Emotion-image therapy (EIT) [analytical and effective]. Nikolay Linde

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      2. Emotions may be the main goal of some activity; it is performed in order to get emotions.

      3. The way you feel is also an emotional phenomenon, expressing the state of your organism. Chronic emotions effect health.

      4. Emotions provide energy for any actions of a person.

      5. Emotional states make the basis for a person’s choice of thoughts and ways of behavior.

      6. Negative emotions sometimes serve as social barriers for undesirable forms of thinking and behavior. But often they restrict positive capabilities of an individual.

      7. Chronic negative emotions are the reason of disturbed psychological and psychosomatic health of a person, his inadequate behavior. They may remain unchanged in the person’s psyche all his life.

      8. Psyche is active. Activity is being developed from within the personality. It proceeds from the essence and expresses itself through states, understanding, thinking and acts.

      9. The task of EIT is to change chronic negative emotional states and work for integration and harmonization of a person’s essence.

      Chapter 2.

      EMOTIONS AND BODY

      Emotion is “a bridge” connecting psyche and body.

      Emotion connects psyche and body; it exists both in psyche and in body at the same time. But emotion is also energy, which becomes revealed in actions. Emotion is felt subjectively but it is expressed in very strong bodily manifestations. They are more frequent or more slow heartbeat and breathing, tension or relaxation of muscles, more intensive or less intensive blood flow in some parts of the body, more intensive or less intensive sweating, discharging into blood some mediators [like adrenalin] and so on. Emotions affect the functioning of autonomous nervous system, which controls inner organism and does not follow the orders of the mind. That is why emotions strongly affect the states of the body and cause psychosomatic diseases.

      Wilhelm Reich stated that undesirable emotions are blocked in the body by chronic muscle clamps [25, 26]. The system of these clamps makes up the so– called muscle shell. This shell not only restricts the expression of sincere feelings but also creates a barrier for spontaneous and flexible behavioral reactions. It blocks free flow of energy in the body, the amount of energy becomes smaller, feelings and behavior become limited, their repertory becomes much smaller. A person feels constant discomfort because of too much tension in his body, at times pain, sometimes the feeling of heaviness and limited mobility. Muscle clamp fully corresponds to adapting activity. It expresses the character of a person, that is of typical for him emotional and behavioral repertory with its limitations and stereotypes.

      If the muscle clamp relaxes, the person gets back to his initial nature, becomes sincere and natural, flexible and creative. The heaviness of the body as if goes away, it becomes light, as if fresh wind were blowing inside the body. Energy and joy fill the person. He becomes capable of getting real pleasure from living, and his behavior is adequate, it corresponds to the situation, he doesn’t go crazy, on the contrary, he thinks clearly and fully realizes what is going on. We called this state of a person uncharacteristic, this is a new and unusual term requiring an explanation.

      The matter is that character becomes revealed in customary and stereotypical ways of behavior, which repeat themselves in various situations, sometimes quite adequately and sometimes not. For example, a touchy person takes offence very often and as a rule when there is no reason to take offence. Touchiness is a trait of character. An anxious person is worrying for no reason; anxiety is his trait of character. A hot– tempered man is often outraged and feels insulted because of some trifle. Hot– temperedness is his trait of character. Any characteristic manifestations of a person are typical reactions excluding flexibility and creativity. A person lives within his character as a turtle in its shell. With the help of his character, he protects himself from his own shortcomings which he faces if he is open to the world. To do it he has to suppress some feelings and limit the repertory of possible actions straining the corresponding muscles of his body in fear of his own unlimited freedom. He is afraid if freedom and doesn’t know what to do with it.

      But if he casts off the yoke of his character displayed in the muscle shell, not only his body relaxes but he no longer needs stereotype protective reactions. New spontaneous adequate to the current situation reactions become accessible to him. As he reacts creatively and not in a stereotype way you can’t say what kind of character he has. He is not touchy though but he may take offence if this is adequate to the situation as he really was insulted. But even feelings of offence don’t last long, he easily forgives them and goes on communicating normally. He is not anxious but may worry if future may have in store some unpredictable dangers. For example, if he has to take an important and difficult examination. But his worrying doesn’t last very long and is not pathological, doesn’t prevent from focusing on preparing for the examination.

      You can’t say about such person that he lacks in character because a weak– willed person displays weak unstable and dependable character. A non– character person can easily stand up for justice and can’t be easily bent to someone’s will because he has an independent character. He doesn’t live inside his character, his character doesn’t command how he should live, he rules over his character if he still has some stereotype reactions. So he is always different and you can’t say what stable features of character he has. The only suitable term to describe him is “non– character” that is not corresponding to traditional classifications of characters, flowing like water he reacts not in keeping with the character but freely as it is necessary here and now.

      Character is stiff and stuck emotions turned to stone in the forms if muscle clamps or ousted and materialized in the forms of emptiness and muscle impotence. Very often current problems of a personality are the result of deeper defects of character. As we have already said people face the problems which reflect our character. The world gives us back our own reflection exactly like it did for the famous donkey Eeyore. As we know he looked at his reflection on one side of the lake, then went to the other side looked again… “Yes, – he said, – I knew, on this aide it is no better than on that. Harrowing sight…” For some reason, people don’t think that it is necessary to change themselves, thinking that it is the world that is wrong and must be changed. But changing the world they face themselves again, fatally facing the consequences of their character, to which they try to adjust the world. The same thing happens when social revolutions take place.

      The problem is that when we speak about changing the character practically any client demonstrates strong resistance. The matter is that he views himself as his character, he identifies himself with his character and is afraid of losing himself as a result therapeutic changes. Character is also connected with main life values and scenarios, supported by some inner philosophy, profound convictions, individual life experience. At the background of character there is some basic emotional fixation from early childhood, but the client is reluctant to change it in justified fear that he can lose the whole customary system relying on which he lived all his life. He fears to be unprotected in the face if unpredictable life.

      If we manage to change some basic emotional fixation, the client may feel disoriented, as if he got into absolutely different unusual world and doesn’t know how to behave.

      Once I succeeded to help one student to get rid of bitterness that overfilled him. He had every reason to feel bitter he had to go through very much, but bitterness interfered in his life and studies, made all he was doing more difficult. I recommended him to go to the forest and shout there letting his anger go out. To my surprise he followed my advice he was shouting for two hours and kicking something in the air. And after this process he came somewhat soft and light.

      – How СКАЧАТЬ