CONSTRUCTII PERSONALE

Intalnire cu propriul destin

2011-12-30T13:22:00.002+02:00

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
― C.G. Jung

Geniala aceasta afirmatie a lui C.G. Jung, care intr-un anume fel, sintetizeaza o parte importanta din contributia sa la dezvoltarea stiintei psihicului! Afirmatia lui Jung este dificil de epuizat printr-o simpla explicatie, pentru cine este familiarizat cu ideile sale.

La nivelul comun acceptat, putem afirma ca suntem influentati in reactiile si alegerile noastre, de propriile setari inconstiente si putem trai iluzia ca anumite lucruri ni se intampla din motive independente de noi. Sunt bine cunoscute in psihologie cazuri in care pe parcursul existentei, o persoana revine de multe ori in acelasi tip de conjunctura dezavantajoasa de viata. Am putea sa ne gandim la cazurile in care o femeie se desparte de un sot alcoolic, abuziv sau care o inseala, pentru a se regasi ulterior in acelasi tip de relatie, cu un alt partener de viata, caz in care atat ea cat si cei din jur se intreaba plini de uimire cum de i-a fost dat acestei femei sa aiba o viata atat de cruda...

Chiar si din teoria complexelor, postulata de Jung, intelegem ca nu suntem atat de liberi in manifestarile noastre si ca in anumite situatii "triger", avem tendinta de a reactiona emotional intr-un anume fel, dincolo de vointa noastra, surprinzator si nedorit chiar si de noi insine. Acest lucru se intampla pentru ca situatia respectiva a activat un "complex", o structura psihica cu un grad mare de autonomie si care se manifesta printr-o reactie emotionala intensa, ce scapa controlului constient.

Sigur ca atribuirea interna a cauzalitatii nu ar putea explica chiar tot ceea ce ni se intampla, pentru ca sunt si situatii in care apar fenomene cu un grad mult mai independent de cauzalitate si care nu par sa isi aiba sursa in mintea noastra sau sa fie determinate de actiunile noastre.

Insa, asa cum il cunoastem pe Jung cu pasiunea sa pentru spiritualitate, metafizica si cu experienta sa bogata de tip insight, in contextul in care Sinele, in viziunea sa, nu este delimitat la o dimensiune strict personala, afirmatia sa depaseste dimensiunea aspectelor strict verificabile stiintific si se poate extinde chiar in zona intamplarilor cu o cauzalite aparent exterioara individului, care ar tine in mod evident de ceea ce in intelesul comun este considerat "soarta" sau "destin".

Pentru Jung, "Sinele" este arhetipul intregului si centrul regulator al psihicului, o forta transpersonala ce transcende egoul. Fiind un arhetip, acesta nu poate fi cunoscat in esenta sa dar poate fi intalnit in manifestarile sale, care, adesea erup sub forma unor continuturi psihice asupra carora Ego-ul nu are niciun control. Astfel pot aparea nevroze, care la origine provin din necesitatea de transformare si reinnoire a personalitatii, sau forme de inflatie a personalitatii, situatie in care poate aparea un sentiment de putere si grandiozitate.

Jung mai afirma ca experienta "Sinelui" poseda o "numinozitate" caracteristica revelatiilor religioase. De aceea Jung considera ca la nivelul experientei psihice nu exista o diferenta fundamentala intre "Sine" si conceptul traditional al zeitatii supreme.

Timpul subiectiv

2011-10-30T01:12:00.004+03:00

La o intalnire cu gandirea unor fizicieni de cel mai inalt nivel precum Albert Einstein sau Stephen Hawking putem intelege ca dilema "cine a fost mai intai, oul sau gaina?" este o falsa problema. Timpul este o dimensiune care se naste odata cu Big Bangul si din acest moment este destul de dificil cu a mai opera in termeni de genul "inainte de".

Din punctul de vedere al transformarii interioare, am putea spune ca in lume exista doua tendinte in psihologie. Una ar fi specifica gandirii occidentale si are caracteristica de a urmari omul intr-un proces treptat de transformare, in care dinamica interioara are un rol determinant. Cealalta, imprumuta caracterististici ale disciplinelor orientale si se bazeaza pe o transformare imediata de tip insight meditativ. Daca prima se foloseste de experiente ce au avut loc in timp si care si-au lasat amprenta asupra personalitatii oamenilor, cea din urma pune accentul pe experimentarea imediata, intr-un scop transformativ. Cum psihologia este o stiinta inca tanara, cu multe incertitudini si lipsita de o paradigma unitara, ambele abordari pot fi pline de substanta si util de explorat.

Unul din aspectele prezente in ambele abordari si destul de putin discutate este timpul. Acesta este un fapt interesant, pentru ca timpul este uneori atat de imperceptibil precum este probabil apa pentru pesti sau aerul pe care il respiram. Desi vorbim foarte mult despre trecut sau viitor, sau sustinem ca trebuie sa ne constientizam conditia noastra de a fi in prezent, aici si acum, uneori realizam prea putin faptul ca timpul este, pentru noi, inainte de toate, o constructie psihologica. In fapt, noi oricum traim in prezent si cel mai adesea, ne dam prea putin seama de asta.

Cand vorbim despre trecut sau viitor, noi nu facem altceva decat sa accesam in timpul prezent, memoria sau imaginatia noastra, operam cu amintiri din trecut sau cu fantasme, reverii despre viitor. Parcurgand diverse evenimente din trecut sau imaginandu-ne diferite lucruri sau experiente viitoare, mai mult sau mai putin dezirabile, nu facem altceva decat sa ne disociem de realitate si sa ne lasam absorbiti in procesarile care se petrec in dimensiunea noastra interioara. In fond, aceasta tranzlatare intre experienta imediata si experientele anterioare sau posibil viitoare pot da masura in care noi ne aflam in contact cu realitatea, a cat de constienti suntem.

Este stiut in psihologie ca amintirile rememorate de pacienti au un grad mai mic sau mai mare de subiectivitate, uneori sunt prezentate fantasme, lucruri de care pacientii sunt convinsi ca s-au petrecut, chiar daca acestea nu au avut niciodata loc. Este un tip de subiectivitate similara cu cea in care persoanele din viata reala isi au o anumita reprezentare in mintea pacientului, care este mai mult sau mai putin conforma cu realitatea, dar in niciun caz identica. Asa se face ca aceleasi lucruri istorisite de catre mai multe persoane, pot fi ilustrate in culori complet diferite.

Sintetizand, in masura in care constatam ca exista la nivelul constiintei umane o tendinta de evitare a prezentului si a realitatii, am putea denumi aceasta stare de lucruri "nevroza de realitate", o conditie pe care am putea-o sa o identificam ca pe o caracteristica destul de raspandita la nivelul umanitatii.

Picături de Zen şi o altfel de psihologie

2011-09-26T11:49:00.013+03:00

În urmă cu ceva ani exista o emulaţie mai consistentă în zona spiritualităţii practice, se vorbea foarte mult despre Yoga, Zen şi chiar despre Isihasm. O serie speakeri, erau purtătorii unor mesaje, de multe ori consistente.

În acelaşi timp Zen-ul devenise chiar un vector comercial, o serie întreagă de produse revendicând ceva din confortul unei atitudini serene şi relaxate, indicând aluziv către o anume formă de plăcere simplă, distinsă şi rafinată. Zenul şi ceva din spiritul japonez erau prezente în mobilier, în obiecte de decor, în căzi şi chiuvete, în veselă şi tacâmuri sau în gadgeturi pentru ascultat muzică.

Dincolo de promisiunea seductivă a unor satisfacţii eterate, la o privire mai atentă, Zen-ul se relevă a fi în mod fundamental altceva.

Rostul zenului, dacă ni se permite a face o astfel de afirmaţie, nu este unul de a crea plăcere. Zen-ul este expresia practică a efortului de a găsi o modalitate interioară de a gestiona o realitate dură, existenţială, în care iluzia se împleteşte cu suferinţa şi de a o transcende.

Într-o lume trecătoare, pe care indienii o numeau „valea plângerii”, Zen-ul vine să poziţioneze astfel conştiinţa umană, încât să risipească vălul iluziei, prin aşezarea minţii intr-o anumita condiţie sau atitudine interioară. Ceea ce caracterizează această condiţie interioară este o prezenţă mentală continuă, care nu se agaţă de nimic, nu reţine nimic, nu refuză nimic şi care, în mod special se caracterizează prin punerea între paranteze a "functiei" psihice care este responsabila de emiterea aprecierilor despre fenomene şi obiecte. Este o formă de a vorbi complicat despre ceva care atunci când reuşeşte, este foarte simplu iar cuvintele sunt limitate pentru a descrie aceast stare naturală şi preexistentă a minţii.

În continuare sunt prezentate o serie de texte provenite de la un maestru al Zen-ului. Cand textele din zen vorbesc despre iluzie si specifica "nici aia, nici ailaltă, nici aşa, nici altfel", maeştrii respectivi nu pierd vremea consumând cuvinte, descriind lumea într-o maniera împotriva căreia tocmai ei lupta… Afirmaţiile sunt esenţializate.

Consemnarile dialogurilor respective surprind încercarea de a trezi atunci, pe moment, pe cineva, este prezent un mesaj viu si activ. Este de preferat ca textele să fie citite în cheia de interpretare "atitudinea ta trebuie sa fie AŞA, condiţia minţii tale trebuie sa fie AŞA". În acest fel se poate atinge condiţia minţii care se pliază pe realitate şi se contopeşte cu ea.

- Hui Hai -

"Cand ne aflam in absolut, tot ceea ce exista este absolutul. Cand ne aflam in fenomene, tot ce exista sunt fenomenele. Dar cum locul in care ne aflam este realitatea, totul este esenta locului in care ne aflam."

"Nici-un fenomen nu s-a proclamat vreodata "vid", nici unul nu a vorbit vreodata despre "forma", nici unul nu a discutat vreodata despre corect sau fals, despre iluzie sau puritate."

"Fiecare din aceste fenomene este perfect acolo unde este, iar acel loc este locul desteptarii."

"Natura proprie nu poate fi denumita; la origine, ea nu este nici lumeasca nici sfanta, nici pura nici patata, nici existenta nici inexistenta, nici buna nici rea. Impurificata, este numita fie divinitate, fie umanitate."

"Nu alergati dupa adevar, nu alergati dupa iluzie. Adevarul realizat de cei care sunt asa cum sunt nu este nici real, nici ireal."

"A gandi ca ceva exista sau nu exista e ceea ce numim gandire incorecta, iar a nu gandi in acesti termeni se numeste gandire corecta."

"…starea in care nimic nu este admis sau respins"

"Mintea trebuie sa se aseze in neramanere si acolo sa ramana."

Curat-necurat

2011-08-22T15:06:00.005+03:00

Sinteza dupa Erich Neumann, The Child

Din punct de vedere natural, dobândirea autonomiei este legată de maturizarea sistemului nervos motor. Odată cu începerea verticalizării copilului, capul şi văzul încep să ocupe o poziţie importantă în cadrul structurării personalităţii acestuia, mirosul şi simţul tactil pierzând din importanţă. În mod natural se creează premizele dobândirii controlului natural al celuilalt pol al fiinţei, cel al excreţiei.

Este momentul în care îşi face puternic simţită prezenţa, presiunea culturală. În contextul cultural patriarhal, tot ceea ce ţine de polul inferior dobândeşte conotaţii de rău, murdar, păcătos şi este dezavuat. Se polarizează şi diferenţiază două serii: bine-spiritual-cap-conştient-curat-văz şi rău-instinctual-corp-inconştient-murdar-miros.

Această polarizare, dincolo de aspectele exagerate ale culturii occidentale, stă la baza achiziţiei şi introiectării autorităţii morale, a devenirii conştiente şi reprezintă un fundament esenţial al culturii de tip patriarhal. Acest tip fundamental de înţelegere a lumii este axat pe dihotomia bine-rău, care capătă o deosebită expresie în cadrul religiei. Binele este asociat cu tot ceea ce ţine de conştiinţă, de supremaţia acesteia faţă de instinctualitate. Răul este asociat cu abaterea de la moralitate, cu ceea ce ţine de trup, de instinctualitate. Curăţarea polului inferior fizic -anusul- devine un ritual inconştient al rejectării elementelor negative, prin care răul, diavolescul este eliminat. Răul propriu este astfel expulzat ceea ce se întâmplă şi în expulzarea prin proiecţie asupra altcuiva a unei părţi din sine însuşi sau a propriei vinovăţii.

Supraeul normal nu este fundamental negativ, nu are cerinţe exagerate şi nu violează individualitatea. Chiar dacă se află într-un permanent conflict cu Sinele, acest conflict conduce la progres şi sinteză.

Neumann (The Child) observă că în spaţiul cultural occidental se practică un adevărat training anal, ideea de dobândire a curăţeniei căpătând aspecte compulsive. Elementele ce ţin de polul inferior ajung să fie rejectate cu violenţă, conflictul dintre Sine şi supraeu ia proporţii deosebite şi tot ceea ce ţine de polul inferior este diabolizat.

Conflictul dintre cei doi poli ai fiinţei apare exprimat sub forma luptei binelui şi a răului. În cadrul psihicului se dezvoltă o nouă formă de rău, acel rău ce este parte a supraeului şi care devine avocatul binelui şi autoritatea ce conduce lupta destructivă între bine şi rău. Am putea spune că însăşi ideea de rău devine răul psihicului.

Această criză a conflictului dintre Sine şi supraeu (o formă de autoritate transpersonală specifică grupului, mediului cultural istoric) ia proporţii deosebite în cadrul dezvoltării anale şi capătă un traseu negativ. De aceea, Neumann o denumeşte “castrare anală”.

În timp ce sentimentul vinei primare periclitează fundaţia încrederii în sine însuşi a copilului şi pune în pericol dezvoltarea axei Eu-Sine, vina provenită din castrarea anală afectează axa Eu-Sine dar nu îi distruge bazele. În perioada crizei anale, ego-ul este deja format, ca urmare vinovăţia ce acompaniază această etapă de dezvoltare nu face ca viaţa în lume să fie imposibilă dar este purtătoarea unui accent social.

Aşa cum vinovăţia este condiţionată de intervenţia morală a canonului cultural, încercarea individului de a depăşi această vinovăţie ia forma unei socializări intensificate şi compulsive, supraeul manifestându-se ca o autoritate coercitivă şi destructivă.

Castrarea anală este o distrugătoare a totalităţii corpului şi induce o auto-evaluare negativă constelată în formarea unui supraeu negativ. Acest supraeu intră într-un conflict nenatural cu Sinele-corp şi cu Sinele realizându-se o scindare periculoasă a personalităţii.

Este distrus ritmul natural autonom al copilului şi îi este violată personalitatea, ceea ce conduce la o lipsă de siguranţă şi la restrângerea dezvoltării eului. Sinele care oferă siguranţă este înlocuit de un supraeu supraexigent, care induce nu numai incertitudine dar şi multă vinovăţie pentru că niciodată nu îi vor putea fi îndeplinite cerinţele. În încercarea de a îndeplini aceste cerinţe exagerate, copilul se reprimă activ pe sine, se identifică cu supraeul şi devine compulsiv. Sunt puse în joc instrumentele specifice grupului: compulsie, represie şi suprimare.

Scindarea personalităţii dă naştere la agresiuni proiectate în afară destructiv, moralist, în efortul de a distruge răul din ceilalţi, sau conduce la intensificarea sentimentelor de vinovăţie care hrănesc cercul vicos al tabuurilor şi defenselor.

Neumann afirmă că anxietatea provenită din castrarea anală se manifestă în special prin frica de a fi infectat de către rău şi prin a nu fi capabil să elimine răul din propria sa natură. Infecţiile, boala, diavolul şi moartea sunt un grup coerent de simboluri ce exprimă lumea inferioară, anală care ameninţă şi periclitează existenţa părţii superioare, a capului şi a eului.

Concepţia creştină a iadului etern este expresia teoretică a cerinţei de a elimina partea inferioară a vieţii, care este ruptă atât de complet astfel încât nu mai poate intra în unitate cu aspectul superior, ceresc.

INCURSIUNE IN TRADITIE, INIMA CA SIMBOL AL SUFLETULUI

2011-08-14T02:11:00.004+03:00

Catalin Lazar

(Publicat in Nr. 1 al Revistei de psihologie analitica, Cheiron, din noiembrie 2008)

Ne-am obisnuit sa intalnim adesea o gama variata de expresii ce fac trimitere la ideea de inima ca prim reper al afectivitatii omenesti. Astfel, cineva poate fi, dupa caz, inimos, marinimos, poate simti o strangere de inima sau poate chiar muri de inima rea. Altcuiva i se poate frange inima de necaz. Sentimente precum iubirea, entuziasmul, euforia dar si teama sunt indisolubil legate de perceptia inimii.

