Читать книгу Emotion-Image Therapy. Analysis and Implementation - Nikolay Linde - Страница 12

Both clients and doctors may approach treatment tasks from different premises and at different levels, which depends on theories that the doctor believes in consciously or subconsciously as well as on his aims. A personality can reveal itself ae different levels: the level of behavior, of thinking, of insight [understanding] of states and of essence. Everything starts from the deeper level of essence and gradually unrolls to the level of behavior. Behavior leads to some results according to which a person makes some conclusions. So we proceed from the model of active behavior developing from deep inside outward, and not reactive behavior when behavior is just a response to outer impact.

1. The level of behavior. The most evident task is to find such way of behavior that can resolve some conflict, reach an agreement, protect oneself, defeat one’s opponent and so on. In this case the doctor is expected to give a recommendation about how to behave in this or that situation, what to say, what to answer, what strategy to stick to, how to learn to behave properly so as to get the desirable result.

To work out the right way of behavior psychologists make use of various trainings, give detailed individual instruction, play role games, give advice and recommendations and so on. For such psychologists, behavior is nothing more but just behavior. If a person behaves himself as if he had no fear that means that he really has no fear. Such trainings can really be effective. Some people should be taught proper manners and right ways of expressing their ideas, others should be taught how to socialize and how to be self- confident and so on.

But this way of dealing with psychological problems reminds me a fable about a devil who wanted to become a saint and he implored a priest famous for his sainthood to teach him how to become a saint. Naturally the priest refused for a long time but seeing how sincerely the devil pleaded with him, he finally agreed. He said: “As you are begging so hard here is the first commandment: Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. Strictly follow this commandment!” The devil was pleased and he left. But he reappeared in the evening bruised all over. “What “s happened?” – the priest was surprised – “I have told you: Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other one!” “Yes, – answered the devil, – but I was slapped on the left cheek!”

The priest had to explain to the devil how and in what circumstances one should follow this commandment correctly. It turned out that in some situations one should really let be hit another time whatever part of the body was hit first. In another situation one should run away as soon as possible, in still other situation it is worth to rebuff but by peaceful means, and sometimes it is necessary to bravely defend oneself. In still other cases it is sensible not to go to an unsuitable place and not to have anything to do with bad people and in the fifth case – to evade a blow time! And so on. A detailed instruction was needed for every case; it became a whole book.

But the devil always got into a mess, as there was usually a variant of behavior that wasn’t taken into account in the instruction book, besides he didn’t always have time to take out the book, to find the needed page and to read the right advice! And there were other commandments and they also needed numerous commentaries and explanations, exceptions and variants of behavior.

Many years passed, the book became huge the priest died and the devil failed to learn how to be a saint! Why? What was the mistake? How would you answer this question? Our answer you will read a little later.

2. The level of thinking. The second way to resolve the problem is to influence the client’s thoughts. Potentially thoughts contain a whole set of possible ways of behavior. The right thoughts allow to behave correctly without working out certain ways of behavior, modifying them according to circumstances and tasks.

Thoughts are integrated in a logical system. By logic rules we can combine different thoughts, make conclusions, in doing so influence various areas of a person’s life, following logical ties between phenomena of his psychic life and different situations and ways of behavior. People are used to subordinating their behavior to logic and if a doctor could prove some idea to a client, this idea begins to transform the client’s behavior, effect his decisions and emotions. This is the basis of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

3. The level of understanding. Deeper and more generalized is the level of understanding and meaning. When a person understands something that he couldn’t understand before, he has the feeling of insight, of discovery. Through the process of understanding a person discovers a new meaning of phenomena which opens up for him new opportunities. The meaning can be expressed by different thoughts both verbally and not verbally, for instance, by images.

This is how a teacher can make sure that his student understands properly what has been explained, asking the student to say the same thing but in his own words or to do some unusual task on the ground of what he understood. One and the same meaning can be expressed by different phrases, in different languages, for example, in Russian, in Finnish, in German, in Chinese or it can be expressed by gestures or images. The meaning itself doesn’t have its own universal language, it doesn’t have its own form of expression and yet it can find various forms of expression.

