. It contains the following
topics:
This page is a continuation of the basic orientation concepts
. It contains the following
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Repetition involves sequences of reactions. In gestalt formation discussed above the progressive sequence of link formation at the primitive level of forming perceptual patterns is very rapid. One of the best examples for demonstrating these processes are ambiguous figures. The Necker cube is a good illustration. Normally the cube is seen in either of two configurations although there are many other possibilities. The front of the cube looks like it goes down to the right, or it goes up to the left.
There are some important observations to be made in viewing the cube. First, there is a tendency to see it one way or the other. Seeing it one way tends to lock out seeing it the other manner. Second, it is hard to predict when the shift will take place. One may look at the cube for a frustratingly long time before the other possibilities emerge. Third, do not forget that the stimulus never changes. The stimuli entering our eye, the lines on the page, remain constant. The change in the way we see the cube comes from the change in the way we organize our perception of the reasonably constant stimulus. This last observation is crucial. A major aspect of repetition has to do with changing views from one mode or state to an alternate one. There is a fairly small set of states and we shift our view from one relatively stable state to another, and then back again. The change from one mode of organization to another and then back again is a way of understanding repetition. This is a gestalt formation explanation of repetition.
The servo model given above explains another form of repetition .In the individual's effort to seek a specific state he overshoots the desired condition and has to make movements in the opposite direction in order to achieve a balance. The efforts at correction may also be excessive so an oscillation may be set up which appears to the external observer as repetition. These cycles may be slow or rapid. There is an important difference between fluctuation around a referent and a change in the setting of the referent itself. There may also be hierarchical arrangements of servo systems and a higher level may serve as the referent for a lower level function. This would be a top down form of control. Bottom up hierarchical aggregates are also possible. Looking at it from the outside is often hard to know is a clinically observed change represents a truly new form of behavior for the patient or if he has moved to the other side of his cycle.
The servo model speaks to changes in quantity or intensity. The gestalt and connectionist points of view have to do with process of forming recurring patterns. Both outlooks are important in trying to understand repetition, but they have little to say about the specific content of what is repeated. A psychoanalytic view which related to the biological basis of repetition has to do with the build and discharge of instinctual tension . The classic example is the growth and discharge of sexual tension. The instinctual build up arouse sexual fantasies. The aim of the sexual instinct is sexual emission. The fantasies connect the object with the manner in which the sexual wish will be gratified. The individual's constitutional predisposition's, cultural context, sex, and developmental history are important in determining the specific content of the sexual fantasies. The complexities of psychoanalytic thought are necessary to account for the content of repetitions in any given case.
Freud spoke of the compulsion to repeat. The clinically important context for the notion of the repetition compulsion had to do with repeating patterns of behavior which were self destructive or at least self defeating. Given the basic premise of the pleasure principle, maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain, it is hard to explain why one would engage in self defeating behavior. Instinctual drive and conflict are important bases of explaining self destructive behavior. Freud's notion of the death instinct has not been generally accepted. His idea that there were two great drives, the life instinct which produced increasingly higher levels of integration and the death instinct which drove one to disintegration. These primal forces are always in conflict. More easily accepted explanations for self defeating behavior are an unconscious sense of guilt, and pleasure from pain, masochism.
Other bases for repetition include repeated efforts to correct some hurtful situation. Childhood sexual abuse is a good example. The memory of actual abuse may be repressed. The patient may get into repeated injurious relationships. This kind of pattern can be thought of from several points of view. There is a wish to find a good loving supportive relationship. However a sensitivity gets built up to find someone who is another source of danger. There is the hope that this time it will be different. There may also be a wish to actively master an earlier hurtful episode possibility by becoming sexually promiscuous. The other extreme is to massively inhibit sexuality, and thus be unable to ever have an open sexual relationship.
Another major class of repetitions has to do with oscillations of interaction. In effect the dance is choreographed and gets habitually rerun. A frequently seen example is the emotionally starved wife trying to get an affective response from her emotionally detached husband. Each behaves toward the other in the way he or she would like to be treated. The wife wants emotion from the husband. So she becomes emotional. The husband wants peace and quiet. So he withdraws. His withdrawal prompts more intense efforts to initiate affective contact from the wife. This annoys the husband and he gets angry. The wife gets upset that he is mad at her. Her upset proves to the husband that expression of feeling is a bad idea, thus, justifying his withdrawal. And the interaction gets played out over and over afresh. This, by the way, is what I have called "the problem of reality". Each partner cites the other' behavior as a justification for his or her own response. An important clinical point is that each is telling an obvious truth. The mutual blaming is not a distortion. The therapeutic problem is to acknowledge the "reality" and then try to help them see what keeps them caught in it. Each ones behavior is a stimulus for a program that the other runs.