Inainte ca lucrurile sa fie constientizate si controlate de catre ratiune, inima reactioneaza spontan si sincer, devenind mesagerul amplitudinii trairii interioare. Si, oricat ar incerca cineva sa-si camufleze trairile, la adapostul unei masti sociale performante, inima va continua in adancul sau sa marturiseasca adevarul.

Daca ne aplecam spre traditie, vom descoperi ca spiritualitatea occidentala si orientala deopotriva, cunosteau importanta inimii ca centru al fiintei si ca sursa a adevarului suprem in om. Bineinteles, este vorba de inima ca simbol ce ne trimite la nivele de realitate mult mai profunde, arhetipale si nu de inima ca organ. Este locul in care zeii s-au hotarat sa ascunda adevarul, stiind ca acolo ii va fi cel mai greu de gasit omului, dupa ce acesta se va fi epuizat cautandu-l in lumea exterioara. Simbolistica ei complexa ne releva acest lucru.

Din psihologia abisala a lui Marsilio Ficino aflam ca „sufletele pogoara in trupurile din Calea Lactee prin constelatia Cancerului, infasurandu-se intr-un voal celest si luminos, cu care se invesmanteaza ca sa se inchida in trupurile pamantesti.” Acest voal pur, spiritul, uneste sufletul cu trupul pamantesc, mijlocind relatia dintre cele doua aspecte extreme ale fiintei. In cadrul acestei coborari, sufletele si trupurile planetelor imprima anumite trasaturi in sufletele si trupurile oamenilor, sub forma a sapte daruri originare conferite de catre Dumnezeu: darul contemplatiei (conferit de Saturn), puterea guvernarii si a suveranitatii (Jupiter), indrazneala sufletului (Marte), limpezimea simturilor si parerilor (Soarele), iubirea (Venus), capacitatea de interpretare si expresie (Mercur) si generatia (Luna).

In Teologia platonica, Ficino, reluat de Culianu (in Eros si Magie in Renastere) spune ca „sufletul fiind extrem de pur, se acupleaza cu acest trup dens si pamantesc care-i este atat de indepartat, prin intermediul unui corpuscul foarte subtil si luminos, numit spirit, generat de caldura inimii din partea cea mai subtiata a sangelui, de unde patrunde intregul trup. Sufletul, insinuandu-se cu usurinta in acest spirit ce-i este indeaproape inrudit, se propaga mai intai peste tot intr-insul si apoi, patrunzand prin intermediul sau in intreg trupul, ii confera viata si miscare, facandu-l prin asta vital. Iar prin spirit domneste asupra trupului si-l misca."

Pentru Ficino, filozofia era o initiere in mistere ce presupunea o inaltare intelectuala treptata, care primea ca raspuns al lumii inteligibile o revelatie fantastica sub forma de figurae. In contextul in care sufletul punea in scena fantasmagoria interioara, aceste figurae reprezentau modalitatea prin care viziunea sufletului se deschidea inaintea unui oculus spiritalis, organ a carui existenta avea sa fie descoperita de simtul intern printr-o meditatie asidua. Experienta conducea la formarea unei constiinte interioare, fiind vorba despre descoperirea unui mijloc de comunicare intre ratiune si suflet.

Rene Guenon, in „Simboluri ale stiintei sacre” face o incursiune deosebit de valoroasa in simbolistica inimii. Potrivit lui Guenon, inima apare ca fiind soarele spiritual, centru al lumii sub dublul aspect, al simbolismului spatial si al simbolismului temporal si o gasim ca atare reprezentata in centrul cercurilor pe care sunt pozitionate planetele si semnele Zodiacului.

Simbolistica solara a inimii este inseparabila de ideea de sursa a luminii spirituale si a caldurii insufletitoare. Este centrul autentic al intelectului fata de care celelalte modalitati ale fiintei nu sunt decat mai mult sau mai putin periferice. In dialectica inima-creier, ratiunea considerata a-si avea locul in creier uzurpa intuitia intelectuala ce salasluieste in inima. Este situatia lumii moderne. In aceasta situatie, potrivit lui Guenon, inimii nu-i mai ramane decat posibilitatea de a fi considerata sediul afectivitatii. Urmare a acestei stari de lucruri, lumea moderna avea sa vada nascandu-se doua curente de gandire: rationalismul si sentimentalismul, acesta din urma ca raspuns la rationalism sub forma unei exaltari (compensatorii) a „infrarationalului”. Intre inima si afectivitate exista o legatura legitima, inima fiind centrul vital si sediul caldurii insufletitoare. In timp ce legatura stransa a vietii cu afectivitatea este reprezentata sub aspectul caldurii, prin simbolistica focului, ca sursa de caldura si lumina, ne este sugerata complementaritatea dar si distinctia dintre sentiment (o caldura fara lumina) si ratiune (o lumina rece, lunara, reflectata). Concluzionam, onform precizarilor lui Guenon, ca ratiunea, modalitate de gandire discursiva si reflectata, ilustrata prin simbolistica lunii, ramane inautentica cat timp nu este dublata de cunoasterea aspectelor profunde ale fiintei prin instrumentul intuitiei, ca modalitate de cunoastere nediscursiva. Prin intermediul intuitiei, omul intra in

contact cu aspectul solar al fiintei, inima. „Numai inima, printr-un inspir si un expir secret, permite omului, ramanand unita cu Dumnezeu, sa fie gandire vie. Astfel, gratie acestei pulsatii regale, omul isi pastreaza cuvantul de divinitate si munceste sub egida Creatorului, atent la Legea Lui, fericit de o bucurie pe care numai el si-o poate rapi siesi, abatandu-se de la calea secreta care duce de la inima sa la Inima universala, la Inima divina... Lumea si omul sunt una. Iar Inima omului si Inima lumii sunt o singura Inima” (Th. Darel, citata de R. Guenon).

Dialectica soare/luna, inima/creier precum si descrierea starii de unitate a universului la nivelele sale cele mai profunde, pot fi intalnite si in tantrismul indian. Intalnim, de asemenea si o foarte elaborata anatomie subtila, in care inima, ca reper, ocupa o pozitie foarte importanta. Asemanator pneumei din traditia europeana, fara a stabili o identitate fortata, intalnim si in traditia indiana notiunea de suflu vital, prana, ce strabate corpul uman printr-un extrem de complex corp energetic alcatuit dintr-o vasta retea de nadis-uri (canale, vase). Pe axul central vertical al corpului sunt descrise ca afladu-se un numar de sapte chakra (discuri, centri), dintre care in zona inimii, anahata chakra (chakra inimii). Despre acesta, M. Eliade (Yoga – Nemurire si libertate) spune, conform textelor clasice, ca provine ca si denumire din expresia „sunet mistic” (sunet ce se produce fara ca sa se atinga doua obiecte) si este sediul pranei si a lui jivatman. Este reprezentat printr-un lotus cu douasprezece petale aurite, culoarea rosie, in mijloc avand doua triunghiuri dispuse sub forma „pecetei lui Solomon”, de culoarea fumului, in centrul careia se afla un alt triunghi de aur, inchizand un linga stralucitor. Deasupra celor doua triunghiuri este situat Ishvara (Dumnezeu), asociat lui Kakini Shakti (de culoare rosie). Anahata chakra este inlegatura cu elementul Aer, cu simtul tactil, falusul, forta motrice, sistemul sanguin etc.

Georg Feurstein (Tantra – Calea Extazului) mai adauga la cele spuse ca inca de pe timpul Rig-Vedei, inima (si nu capul) era considerata adevarata punte dintre constiinta si corp. Unele scripturi ulterioare, precum Dhyana-Bindu-Upanishad, descriu felul in care constiinta individuala se invarteste mereu in jurul rotii cu 12 spite a inimii, mobilizata de karma ei buna sau rea. Aceasta miscare neincetata a constiintei (sau atentiei) poate fi oprita numai prin realizarea identitatii cu Sinele suprem.

In yoga tibetana, chakra inimii ocupa un rol important in experimentarea luminii clare-a-somnului (Cartea celor trei inspiratii/Tsongkhapa, Sase Yoga ale lui Naropa). Aflam ca picatura care sustine experienta starii de somn profund rezida in mod natural in chakra inimii. Cand ea este utilizata ca o cale, se poate induce o experienta surprinzatoare a luminii clare a somnului. Chiar daca nu este utilizata ca o cale, energiile vitale se retrag in mod natural in aceasta picatura atunci cand ne culcam. Informatia nu pare sa ne fie deloc straina in contextul in care marele intelept indian, Ramana Maharishi amintea, inca din prima parte a secolului trecut, ca inima,ca prinipiu, este locul in care omul trebuie sa isi caute Sinele si ca omul isi experimenteaza natura sa reala in timpul somnului profund, fara vise, in aceasta stare toti oamenii fiind identici, notiunea de ego fiind anulata.

Annick de Souzenelle, ne aduce in lucrarea sa „Simbolismul corpului uman” o serie de elemente foarte interesante despre simbolismul inimii. Aflam ca sefira Tiphereth a Arborelui Sefiroturilor reprezinta in schema divina, plenitudinea Armoniei divine. „Ea reuneste toate culorile, toate sunetele, toate parfumurile, toate ritmurile si le exalta in unitatea perfecta a existentei lor. Este masura, este frumusetea, este soarele divin. E roata suprema ale carei spite reunesc bezna si lumina si fac sa infloreasca in formidabila lor rotire, toate posibilitatile Iubirii divine.” Iubirea este un dar, este receptivitate, este izbucnire, iradiere fara de sfarsit fiind in acelasi timp un timp vid perfect si o atractie totala. „Centru al oricarei miscari, masura a oricarui ritm, ea nu se dezvaluie decat voalandu-se si limitandu-se, montata in giuvaierele fiecarei vieti manifestate pe care o radiaza si o atrage catre ea.”Despre conditia omului ce atinge acest grad de experienta, autoarea franceza ne spune ca „e atras in vartejul fulgerator al rotii solare; clauzit de forta centripeta a miscarii sale, el coboara in maruntaiele pamantului din adancurile sale, inainte de a fi ridicat „in lacasul zeilor”. A te cununa cu divinul din Tiphereth inseamna a-i asuma contradictiile, susul si josul, dreapta si stanga, fata si spatele inseamna a te cununa cu Mama din Malkut, pentru a te uni cu tatal ascuns in Ain... Legea majora a Intruparii este de a te casatori cu pamantul pentru a fi luat in casatorie in cer.” La cele spuse nu ne mai ramane decat sa remarcam intensitatea trairii renumitei hermeneute, a carei experienta personala nu este deloc straina de adevarul celor scrise.

Chiar daca nu ne-am propus o abordare exhaustiva a simbolismului inimii in acest articol, remarcam totusi universalitatea dar si valoarea acestui simbol in planul vietii umane. Lucru firesc, indiferent de contextul cultural-istoric, omul pastrand inscrisa in el aceeasi structura eterna - o structura inca incomplet descoprita dar pretutindeni si mereu aproximata cu mijloacele de gandire specifice spatiului si timpului respectiv.

AMOK

2011-07-25T14:07:00.007+03:00

By Catalin Lazar

Lumea intreaga este socata atunci cand apar situatii in care un individ, aparent fara nicio explicatie, incepe sa isi secere semenii in nestire. O asemenea reactie de neinteles a unor persoane, de obicei barbati, produce ravagii si lasa in urma foarte multe victime.

Desi mai putin cunoscuta sau dezbatuta, aceasta modalitate de a reactiona, este studiata in literatura de specialitate sub denumiri precum Amok, Running Amok sau Amok Syndrome. Initial, acest sindrom a fost observat in urma cu mai mult de doua sute de ani, in cadrul triburilor malaesiene si se considera ca este determinat cultural. Termenul de Amok provine din cuvantul malaesian "mengamok", ceea ce ar insemna aproximativ "a comite un atac furibund si disperat". In acest sens, au fost observate mai multe cazuri in care unul din membrii tribului, sub influenta unei intense reactii irationale, ataca omorand sau ranind grav alti membri ai tribului.

Observatii recente arata ca reactii de tip "amok" (in limbajul politiei cunoscute si cu denumirea de "killing spree") pot aparea in orice tara, diferente existand doar in ceea ce priveste metodele si armele folosite in cadrul atacului, ceea ce face ca ipoteza determinarii culturale, sa piarda din importanta: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_spree . Se observa ca in lista ucigasilor a fost inclus Anders Behring Breivik care a comis recentul masacru din Norvegia.

Chiar daca este o forma de patologie care la prima vedere pare a se manifesta impredictibil si numarul cazurilor existente este destul de mic din punctul de vedere al observatiilor statistice, gravitatea evenimentelor de acest tip pune problema intelegerii si prevenirii acestor situatii. Urmatoarele caracteristici au putut fi observate ca fiind specifice persoanelor care au comis masacre de acest tip:

- sufera de o tulburare psihotica depresiva sau de o tulburare afectiva, in mod special o tulburare bipolara;

- pot prezenta o tulburare de personalitate cu impulsuri violente precum tulburarea de personalitate antisociala sau tulburarea de personalitate borderline;

- poate fi vorba de o tulburare de personalitate paranoica sau/si o tulburare deliranta cu idei de persecutie si comportament violent indreptat impotriva unei nedreptati percepute;

- a suferit o pierdere personala importanta sau actiunea unor factori psihologici foarte stresanti;

- au un comportament sinucigas sau homicidal si prezinta o ideatie saturata de furie, neajutorare sau razbunare;

- tulburari psihotice cu tematica persecutorie care a actonat asupra lor;

- schzofrenie paranoida cu halucinatii de comenzi primite si istoric de punere in act al acestora, sau teme violente si ganduri psihotice cu un istoric de punere in practica a acestora.

Dintre factorii de risc ce pot anticipa declansarea unui astfel de episod, pot fi enumerati:

- un istoric de comportamente si amenintari violente;

- tentative precedente de sinucidere;

- un puternic stres personal precum moartea partenerei/partenerului de viata, stresul financiar;

- tendinta catre o tulburare de personalitate paranoica, narcisica, antisociala sau borderline;

- antecedente psihotice sau de tulburari afective violente;

- existenta unei tulburari delirante (paranoice);

- o tulburare psihotica cu halucinatii violente in care se subiectul primeste comenzi.

- probleme legate de angajare ca de exemplu pierderea brusca a locului de munca sau existenta unor conflicte intre angajati.

Copilul ca vehicul pentru narcisismul parintilor

2011-07-17T16:51:00.000+03:00

By Catalin Lazar

Zilele acestea au existat multe discutii cu privire la sinuciderile sau tentativele de sinucidere provocate de esecurile inregistrate la Bacalaureat. Prima tentatie este de a explica rapid cele intamplate, pe seama unui esec foarte important aparut in viata tinerilor respectivi. Lucrurile nu sunt chiar asa de simple si aceste accidente nu apar pe neasteptate, din nimic. Dovada cea mai buna este ca nu toti tinerii reactioneaza la fel intr-o situatie atat de stresanta.

O astfel de decizie radicala vine pe fondul unei suferinte sufletesti indelungi, pe fondul unui orizont personal umbrit si puternic ingustat de perspectiva catastrofica a unui astfel de esec. Tipul de educatie primit in familie si presiunea familiei pe tot parcursul dezvoltarii copilului, autoritarismul parintilor isi pot lasa o amprenta puternica asupra modului in care copilul se va adapta la viitoarele examene ale vietii.

Atunci cand un copil incepe sa se dezvolte in mediul sau familial, poate trage in sinea sa anumite concluzii care ii vor greva viitorul. El poate intelege ca este iubit pur si simplu, fiind copilul acelei familii, ceea ce il valideaza ca om si ii da incredere in sine, sau ca poate fi iubit (mai bine zis acceptat) conditionat, in functie de cum corespunde anumitor asteptari ale parintilor sai. Aceasta a doua tendinta a familiei de a se raporta la copilul sau, conduce pe termen lung la un sentiment interior al copilului de a nu fi "ok" ca persoana si la o gama larga de interactiuni defectuoase in relatiile interumane de mai tarziu. Atunci cand copilul este "iubit" conditionat, apar doua strategii posibile de urmat, sa devina un razvratit sau un sclav al familiei.

