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Two spaces

The somatopsychotherapy questions are topographically structural: “where and what?” at the first stage, and “where to and what?” at the second one. The psychotherapist aims to help the patients find their sensation, associated with the certain experience, in their special internal space – the space of sensations. It is different from the one with the realities of the objective external world. The table which I am sitting at, the tree which I can see in front of me, the sky above me are outside my space of sensations. The space of things and the space of sensations complement each other. Both are parts of the reality of our consciousnesses. The reality associated with the external space can be called “the reality of open eyes’, whereas the internal one is “the reality of closed eyes.”

Psychocatalysis of awareness of the space of sensations reveals three areas of this «psychogenetic’ world which is parallel to the material world.

Three areas of self-awareness

The world of phenomena that opens up when referring to the “reality of sensations’ is rather rich. It consists of in-body sensations, sensations of an integral body, the “landscape’ sensations.

We will mainly be talking about in-body sensations. To begin with, we will mention the «boundary’ and «over boundary’ sensations, for example:

Someone is holding his shoulders up.

«What do you have on your shoulders?»

«A stone.» (or «a bag’, or «a log’, or «a pole with two buckets’, or

«my mother’, etc.)

(This is a state of neurotic, psychopathic responsibility, or concern.)

One more dialogue with another patient – a young woman.

«Who are you?»

«A pineapple.»

«Where are you?»

«On a plantation.»

«Is everything all right?»

«The peel’s damaged».

These are some more examples:

A man stretches his arm along the sofa, which he is sitting on, as if embracing someone invisible. You should ask him:

«Who is there?»

His answer can be:

«A cat. (or «my friend’)

«What for?»

«For calmness.» (or: «to reinforce my position.»)

A man is walking late at night. His right hand is clasped.

«Is there anything in your hand?»

«A gun.»

«Will you shoot it?»

«No.»

«What will you do with it?»

«Throw it away.»

He throws it away and starts to observe “an arsenal of weapons, both modern and ancient, including axes, etc., falling out of it. How about his left hand? Quite primitive tools like cudgels and stones are falling out of there. Disarmed, he continues his way under the highest protection with his hands lightweight and free.

The subjective space of each person, as it is described in this book, is saturated with different things and essences. Each of the elements of this internal world is «alive’ only because of a certain energy current, formed and fed by its carrier.

Perhaps, that is what Jung called «the semantic field19», Menegetti – the psychosemantic field, Arnold Mindell – «the field, the area in space, within which the force lines operate20», Vasily Nalimov – «the Semantic Universe21.»

This work is focused on the phenomena of a person’s self-consciousness of their own mental space, namely, their in-body space. Knowing about the possibility of talking about «hallucinations’, somatopsychotherapy prefers to be interested in what «subsidizes’ their being, what charge is in the body consciousness. «Where is the feeling that makes you get armed?» (The feeling of fear in the stomach). «Where is the feeling that makes you shoulder the burden?»(The feeling of guilt in the chest).

Correlations

Here are some examples of correlation between a person’s awareness of the ‘body composition’, their own holistic image and “landscape’.

A woman feels that the cause of her deathly fatigue, which she complained of initially, is her greed. It comes out in the image of her gnarled hands with claws running into a bag, tied on her wrists, which turns out to be empty. She realizes herself as a rat, carrying everything into her hole.

Another woman has not left her house for fear of peeing in public for about eight years. In her stomach there is the sensation of a hot heavy lump, pulling together all her forces. The rest of her body is completely devastated, cold, and trembling. She feels like a fluffy animal-marten, locked in a cage.

A young man of twenty years old, suffering from inability to satisfy his sexual needs and experiencing failure in dating girls, feels on the hand a bracelet with spikes inside it which hurt him. It is the image of the painful circumstances that do not allow him to obtain the necessary warmth. He says, «I’m freezing, I’m cold!» In his chest there a is a black cloud with the solid black ice in it.

There are also natural correlates of good states that occur at the end of the work. They are usually characterized by a feeling of lightness, loss of body boundaries, merging with space: water, air, etc. BEST, which we have already mentioned, also encourages the identification of these «missing links’ in imaginative perception, both internal and external {«boundary’). («What are you lying on?» – «On the sand.»).

«Who are you?» and «Where are you?» are proven work approaches. But they are not presented in this book. They are additional to the question" What do you feel?». Further we will discuss the approach which I consider to be more effective and shorter. As I will not have the opportunity to illustrate the" Who are you?» and «Where are you?» approaches, I will give one of the examples of this kind of work, not only with diagnostic, but also therapeutic parts.

