Things in The Body. Andrey Ermoshin
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Название: Things in The Body
Автор: Andrey Ermoshin
Издательство: Издательские решения
Жанр: Медицина
isbn: 9785005350947
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Characteristics of what is found in the body
In case of introspection, no one found bones, muscles, vessels, nerves, but only a variety of light and darkness, heaviness and lightness, heat and cold, density and sparsity. These are the peculiarities of human self-perception. In rare cases, which apply mainly to doctors or lovers of scientific and popular medical literature, the patients begin to talk about their feelings of, for example, vessels in the head. «Are they thick or thin?» we specify in such an unusual situation. «Are there one, three, five, or ten of them?» Pretty soon, people of such «natural- scientific’ mindset stop to transfer their once acquired knowledge, and move on to describe their real inner sensations in the categories of weight, color, consistency, material, temperature, etc.
The quasi-material
The artist Kandinsky complained that in the physical world there are no colors that convey the colors of the metaphysical world. We can only talk about the similarity of sensations from the contemplation of the first and second ones, but, in any case, not about the identity of impressions24. The characteristics of the world of the “open eyes’ are used to describe things of the world of the “closed eyes.” It is obvious that we can talk only about the similarity of what is felt inside as physical pounds, centimeters, and degrees. Things of consciousness are described by the characteristics of material things.
Jung used to say the same about the so-called «landscape’ images. «The principle of conscious life is: Nihil est in intellectu, quod non prius fuerit in sensu. (There is nothing in consciousness that was not previously in sensation (lat.). But the principle of the unconscious is the independence of the soul itself, reflecting its images in its game: not the world, but itself, even if it uses the illustrative possibilities provided by the conscious world to make its images clear (emphasis by A. E.)25" In the somatopsychotherapeutic process, a patient also uses «illustrative opportunities provided by the outside world’ to clarify what they are experiencing inside. Of course, there cannot be literal understanding of the patient’s report: «I have a kilogram of wood in my head.» Both the patient and the doctor understand that they talk about sensations.
Heat in the feet
There is a contour of sensations, adequate to each of the normal human states. In particular, the state of rest corresponds to the coolness of the forehead, warmth in the hands and feet, as noted by I. Schultz and as it is advised by the proverb: “Keep your feet warm, and your head – cool.” Joy corresponds to the feeling of being filled with inner light. Love gives the feeling of subsistence of the whole being with warmth and light and readiness to fly.
Being in one of the negative states (resentment, anger, anxiety, etc.) corresponds to the disturbed contour of sensations. Feelings gather in one of the areas of the body, a person’s soul «shrinks’ and «pupates.
A touchstone
In one of the philosophical conversations my opponent declared: “Is there any criteria of truth of life of a person?” I answered him: “Yes, there is! They are the sensations in the body. If the sensations are evenly distributed, the warmth reaches the tips of the fingers and toes, and there are no concentrates plundering the filling at the level of the head, or chest, or abdomen, you are on the right path. But, if there are some concentrates, if the hands or feet are cold (or the forehead is not cool), something is wrong.”
Spinoza said: «Veritas est index sui et falsi» (Truth is the criterion of itself and of lie). This is absolutely true. The even distribution of filling in the body is the «touchstone both of itself and of lie.» However, it should be clarified if the examining is not in winter and not of a long-armed asthenic, the heat in the hands is not a result of the drug or does not occur due to hypersthenic constitution.
I would also include the patients’ relatives in the concept of a «human body’. If in their bodies the sensations are evenly distributed according to their activity, then they live right.
“Heat – heaviness’
Perhaps this is what the Hindus called prana, the Chinese – qi, Mesmer – magnetic fluid, Freud – libido, Reich – orgone, and his follower Lowen – bioenergy.
It is difficult to talk about the nature of this phenomenon. Wilhelm Reich (1897—1957) asserted confidently: «Cosmic orgonic energy exists in living organisms as a specific biological energy. By this capacity it controls the whole organism and is expressed in emotions, as well as in biophysical movements of organs26.» However, he decided on it not at once. «What is biopsychic energy?» he asked a rhetorical question. Further he answered: «This question for me, as a clinician, who had to treat sexual disorders in people, in other words, neuroses (Reich equated neuroses and sexual disorders. – A. E.), remained unanswered after 60 years of sexual research in the world of science, 40 years of development of psychoanalysis and almost 20 years of my own work on the theory of orgasm27.»
It is known that Reich’s beliefs did not found support in the medical community, although, according to Kelly (1979), nowadays there is no serious work that would refute this theory.
«The brief psychological dictionary», on the contrary, is very concrete in determining the source of energy for emotional reactions: «The level of energy mobilization (activation) of the body, necessary for the emotional functions, is provided by the autonomic nervous system in its interaction with the structures of the brain that makes up the central substrate of emotions28.» Further we will discuss the nature of bodily sensations in different emotional states.
For reasons of scientific correctness and consistent implementation of the phenomenological approach, which will be discussed below, I prefer to think about what is felt in the body when experiencing, in a different way. This is a kind of subjectively felt substance that is noticeably collected in the forehead with anxiety, in the back of the head – with overcontrol of the situation, in the temples – with irritation, in the chest – with resentment and grief, in the stomach – with fear and jealousy. I call it «the substance of the heat-heaviness’, or «HH», by the main (though not only) sensations that accompany its movement and concentration. However, the term «HH» sometimes have to be replaced by the more general one – «energy’, because it is the strength of the body response that correlates with the amount of «HH», gathered in a particular place.
This is something that determines the quantitative characteristics of the experience. It is the mass, involved in the experience of «HH», depends on how upset the state of a person. Gathering in certain places in the process of forming of pathological charges, it becomes the source of an unpleasant weight and unpleasant heat. When relaxing, the same «substance’ moves to the periphery of the former focus of tension and determines the feeling of «a pleasant heaviness’ and «pleasant heat’, described by Schultz in the book «Autogenic training». It is the HH substance that is distributed in the body in the process of calming down (we will talk about it at the therapeutic phase), acquiring the characteristics of light, air, liquid or even a thick mass, spreading in all directions, sometimes painful at first, and filling the СКАЧАТЬ
Kandinsky V. About the spiritual in art. – L., 1990 (1910).
Jung, K. G. Psychology and alchemy, Moscow: Relf-Buk, K.: Wakler, 1997, p. 165
CIT. by Kondratenko V. T., Donskoy D. I. Edict. op., p. 170.
Reich V. the function of orgasm. S. – Pb. – M.: University book, 1997, p. 208.
Short psychological dictionary / Comp. L. A. Karpenko; Under the General Ed. of A. B. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky, Moscow: Politizdat, 1985, p. 407.