Parintii ajung sa puna o puternica presiune psihica asupra copiilor sai pe fondul propriilor lor problematici, insatisfactii si neajunsuri. Copilul se trezeste adesea in viata cu datoria de a satisface si de a implini mandria parintilor, eventual de a realiza performante la care parintii sai abia ca au visat. Auzim de multe ori afirmatii de tipul "copilul meu a iesit primul la Cangurul" sau "copilul meu e premiant, ia lectii de pian, engleza si pictura". Cati dintre parinti nu aspira in adancul sufletului ca si copilul sau sa fie "supradotat"? Daca analizam programul de viata al unui astfel de copil, cu orele de scoala, meditatii si teme, ajungem la concluzia ca poate avea un program de munca mai incarcat decat al unui adult. Si atunci, cand le mai ramane timpul pentru copilarie, cu tot ceea ce ineamna aceasta?

Atunci cand copilul performeaza, unul dintre parinti poate anunta mandru "Ia uite ce nota buna a luat fii-miu!" dar la fel de bine atunci cand lucrurile nu stau bine, unul dintre parinti ii va putea spune celuilalt "ia uite ce prostie a facut fii-tu!". Pe langa acestea pot exista avertizari dure, amenintari grele la adresa copiilor sau pedepse fizice, toate menite sa creeze o perspectiva inspaimantatoare in mintea copiilor si sa accentueze eventualul dezastru al unui insucces.

Chiar daca pornesc de la intentii care par la prima vedere bune, aceste atitudini defectuoase pot amprenta viitorul copiilor si pot conduce in anumite situatii, la accidente. Copiii pot deveni timorati, pot claca pe parcurs, pot adopta comportamente distructive sau autodistructive, pot ajunge sa evite comunicarea cu parintii.

Poate ar fi mai important ca parintii sa fie sincer alaturi de copiii sai, sa incurajeze comunicarea deschisa cu acestia, sa le sadeasca incredere si sa ii invete sa faca propriile alegeri. Actualii copii, viitorii adulti trebuie sa ajunga sa se descurce singuri, ca fiinte autonome. In fond, copilul nu este o prelungire a dorintelor parintilor, este o alta fiinta care are dreptul sa isi gandeasca propriul sau viitor, care poate fi diferit de cel pe care si-l imagineaza parintii sai.

Scientists discover the two pathways to women's pleasure

2011-05-17T10:59:00.000+03:00

By CHRIS BROOKE

It’s a mystery to many men and a source of frustration to many women.

Now a study of the brain is helping scientists to unlock the secrets of the female orgasm.

By using scanners to observe which parts of a woman’s brain become active when they are aroused, researchers have discovered there are at least two ‘pathways to pleasure’.

One of them activates when a woman is alone and fantasising with the help of imagination.

The other kicks into action when she is being physically stimulated by a lover.

The findings, revealed in the New Scientist, have come from two research studies. A U.S. study of solo female volunteers, led by Dr Barry Komisaruk at Rutgers University in New Jersey, analysed MRI scans of women reaching climax to investigate the role of imagination and ‘top-down control’ in triggering a physiological response.

It found heightened activity in more than 30 parts of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, an area which controls functions such as decision-making, controlling urges and imagination.

In contrast, when Janniko Georgiadis and colleagues at the University of Groningen in Holland performed similar experiments observing women being stimulated by a partner, they found that the same brain region ‘switched off’ during orgasm.

This suggests that an orgasm is achieved with a partner when the woman ‘lets go’ and reaches an ‘altered state of consciousness’.

An inability to do this may prevent women from reaching climax.

Mr Georgiadis said: ‘I don’t think orgasm turns off consciousness but it changes it. When you ask people how they perceive their orgasm, they describe a feeling of a loss of control.’

The studies together indicate women’s brains have alternative pathways for experiencing sexual pleasure according to whether they are alone or with a lover.

Mr Georgiadis added: ‘It is possible there is a difference between someone trying to mentalise sexual stimulation as opposed to receiving it from a partner.’

Scientists believe that further study of the orgasm – and the role of the prefrontal cortex – could help women who have difficulty reaching climax.

And Dr Komisaruk hopes more research will offer a valuable insight into how we might use thought to control other physical sensations, such as pain.

Attempts have been made to carry out similar studies on men, but have been hampered by technical problems. Male orgasms are much shorter and few women will be surprised to discover that men use their brain less during sex.

The Great Psychotherapy Debate

2011-04-19T12:52:00.000+03:00

In 2001, Bruce Wampold of the University of Wisconsin published the book The Great Psychotherapy Debate.^[31] In it Wampold, a former statistician who went on to train as a counseling psychologist, reported that

psychotherapy is indeed effective,
the type of treatment is not a factor,
the theoretical bases of the techniques used, and the strictness of adherence to those techniques are both not factors,
the therapist's strength of belief in the efficacy of the technique is a factor,
the personality of the therapist is a significant factor,
the alliance between the patient(s) and the therapist (meaning affectionate and trusting feelings toward the therapist, motivation and collaboration of the client, and empathic response of the therapist) is a keyfactor.

Wampold therefore concludes that "we do not know why psychotherapy works".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotherapy#Criticisms_and_questions_regarding_effectiveness

http://www.education.wisc.edu/cp/faculty/book.asp

The Effectiveness of Psychotherapy

2011-04-19T12:45:00.000+03:00

The Consumer Reports Study

Martin E. P. Seligman
University of Pennsylvania

Abstract. Consumer Reports (1995, November) published an article which concluded that patients benefited very substantially from psychotherapy, that long-term treatment did considerably better than short-term treatment, and that psychotherapy alone did not differ in effectiveness from medication plus psychotherapy. Furthermore, no specific modality of psychotherapy did better than any other for any disorder; psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers did not differ in their effectiveness as treaters; and all did better than marriage counselors and long-term family doctoring. Patients whose length of therapy or choice of therapist was limited by insurance or managed care did worse. The methodological virtues and drawbacks of this large-scale survey are examined and contrasted with the more traditional efficacy study, in which patients are randomized into a manualized, fixed duration treatment or into control groups. I conclude that the Consumer Reports survey complements the efficacy method, and that the best features of these two methods can be combined into a more ideal method that will best provide empirical validation of psychotherapy.

---

There were a number of clear-cut results, among them:

Treatment by a mental health professional usually worked. Most respondents got a lot better.
Averaged over all mental health professionals, of the 426 people who were feeling very poor when they began therapy, 87% were feeling very good, good, or at least so-so by the time of the survey. Of the 786 people who were feeling fairly poor at the outset, 92% were feeling very good, good, or at least so-so by the time of the survey. These findings converge with meta-analyses of efficacy (Lipsey & Wilson, 1993; Shapiro & Shapiro, 1982; Smith, Miller, & Glass, 1980).
Long-term therapy produced more improvement than short-term therapy. This result was very robust, and held up over all statistical models. Figure 1 plots the overall rating (on the 0300 scale defined above) of improvement as a function of length of treatment. This "doseresponse curve" held for patients in both psychotherapy alone and in psychotherapy plus medication (see Howard, Kopta, Krause, & Orlinsky, 1986, for parallel doseresponse findings for psychotherapy).
There was no difference between psychotherapy alone and psychotherapy plus medication for any disorder (very few respondents reported that they had medication with no psychotherapy at all).
While all mental health professionals appeared to help their patients, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers did equally well and better than marriage counselors. Their patients' overall improvement scores (0300 scale) were 220, 226, 225 (not significantly different from each other), and 208 (significantly worse than the first three), respectively.
Family doctors did just as well as mental health professionals in the short term, but worse in the long term. Some patients saw both family doctors and mental health professionals, and those who saw both had more severe problems. For patients who relied solely on family doctors, their overall improvement scores when treated for up to six months was 213, and it remained at that level (212) for those treated longer than six months. In contrast, the overall improvement scores for patients of mental health professionals was 211 up to six months, but climbed to 232 when treatment went on for more than six months. The advantages of long-term treatment by a mental health professional held not only for the specific problems that led to treatment, but for a variety of general functioning scores as well: ability to relate to others, coping with everyday stress, enjoying life more, personal growth and understanding, self-esteem and confidence.
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) did especially well, with an average improvement score of 251, significantly bettering mental health professionals. People who went to non-AA groups had less severe problems and did not do as well as those who went to AA (average score = 215).
Active shoppers and active clients did better in treatment than passive recipients (determined by responses to "Was it mostly your idea to seek therapy? When choosing this therapist, did you discuss qualifications, therapist's experience, discuss frequency, duration, and cost, speak to someone who was treated by this therapist, check out other therapists? During therapy, did you try to be as open as possible, ask for explanation of diagnosis and unclear terms, do homework, not cancel sessions often, discuss negative feelings toward therapist?").
No specific modality of psychotherapy did any better than any other for any problem. These results confirm the "dodo bird" hypothesis, that all forms of psychotherapies do about equally well (Luborsky, Singer, & Luborsky, 1975). They come as a rude shock to efficacy researchers, since the main theme of efficacy studies has been the demonstration of the usefulness of specific techniques for specific disorders.
Respondents whose choice of therapist or duration of care was limited by their insurance coverage did worse, as presented in Table 1 (determined by responses to "Did limitations on your insurance coverage affect any of the following choices you made? Type of therapist I chose; How often I met with my therapist; How long I stayed in therapy").

These findings are obviously important, and some of them could not be included in the original CR article because of space limitations. Some of these findings were quite contrary to what I expected, but it is not my intention to discuss their substance here. Rather, I want to explore the methodological adequacy of this survey. My underlying questions are "Should we believe the findings?" and "Can the method be improved to give more authoritative answers?"

http://horan.asu.edu/cpy702readings/seligman/seligman.html

Cateva consideratii asupra procesului terapeutic

2011-04-08T12:17:00.000+03:00

By Catalin Lazar

In cadrul discutiei terapeutice se comunica atat la nivel constient cat si la nivel inconstient. Se comunica prin atitudine, prin pozitia corpului, prin expresia fetei, prin gesturi, prin tonalitatea si intensitatea vocii, prin cuvinte si prin tacerea dintre cuvinte. Se comunica la nivel explicit dar si la nivel implicit. Am putea spune ca, intr-o anumita masura si pana la un anumit punct, terapia inseamna transformarea implicitului in explicit.

Se cunoaste importanta calitatii relatiei terapeutice, stabilita intre client si terapeut, asupra eficientei procesului terapeutic. In acest context personalitatea terapeutului capata un rol important in cadrul procesului terapeutic. Literatura de specialitate indica, pe baza studiilor efectuate, ca nu exista diferente semnificative in ceea ce priveste eficienta diferitelor forme de terapie, dar exista diferente de eficienta intre terapeuti.

Exista mai multe indicii care pot ajuta pacientii in alegerea unui terapeut, un exemplu in acest sens ar fi inventarul recomandat de catre Zur Institute:

http://www.zurinstitute.com/choosing.html

Poate la un nivel mai profund fata de aceste indicii, as spune ca esentiala este atitudinea interioara reala a terapeutului fata de clientii/pacientii sai. Iar aceasta atitudine interioara tine de cat de bine se cunoaste terapeutul pe sine insusi si de masura in care acesta se afla in armonie cu sine insusi.

In cadrul procesului terapeutic este important ca terapeutul sa valideze omul din fata sa, aceasta fiind o nevoie esentiala a celui ce apeleaza la un specialist. O terapie poate contribui la corectarea unor modalitati de gandire sau comportamente eronate, dezavantajoase pentru pacient dar, in acelasi timp, este important ca pacientul sa nu fie invalidat in dimensiunea sa profunda. In masura in care in cursul terapiei se pune accentul pe probleme si atitudinea terapeutului capata adesea accente critice, cu toate bunele intentii declarate, mesajul de fond poate deveni unul de invalidare.

How does mind control work?

2011-04-05T15:12:00.000+03:00

A technical overview of mind control tactics

Coercion is defined as, "to restrain or constrain by force..." Legally it often implies the use of PHYSICAL FORCE or physical or legal threat. This traditional concept of coercion is far better understood than the technological conepts of "coercive persuasion" which are effective restraining, impairing, or compelling through the gradual application of PSYCHOLOGICAL FORCES.

A coercive persuasion program is a behavioral change technology applied to cause the "learning" and "adoption" of a set of behaviors or an ideology under certain conditions. It is distinguished from other forms of benign social learning or peaceful persuasion by the conditions under which it is conducted and by the techniques of environmental and interpersonal manipulation employed to suppress particular behaviors and to train others. Over time, coercive persuasion, a psychological force akin in some ways to our legal concepts of undue influence, can be even MORE effective than pain, torture, drugs, and use of physical force and legal threats.

The Korean War "Manchurian Candidate" misconception of the need for suggestibility-increasing drugs, and physical pain and torture, to effect thought reform, is generally associated with the old concepts and models of brainwashing. Today, they are not necessary for a coercive persuasion program to be effective. With drugs, physical pain, torture, or even a physically coercive threat, you can often temporarily make someone do something against their will. You can even make them do something they hate or they really did not like or want to do at the time. They do it, but their attitude is not changed.

This is much different and far less devastating than that which you are able to achieve with the improvements of coercive persuasion. With coercive persuasion you can change people's attitudes without their knowledge and volition. You can create new "attitudes" where they will do things willingly which they formerly may have detested, things which previously only torture, physical pain, or drugs could have coerced them to do.

The advances in the extreme anxiety and emotional stress production technologies found in coercive persuasion supersede old style coercion that focuses on pain, torture, drugs, or threat in that these older systems do not change attitude so that subjects follow orders "willingly." Coercive persuasion changes both attitude AND behavior, not JUST behavior.

THE PURPOSES AND TACTICS OF COERCIVE PERSUASION

Coercive persuasion or thought reform as it is sometimes known, is best understood as a coordinated system of graduated coercive influence and behavior control designed to deceptively and surreptitiously manipulate and influence individuals, usually in a group setting, in order for the originators of the program to profit in some way, normally financially or politically.

The essential strategy used by those operating such programs is to systematically select, sequence and coordinate numerous coercive persuasion tactics over CONTINUOUS PERIODS OF TIME. There are seven main tactic types found in various combinations in a coercive persuasion program. A coercive persuasion program can still be quite effective without the presence of ALL seven of these tactic types.

TACTIC 1. The individual is prepared for thought reform through increased suggestibility and/or "softening up,"specifically through hypnotic or other suggestibility-increasing techniques such as: A. Extended audio, visual, verbal, or tactile fixation drills; B. Excessive exact repetition of routine activities; C. Decreased sleep; D. Nutritional restriction.

TACTIC 2. Using rewards and punishments, efforts are made to establish considerable control over a person's social environment, time, and sources of social support. Social isolation is promoted. Contact with family and friends is abridged, as is contact with persons who do not share group-approved attitudes. Economic and other dependence on the group is fostered. (In the forerunner to coercive persuasion, brainwashing, this was rather easy to achieve through simple imprisonment.)

TACTIC 3. Disconfirming information and nonsupporting opinions are prohibited in group communication. Rules exist about permissible topics to discuss with outsiders. Communication is highly controlled. An "in-group" language is usually constructed.

TACTIC 4. Frequent and intense attempts are made to cause a person to re-evaluate the most central aspects of his or her experience of self and prior conduct in negative ways. Efforts are designed to destabilize and undermine the subject's basic consciousness, reality awareness, world view, emotional control, and defense mechanisms as well as getting them to reinterpret their life's history, and adopt a new version of causality.

TACTIC 5. Intense and frequent attempts are made to undermine a person's confidence in himself and his judgment, creating a sense of powerlessness.

TACTIC 6. Nonphysical punishments are used such as intense humiliation, loss of privilege, social isolation, social status changes, intense guilt, anxiety, manipulation and other techniques for creating strong aversive emotional arousals, etc.

TACTIC 7. Certain secular psychological threats [force] are used or are present: That failure to adopt the approved attitude, belief, or consequent behavior will lead to severe punishment or dire consequence, (e.g. physical or mental illness, the reappearance of a prior physical illness, drug dependence, economic collapse, social failure, divorce, disintegration, failure to find a mate, etc.).
Another set of criteria has to do with defining other common elements of mind control systems. If most of Robert Jay Lifton's eight point model of thought reform is being used in a cultic organization, it is most likely a dangerous and destructive cult. These eight points follow:

Robert Jay Lifton's Eight Point Model of Thought Reform

1. ENVIRONMENT CONTROL. Limitation of many/all forms of communication with those outside the group. Books, magazines, letters and visits with friends and family are taboo. "Come out and be separate!"

2. MYSTICAL MANIPULATION. The potential convert to the group becomes convinced of the higher purpose and special calling of the
group through a profound encounter / experience, for example, through an alleged miracle or prophetic word of those in the group.