A Chinese fable says about it in the following way: “Words are only traps for the meaning. When a beast is captured the trap is forgotten. Where can I find a man who forgot about words in order to talk to him?”

Our psyche prefers to talk to us in the language of images. Almost all discoveries were made when a person became relaxed and switched off his familiar fussing around thoughts, then his psyche sleeping or meditating gave rise to images whose meaning solved the task. This is how Archimedes relaxed in the bath and discovered his famous law. He was so excited that he jumped out if the bath and was running about Syracuse crying: “Evrica!” [which means “I’ve found!”]. Mendeleev saw his periodic table in his dream as a solitaire. And Bach saw his fugues in his dream as Gothic cathedrals.

They say that the inventor of sewing machine Elias Howe spent two years on his research, got broke but failed to achieve the desirable result. And once nearly in a complete despair he fell asleep in his laboratory on his drawings. He had a dream that he was somewhere in Africa, he was caught by cannibal savages who tied up his hands and legs, pushed him into a tub of water, put a lid on and began to boil it. Hot water made the ropes get loose, he freed his hands and legs pulled away the lid and began to get out of the tub. But the cannibals came running at once and started to push him back into the tub with spears, he screamed with terror and woke up. “Their spears were kind of unusual, – he thought in surprise, – they had holes in the spikes!” And he invented a needle for sewing machines! The subconscious coded the solution in images but he was lucky to decode it. We also ask the subconscious in terms of images and then interpret its answer!

Insight is an ecstatic reaction to the opened truth. In place of a dead-end there appeared unusual opportunities! Everything became clear, understandable and… nice, even beautiful! The discovery of new ways arouses the feeling of liberation and joy. The tension that chains you eases and much energy comes instead which overfills you. Now you can act, now you will gain success, victory and new discoveries. There will be no end to new space and miracles! Understanding easily gives rise to new ideas, they come in a free flow, because the dam is broken and what follows are numerous consequences of the discovery or the whole chain of liberating discoveries.

That’s why we say:

There are people who can at once understand a hint.

There are people who can understand when you explain to them.

There are people who can understand only from their own experience.

There are people who can understand only when everybody around them has understood.

And there are people who can never understand.

Psychoanalyses, humanistic psychotherapy, gestalt therapy and all trends of psychotherapy oriented towards awareness and self-knowledge work at the level of insight.

4. The level of states. However, there is a deeper level than that of understanding. Understanding may be blocked or on the contrary stimulated by emotional states. In the state of anger, it is not possible to open up for yourself tenderness, in the state of constrain and fear you cannot understand trust and calmness. Stiffness, depression, anxiety, bitterness and other similar states aren’t conductive to self-knowledge and creativeness. And on the contrary, different negative feelings give rise to numerous was of self- deceit called protections. To see yourself as you really are may be very difficult and painful, but avoiding the truth you will not find the truth. So many clients prefer to slide on the surface trying to avoid the consequences, but not to touch on the true reasons of their suffering. So they prefer to learn the skills of outer behavior or just take some medicine. Then there is no need to work on yourself. So if creativeness and insight are blocked by negative emotional states, they must be stimulated by positive states, when a person is full of joy, happiness when he is relaxed… Why then we speak about throes of creation! Indeed, there really are throes of creation, but there is no creation. Creation really starts when a person is relaxed and is getting into a state liberating his spirit. Throes or torments result from violating your nature, but creation is the result of the activity of your subconscious when it is free.

