ThoughtWrks.com
An intelligent approach to
therapy
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| Until the last couple
of centuries irrational behavior was assumed to be the result of
either possession of the devil or some kind of physiological damage to
the brain. In the late 1800s Sigmund Freud established himself as the
first widely accepted voice of a field of study called psychology. His
theories are still discussed as viable explanations for human
motivation. Freud believed that the human mind (or psyche) consists of
three parts: the id, the super-ego, and the ego. The ego is what we
call our consciousness. The id is the core of human personality…a
teeming mass of urges and desires…the need to avoid pain and seek
pleasure. If not controlled these animal urges lead to chaotic and
violent societies. Freud conceived of a super-ego section of the mind
that inputs information from the family, school, and church that
civilizes the individual, thereby creating a buffer against these
urges originating in the id, and allowing the conscious to have some
control over behavior. The prime of Freud's career was the last half of the 19th century. His protégé, Carl Jung, was influential the first half of the 20th century. Jung was supposed to carry on Freud's work but broke with him mainly because of his disagreement over Freud's concept of the psyche. Jung believed that the core of the human mind is not an out-of-control mass of urges, but is, instead, a soul-like aspect that is connected to whatever the universe beyond consciousness might be. He called this core the transpersonal unconscious. He believed that it is not only the core of the human psyche but is also in direct communication with whatever universe we come from when we are born and go to when we die. Instead of acknowledging Freud's super-ego as a beneficial component of the psyche, Jung envisioned a section he called the shadow, which harbors all those characteristics about ourselves we come to believe are flawed, or that make us vulnerable. My concept of the components of our psyche is similar to Jung's in that I believe that our mind consists of both an imprinted unconscious and an unimprinted unconscious. As we enter this plane of human consciousness at birth we begin to experience how the rest of the world regards us, through sensation and perception, and immediately begin to store these sensations and impressions in our imprinted unconscious. It is the nature of our personality to seek affection and affirmation. To the degree that we are not regarded as being valuable or loveable we begin to form opinions about what might be wrong with us, or what might be our relationship to God, or the universe, or whatever the world outside of us must be. When experiences occur that cause us to be concerned about our self-worth, it is the nature of the psyche to form conclusions about why this is happening. Not only does our imprinted unconscious attempt to calculate the reason why we are not affirmed or why we are abused or sexually molested it also innately calculates the best defense mechanism possible to never again experience this painful rejection, or at least to minimize its effect. For instance, if a boy or girl is sexually molested at the age of eight, the psyche innately senses that something wrong has happened. The child has been regarded as something less than valuable. All kinds of conclusions can be made at this point, depending on all kinds of variables at work. If the perpetrator is the child's father, an unconscious decision might be made that it is too dangerous and shameful to suddenly view life as the child of such a bad person so the child decides to see the event as his or her fault, thinking that this will protect it from a greater fear…that of being the child of a person who would do such a bad thing. But what is forgotten later in life is that the child decided that he or she is bad…and thus is still bad, or tainted compared to his or her peers. If, for instance, a girl is molested during a time when she is old enough to already be experiencing a sexual awakening she might conclude that she desired this to happen and have all kinds of fears about how "bad" she is...and how much God must disapprove of her. I call the beliefs formed during these traumatic experiences imprints. We all experience traumatic incidents in our lives but they do not necessarily produce imprints. When emotional trauma does create the need to form conclusions about one's self-worth or vulnerability, it is the nature of the psyche to best decide how it can protect itself from the consequences of this flaw. This defense mechanism is then put in place as a sentinel to warn the conscious of impending pain whenever a future stimulus might threaten a recurrence of this original trauma. For instance, if a boy is unreasonably beaten by his father and feels horribly alone and rejected and then sits down to dinner and finds that an otherwise unbearable environment has something good…dessert!…he might learn to associate minimizing anxiety with eating apple pie. Although mom allows dad to beat him abusively and unfairly, she "makes up for it" by baking an apple pie. This need to turn to apple pie can disappear until some point twenty years later when some kind of abusive situation occurs or worsens. And as the situation worsens it can branch out into other eating pleasures in an attempt to make the pain go away. After all, it worked when he or she was 10 years old! That is the problem with these imprinted defense
mechanisms. They might be necessary and helpful for that child in an
abusive situation that has little chance of changing in the near
future but soon become inappropriate as the child grows older and less
dependent and helpless. Once the child leaves home any defense
mechanisms that were earlier appropriate now need to be dropped in
order for the individual to be in control of his or her adult
decisions. But that is not the way the psyche works. While these
imprinted beliefs might have been protectors at one point they now
become bullies...tapes that can't be turned off...immune to attempts
at self-control and self-talk. Also, as these beliefs began to
influence the way an individual regards himself or herself they set in
motion a self-fulfilling experience of perceiving one's self as inept
or unsafe. Along with my ability to conceive that these components of the human
psyche even exist I seem to have an intuitive sense as to how certain
childhood experiences are directly related to the anxiety the client
currently suffers from and what belief developed as a result of this
original traumatic incident.
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