3. DEMAND FOR PURITY. An explicit goal of the group is to bring about some kind of change, whether it be on a global, social, or
personal level. "Perfection is possible if one stays with the group and is committed."

4. CULT OF CONFESSION. The unhealthy practice of self disclosure to members in the group. Often in the context of a public gathering in the group, admitting past sins and imperfections, even doubts about the group and critical thoughts about the integrity of the leaders.

5. SACRED SCIENCE. The group's perspective is absolutely true and completely adequate to explain EVERYTHING. The doctrine is not subject to amendments or question. ABSOLUTE conformity to the doctrine is required.

6. LOADED LANGUAGE. A new vocabulary emerges within the context of the group. Group members "think" within the very abstract
and narrow parameters of the group's doctrine. The terminology sufficiently stops members from thinking critically by reinforcing a "black and white" mentality. Loaded terms and clichés prejudice thinking.

7. DOCTRINE OVER PERSON. Pre-group experience and group experience are narrowly and decisively interpreted through the absolute doctrine, even when experience contradicts the doctrine.

8. DISPENSING OF EXISTENCE. Salvation is possible only in the group. Those who leave the group are doomed.

COERCIVE PERSUASION IS NOT PEACEFUL PERSUASION

Programs identified with the above-listed seven tactics have in common the elements of attempting to greatly modify a person's self-concept, perceptions of reality, and interpersonal relations. When successful in inducing these changes, coercive thought reform programs also, among other things, create the potential forces necessary for exercising undue influence over a person's independent decision-making ability, and even for turning the individual into a deployable agent for the organization's benefit without the individual's meaningful knowledge or consent.

Coercive persuasion programs are effective because individuals experiencing the deliberately planned severe stresses they generate can only reduce the pressures by accepting the system or adopting the behaviors being promulgated by the purveyors of the coercion program. The relationship between the person and the coercive persuasion tactics are DYNAMIC in that while the force of the pressures, rewards, and punishments brought to bear on the person are considerable, they do not lead to a stable, meaningfully SELF-CHOSEN reorganization of beliefs or attitudes. Rather, they lead to a sort of coerced compliance and a situationally required elaborate rationalization, for the new conduct.

Once again, in order to maintain the new attitudes or "decisions," sustain the rationalization, and continue to unduly influence a person's behavior over time, coercive tactics must be more or less CONTINUOUSLY applied. A fiery, "hell and damnation" guilt-ridden sermon from the pulpit or several hours with a high-pressure salesman or other single instances of the so-called peaceful persuasions do not constitute the "necessary chords and orchestration" of a SEQUENCED, continuous, COORDINATED, and carefully selected PROGRAM of surreptitious coercion, as found in a comprehensive program of "coercive persuasion."

Truly peaceful religious persuasion practices would never attempt to force, compel and dominate the free wills or minds of its members through coercive behavioral techniques or covert hypnotism. They would have no difficulty coexisting peacefully with U.S. laws meant to protect the public from such practices.

Looking like peaceful persuasion is precisely what makes coercive persuasion less likely to attract attention or to mobilize opposition. It is also part of what makes it such a devastating control technology. Victims of coercive persuasion have: no signs of physical abuse, convincing rationalizations for the radical or abrupt changes in their behavior, a convincing "sincerity, and they have been changed so gradually that they don't oppose it because they usually aren't even aware of it.

Deciding if coercive persuasion was used requires case-by-case careful analysis of all the influence techniques used and how they were applied. By focusing on the medium of delivery and process used, not the message, and on the critical differences, not the coincidental similarities, which system was used becomes clear. The Influence Continuum helps make the difference between peaceful persuasion and coercive persuasion easier to distinguish.

VARIABLES

Not all tactics used in a coercive persuasion type environment will always be coercive. Some tactics of an innocuous or cloaking nature will be mixed in.

Not all individuals exposed to coercive persuasion or thought reform programs are effectively coerced into becoming participants.

How individual suggestibility, psychological and physiological strengths, weakness, and differences react with the degree of severity, continuity, and comprehensiveness in which the various tactics and content of a coercive persuasion program are applied, determine the program's effectiveness and/or the degree of severity of damage caused to its victims.

For example, in United States v. Lee 455 U.S. 252, 257-258 (1982), the California Supreme Court found that

"when a person is subjected to coercive persuasion without his knowledge or consent... [he may] develop serious and sometimes irreversible physical and psychiatric disorders, up to and including schizophrenia, self-mutilation, and suicide."

WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA OF A COERCIVE PERSUASION PROGRAM?

A). Determine if the subject individual held enough knowledge and volitional capacity to make the decision to change his or her ideas or beliefs.
B). Determine whether that individual did, in fact, adopt, affirm, or reject those ideas or beliefs on his own.
C). Then, if necessary, all that should be examined is the behavioral processes used, not ideological content. One needs to examine only the behavioral processes used in their "conversion." Each alleged coercive persuasion situation should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The characteristics of coercive persuasion programs are severe, well-understood, and they are not accidental.

COERCIVE PERSUASION IS NOT VOLUNTARY, PEACEFUL, RELIGIOUS PRACTICE OR CENTRAL TO ANY BONA FIDE RELIGION.

Coercive persuasion is not a religious practice, it is a control technology. It is not a belief or ideology, it is a technological process.

As a PROCESS, it can be examined by experts on its technology COMPLETELY SEPARATE from any idea or belief content, similar to examining the technical process of hypnotic induction distinct from the meaning or value of the post-hypnotic suggestions.

Examining PROCESSES in this manner can not violate First Amendment religious protections.

Coercive persuasion is antithetical to the First Amendment. It is the unfair manipulation of other's biological and psychological weaknesses and susceptibilities. It is a psychological FORCE technology, not of a free society, but of a criminal or totalitarian society. It is certainly not a spiritual or religious technology.

Any organization using coercive persuasion on its members as a CENTRAL practice that also claims to be a religion is turning the SANCTUARY of the First Amendment into a fortress for psychological assault. It is a contradiction of terms and should be "disestablished."

Coercive persuasion is a subtle, compelling psychological force which attacks an even more fundamental and important freedom than our "freedom of religion." ITS REPREHENSIBILITY AND DANGER IS THAT IT ATTACKS OUR SELF-DETERMINISM AND FREE WILL, OUR MOST FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS.

Ce personalitate ai? Vezi aici la ce maladii eşti predispus

2011-03-28T12:41:00.000+03:00

Apartenenţa la o anumită categorie de personalitate nu înseamnă neapărat dezvoltarea unei anumite boli, însă trebuie să fie luat în considerare riscul şi să se acţioneze asupra acelor aspecte ale caracterului care pot influenţa apariţia maladiei, spune psihologul Martin Hagger, de la Universitatea din Nottingham, Marea Britanie.

Prezentăm mai jos o serie de maladii asociate celor mai întâlnite tipuri de personalităţi:

Optimiştii

Aceste persoane văd jumătatea plină a paharului, însă au tendinţa de a deveni supraponderale. Cercetătorii de la Universitatea Doshisha din Kyoto, Japonia, şi de la alte centre medicale au evaluat persoane supraponderale care au urmat un regim de slăbit cu o durată de şase luni, ce a implicat consiliere, nutriţie şi sport. Cercetătorii au descoperit că cei care erau cei mai optimişti au slăbit cel mai puţin. Optimiştilor le păsa mai puţin de problema greutăţii şi nu rezistau tentaţiilor.

Totodată, optimiştii prezintă mai multe riscuri să moară prematur, pentru că au o mai mare încredere în capacităţile lor de a depăşi dificultăţile şi din acest motiv îşi asumă multe riscuri, potrivit unui studiu realizat de cercetătorii de la Universitatea California, la care au participat peste 1.500 de copii, monitorizaţi de la vârsta de 10 ani până au devenit adulţi. Persoanele cu cel mai dezvoltat simţ al umorului au trăit, în medie, cel mai puţin faţă de cele care nu erau atât de vesele. Un alt studiu, realizat la Universitatea Stanford, a stabilit că, în general, cei mai veseli copii au ajuns la maturitate fumători, consumatori de alcool şi aveau pasiuni riscante.

Anxioşii

Cercetătorii de la Universitatea Descartes, Paris, şi de la Centrul pentru dependenţe şi sănătate mintală din Toronto, au descoperit că persoanele anxioase prezintă de cinci ori mai multe riscuri de a dezvolta ulcer stomacal. Totodată, aceste persoane sunt mai susceptibile de a fuma, a consuma alcool, a avea obiceiuri alimentare nesănătoase şi probleme de somn - toate acestea determină creşterea nivelului acidităţii din stomac, provocând ulcere.

De asemenea, aceste persoane pot avea în organism niveluri ridicate de cortisol - hormon al stresului -, care provoacă dureri de cap, acnee şi infecţii ale vezicii urinare.

Însă persoanele anxioase pot avea parte de o viaţă sexuală mai bogată, potrivit unui studiu realizat de cercetătorii de la Universitatea Sheffield. "Femeile nevrotice prezintă mai mari probabilităţi de a avea mai multe relaţii de scurtă durată, acest lucru sugerând o legătură între apetitul sexual şi anxietate", a spus medicul Virpi Lummaa, de la Universitatea Sheffield. Este posibil ca teama de a nu găsi persoana potrivită sau de a nu avea urmaşi să le determine pe aceste persoane să aibă mai multe relaţii sexuale de scurtă durată.

Sensibilii

Băbaţii care au trăsături considerate "feminine" - care dau dovadă, de exemplu, de empatie şi compasiune - au un nivel al stresului mai scăzut şi prezintă mai puţine riscuri de a suferi un infarct, spun cercetătorii de la Universitatea din Glasgow. Într-un studiu realizat de această instituţie, bărbaţii au fost evaluaţi în funcţie de trăsăturile lor "masculine" - abilităţi de conducere, forţă, agresivitate, asumarea de riscuri - şi "feminine" - empatie, compasiune, sensibilitate la nevoile celorlalţi. Riscul de a suferi de o maladie cardiacă era invers proporţional cu nivelul de trăsături feminine al voluntarilor. Bărbaţii care sunt capabili să vorbească despre emoţiile lor vor căuta ajutorul celorlalţi - inclusiv cel medical.

Certăreţii

Persoanele furioase reacţionează mai repede şi mai puternic la stres, atât mintal, cât şi psihologic, fapt care provoacă creşterea tensiunii arteriale şi a pulsului. Comportamentul ostil, agresiv este una dintre cele mai nesănătoase trăsături ale personalităţii. Într-un studiu la care au participat 448 de femei care şi-au făcut mamografii la mai multe centre medicale, cercetătorii de la Spitalul de oncologie din Kifissia, Atena, au stabilit că persoanele cu caracter agresiv prezentau mai multe probabilităţi de a fi diagnosticate cu cancer mamar.

Într-un alt studiu la care au participat 61 de bărbaţi cu cancer la colon, realizat la şcoala de medicină a Universităţii Creighton, Nebraska, s-a descoperit acelaşi lucru. Se pare că furia afectează puterea sistemului imunitar, făcând organismul mai vulnerabil în faţa bolilor. Totodată, riscul de maladii cardiace creşte cu 50%, spun cercetătorii de la şcoala de medicină Mount Sinai din New York.

Extrovertiţii

Bărbaţii extrovertiţi prezintă o mai mare probabilitate de a avea mai mulţi copii. Din punct de vedere fizic, ei nu sunt mai fertili, în schimb sunt foarte petrecăreţi, ceea ce creşte cu 14% probabilitatea de a avea mai mulţi copii faţă de persoanele mai puţin deschise, spun cercetătorii de la Universitatea Sheffield.

Bărbaţii extrovertiţi prezintă mai puţine riscuri de a suferi de maladii cardiace, potrivit unuii studiu realizat de cercetătorii de la Universitatea din Milano. Ei sunt mai puţin expuşi infecţiilor şi se refac mai bine după o boală. Acest lucru se datorează unui nivel mai mic de hormoni ai stresului - extrovertiţii pot face faţă mai bine problemelor. Iar dacă ei cred că au o problemnă medicală, cel mai probabil vor vorbi deschis despre asta.

Timizii

Persoanele timide prezintă cu 50% mai multe riscuri de a suferi un atac cerebral sau un infarct. Cercetătorii de la Universitatea din Northwestern, Chicago, au realizat un studiu care s-a întins pe 30 de ani şi au aflat astfel că persoanele timide duc vieţi liniştite, fără să-şi asume riscuri, iar orice situaţie nouă pentru ele poate fi o sursă de stres.

Persoanele timide sunt mai expuse infecţiilor virale, precum banala răceală - indiferent de anotimp -, potrivit unui studiu realizat de Universitatea din California, stresul fiind vinovat de acest lucru. "Se pare că persoanele sensibile răspund mai agresiv la stres faţă de ceilalţi", spune Bruce Naliboff, unul dintre cercetători.

Coeficientul de inteligenţă scăzut

Un coeficient de inteligenţă scăzut este asociat cu un risc mai mare de anxietate, demenţă şi tulburări de stres posttraumatic, spun cercetătorii de la Universitarea din Edinburgh.

Totodată, un studiu al Harvard School a stabilit că micuţii care au un coeficient de inteligenţă scăzut prezintă un risc crescut de schizofrenie şi depresie. Una dintre posibilele explicaţii este că persoanelor cu un nivel mai scăzut al inteligenţei le este mai dificil să înţeleagă importanţa unei vieţi sănătoase.

Un nivel mai scăzut al inteligenţei în copilărie indică faptul că încă de la început starea de sănătate a creierului nu a fost foarte bună, fapt care creşte riscul de maladii mintale.

Oneştii

Persoanele oneste prezintă mai puţine riscuri de a se îmbolnăvi la nivel general (de orice tip de boală: diabet, hernie, tulburări osoase, sciatica, accident cerebral, Alzheimer), spun cercetătorii de la Universitatea din Edinburgh şi de la Departamentul social şi de sănătate publică din Glasgow. O cercetare care a avut la bază 190 de studii a stabilit că persoanele oneste duc în general o viaţă sănătoasă, făcând sport şi având o dietă alimentară corespunzătoare.

Dance moves can reveal your personality

2011-03-28T12:25:00.000+03:00

It is where many couples first set eyes on one another - and now research suggests that the dancefloor is the perfect place to gauge a prospective partner's personality.

Scientists have claimed that the way a person gyrates in time to music can betray secrets of their character.

Using personality tests, the researchers assessed volunteeers into one of five "types". They then observed how each members of each group danced to different kinds of music. They found that:

* Extroverts moved their bodies around most on the dance floor, often with energetic and exaggerated movements of their head and arms.

* Neurotic individuals danced with sharp, jerky movements of their hands and feet – a style that might be recognised by clubbers and wedding guests as the "shuffle".

* Agreeable personalities tended to have smoother dancing styles, making use of the dance floor by moving side to side while swinging their hands.

* Open-minded people tended to make rhythmic up-and-down movements, and did not move around as much as most of the others

* People who were conscientious or dutiful moved around the dance floor a lot, and also moved their hands over larger distances than other dancers.

Dr Geoff Luck of the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, who led the research, said: "Music is known to evoke strong emotions in people and emotions can be expressed through bodily movement.

"People use body motions as reliable indicators of others' personality types, and even the movements of robots have been shown to elicit attributes of 'personality' by observers."

The researchers studied the dance moves of 60 volunteers who had been selected from 900 people who conducted personality tests. The dancers were picked due to having strong scores in one of the five main personality traits being studied.

Each of the volunteers were asked to dance spontaneously to 30 different tracks from six different genres of music – rock, techno, Latin, jazz, funk and pop.

Using motion capture technology, the researchers recorded the dance styles of all the volunteers as they were played each musical clip before analysing the movements using computer software.

The researchers found strong correlations between certain dancing styles and each of the personalities. They also discovered that different personalities danced in different ways depending on the music.

Rock music tended to bring out stereotypical headbanging moves, particularly among those with an extrovert personality.

Those with open-minded personalities seemed to make more rhythmical limb movements than anyone else during techno music.

Agreeable individuals seemed to move around more confidently than the others during Latin music, while the conscientious participants changed from moving around the dance floor to making smaller jerkier movements while listening to techno music.

Rock music appeared to be the only genre that brought neurotics out of their shells; otherwise they tended to make small, nervous movements.

Dr Luck, a researcher in "music-related movement" - also known as dancing - added: "Certain movements may be more representative of particular genres, such as the way listeners tend to nod their head or tap their foot when listening to jazz music.

"Future work might examine how other genres of music, such as classical or world music, influence listeners' spontaneous movements. Such music may not elicit the same kind of rhythmical dancing movements, but would help us better understand the effects of music on body movement."