5. The level of essence. A deeper level in regard to emotional states is the level of essence. Essence is deeper than character. Character is a whole set [cluster] of typical and customary emotional states which a person identified with himself but there is always a key state that gives rise to the whole set. These customary states are rigidly tied to the complex of inner philosophy, to the worldview, with chronic muscle clamps [muscle shell], with a complex of customary reactions to different situations. For that reason, it is very difficult for person to get beyond his character and take a detached view at himself. But his essence is outside his character. And only getting beyond the character it is possible to feel your true essence which is broader and deeper than character. However, with the help of character people protect themselves from real life and feel very uneasy when they lose their habitual protective shell. Character performs only stereotype behavior, and prevents more flexible adaptation, deprives of energy and paralyzes…

Essence can also be damaged. For instance, a person may be at war with himself, may reject a part of his essence, “may be at odds with himself” so to speak. We think that in cases of serious psychic diseases it is the essence that is damaged. But many not so bad psychological problems may be connected to the problems at this level. For example, when you reject your Inner Child [see further] many psychological disturbances can take place, and this is a frequent case of a splitting of essence.

So, essence maintains a certain [quite big] set of possible states, a certain state may lead to a certain set of understandings [insights], understanding may give rise to a certain set of thoughts [cognitive constructs], a thought may give rise to a certain set of actions, and an action leads to a certain result. Poor results, as a rule, make a person come to the conclusion that his essence is good, states are correct, understanding is adequate, thoughts are exact and actions are right those which should have been taken, and but reality is somehow “bad” and should be changed. The psychologist on his part helps the person himself to change.

Now, coming back to the story about the devil… What was he wrong about? Why did he fail?

Earlier I thought that the secret was that the devil simply didn’t understand the meaning of the commandments, acted according to the pattern, at the level of behavior, never getting to the level of insight. Later I understood the problem deeper. A student from Costa-Rica [once I had such student] helped me do it. She gave me a fantastically simple answer to my provocative question! The devil’s mistake was that he remained a devil! That is he didn’t change his essence! And was not going to do so!

Indeed, one can behave properly for a very long time, one can understand why and for what he does so, but if one remains his old self, with old emotional stereotypes, then in actual fact one’s false behavior is worth nothing. “Didn’t do any good, but in his soul, he was really a kind man” – said Pushkin about himself. And this is much better than to do some good remaining a wicked man.

What can do EIT in this sense? On the basis of the scheme of levels expressing the personality we can point out that therapy through emotions and images works for changing emotional states, which are the roots of psychological problems, as well as for rehabilitating the wholeness and harmony of a person’s essence. That means we work at a deeper level than thinking, behavior and even understanding. Rehabilitating the damaged essence makes it possible for a person to open up for himself the whole lot of new positive states which guarantee more effective and healthy life.

We help a person understand himself, do nothing “behind his back” which actually is impossible. Our method has nothing to do with hypnosis, rather it helps remove hypnotic-emotional states which emerged in the course of his life.

We do try to change the client’s behavior and thinking. We do indeed, but we always seek the underlying reason of his behavior and thinking, which appears to a problem for the client. We talk about and bodily expression of these feelings, about images of these feelings and at times it’s very surprising for the client. It is this that helps to achieve real, sincere and not imagined changes of behavior. We don’t teach the client how to behave but ask him what reactions occur involuntarily, when his emotional state has changed. If these reactions correspond to his desires as well as to lows of ecology and ethics, it is the best result in EIT. Sometimes the client is surprised that his reactions became quite different, though he doesn’t have time to think how to react properly. And this is the criterion of real changes!

In EIT realization and understanding for the client is secondary, primary is the changing if states, though the physician must understand what kind of changes he is trying to achieve, how some impact on the image can change the emotional state and personality. Everything is done for the good of the client, in compliance with psychological ecology, on condition of the client’s own agreement and using his own efforts. In the framework of EIT analyzing process is very quick, and the client’s insight is not forbidden, but it is more important for the physician. The physician’s insight is followed by a delightful “a-ha reaction” and the insight of the client is sometimes followed by the feeling of horror or remorse and by the rain of tears. He understands at last what terrible for him events and feelings brought him to this life, how he spoiled his life. But everything can be improved. It is never too late.