discussion up to that point prepared clients to answer the main question: What story does your phone tell about you, and is that story aligned with the story you like to tell others about yourself?
Theoretical Foundations & Therapeutic Alignment

1. Narrative Therapy Principles
   Narrative therapy posits that individuals make meaning through the stories they tell about themselves and others. This group leverages this by asking clients to examine the implicit narrative contained within the contents of their phone (photos, texts, history), thus helping them explore discrepancies between:
   
   
   • Their lived identity (as tracked digitally),
     
     
   • Their performed identity (how they wish to be seen),
     
     
   • Their recovery identity (how they hope to evolve).
     
     
2. White & Epston (1990) emphasize that externalizing conversations and exploring subjugated narratives can disrupt self-stigmatizing and substance-linked identity stories.
   
   
3. Philosophical Counseling & Thought Experiments
   Thought experiments have been used in philosophical counseling to challenge assumptions and encourage clients to rehearse moral and emotional dilemmas. The vulnerability posed by the imagined phone exchange models existential risk and intimacy.
   
   Lahav (2006) supports the use of philosophical techniques in therapy to cultivate ethical self-reflection and identity exploration, especially effective in group settings where peer perspectives deepen the inquiry.
   
   
4. Self-Concealment and Shame in Addiction
   Individuals with substance use disorders often experience elevated levels of shame and self-concealment (Luoma et al., 2007). Asking clients to imagine handing over their phone invites them into a symbolic moment of radical honesty, where their digital footprint becomes a metaphor for internal experience. This supports exposure to vulnerability in a contained and reflective way.
   
   Luoma, J. B., et al. (2007). Self-stigma in substance abuse: Development of a new measure. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment.
   
   
5. Digital Identity as a Tool for Reflective Practice
   Modern therapeutic approaches increasingly acknowledge that individuals maintain significant emotional and narrative content in digital devices. Asking clients to consider “what story their phone tells” uses contemporary, relatable metaphors to elicit profound reflection.
   
   Ward, C. (2018). Digital storytelling in therapy: Narrative, identity, and ethics. Clinical Social Work Journal.
   
   

Psychotherapeutic Goals of the Group— Foster insight into incongruity between private and public selves
— Increase tolerance for vulnerability in a safe, imaginative frame
— Promote group cohesion through shared discomfort and emotional risk-taking
— Challenge shame-based thinking by recognizing common themes in others’ responses
— Support authenticity in constructing new recovery-oriented narratives

Clinical Utility in Substance Use Settings

• Clients with addiction histories often feel disconnected from their “authentic self” and suffer from fragmented identities. This group encourages:
  
  
  • Cognitive dissonance exploration (Festinger, 1957)
    
    
  • Ego-integrity restoration (Erikson’s stages; McAdams’ narrative identity model)
    
    
  • Pre-relapse cognitive awareness of shame, secrecy, or avoidance
    
    
• By embedding this activity in a thought experiment, clients are spared the real-world exposure of actual phone sharing, but benefit from the emotional simulation of a highly vulnerable moment—functionally similar to imaginal exposure in trauma treatment (Foa et al., 2006).
  

REFERENCES

• https://www.britannica.com/science/Gedankenexperiment
  
• White, M., & Epston, D. (1990). Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. Norton.
• Luoma, J. B., Kohlenberg, B. S., Hayes, S. C., & Fletcher, L. (2007). Self-stigma in substance abuse: Development of a new measure. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 29(4), 231–244.
• Lahav, R. (2006). Philosophical practice and self-transformation. Practical Philosophy, 9(2), 12–19.
• Ward, C. (2018). Digital storytelling in therapy: Narrative, identity, and ethics. Clinical Social Work Journal, 46, 321–330.
• Foa, E. B., Hembree, E. A., & Rothbaum, B. O. (2006). Prolonged Exposure Therapy for PTSD: Emotional Processing of Traumatic Experiences. Oxford University Press.