Michelle Groves, associate dean at the faculty of education at the Royal Academy of Dance, said professional dancers were trained to express their emotions when they danced and tended to hide their personalities, but this would be less obvious in untrained people.

She said: "There has been work in the past that has shown you can guess at a person's personality from the way they move, but it hasn't looked at dance.

"Professional dancers tend to have introverted personalities, but they are are highly emotional which they draw on when they are performing. It is a nice contrast to this research with people who have not been through a period of training, as their personality comes through more clearly and it hasn't been self-selected."

Dr Peter Lovatt, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire and a former professional dancer, said dancing and movement could convey subtle messages about the way people are feeling and thinking, which has its routes deep in our evolutionary history.

He said: "There is a common train of thought that dancing is related to sexual selection and is part of the mate selection process.

"We have done some work asking 14,000 people to describe their dancing styles and we saw that dancing changes with age as their confidence in dancing changes.

"Confidence plays an important role in the way people dance. Self esteem also plays an important role and this can influence a person's personality."

Music taste linked to personality

2011-03-28T12:21:00.000+03:00

Heavy metal fans are gentle, indie music listeners lack self-esteem and lovers of pop music are uncreative, according to research out today.

The study on the links between personality and music taste has been conducted by a psychology professor over the last three years.

He found that country and western fans are hard-working, rap fans outgoing and jazz and classical music supporters are innovative and bursting with self-confidence.

Contrary to the stereotype, heavy metal fans are gentle and at ease with themselves but they tend not to be hardworking.

Those who listen to heavy metal and classical music share character traits, according to the research, of being creative, at ease and introverted.

But classical music fans have high self-esteem while heavy rock fans lack self-belief.

More than 36,000 people around the globe took part in the survey, the biggest of its type ever conducted.

They were asked to rate 104 musical styles in the study and were also questioned on aspects of their personality.

The research is continuing at www.peopleintomusic.com

Find out what your music taste says about you...

Bollywood
Creative, Outgoing

Samba
High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease

Blues
High self-esteem, creative, outgoing and at ease

Funk
High self-esteem, creative, not hardworking, outgoing and at ease

Jazz
High self-esteem, creative, outgoing and at ease

Classical music
High self-esteem, creative, introvert and at ease

Opera
High self-esteem, creative, gentle

Easy listening
High self-esteem, not creative, hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease

Country and western
Hardworking, outgoing

Rap
High self-esteem, outgoing

Reggae
High self-esteem, creative, not hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease

Dance
Creative, outgoing, not gentle

Disco
High self-esteem, not creative, hardworking, outgoing, gentle

Indie
Low self-esteem, creative, not hard working, not gentle

Punk
Lack self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not gentle

Rock and roll
High self-esteem, creative, hardworking, not gentle, at ease

Rock/heavy metal
Low self-esteem, creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, at ease

Chart pop
High self-esteem, not creative, hardworking, outgoing, gentle, not at ease

Soul
High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, gentle, at ease

Swing
High self-esteem, creative, at ease

Schizophrenia as a Self-Healing Process

2011-02-17T16:33:00.000+02:00

"It is justifiable to regard the term 'sickness' as pertaining not tothe acute turmoil but to the pre-psychotic personality, standing as itdoes in need of profound reorganization. In this case, the renewalprocess occuring in the acute psychotic episode may be considerednature's way of setting things right."
- John Weir Perry

MICHAEL O'CALLAGHAN: How does one define so-called schizophrenia?

JOHN WEIR PERRY: Jung defined it most succinctly. He said"Schizophrenia is a condition in which the dream takes the place ofreality." This means that the unconscious overwhelms theego-consciousness, overwhelms the field of awareness with contentsfrom the deepest unconscious, which take mythic, symbolic form. Andthe emotions, unless they're hidden, are quite mythic too. To acareful observer, they're quite appropriate to the situation at hand.
The way "schizophrenia" unfolds is that, in a situation of personalcrisis, all the psyche's energy is sucked back out of the personal,conscious area, into what we call the archetypal area. Mythic contentsthus emerge from the deepest level of the psyche, in order tore-organise the Self. In so doing, the person feels himselfwithdrawing from the ordinary surroundings, and becomes quite isolatedin this dream state.

O'C: Did Jung really see this as a healing process?

PERRY: He did indeed! He believed that "schizophrenia" is a self-healing process - one in which, specifically, the pathologicalcomplexes dissolve themselves. The whole schizophrenic turmoil isreally a self-organising, healing experience. It's like a moltenstate. Everything seems to be made of free energy, an inner free playof imagery through which the alienated psyche spontaneouslyre-organises itself - in such a way that the conscious ego is broughtback into communication with the unconscious again.

O'C: How long does the experience normally last?

PERRY: The acute hallucinatory phase, during which these contents gothrough the re-ordering process, usually lasts about six weeks. This,by the way, corresponds to the classical description of visionaryexperiences in various religious texts, such as the proverbial "fortydays in the wilderness" often referred to in the Bible. Anyway, sixweeks is roughly it.

O'C: So are you saying that the reason we have so-called "chronicschizophrenia" in our society, - where a person is medicated,distressed or hospitalised for decades - is really cultural? A societywhich refuses to understand the healing nature of the phenomenon?

PERRY: Yes, it seems so. Of course, there are some unusual cases wherethe individual simply can't handle the impact of all this unconsciouscontent, or doesn't know what to do with it, and freaks out. But frommy experience at Diabasis, I've seen so many people go the other waythat I really do feel "chronic schizophrenia" is created by society'snegative response to what is actually a perfectly natural and healthyprocess. I hate to think of what happens to people who go into themental hospital...

O'C: Who experiences a "schizophrenic break"?

PERRY: Well, there's a lot of controversy about this! There is aconstitutional element, which is often interpreted as a "genotype ofpathology", but this depends on how you see it. I see it as a genotypeof sensitivity! Among adolescent siblings in a family, for example,its usually the most sensitive one who's going to catch it.

O'C: How many people are "schizophrenic?"

PERRY: Approximately two percent - that's over one hundred and sixteenmillion people! It's about one in five of all the hospital beds [inthe developed countries - ed.].

O'C: What does it feel like to go through a "schizophrenic break"?

PERRY: The overall experience is described as falling into a kind ofabyss of isolation. This comes about because there is such adiscrepancy between the subjective inner world that one has been sweptinto, and the mundane everyday world outside. There seems to be atotal gulf between these two. Of course, this is exactly what happensin our society: the individuals around such a person are bewilderedand frightened. They have absolutely no trust in what is going on! Soeverything is set up negatively, and this gives rise to fear - on bothsides.

O'C: So is starts with a feeling of isolation...

PERRY: Yes. Now the symbolic expression of this is falling into adeath - not only a death state, but also a death space - the"afterlife," the "realm of the ancestors," the "land of the dead," the"spirit world." The common experience here is for the person to lookabout and think that half the people around him are dead too. While inthis condition, it's very hard for one to tell if one is really aliveor not.

I've been told, by people looking back on the experience, that onething that stands out most of all, beyond the feeling of isolation, isthe perception that everything that comes up is divided intoopposites: Good and Bad, God and the Devil, Us and Them, or whatever.It's confusing, it's bewildering, it causes tremendous indecision anda total arrest in motivation in which everything is cancelled by itsopposite.
So both these things are very distressing: the fear that you have diedand dropped away from the world of the living, and the fear ofconflicting powers, conflicting values and thoughts. It's a veryaggravating feeling. This experience of opposites very quickly takeson a rather paranoid form.
I think this is really what the paranoid content is based on. It takesthe form of experiencing the world as caught in the grip of opposingforces, whether they be political, spiritual, cultural, ideological,or even racial. In recent years I've noticed it's "those who mightdestroy the planet" versus "those who are ecologically minded." Theprevailing idiom of the decade seems to shape the particular form inwhich these opposites arise. The main thing here is a great clash offorces; and this clash is usually of rather cosmic proportions, notjust a local affair at all.
Right away at the beginning, the death experience is accompanied bythe feeling that you've gone back to the beginning of time. Thisinvolves a regression, a return to the state of infancy in one'spersonal life history. But hand in hand with this is the feeling ofslipping back into the world of the primordial parents, into a Gardenof Eden. For example, it's a very common experience to feel one is thechild of Adam and Eve, say, at the beginning of time. This is verysymbolic, obviously. It's pretty much a representation of the psycheat the start of one's individual career after birth.
So these are the outstanding features. All kinds of imagery comestumbling across the field of awareness. It's like the mythologicalimage in a perfect stained-glass window being smashed, and all thebits and pieces being scattered. The effect is very colourful, butit's very hard to discern how the pieces belong to each other. Anyattempt to make sense of it is an exercise in abstraction from theactual experience. The important thing is to find the process runningthrough it all.
The thing that I'm particularly interested in here is the clashof opposites. The individual usually has a feeling of intense fear, ashe contemplates what seem to him to be the forces of disruption, ofchaos, of the Antichrist, of the Communists - whatever the ideologyhappens to portray as "evil." In any case, these forces are seen astending to destroy the world, and the "good guys" are those who wouldtry to preserve it. This is the element I try in particular toexplore, because it connects to all kinds of other general culturaland political phenomena that we could talk about! What makes thisvisionary state appear so very psychotic, is that an individual with aparanoid ideology or ideation tends to identify with everything thatcomes up from below, and one is very apt to get confused. A woman whoidentifies with the Virgin Mary, for example, may then believe she'sabout to give birth to a redeemer. Actually, there's many a pregnancytest that we do in these emergency situations, you know, because youcan never be sure! And the men are very apt to feel they're speciallyelected to be the second coming of the Messiah; or, if they're veryparanoid, a great political of military leader such as Napoleon orHitler. The delusions of grandeur become very evident, for as soon asone's identity gets hung up on such archetypal identifications, thereimmediately arises the "enemy out there" who is trying to undo whatthe supreme power has brought about. There is a deeply-felt fear ofbeing toppled, a feeling of immense danger. This again has manycultural connotations...

O'C: So if the person experiences himself as God, might he then alsofeel the Devil is out to get him?

PERRY: Yes, that's pretty much adequate. If one is Christ, theAnti-Christ is around somewhere at work; and if one is in a supremeposition of political rule, then there is sure to be a disruptiverevolutionary political party on the other side of the planet which istrying to topple you! It's rather scary, when you consider that thecollective unconscious projects such huge shadows upon whole nationsor superpowers...

O'C: What about the death / rebirth aspect?

PERRY: Well you see, the state of being in a realm of death in thebeginning is pretty soon accompanied by the idea of either being born,or giving birth. This is really the fundamental ground of the wholeexperience.
So there are two or three transformative elements that run through thephenomenon in a sort of overall direction. First, the feeling of deathand rebirth, which is really symbolic of the process ofdisorganisation and reorganisation; second, the fact that this happensboth on the world level as well as on the personal level - the worldis also going through a disruption and a regeneration; and finally,the initial inflated notion that one is a supreme power (a greatspiritual force, a supreme being, a supreme intelligence from outerspace or whatever), gradually yields to a deeper overall preoccupationwith the issues of relationship. The feelings and motivations tendtoward love and affection in general. The sexual element is stirred upquite a bit, but mostly it's on a symbolic level. The process ofpsychological individuation required to achieve this feeling of lovingrelationship is also what social evolution is all about.
In this regard, the concerns of the regression to infancy are no morepersonal than one would expect. They are mostly concerned with theinterpersonal field, with the parents and siblings, and with theproblems of childhood and adolescence. The great surprise, duringthese weeks of turmoil, is that even more of the concern is aboutcultural and societal issues. I was totally unprepared for this: inthe Freudian setting of medical school, there was no mention of it atall. At first, when Jung told me about it in Switzerland, I found itvery hard to believe. I had to see for myself if he was right. Thisthen became one of my motives for going my alternative way with thesepeople.
Our new understanding shows that the process of re-connection to theunconscious, which these millions of people go through in a way that'susually so very hazardous, isolated and uncreative, is nonethelessmade up of the same stuff as seers, visionaries, cultural reformersand prophets go through. They also experience much of the samecontent, except that in their case it is specifically concerned, firstand foremost, with the culture itself. Any kind of personal subjectiveideation is made to serve and clarify that end.
When I started looking into these cultural parallels of the"schizophrenic" process, I also began to find very clear similaritiesin the rituals of almost every society. There are striking parallelsin the visionary states of reformers and prophets and Messiahs.Messiahs are found all over the world, you know! Almost any culturethat's going through a profound upheaval of rapid turbulent change,produces seers and visionaries who glimpse the new myth-form andexpress its guidelines - the basic ideas and paradigms that give thepeople a new sense of direction. This is particularly true, of course,at the tribal level - in almost every part of the world. The shamanicvisions are particularly close to what we see in "psychosis," with allthe ideation of death and rebirth, and symbols of world destructionand regeneration.

O'C: Are you saying, then, that the psychosymbolic images, feelingsand ideas which emerge into consciousness during the "schizophrenic"process, also carry basic symbolic relevance - at the level of thecollective unconscious - to the alienation of Humankind as a whole?

PERRY: Yes! One thing that is quite significant in this respect isthat each decade shows a marked difference in the typical content ofthe ideation. During the Fifties, for example, I used to see alotabout "Democracy" and "Communism." For many Americans at that time,the coincidence of opposites was symbolically expressed in terms ofAmerica versus Russia, and a big showdown between the forces ofliberty and oppression. A little later on that content tapered off,and the moral values and the issues of war and peace that typified theSixties came to the fore. In the Seventies, I saw alot of concern withglobal concerns like preserving the planet and paying attention tonature. The "bad guys" in this case were cast in the role of those whohad a disregard for the needs of Nature.
Now of course this is not too different from what one finds in dreams.For dreams also tend to reflect cultural issues, and as soon as onegets into any kind of therapy that deals with the psyche at thisdeeper level of the collective unconscious, one comes to theinevitable realisation that we are not going along in our psychiclife, you know, just in a realm of interpersonal relationships. A verypowerful culture such as ours projects huge patterns, huge conflictsand turmoils, and we all experience them, although we may not beconscious of their inner meaning at all. In this sense, Humankind isstill enormously alienated; the point is, it doesn't happen just inWashington and Moscow - it happens within the psyche of the wholepeople. The political spokesmen are only giving voice to what is goingon in all the individuals...
This brings up the question of myth-form. You see, the big problemsfacing society are perceived in symbolic, mythic expression, and forthis reason their resolution takes place on the symbolic, mythic levelas well. If there's work going on in a culture to reorganise itself,then it's a process that must occur on both levels simultaneously:individuals will go through their personal visions, and collectivespokesmen will express collective visions, which get worked out andimplemented on a cultural level.

GRADUATE STUDENT IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY:
"Dr. Laing, I still don't understand the theoretical basis of yourtherapeutic approach to schizophrenia. Could you please explain it?"
R.D. LAING:
"Certainly. The basis is love. I don't see how you or I can be of anyhelp to our clients in a visionary state unless we are capable ofexperiencing a feeling of love for them. Therapy, as opposed to meretreatment, requires that we have a capacity for lovingkindness andcompassion."
GRADUATE STUDENT (perplexed):
"But Dr. Laing, what is your clinical methodology for developing this approach?"
– Overheard at a talk given by R.D.Laing in New York in the 1980's.

O'C: In your book The Far Side of Madness, you describe how atDiabasis - the home for "schizophrenic" individuals which you set upin Berkeley iin the 1960's - they could comfortably get into theirvisionary process in a totally supportive atmosphere. What are thenecessary conditions to enable a person to go through the experienceof madness and be renewed by it when they come through, as you put it,on the far side?

PERRY: That's a question with many facets! The first one, which wetouched on briefly toward the beginning of this conversation, wasabout the conditions that are set up around such an individual. Whatwe did at Diabasis was specifically to set up what we hoped would bethe most ideal, least toxic (smile), least damaging environment for aperson in the visionary state.
First off, this means a home. You need a place with friendly,sympathetic individuals who live there. These people have to becompanions, have to be willing to listen and not be frightened and notbe judgmental about it, and not try to do anything to anybody.
One has to let the visionary process unfold itself spontaneously.Under such conditions, to our surprise, we found that our clients gotinto a clear space very quickly! We had started out with the notionthat we would surely be in for alot of bedlam with all this "madness"going on, but actually the opposite was true! People would come injust a crazy as could be on the first day or two, but they'd settledown very soon into a state of coherency and clarity. Often, when Iwould come in for a consultation at the end of the week, I would seesomeone who had been admitted in a completely freaked-out state just afew days before, sitting at the dinner-table indistinguishable fromanybody else; sometimes I couldn't tell if this was a new member ofthe staff, or one of our clients. The calming effect of a supportiveenvironment is truly amazing!
It's a well-known fact that people can and do clear up in a benignsetting. Actually, they can come down very quickly. But if some of ourcases had gone to the mental hospital, they would have been given avery dire message: "You've had a mental breakdown. You're sick. You'reinto this for decades, maybe for the rest of your life!" and told "Youneed this medication to keep it all together." I am quite certain thatif some of our clients had been sent to the mental hospital, theywould have had a long, long fight with it. The outcome of their stayat Diabasis, however, was that their life after the episode wassubstantially more satisfying and fulfilling to them than it had beenbefore!