Escaped from captivity

Patient L. M., born in 1953, hesitates for a long time before starting to tell. “You do not understand… people have this kind of attitude! I fall asleep every time with one wish – not to wake up again.”

She feels as if lying on her stomach with a granite seven-story building crushing her. Her body is flattened, arms and legs do not even move, but her head is able to rotate. What is underneath her? Also, the stone. Her head is in abyss and at the bottom there is a river. The cliff is 30 meters deep. She is in constant stiffness. No medicine can help her.

«When you are clamped down, what do you feel?»

«Complete despair. I have been in this state for several years.»

She recalls the circumstances when she was «crushed by a granite rock’: «I worked at school and always wanted to do my best. (I had studied in a boarding school, and our director who loved and respected very much, used to say: whoever you are – a cleaner, or a minister – you must do your best. I forgot many of her words, but I remember those ones.) With no experience I had to be a class teacher. The result was good. A lot of responsibility. At the same time, I was studying in the university, my daughters were small… and suddenly – a conflict situation. The school has been allocated one place at a seaside resort. My daughter was in the school council. I knew how much she was doing there… Then the question arose, who would go there. They chose the director’s daughter. I started to argue. But the director said to me, «Resign, or we will crush you.» I started to work in a college. I thought it was a promotion. New environment, new job. I was always self-confident. But after some time, I faced the fact that… I must go to a lecture, but I do not remember anything. I was stressed.

After a month I resigned again. Doctors, pills. Even eating was hard. I did not talk. Just slept. My husband was surprisingly tactful. I started talking and smiling. Only a year later I felt better. Since then, as soon as there is a stressful situation, I change my job. I have changed ten places already. I don’t work anywhere for more than six months.»

Back to the actual. It is impossible to stay in the rock any longer, it threatens death. The patient thinks what to do, so do I. Maybe she should call for help.

«Did you try to call for help?»

«What is the use to shout if I know that here people can’t get here?»

«Perhaps, someone will be able,» we continue conversation searching for more real way out.

«My head is over an abyss, the river is roaring, and I hear what’s behind me,» says L. M.

«Should we go in the opposite direction?»

«It’s impossible.»

«Maybe just to relax and to take the weight.» I suggest her (meaning to die and to be reborn, to experience her own death to live).

«This is unacceptable for me.»

It turns out that to get out it is necessary to turn into someone or something, as in a fairy tale. We come to a joint conclusion.

«A stream? A bird? A snake?»

«A stream, going to a mountain river,» decides L. M., but immediately she gets scared. «I can fail to reach the river… But in any case, I start to flow.» She exhales.

«Are you out in an open place?»

«Yes, but my soul remained there. My desire is to take a knife and scrape it off. It is a balloon of some kind… not scraped off. The place, where my body was, is a cave now. My soul is in it, witnessing from above. I cannot see myself. Ball that you have to push, to pull away from those walls. Transparent. It’s like a river of fire down there. I did not notice it before… Maybe my soul is afraid? There is no blue coolness, but fiery tongues of flame, like lava.»

«Maybe you can go right or left, if you change your volume?» I suggest.

«Like whom? An ant!» L. M. exclaims and continues her description. «I get out of this cave (It is a huge space for an ant!) and go right. I see cracks in the ground, on the rocks… A long road. I don’t see any sky, nothing else,» the patient is perplexed.

«You’re an ant,» I guess. «So, you can’t see beyond the surface of the stones and the soil!»

«I’ve overcome a small stone,» reports L. M. and exhales. «But it is felt as a huge mountain!»

L. M. does not understand where to go next.

«Back?»

«No. There is a river below. To the right! Yes, to the right… Now I am in my proper person, trying to go right. No people, no one, nothing. But I have the feeling that, if I go this way, I will reach some place. I must find it… I will walk along this path.»

She finishes the session and opens her eyes, now glowing with a completely different light.

Comment. Identifying the «fairy tale’, in which a person lives, can be productive. The contact with that patient was interrupted for external reasons after a short cycle of meetings. It was obvious to me that the neurotic facade was hiding (or opening?) serious constitutional problems: emotional instability, sensitivity. The leading characterological radical was cycloidal, «expressed’ in her appearance (round face, plumpness). Also, L. M. had a thin neck, which questioned her ability to adapt successfully without supporting work.

