Things in The Body. Andrey Ermoshin

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

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

      «Back?»

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

      «Why?»

      «I would feel saved from thirst and heat.»

      «So, are feeling heat now?»

      «Terrible heat. My soul burns».

      «Coals or open flame?»

      «Flame.»

      «What your state does of it express?

      «Anxiety for loved ones.»

      «How many such «alarms’ do you have?»

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

      A stone in seaweed

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

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

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

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

      Let us summarize this chapter.

      What’s inside is primary

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

      While СКАЧАТЬ