O'C: Would the determining factor then be the person's realisationthat she is in a non-ordinary state of consciousness - i.e. a statewhich, although very different from that of the people around her, isin fact completely natural and good - and that the hallucinatoryimagery carries a symbolic meaning, which pertains primarily to theinner reality, rather than to the outside world?

PERRY: You said it! The tendency, as you suggest, is to concretise allthe symbolic stuff and believe there are enemies out there, and thatthe walls are wired, that there are people with guns at the window,and subversive political parties trying to do things, or that one isbeing watched because one is the head of some organisation andeverybody knows it. All of that is a mistaken, "concretistic" tendencyto take too literally things whose correct meaning is actuallysymbolic.
So yes, the therapeutic goal is to achieve that attitude whichperceives the symbolic nature of the ideation which belongs to theinner reality. Now the inner reality is real! It's very important togrant it that reality, but not to get the two realities mixed up.That's the trick! Actually, for most people it's surprisingly easy.Certainly, the more paranoid a person is, the more difficult. There isa certain paranoid makeup, a style of personality which tends to focuson the objective world around. It's what we call an attention style.It is difficult for such people to see the inner meaning of theirvisions. On the other hand, the average person tends to go along withthe inner journey and to realise - well, they do need to be reminded -but once they're reminded, they tend to quickly perceive that it is aspiritual test, or a symbolic test, and not the actual end of theactual world.
The second condition needed for a successful outcome of the"schizophrenic episode" is not just a benign surround, but also somepeople who can relate to the visionary process in a sympathetic way. Ibelieve very strongly that it's not just enough to have a benigncommunity around such a person: the thing that really makes theprocess move and reach its conclusion, is an intense relationship withone or two people. Sometimes with a man and a woman, who may play asymbolic role like two parents, or like the opposites, which can betaken care of in this way.
Bringing the whole supercharged process into a relationship seems tomake it bearable, containable, manageable. Of course, some people gothrough it alone. They tell me this is highly painful, veryfrightening. But if one has a therapist or counsellor to whom one canrelate the experience, one need not suffer a whole lot once theprocess gets underway. There will always be some tough moments,nightmarish times, bewilderment. One wonders what the dangers are,whether there are evil forces out there. But through these weeks,somehow, the prevailing mood is actually one of buoyancy. At Diabasis,there was a general atmosphere of jocularity. People would be jokingaround, having fun, playing music and dancing and humming tunes andpainting...

O'C: Yes, in fact wasn't that part of the design? You had all sorts ofways for people to communicate their experience and externalise inthrough various forms of art?

PERRY: The whole environment was organised into various "spaces." Oneof these - a very important one - was called the rage room. This wassound-proofed and padded, for the individual's own protection, and weput things in there that they could whack to pieces like old cottonsand mattresses. But the door was not locked, it was not like thepadded cell in the mental hospital, where the person is isolatedagainst his will... We set it up so that if a client was having strongfeelings of rage, he or she could share it with a staff member,particularly the counsellor or primary therapist, and thus deliver it.This was found meaningful. The anger is a very important part of thegrowth of the ego, you see.
We also had the opposite: a room for quietness and meditation. Thiswas equally important, for integrative purposes. We had an art room,but I must say, people didn't seem to spend much time there (chuckle).These so-called "sensitive personalities" were all hanging around thedining room table, doing water-colours or modelling in clay, andgiving creative expression to some of the imagery inside their head.We also had a sand tray and figurines for sandplay therapy. It workslike a dream: you set up a dramatic scene, move the figurines, tell astory. This avenue of expression is easier than painting. It's verydreamlike, so it hits the visionary state very well. We also hadpoetry...
Another thing we provided was a variety of body movement sessions,dance and martial arts, with skilled facilitators. And finally, we hadinterviews at least three of four times a week, for an hour and a halfto two hours each, with the primary counsellor/therapist. But reallyall of these creative outlets put together became part of theinterview itself - verbal expression combined with image expression inthese various media.
Now throughout all this there was nothing scheduled, nothingmandatory. It was all informal. We'd just respond to things as theycame up. Our only house rule really was "No violence to property orpersons!" The clients could dash out nude into the street if they hadto; we didn't like it, but they did! You see, we wanted them to be inthis house of their own free will. They had to realise their owndesire to belong in the house, and they did.
So this whole approach is essentially one of releasing, rather thansuppression. We allowed everything and encouraged its expression - nottoward chaos, but toward communication! Communication tends to order.This is a most important point in psychiatry, but the common opinionis that it is very dangerous... When you actually do it, however, youfind exactly the opposite is true: people get over theirpreoccupations very quickly. The whole point here is to deliver thevisionary content to somebody and to be able to appreciate itssymbolic relevance to the inner process of personal and socialrenewal. Once it's delivered, the process keeps moving by itself. It'sreally unfortunate there is so much misunderstanding about it all. Thetruth is really very simple.
"The gigantic catastrophes that threaten us are not elementalhappenings of a physical or biological kind, but are psychic events.We are threatened in a fearful way by wars and revolutions that arenothing else than psychic epidemics. At any moment a few millionpeople may be seized by a madness, and then our leaders mayprecipitate us into a blood bath of war and radioactivity... Insteadof being exposed to wild beasts, tumbling rocks, and inundatingwaters, man is exposed today to the elemental forces of his ownpsyche. Psychic life is a world power that exceeds by many times allthe powers of the Earth...
If one voluntarily takes the burden of completeness upon oneself, onecan avoid all the unhappy consequences of repressed individuation -one need not find it 'happening' to one against one's will in anegative form. This is as much as to say that anyone who is destinedto descend into a deep pit had better set about it with all thenecessary precautions, rather than risk falling into the holebackwards."

- Carl Jung
"The journey is there and it's an experience that we have at somestage to go through... Every single one of us has got to go throughit.. until we gradually build ourselves up into an acceptance ofreality."
- Jesse Watkins (A former "schizophrenic" client of R.D. Laing)
"The time will come when Humankind will have to make a choice betweensuicide and adoration."
- Teilard de Chardin

O'CALLAGHAN: Here's a broader question which I've been thinking aboutfor years. If nature's self-organising way of healing an alienatedindividual is for one's psyche to go through a world viewtransformation process involving a spontaneous temporary non-ordinarystate of consciousness, do you think it possible that an entiresociety, or perhaps even the whole of Humankind - which is undoubtedlyalienated and obviously having a hard time adapting to its new globalenvironment - could conceivably have to pass through some kind ofcollective non-ordinary state, on the way to greater wisdom? And ifso, would not such a process also take the form of either a horriblemass psychosis, if suppressed, or a creative breakthrough, if we wereculturally prepared to understand its inner meaning?

PERRY: Yes indeed! You know, there are many examples of this inanthropological studies of societies going through periods of culturalcrisis. What you're referring to is right around the corner! You don'thave to look very far to see a culture deteriorate, to see individualsin deep distress...
The cultural historian Anthony Wallace is very lucid about this. Hedid a study of periods of turmoil in various cultures, and formulateda ground-plan for the process of sudden culture-change. It goes likethis: first, under the new conditions, the old answers don't work, theold methods no longer hold, the old ways prevail no more, and the oldvalues are no longer held in esteem. This leads to a demoralisation,which results very quickly in psychosomatic distress, and the abuse ofalcohol or other drugs. From out of all this, some sort of restitutionmay then emerge through the activation of visionary states withincertain people in the society. The gifted ones are those whose visionsreach beyond the personal sphere, into the realm of the collectiveunconscious, out of which the new myth comes forth.
Now the crucial point here is whether that myth is then received. Yousee, in a psychosis, part of the problem, as we were saying, is thatthe vision is not received. When the individual, and his family andfriends and society regard the vision as unacceptable and they rejectit, that is the experience of going crazy!
On the other hand, a prophet is given alot of esteem. If his visionhappens to coincide with what the people need to hear, he willeventually be held in great reverence and his message will bereceived. If his myth-making capacity is working well, he may deliverthe new myth that is going to be accepted for the next phase of thatculture's evolution. That then leads to a whole cultural renewal,which Wallace calls a revitalisation movement.
So what's particularly interesting about this collective, culturaldimension of the visionary experience, is that the historicalevolution of culture recapitulates the same process that happenswithin the individual. It begins in fear of death, lust for power andsupremacy, but soon leads over into this concern with relationship andEros, intimacy, caring. In history, the myth original that parallelsthis process is one that was first conceived during the urbanrevolution: that's about 3000 BCE in Egypt and Mesopotamia, 2000 BCEin China, and about 1000 BCE in Israel. With this first growth ofcities, a vast psychological transformation took place in society, andnew myths emerged which served a guiding function for the motivationswithin. Now these first urban societies were preoccupied with power.Power and dominance were held in high esteem and sacralised. Somecenturies went by, and you had prophetic movements, philosophicalmovements that arose in opposition to that. These later mythsredefined the cohesive power in society. They asserted that the thingthat binds the people together into a working whole is not power anddominance but caring, brotherhood, and love.
If you check out the ancient literature, you will find that this ideaof the overarching importance of love or compassion is simply notmentioned in any urban texts up to a certain point.... The function ofsocial leadership was first projected exclusively onto the persona ofthe Pharaoh or King. All the people had to do was to follow orders anddo what they were told. The mythologies of the early urban phase wereall in the power idiom at first: the King is the embodiment of thewhole people. Only he can care for them. He is the one who iscompassionate. He is the one who is loving, as a father is toward hischildren.
So what took place over the following centuries was a completetransformation of that type of myth. The first time in recordedliterature that there is any mention of the Kingship belonging notonly to the elected king, but also to the people, was around themiddle of the 1st millennium BCE, in China. They affirmed that everyindividual has within himself the potentiality to be sage-king orsacral king. It was specifically expressed in these terms: "Every manshall become a sage-king!"

O'C: Very interesting! Who said it?

PERRY: Interestingly enough, it was Confucius who expressed it first -you wouldn't expect it really! He was a great promoter of the idea ofthe inner kingship, democracy, self-rule, and social caring. He hadthe Golden Rule - the idea of returning good for evil and respondingto violence with non-violence - quite clearly expressed long beforeChristianity. The same thing happened in India, with the Buddha. InIsrael, it didn't arrive until much later on. The Old Testamentprophets, projecting their image of God as the vengeful Yahveh, didnot talk of this kind of brotherhood or compassion; you don't findthat really until the Christian era. The point is that the centralimportance of love and social caring was just not mentioned in any ofthese cultures before their initial perception - in visionary states -by sensitive individuals.
Now regarding the second part of your question, regarding the currentcultural upheaval in the world today, I think we must be prepared, asyou were mentioning earlier, for a change in world outlook, that is, anew world view or mandala. The original mandalas were conceived anddesigned as world-images, meaning that they are condensed compactversions, in symbol form, of a way of perceiving the world.
Simply put, the new world view will become explicit when its symbolmoves into consciousness.
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RELATED WEBSITES
When The Dream Becomes Real:The Inner Apocalypse in Mythology, Madness and the Future
By Michael O'Callaghan. Includes the John Weir Perry interview, abrief history of the repression and decline of the shamanic traditionin Europe, and a first-hand account of a visionary experience by theauthor during an astroarcheological field trip to a 6,000 year-oldartwork in Ireland. With extensive footnotes and a bibliography.Published on the Global Vision web site at www.global-vision.org/dream
On Fundamentalism
By Michael O'Callaghan. Religious fundamentalists share manyassumptions and beliefs with "schizophrenic" people, including apolarisation of humankind into good and evil groups and an expectationof imminent apocalypse. In the transpersonal context of history,colonialism and globalisation, they can be seen as the "identifiedpatient" in a larger planetary network of dysfunctional social andcommercial relations in which transnational corporations, the WorldBank, the International Monetary Fund, the WTO and the citizens of thewealthy countries all participate in driving them "crazy." Written forthe proposed Centre for Science and the Sacred to promote intellectualpluralism. Published on the Global Vision web site atwww.global-vision.org/sacred/fundamentalism.html
The Global Vision feature film
By Michael O'Callaghan. This is an impressionistic musical featurefilm conceived as A Collective Self-Portrait Of Humankind And TheBiosphere - a concept without precedent in art or motion picturehistory. It's an artistic attempt to create a description of humanidentity at the dawn of the global age, and a mythopoeic sales pitchfor a sustainable civilisation. Looking at the pattern that connectshumankind, the biosphere, technology, and the collective unconscious,the film is a metaphor about the connection between the worldsituation and our own way of seeing. Now in development, this is thefirst film to be collectively designed by its own audience on theInternet! Scheduled for theatrical release in 2005. Seewww.global-vision.org/movie for details.
How Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Violates Basic Human Rights
By Richard Gosden. Seewww.cwrl.utexas.edu/~monitors/1.1/gosden/onedocgosden.html
Complete Recovery from Schizophrenia Without the Aid of Drugs
By Tracey May. See www.schizophrenia-recovery.com.
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RELATED READING
Trials of the Visionary Mind: Spiritual Emergency and the Renewal Process.By John Weir Perry. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1999.
The Far Side of Madness.By John Weir Perry. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1974.
The Self In Psychotic Process: Its Symbolization in Schizophrenia.By John Weir Perry, with an introduction by C.G.Jung. University ofCalifornia Press, Los Angeles, 1953.
The Heart of History: Individuality in Evolution.By John Weir Perry. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1987.
Perceval's Narrative: A Patient's Account of his Psychosis.By Gregory Bateson. Stanford University Press, 1961, Stanford.
The Double-Bind Theory of Schizophrenia.By Gregory Bateson. Re-published in Steps to an Ecology of Mind, opus cit.
Realms Of The Human Unconscious : Observations From LSD ResearchBy Stanislav Grof, M.D. E.P.Dutton, New York, 1976.
Beyond The Brain : Birth, Death And Transcendence In PsychotherapyBy Stanislav Grof, M.D. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1985.
The Adventure of Self-Discovery: Dimensions of Consciousness and NewPerspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration.By Stanislav Grof, M.D. State University of New York Press, Albany, 1988.
Spiritual Emergency : When Personal Transformation Becomes a CrisisBy Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof (ed), with contributions fromR.D.Laing, Roberto Assagioli, John Weir Perry, Ram Dass, Lee Senella,Jack Kornfield, Paul Rebilot, Holger Kalwert, Anne Armstrong, KeithThompson and others; Jeremy Tarcher Inc., Los Angeles, 1989.
A Ten Day Voyage.A first-hand account of a "schizophrenic" experience by Jesse Watkins.Quoted in R. D. Laing, The Politics of Experience, Ballantine Books,New York, 1968.
The Divided Self.By R. D. Laing. Pantheon, New York, 1962.
The Politics of Experience.By R. D. Laing. Ballantine Books, New York, 1968.
The Politics of the Family and other essays.By R. D. Laing. New York, 1969.
Sanity, Madness and the Family.By R. D. Laing with H.Phillipson. Tavistock Publications, London, 1966.
Interpersonal Perception: A Theory and a Method of Research.By R. D. Laing.
Shamanic Voices : A Survey of Visionary Narratives.By Joan Halifax. E.P. Dutton, New York.Re-issued (Rei Edition), Arkana, 1994, ISBN: 0140193480.
Shaman : The Wounded Healer.By Joan Halifax. Crossroad Publishing Co, 1983, ISBN: 082450061X.
Shaman (Art and Imagination).By Joan Halifax. Reprint Edition, Thames & Hudson, 1988, ISBN: 050081029X.
Changing Images of Man.By Joseph Campbell, Duane Elgin, Willis Harman, Arthur Hastings, O. W.Markley, Floyd Matson, Brendan O'Regan, and Leslie Schneider. PolicyResearch Report no. 4, Center for the Study of Social Policy, StanfordResearch Institute, Menlo Park, 1974.
Steps To An Ecology of Mind.By Gregory Bateson. Ballantine Books, New York, 1972.
The Phenomenon of Man.By Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Harper and Row, New York, 1959Originally published as Le Phénomaine Humain, Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1955.
The Power of Myth.By Joseph Campbell, with Bill Moyers. Doubleday, New York, 1988; thereis also an excellent television series of the same name, available asa six-part boxed set of videotapes from Mystic Fire Video at PO Box422, New York, NY 10012-0005, USA. You can order these tapes by creditcard from their web site at www.mysticfire.com.
The Hero With A Thousand Faces.By Joseph Campbell, first published in 1949, and later by BollingenUniversity Press, New York, 1968.
On Rebirth (Über Wiedergeburt).By Carl Gustav Jung, Eranos Jarhbuch 1939, Zürich, 1940.
WotanCarl Jung's description of the rumblings in the collective unconsciousof the German people before the outbreak of World War II, published inthe Neue Schweitzer Rundschau, March 1936. Later republished in Essayson Contemporary Events 1947, and in the Collected Works of C. G. Jung,Civlisation in Transition, Vol. 10.
After the Catastrophe.Carl Jung's account of Nazism as a collective psychosis.Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Civilisation in Transition, Vol. 10, 1945.
History Ends in Green, Gaia, psychedelics, and the archaic revival.By Terrence McKenna. A boxed set of audiotapes recorded at the Esalen Institute.Mystic Fire Audio, New York, 1992.
Ecopsychology : Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind.By Theodore Roszak, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner.Sierra Club Books, 1995, ISBN: 0871564068.
The Book Of Revelations.By Saint John the Evangelist, in the New Testament of the Bible.
The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries.By W.Y. Evans-Wentz, with a new introduction by Terrence McKenna.Library of the Mystic Arts, Citadel Press, published by CarolPublishing Group,1990.(Originally published in Oxford, 1911).
The Embodied Mind : Cognitive Science and Human Experience.By Francisco J. Varela, Evan Thompson, Evan; and Eleanor Rosch.Reprint Edition Mit Press, Cambridge, 1993, ISBN: 0262720213.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections.By Carl Gustav Jung, recorded and edited by Aniela Jaffé, Routledgeand Kegan Paul, London, 1963.
Tao Te Ching.By Lao Tsu, 6th. century B.C.E. Translated from the Mandarin by Gia-FuFeng and Jane English.Wildwood House Ltd., London, 1972.