Four years later I was talking to her again. L. M. testified that, thanks to our sessions, in many cases she was able to stop her anxiety by asking herself: “What do I feel? Do I feed it or not?” etc., And thus, she saved herself from much stress. However, there was no complete peace of mind. Moreover, six months ago she was in the hospital, being treated with amitriptyline, so she gained weight. She did not have any psychotherapy since then. She worked in two other places. In one case, she resigned because of the difficulties in fulfilling a new job, in the other – because of the dissolution of the company. She experienced increased stress because of the difficulties in acquiring additional skills and qualifications at new places of work and because of problems with her relatives with her daughter.

I asked L. M. to describe her present «landscape’ of feelings. She easily continued the description:

«A high steep bank of the river. The sun is shining ahead. There is a thick forest behind, which is hard to go through. I can go left or right. I am in the state of a deep thought.»

She recollects that for a long time she was thinking about the phrase: «You cannot enter the same river twice» until she decided to talk to her husband. Now she wants to enter this bright river, but the cliff is so high and steep!

«What does this river symbolize for you?» «It’s a symbol of the future.»

«Suppose you are already in the river, what happened?»

«If I went into the river, it would, probably, be easier for me.»

«Why?»

«I would feel saved from thirst and heat.»

«So, are feeling heat now?»

«Terrible heat. My soul burns».

«Coals or open flame?»

«Flame.»

«What your state does of it express?

«Anxiety for loved ones.»

«How many such «alarms’ do you have?»

«Five: unsuccessful marriage of my daughter; absence work and fear of work; the relations with my mother-in-law; worries for the husband, for his health, for my younger daughter.»

«How many percent of your force does it take?»

«Fifty, at least. I am thinking about it all the time. When I am talking to someone and thinking about the problems, my fear is amplified. When I have a pleasant talk (I have a neighbor who can reassure), the flame ceases. When I talk to my daughter, the flames blazes.»

Comment. Note that all the experiences of L. M. are actual and real. Her daughter, for example, is unhappy in marriage. She is in the position of a slave with a stingy husband, who is much older than she and blackmails her, threatening to take away their child.

L. M.’s reaction itself is natural. But the intensity of her worries about the unresolved problems harms her own health and the very solution of those problems.

The diagnosis of cyclothymia in this case is not excluded, taking into consideration the constitutional features of the patient.

As a doctor, I was pleased to hear that she had irrevocably left the «cave in the granite rock’. Her hesitation in entering the river of the future was a problem. Working on her «landscape’, it would be necessary to achieve «smoothing of a cliff’, so that she could feel herself close to water, or in the water.

Although the «landscape’ work can be effective, it is, in my opinion, not the best one. The most convenient way to achieve levelling, «smoothing of the cliff’ is by identifying the feasibility of such worries, by redirecting sensations of heat-heaviness inside the body. The landscape will be changed by inner calmness.

A stone in seaweed

Working with the images “who are you?” and “where are you?” are like working with concentric circles from a stone thrown into water. If you want to get the stone that on the bottom of the reservoir, it is better to dive into its center. The seaweed, growing around, can be mixed up, and the search under water can be difficult.

The advantage of turning to inner feelings is that they convey information about the main thing, which is the state of the one who sees everything directly, not implicitly. Everyone is in the “landscape’, which they are “ready to be in.

Of course, it is possible to perceive circumstances in a synchronistic way, as equal to the state. Zen Buddhists are known to equate the expressions «It is hot, that is why I sweat,» and «I sweat, that is why it is hot» (Alan Watts). This is correct if we proceed from the belief that nothing depends on the will of a person. However, if to adhere to European «active life position’ and choose what depends on a person not indirectly, but directly, the thesis" Start with yourself» still has a meaning. In this case, among others, there can be the question: «Shall I sweat or take an umbrella?»

F. Perls divided «consciousness’ into three zones: self-awareness, awareness of the world and awareness of what lies between those two22. He proclaimed the principle of «from the actual.» But what is offered to the patient in therapy is rather the «reality of things.» D. Simkin testifies that in gestalt therapy he seeks to adjust his patient to the perception of what is happening «here and now’. The patients «can see the room in which we are, hear sounds or feel their body, which is comfortable or uncomfortable in the chair, etc.23». There is no shift to «unusual’ perception with this approach.

Let us summarize this chapter.

What’s inside is primary

When closing their eyes, people begin to see with their inner vision the composition of their world. There is a correlation between the “things’, which are the charges they carry in themselves, and the world in which they live, their position in it, and their environment.

While exploring the nature of their charges, they can choose what ’to feed’ and what «to turn off’. With this inner transformation they anticipate their entry into the new world. The new world appears as soon as its contributor is ready.

Somatopsychotherapy focuses on the elaboration within the component of bodily sensations.