What are metaphorical associative cards
A deck of pictures with no captions and no rules for reading them. You draw a card, say what you see, and find that you are describing yourself. Everything else in the method is a way of asking the question so that this effect turns useful.
The method in one paragraph
Metaphorical associative cards (MAC) are a set of images with no fixed meanings. A card has no sense of its own and there is no lookup table: the sense appears when a particular person looks at it holding a particular question. Two people see different things in the same picture, and both are right, because each sees their own.
This runs on a property of the mind called projection: we attribute what is going on inside us to things outside. A vague picture makes it easier to notice your own state than a direct "how do you feel". Talking about a road on a card is easier than talking about your own choice, and that is the whole device.
One practical rule follows: only the person who drew the card may interpret it. Any outside reading is a projection of whoever voiced it, not information about you.
What MAC cards are not
The method gets confused with neighbouring practices, and the confusion gets in the way more than ignorance does. Four distinctions worth keeping.
Not fortune telling
A card says nothing about the future and does not answer "what will happen". It shows how you see the situation now. Expect prediction from it and the work turns into a lottery.
Not tarot
Tarot has a system: fixed arcana meanings, positions with settled sense, a reading tradition. MAC has none of that on purpose. No lookup table exists, and its absence is a condition of the work rather than a gap.
Not a test
Choosing a card measures nothing and diagnoses nothing. There is no norm, no scale, no correct answer. A psychological test compares you with a sample; a card gives you a conversation with yourself.
Not therapy
A card session takes 10 to 25 minutes and produces a formulation. Therapy is a process with a professional, a relationship and responsibility. Cards work well inside therapy as a tool and badly instead of it.
Where the method came from
In 1975 the Canadian artist Ely Raman made a deck to take art out of galleries: 88 pictures the size of a playing card. A few years later the psychotherapist Moritz Egetmeyer saw a working instrument in them and in 1983 published the OH deck: the same pictures plus 88 word cards. That gave the set its second half and gave the method its shape.
Many decks have appeared since, all built on the same principle: an image without a caption plus a question, asked by a facilitator or by yourself. Subjects and drawing styles change; the mechanics do not.
The Russian abbreviation MAK settled in the nineties and now covers any projective cards used for psychological work, whoever published them.
What the work looks like in practice
The shortest session takes five minutes and has four steps. That is how One card: here and now is built, and it is a sensible place to start.
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1
State the question
Not "what should I do" but a description: "for three months I have been meaning to talk to my manager about workload". The more concrete the question, the clearer what to do with the card.
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2
Draw blind
Face down, without picking. Choosing with your eyes brings control back in; blind drawing lands on what you would have walked past.
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3
Describe what you see
Literally first: who, where, what is happening, what time of day. Only then move to how it connects with your situation.
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4
Write one sentence
A single line as the result. Without it, a day later all that is left is a sense that it was interesting.
After that the mechanics stay the same; only the number of cards and the order of questions change: the timeline has three, five steps to a solution has seven. We call a ready sequence a technique, and the shape the cards make on the table a layout.
Who it suits and when to leave it alone
The method works where the answer is already there but not yet put into words: a choice between options, a stuck situation, an unclear state, a conversation you keep postponing.
Typical situations where cards give a quick result: a decision postponed for three months; irritation at someone whose cause you cannot name; a sense that work has stopped being yours; a conflict where both sides seem right. They share one thing: there is enough information, what is missing is the wording.
It works badly where information is what you need. A card will not tell you whether to take a mortgage and does not replace a lawyer, a doctor or an accountant. A question that facts can settle gets settled by facts.
Working alone with cards does not suit an acute state, the first days after a hard event, thoughts of self-harm, or active addiction. This is not a formality: a card amplifies what is already there, and no one is next to you to help hold it.
Contraindications and what to do if a practice gets heavy are set out separately: safety of working with cards.
FAQ
What are metaphorical cards in simple terms?
What is the difference between MAC and metaphorical cards?
Do metaphorical cards work, psychologically speaking?
Do I need a psychologist to work with cards?
How many cards do I need to start?
Draw your first card
Next: 14 techniques with step-by-step questions, glossary of terms, decks, limits of the method.