How The Brain Rewires Itself

2011-02-17T16:27:00.000+02:00

How The Brain Rewires Itself

By Sharon Begley

It was a fairly modest experiment, as these things go, with volunteers trooping into the lab at Harvard Medical School to learn and practice a little five-finger piano exercise. Neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone instructed the members of one group to play as fluidly as they could, trying to keep to the metronome's 60 beats per minute. Every day for five days, the volunteers practiced for two hours. Then they took a test. At the end of each day's practice session, they sat beneath a coil of wire that sent a brief magnetic pulse into the motor cortex of their brain, located in a strip running from the crown of the head toward each ear. The so-called transcranial-magnetic-stimulation (TMS) test allows scientists to infer the function of neurons just beneath the coil. In the piano players, the TMS mapped how much of the motor cortex controlled the finger movements needed for the piano exercise. What the scientists found was that after a week of practice, the stretch of motor cortex devoted to these finger movements took over surrounding areas like dandelions on a suburban lawn. The finding was in line with a growing number of discoveries at the time showing that greater use of a particular muscle causes the brain to devote more cortical real estate to it. But Pascual-Leone did not stop there. He extended the experiment by having another group of volunteers merely think about practicing the piano exercise. They played the simple piece of music in their head, holding their hands still while imagining how they would move their fingers. Then they too sat beneath the TMS coil. When the scientists compared the TMS data on the two groups--those who actually tickled the ivories and those who only imagined doing so--they glimpsed a revolutionary idea about the brain: the ability of mere thought to alter the physical structure and function of our gray matter. For what the TMS revealed was that the region of motor cortex that controls the piano-playing fingers also expanded in the brains of volunteers who imagined playing the music--just as it had in those who actually played it. "Mental practice resulted in a similar reorganization" of the brain, Pascual-Leone later wrote. If his results hold for other forms of movement (and there is no reason to think they don't), then mentally practicing a golf swing or a forward pass or a swimming turn could lead to mastery with less physical practice. Even more profound, the discovery showed that mental training had the power to change the physical structure of the brain.

OVERTHROWING THE DOGMA

FOR DECADES, THE PREVAILING DOGMA IN neuroscience was that the adult human brain is essentially immutable, hardwired, fixed in form and function, so that by the time we reach adulthood we are pretty much stuck with what we have. Yes, it can create (and lose) synapses, the connections between neurons that encode memories and learning. And it can suffer injury and degeneration. But this view held that if genes and development dictate that one cluster of neurons will process signals from the eye and another cluster will move the fingers of the right hand, then they'll do that and nothing else until the day you die. There was good reason for lavishly illustrated brain books to show the function, size and location of the brain's structures in permanent ink. The doctrine of the unchanging human brain has had profound ramifications. For one thing, it lowered expectations about the value of rehabilitation for adults who had suffered brain damage from a stroke or about the possibility of fixing the pathological wiring that underlies psychiatric diseases. And it implied that other brain-based fixities, such as the happiness set point that, according to a growing body of research, a person returns to after the deepest tragedy or the greatest joy, are nearly unalterable. But research in the past few years has overthrown the dogma. In its place has come the realization that the adult brain retains impressive powers of "neuroplasticity"--the ability to change its structure and function in response to experience. These aren't minor tweaks either. Something as basic as the function of the visual or auditory cortex can change as a result of a person's experience of becoming deaf or blind at a young age. Even when the brain suffers a trauma late in life, it can rezone itself like a city in a frenzy of urban renewal. If a stroke knocks out, say, the neighborhood of motor cortex that moves the right arm, a new technique called constraint-induced movement therapy can coax next-door regions to take over the function of the damaged area. The brain can be rewired. The first discoveries of neuroplasticity came from studies of how changes in the messages the brain receives through the senses can alter its structure and function. When no transmissions arrive from the eyes in someone who has been blind from a young age, for instance, the visual cortex can learn to hear or feel or even support verbal memory. When signals from the skin or muscles bombard the motor cortex or the somatosensory cortex (which processes touch), the brain expands the area that is wired to move, say, the fingers. In this sense, the very structure of our brain--the relative size of different regions, the strength of connections between them, even their functions--reflects the lives we have led. Like sand on a beach, the brain bears the footprints of the decisions we have made, the skills we have learned, the actions we have taken.

SCRATCHING A PHANTOM LIMB

AN EXTREME EXAMPLE OF HOW CHANGES IN the input reaching the brain can alter its structure is the silence that falls over the somatosensory cortex after its owner has lost a limb. Soon after a car crash took Victor Quintero's left arm from just above the elbow, he told neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran of the University of California at San Diego that he could still feel the missing arm. Ramachandran decided to investigate. He had Victor sit still with his eyes closed and lightly brushed the teenager's left cheek with a cotton swab. Where do you feel that? Ramachandran asked. On his left cheek, Victor answered--and the back of his missing hand. Ramachandran stroked another spot on the cheek. Where do you feel that? On his absent thumb, Victor replied. Ramachandran touched the skin between Victor's nose and mouth. His missing index finger was being brushed, Victor said. A spot just below Victor's left nostril caused the boy to feel a tingling on his left pinkie. And when Victor felt an itch in his phantom hand, scratching his lower face relieved the itch. In people who have lost a limb, Ramachandran concluded, the brain reorganizes: the strip of cortex that processes input from the face takes over the area that originally received input from a now missing hand. That's why touching Victor's face caused brain to "feel" his missing hand. Similarly, because the regions of cortex that handle sensations from the feet abut those that process sensations from the surface of the genitals, some people who have lost a leg report feeling phantom sensations during sex. Ramachandran's was the first report of a living being knowingly experiencing the results of his brain rewiring.

THINKING ABOUT THINKING

AS SCIENTISTS PROBE the limits of neuroplasticity, they are finding that mind sculpting can occur even without input from the outside world. The brain can change as a result of the thoughts we think, as with Pascual-Leone's virtual piano players. This has important implications for health: something as seemingly insubstantial as a thought can affect the very stuff of the brain, altering neuronal connections in a way that can treat mental illness or, perhaps, lead to a greater capacity for empathy and compassion. It may even dial up the supposedly immovable happiness set point. In a series of experiments, for instance, Jeffrey Schwartz and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) can quiet activity in the circuit that underlies obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), just as drugs do. Schwartz had become intrigued with the therapeutic potential of mindfulness meditation, the Buddhist practice of observing one's inner experiences as if they were happening to someone else. When OCD patients were plagued by an obsessive thought, Schwartz instructed them to think, "My brain is generating another obsessive thought. Don't I know it is just some garbage thrown up by a faulty circuit?" After 10 weeks of mindfulness-based therapy, 12 out of 18 patients improved significantly. Before-and-after brain scans showed that activity in the orbital frontal cortex, the core of the OCD circuit, had fallen dramatically and in exactly the way that drugs effective against OCD affect the brain. Schwartz called it "self-directed neuroplasticity," concluding that "the mind can change the brain." The same is true when cognitive techniques are used to treat depression. Scientists at the University of Toronto had 14 depressed adults undergo CBT, which teaches patients to view their own thoughts differently--to see a failed date, for instance, not as proof that "I will never be loved" but as a minor thing that didn't work out. Thirteen other patients received paroxetine (the generic form of the antidepressant Paxil). All experienced comparable improvement after treatment. Then the scientists scanned the patients' brains. "Our hypothesis was, if you do well with treatment, your brain will have changed in the same way no matter which treatment you received," said Toronto's Zindel Segal. But no. Depressed brains responded differently to the two kinds of treatment--and in a very interesting way. CBT muted overactivity in the frontal cortex, the seat of reasoning, logic and higher thought as well as of endless rumination about that disastrous date. Paroxetine, by contrast, raised activity there. On the other hand, CBT raised activity in the hippocampus of the limbic system, the brain's emotion center. Paroxetine lowered activity there. As Toronto's Helen Mayberg explains, "Cognitive therapy targets the cortex, the thinking brain, reshaping how you process information and changing your thinking pattern. It decreases rumination, and trains the brain to adopt different thinking circuits." As with Schwartz's OCD patients, thinking had changed a pattern of activity--in this case, a pattern associated with depression--in the brain.

HAPPINESS AND MEDITATION

COULD THINKING ABOUT THOUGHTS IN A new way affect not only such pathological brain states as OCD and depression but also normal activity? To find out, neuroscientist Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin at Madison turned to Buddhist monks, the Olympic athletes of mental training. Some monks have spent more than 10,000 hours of their lives in meditation. Earlier in Davidson's career, he had found that activity greater in the left prefrontal cortex than in the right correlates with a higher baseline level of contentment. The relative left/right activity came to be seen as a marker for the happiness set point, since people tend to return to this level no matter whether they win the lottery or lose their spouse. If mental training can alter activity characteristic of OCD and depression, might meditation or other forms of mental training, Davidson wondered, produce changes that underlie enduring happiness and other positive emotions? "That's the hypothesis," he says, "that we can think of emotions, moods and states such as compassion as trainable mental skills." With the help and encouragement of the Dalai Lama, Davidson recruited Buddhist monks to go to Madison and meditate inside his functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) tube while he measured their brain activity during various mental states. For comparison, he used undergraduates who had had no experience with meditation but got a crash course in the basic techniques. During the generation of pure compassion, a standard Buddhist meditation technique, brain regions that keep track of what is self and what is other became quieter, the fMRI showed, as if the subjects--experienced meditators as well as novices--opened their minds and hearts to others. More interesting were the differences between the so-called adepts and the novices. In the former, there was significantly greater activation in a brain network linked to empathy and maternal love. Connections from the frontal regions, so active during compassion meditation, to the brain's emotional regions seemed to become stronger with more years of meditation practice, as if the brain had forged more robust connections between thinking and feeling. But perhaps the most striking difference was in an area in the left prefrontal cortex--the site of activity that marks happiness. While the monks were generating feelings of compassion, activity in the left prefrontal swamped activity in the right prefrontal (associated with negative moods) to a degree never before seen from purely mental activity. By contrast, the undergraduate controls showed no such differences between the left and right prefrontal cortex. This suggests, says Davidson, that the positive state is a skill that can be trained. For the monks as well as the patients with depression or OCD, the conscious act of thinking about their thoughts in a particular way rearranged the brain. The discovery of neuroplasticity, in particular the power of the mind to change the brain, is still too new for scientists, let alone the rest of us, to grasp its full meaning. But even as it offers new therapies for illnesses of the mind, it promises something more fundamental: a new understanding of what it means to be human. From: Time magazine

Creative minds: the links between mental illness and creativity

2010-09-20T21:18:00.001+03:00

All too often, creativity goes hand in hand with mental illness. Now we're starting to understand why. Roger Dobson reports
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Seneca: "There is no great genius without a tincture of madness."
At first glance, Einstein, Salvador Dali, Tony Hancock, and Beach Boy Brian Wilson would seem to have little in common. Their areas of physics, modern art, comedy, and rock music, are light years apart. So what, if anything, could possibly link minds that gave the world the theory of relativity, great surreal art, iconic comedy, and songs about surfing?
According to new research, psychosis could be the answer. Creative minds in all kinds of areas, from science to poetry, and mathematics to humour, may have traits associated with psychosis. Such traits may allow the unusual and sometimes bizarre thought processes associated with mental illness to fuel creativity. The theory is based on the idea that there is no clear dividing line between the healthy and the mentally ill. Rather, there is a continuum, with some people having psychotic traits without having the debilitating symptoms.
Mental illnesses have been around for thousands of years. Evolutionary theory suggests that in order for them to be still here, there must be some kind of survival advantage to them. If they were wholly bad, it's argued, natural selection would have seen them off long ago. In some cases the advantage is clear. Anxiety, for example, can be a mental illness with severe symptoms and consequences, but it is also a trait that at a non-clinical level has survival advantages. In healthy proportions, it keeps us alert and on our toes when threats are sensed.
It's now increasingly being argued that there are survival advantages to others forms of illness, too, because of the links between the traits associated with them and creativity. "It can be difficult for people to reconcile mental illness with the idea that traits may not be disabling. While people accept that there are health benefits to anxiety, they are more wary of schizophrenia and manic depression," says Professor Gordon Claridge, emeritus professor of abnormal psychology at Oxford University, who has edited a special edition of the journal Personality and Individual Differences, looking at the links between mental illness and creativity. "There is now a feeling that these traits have survived because they have some adaptive value. To be mildly manic depressive or mildly schizophrenic brings a flexibility of thought, an openness, and risk-taking behaviour, which does have some adaptive value in creativity. The price paid for having those traits is that some will have mental illness."
Research is providing support for the idea that creative people are more likely to have traits associated with mental illness. One study found that the incidence of mood disorders, suicide and institutionalisation to be 20 times higher among major British and Irish poets in the 200 years up to 1800. Other studies have shown that psychiatric patients perform better in tests of abstract thinking. Another study, based on 291 eminent and creative men in different fields, found that 69 per cent had a mental disorder of some kind. Scientists were the least affected, while artists and writers had increased diagnoses of psychosis.
"Most theorists agree that it is not the full-blown illness itself, but the milder forms of psychosis that are at the root of the association between creativity and madness," says Emilie Glazer, experimental psychologist and author of one of the Oxford journal papers. "The underlying traits linked with mild psychopathology enhance creative ability. In severe form, they are debilitating."
Research is also showing that traits associated with different mental illnesses have different effects on creativity. The creativity needed to develop the theory of relativity, is, for example, very different from that required for producing surreal paintings, or poetry.
Research is now homing in on whether the psychosis that is linked to different types of creativity comes through schizophrenia and schizotypy traits, through manic-depressive or cyclothymic traits, or traits associated with the autism and Asperger's disorders. A study at the University of Newcastle found significant differences between artistically creative people and mathematicians. While the artists showed schizotypy traits, mathematicians did not, and that fits in with the idea that mathematics and engineering, which require attention to detail, are closer to the autistic traits than to psychosis.
"Affective disorder perpetuates creativity limited to the normal," says Glazer, "while the schizoid person is predisposed to a sense of detachment from the world, free from social boundaries and able to consider alternative frameworks, producing creativity within the revolutionary sphere. Newton and Einstein's schizotypal orientation, for instance, enabled their revolutionary stamp in the sciences."
The stereotypical images of mad scientists working alone and preferring foaming beakers to friends, abound in literature, and reflect a popular perception of the aloof, detached and obsessive genius. But the idea goes back even further. 2000 years ago in Rome, the philosopher Seneca was obviously already on the case when he wrote: "There is no great genius without a tincture of madness."
It's no joke: Comedians and depression
Heard the one about the man who went to the doctor to get help for his depression? He's told to go and see a show with a well known comedian who would make him laugh and lift his spirits. "But that's me," says the patient. "I'm the comedian."
The joke, related by Rod Martin, author of 'The Psychology of Humor – An Integrative Approach', is apparently something of a favourite among comedians, who are known to be prone to depression, from the late Tony Hancock and Spike Milligan, to Stephen Fry and Paul Merton.
One theory is that humour is developed in response to depression, and that it works as a coping mechanism. One study, reported by Martin, looked at 55 male and 14 female comedians, all famous and successful. It found that comedians tended to be superior in intelligence, angry, suspicious, and depressed.
In addition, their early lives were characterised by suffering, isolation, and feelings of deprivation, and, he says, they used humour as a defence against anxiety, converting their feel ings of suppressed rage from physical to verbal aggression. "The comedic skills required for a successful career may well be developed as a means of compensating for earlier psychological losses and difficulties," says Martin. A second study did not find higher levels, although comedians had significantly greater preoccupation with themes of good and evil, unworthiness, self-deprecation, and duty and responsibility.
"A significant proportion of comedians do seem to suffer more with depression," says Professor Gordon Claridge, emeritus professor of abnormal psychology at Oxford University. "Comedy seems to act as a way of dealing with depression. I think there is an emotionality and cognitive style that goes along with these depressive disorders which seems to feed creativity."
Salvador Dali was not just a great artist. He also met the criteria for several psychosis diagnoses, a mixture of schizophrenic and depressive. He may also have been paranoid, as well having antisocial, histrionic, and narcissistic disorders. "Dalí and his contribution to the history of art highlights that abnormality is not necessarily disagreeable – or to be so readily dismissed as a sign of neurological disease. For without his instability, Dalí may not have created the great art that he did," says Caroline Murphy of Oxford.

Discovering Psychology

2010-09-20T21:16:00.000+03:00

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/discovering-psychology/

In Bad Taste: Evidence for the Oral Origins of Moral Disgust

2010-09-20T20:49:00.001+03:00

Science 27 February 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5918, pp. 1222 - 1226
DOI: 10.1126/science.1165565

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REPORTS

In Bad Taste: Evidence for the Oral Origins of Moral Disgust

H. A. Chapman,^1* D. A. Kim,¹ J. M. Susskind,¹ A. K. Anderson^1,2*

In common parlance, moral transgressions "leave a bad tastein the mouth." This metaphor implies a link between moral disgustand more primitive forms of disgust related to toxicity anddisease, yet convincing evidence for this relationship is stilllacking. We tested directly the primitive oral origins of moraldisgust by searching for similarity in the facial motor activityevoked by gustatory distaste (elicited by unpleasant tastes),basic disgust (elicited by photographs of contaminants), andmoral disgust (elicited by unfair treatment in an economic game).We found that all three states evoked activation of the levatorlabii muscle region of the face, characteristic of an oralnasalrejection response. These results suggest that immorality elicitsthe same disgust as disease vectors and bad tastes.

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada.
² Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Ontario M6A 2E1, Canada.

Science 27 February 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5918, pp. 1222 - 1226
DOI: 10.1126/science.1165565

Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Psihoterapeutul saman

2010-06-19T13:41:00.000+03:00

By Catalin Lazar

Exista o lume magica ce opereaza in fundalul constiintei fiecaruia dintre noi, un substrat arhaic, plin de potential, ce isi are origini in vremuri indepartate si care si-a intiparit patternurile la nivelul cel mai profund al fiintei noastre. Este o lume incarcata de mister, pe care o intalnim de fiecare data cand visam, cand rezonam in fata simbolurilor arhaice si care ne trezeste curiozitatea, de pilda, catre ocultism sau astrologie. Aceasta latura straveche a fiintei noastre aduce cu sine o experienta pe care o preluam de la generatiile anterioare, este o cale de acces catre energia vitala si are un important potential vindecator.

Aceasta realitate de ordin interior face ca atunci cand cineva se indreapta catre un terapeut, asteptarile sale sa fie foarte mari. Si asta, pentru ca, undeva, la nivelul asteptarilor inconstiente, terapeutul vine sa umple un rol pe care il jucau, odinioara, vraciul sau samanul vindecator. Nu se stie cum, nu conteaza cum, dar terapeutul va trebui sa faca ceva, va avea datoria sa indeparteze simptomul cu care se prezinta pacientul.

Cum functionam intr-o anumita masura, magic, de multe ori se intampla aceasta lucru si, doar stand de vorba, in contextul unei relatii terapeutice de calitate, pacientul se simte intr-o anumita masura mai bine, fara a-si da seama ce s-a intamplat, desi, realizeaza ca problema ramane pe undeva, inca nerezolvata.

Pentru a se obtine rezultate durabile si o schimbare de ordin profund este nevoie de implicarea in procesul terapeutic, deopotriva, a ambelor parti. In procesul propriei vindecari, pacientul are un rol important. Terapeutul nu poate ajuta foarte mult pacientul in lipsa implicarii acestuia in propria schimbare, el nu poate schimba ceva in pacient fara ca acesta sa vrea sa se schimbe. Desi terapeutul poate presupune, intelege sau poate fi avizat in privinta multor lucruri, este necesar ca pacientul sa isi verbalizeze problemele, sa caute sa vrea sa se inteleaga si sa isi urmareasca evolutia. Faptul ca terapeutul poate intelege realitatea pacientului nu este suficient si este mult mai putin relevant decat atunci cand si pacientul ajunge sa isi dea seama si sa vorbeasca despre realitatea sa sau sa descopere solutii care i se potrivesc.

Uneori cunoastem persoane care s-au aflat multi ani intr-un proces terapeutic si nu par sa se fi schimbat esential sau se plang ca nu au rezolvat simptomul pentru care au apelat la terapie. Terapia lucreaza prin cuvinte, in pauzele dintre cuvinte si, de asemenea, in pauzele dintre sedinte. Terapia lucreaza prin transformarea implicitului in explicit, in momentele in care pacientul isi intelege realitatea, isi da seama de ea si incepe sa o priveasca dintr-o perspectiva alternativa mai viabila. Pentru ca psihicul tinde catre mentinerea coerentei interioare, atunci cand pacientul reuseste sa aiba o perspectiva noua si mai viabila asupra sa si a lumii, sau referitor la o problema punctuala din viata sa, vechea realitate in care se confrunta cu problema, isi pierde rostul de a mai exista. Este una din caile prin care magia psihoterapiei functioneaza.

Este ignorarea stresului cronic o solutie?

2010-05-25T22:38:00.000+03:00

By Catalin Lazar

Atunci cand suntem stresati, cand avem constiinta unui pericol iminent, apare o reactie de tip fight or fly – lupt sau fug. Organismul se pregateste corespunzator, nivelul hormonilor specifici stresului creste. Odata indeparatat pericolul, nivelul hormonilor respectivi se normalizeaza. Acest tip de reactie se intampla in mod natural, atat la om cat si la animale si tine de supravietuire.

Dar ce se intampla atunci cand stresul se cronicizeaza, cand devenim in permanenta stresati si nu ne mai putem elibera de ingrijorare, de exemplu? Atunci cand anumite componente de stres tind sa devina repetitive, in timp, ele isi lasa amprenta asupra starii generale a individului. Efectele stresului depasesc planul dispozitiei psihice si patrund mai adanc, afectand aria somatica si conducand la imbolnavire.

Cortizolul este un hormon care a fost identificat in cadrul multelor cercetari medicale efectuate, ca fiind in corelatie cu un nivel crescut al stresului. Pe termen lung, un nivel crescut al cortizolului, este asociat cu efecte nedorite precum: scaderea imunitatii, cresterea raspunsului inflamatoriu, cresterea tensiunii arteriale, dezechilibre ale nivelului glicemiei, disfunctii tiroidiene, descresterea masei osoase si musculare si cresterea nivelului grasimilor din organism.

Putem sa nu lasam lucrurile sa alunece pe un astfel de fagas intervenind la timp. Un prim pas este sa evaluam cat suntem de stresati. Ne simtim prea mult apasati de griji, ne regasim adesea intens preocupati de viitor, avem tendinta de a manca prea mult sau prea des, consumam multe dulciuri sau fainoase, avem probleme frecvente cu somnul? Ne surprindem pierzandu-ne rabdarea in fata unor situatii simple, sau dand agitati din picioare, sau avand muschii trapezului foarte tensionati? Avem tendinta de a lua problemele de serviciu cu noi acasa sau in timpul liber si nu reusim sa ne decuplam de griji?

Sunt o serie de solutii pentru a atenua efectele stresului precum practicarea unui sport, vizionarea de spectacole sau vacante petrecute intr-un cadru natural. Cu totii putem identifica acele activitati care ne sunt cele mai potrivite si care ne ajuta sa ne destindem.

De asemenea, este bine sa identificam factorii de stres si modalitatile in care reactionam in diverse situatii stresante, spre exemplu conflicte nerezolvate, neintelegeri in cuplu sau la locul de munca, termene presante, un nivel crescut al responsabilitatii samd.

Cand frustrarile si temerile se acumuleaza, fara a vedea la orizont calea de a le rezolva, ele ajung sa ne otraveasca viata, de multe ori pe neobservate. Si, in definitiv, calitatea vietii noastre are si o componenta puternic subiectiva, starea noastra de zi cu zi si clipa de clipa fiind intens colorata sau alterata de felul in care vedem lucrurile si ne raportam la ele.

Atunci cand constientizam ca avem o problema si nu reusim sa o depasim de mai multa vreme, poate ca nu este cel mai avantajos lucru posibil pentru noi, sa trecem cu vederea starea in care ne aflam si este bine sa apelam la un specialist, pentru a readuce echilibrul si armonia in viata noastra.

Psihoterapie

2009-08-13T22:59:00.001+03:00

By Catalin Lazar

"Eu sunt cel ce creez experienta ce credeam ca mi se întampla mie, eu sunt cel ce o pot transforma."

Cand apelez la psihoterapie?

Ori de cate ori ma confrunt cu imposibilitatea de a depasi limite, obiceiuri, probleme, dificultati care rezista in pofida oricarui efort de vointa.

Pornind de la principiul coerentei psihice, in virtutea caruia un simptom este mai important sa existe decat sa nu existe, subintelegem ca remiterea durabila a simptomelor are loc atunci cand a fost integrat constient adevarul emotional din perspectiva caruia simptomul respectiv era necesar.

Interventia psihoterapeutica are un spectru larg de probleme in care se poate actiona cu success, precum:

- tulburari depresive, obsesivitate, anxietate, atacuri de panica

- tulburari alimentare de tip bulimie sau anorexie

- dependente, adictii fata de substante, alcool, jocuri de noroc, computer etc.

- tulburari de somatizare, cu aplicatii in domeniul hipertensiunii arteriale, alergiilor, afectiunilor pielii, colonului iritabil, astmului, ulcerului, maladiilor autoimune, fara ca in vreunul din cazuri sa se excluda interventia medicului de specialitate

- tulburari aparute in sfera sexualitatii precum impotenta, frigiditate, nimfomanie etc.

- tulburari ale identitatii de gen precum homosexualitatea

- dificultati din sfera comunicarii: in cadrul relatiilor de cuplu, in cadrul relatiilor de munca, incapacitatea de a intra in relatii sau de a mentine relatia cu partenerul de viata, probleme de adaptare scolara.

In toate situatiile in care este necesara interventia medicala de specialitate, psihoterapia actioneaza sinergic si nu exclude tratamentul recomandat de medic sau efectuarea investigatiilor medicale necesare.

Cui se adreseaza interventia psihoterapeutica?

Exprimat in termeni plastici, psihoterapia nu presupune, cel mai adesea, o plimbare pe malul marii, intr-o zi insorita ci, mai degraba, o scufundare in adancuri sau o parcurgere si iesire din labirintul personal. Este o calatorie interioara, o explorare insotita la capatul careia devenim mult imbogatiti si castigam autonomie fata de limitele, temerile si blocajele anterioare.

De aceea, se obtin rezultate mai bune in cazul persoanelor care manifesta disponibilitate in a participa activ la propria schimbare, care sunt capabile sa-si defineasca obiective clare si realiste si care sunt deschise catre introspectie si determinate sa obtina o schimbare durabila. In general, terapeutul intervine pe baza informatiei oferita de catre client, de aceea, masura in care clientul este disponibil in a accesa in cadrul terapiei zonele problematicii intime personale, are un rol important. De asemenea, este important si timpul scurs intre sedinte, cand clientul are posibilitatea de a-si urmari dinamica interioara, trebuie sa isi noteze visele sau, uneori, sa indeplineasca anumite teme stabilite in sedintele teraeutice.

In cadrul terapiei, rezultatele favorabile se obtin adesea, in urma confruntarii si integrarii aspectelor, la prima vedere, mai putin acceptabile ale propriei personalitati, de aceea, disponibilitatea de a lucra cu vulnerabiliatile personale si disponibilitatea de a se intalni cu propria realitate, sunt necesare.

Cadrul in care se desfasoara terapia:

- cel mai adesea, sedintele sunt saptamanle, acest aspect hotarandu-se de comun acord si in functie de situatie

- durata sedintelor este de 50 de minute si au un pret stabilit initial. In situatii ce presupun limitari contextuale (somaj, venituri mici etc.), pretul sedintelor poate fi discutat, in functie de limitele temporare ale clientului

- absentele sunt anuntate cu cel putin o zi inainte, atunci cand exista factori obiectivi care intervin. In caz contrar, se plateste pretul unei sedinte terapeutice

- concediile, perioadele de vacanta sunt anuntate reciproc, cu minim o sapatamana in avans

- Informatiile prezentate de catre client sunt confidentiale. Orice informatie prezentata de catre client, uneori apparent nesemnificativa, poate fi esentiala pentru procesul therapeutic, de aceea orice asociatie de idei este binevenita!

2008-11-17T00:01:00.000+02:00

By Catalin Lazar

Fiecare persoana isi construieste si asambleaza activ realitatea, o lume de reprezentari si semnificatii pe care o locuieste si o considera reala si de la sine evidenta.

Devenim complet absorbiti in propria noastra constructie a realitatii din cauza ca nu suntem constienti de rolul nostru de constructor-autor al acestei realitati.

In plan uman nu exista nicio versiune obiectiv corecta a realitatii, nicio singura semnificatie adevarata a evenimentelor, catre care un terapeut trebuie cu necesitate sa orienteze terapia.

Exista un numar nelimitat de cai viabile prin care viziunea despre realitate se poate schimba astfel încat sa fie inlaturata o problema prezenta. Diferenta dintre starile de bine sau de rau, fericire sau nefericire este data de diferenta dintre constructiile de semnificatii prin care indivizii se raportează la circumstante.

Prin orientarea catre un mod alternativ de a vedea realitatea, care nu include producerea simptomului, se poate obtine o schimbare profunda. Aceasta presupune constientizarea faptului ca "eu sunt cel ce creez experienta ce credeam ca mi se întampla mie, eu fiind cel ce o pot transforma".

La baza unei probleme care reapare deranjant in viata unei persoane, cu sau fara constientizarea acestei situatii sau in pofida oricarui efort de vointa, exista o dimensiune, un adevar emotional din perspectiva caruia un simptom este mai important sa existe decat sa nu existe.

Constientizarea acestei dimensiuni ofera sens dinamicii interioare si deschide calea catre noi alternative viabile de a vedea lumea si propria persoana...

CONSTRUCTII PERSONALE

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Timpul subiectiv

Picături de Zen şi o altfel de psihologie

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INCURSIUNE IN TRADITIE, INIMA CA SIMBOL AL SUFLETULUI

AMOK

Copilul ca vehicul pentru narcisismul parintilor

Scientists discover the two pathways to women's pleasure

The Great Psychotherapy Debate

The Effectiveness of Psychotherapy

The Consumer Reports Study

Martin E. P. SeligmanUniversity of Pennsylvania

Cateva consideratii asupra procesului terapeutic

How does mind control work?

Ce personalitate ai? Vezi aici la ce maladii eşti predispus

Dance moves can reveal your personality

Music taste linked to personality

Schizophrenia as a Self-Healing Process

How The Brain Rewires Itself

Creative minds: the links between mental illness and creativity

Discovering Psychology

In Bad Taste: Evidence for the Oral Origins of Moral Disgust

REPORTS

In Bad Taste: Evidence for the Oral Origins of Moral Disgust

Psihoterapeutul saman

Este ignorarea stresului cronic o solutie?

Psihoterapie

Martin E. P. Seligman
University of Pennsylvania