For many years I have been on an endless quest to learn ice dancing. My struggles with ice dancing has been a wonderful source of metaphor for clinical problems. A beginning skater typically starts skating with his or her legs spread apart and his ankles turned inward down toward the ice. This is an excellent position for standing still on the slippery surface. Spreading ones legs apart lowers his center of gravity. Turning ones ankles inward and downward toward the ice digs the edges in and keeps the skates from slipping outward. Great stability is achieved in this way. It is a wonderful way to stand securely on the ice. The predicament comes when you start to move. Most beginning skaters want to skate straight down the ice. In order to begin to move it is necessary to shift ones weight from the two footed stance to one skating foot. Shifting ones weight from one foot to the other is the basis of walking also, but in skating one has to push to the side rather than to the back. If one is able to muster up the courage to push off an unexpected de stabilizing motion starts. Rather than going forward the skate begins to turn sharply. The right skate would turn to the left and the left to the right. The skaters intention is to move straight. So his expectation is that he will advance in a straight line. The top of his body moves straight ahead, but the skate begins to turn causing the skater to feel he is falling over forward. In order to keep from falling he feels it is necessary to quickly regain the initial wide two footed posture. This self protective reaction brings the novice back to his original wide gaited position. Some peoples skating careers founder at this point. It should be noted in passing that figure skates are hollow ground. Looking down its length the middle of the blade is concave. This hollowing out along the length of the blade creates two edges, an inside edge and an outside edge. Most skating is done on one or the other of the edges, but a beginner does not know this. The novice is caught. An experienced skater deliberately trying to skate inside edges would have the expectation that his body was going to move on a curve and would be able to be able to make beautiful sweeping curves. However, the defensive posture of keeping feet apart and edges strongly turned in causes trouble when one begins to move. What works as a remedy for falling becomes an impediment when one starts to move. In order to move ahead one has to confront the anxiety of falling, and start to do something that is initially counterintuitive. The basic rule of rules in ice skating is to always be directly over your skates. A good skater makes an axis from the top of his head down through his body to the center of the blade. This involves bringing ones feet together. At first one resists bringing his feet together for fear of toppling over. The fear of falling was countered in the first place by the wide legs apart stance. So here we have a prototypical repetitious loop. What is helpful in the short run impedes longer term growth. One never gets to the point where he has the experience of great stability and delightful movement that comes from pulling ones legs together and finding the "sweet spot" directly over his skates unless he is willing to confront fear as well as the pain of actually falling.
This is a story of what is involved in attaining and maintaining balance. One of my dance pros started his lessons with me by saying, "Dance is an illusion". Achieving fluidity and ease of movement is an non trivial undertaking. No one can feel your own point of balance but yourself. They can lend you a hand. They can show you how to do it, but no one can do it or feel it for you . First of all you have to want to. If you are not motivated you will not be willing to face the very real difficulties involved in acquiring the skills. Achieving strength and flexibility requires sustained effort. When you are learning it is inevitable that you will make mistakes. So willingness to be confronted with your errors is required. Narcissistic injuries are often more debilitating than physical ones. What it feels like from the inside to do it and what it looks like from the outside to see it are two very different experiences. One strives to maintain a dynamic center in the midst of all the exertion and complexity of motion. But alas life more intricate than the choreographed regularities of ice dance.
When we think in abstractions there is a danger that we may neglect the relations of words to the unconscious thing-presentations, and it must be confessed that the expression and content of our philosophizing then begins to acquire the an unwelcome resemblance to the mode of operation of schizophrenics. We may, on the other hand, attempt a characterization of the schizophrenic's mode of thought by saying that he treats concrete things as though there abstract. (SE Vol. 14, p 204)
What is being discussed here are the relations between consciousness, analysis, synthesis, and meaning. Consciousness is the raw data, or the end result, depending whether you start from the bottom and go up or start from the top and move down. Language imposes a sequencing of thoughts. Letters get strung into words following spelling conventions. Words are put in grammatical sequences to form sentences. Sentences follow one another to create paragraphs. Any writer will tell you that it is a considerable labor to map the entwined territory of impressions into the neat sequential orderliness of language. Exact matching is forever elusive. Good writing evokes the writer's impressions in the reader, creating the illusion of fluid thought. Bernard Berenson's analysis of the aesthetic experience is interesting in this context. He said that the aesthetic delight that we have when we see movement in a statue of an athlete emerges because we feel the perfection of the execution of the movement without the pain and effort that are necessary to produce it. Psychoanalysis starts with the raw data of consciousness. The therapeutic effort is to break the hold that the strictures of convention have on the on conscious awareness. Freud was trying to start at the top with the data of free association and work his way down the elements of thought and emotion. In his metapsychology he attempted to define the building blocks of consciousness. These elements included the instincts of sex, aggression, and the ego's drive to survive. In addition to the basic instincts of sex and aggression were the dynamic, economic, genetic, and adaptive relationships between the various parts of the psychic apparatus. Freud believed that somehow if the patient could understand where his or her symptoms come from, then the barely perceptible voice of reason would prevail and the patient would relinquish his symptoms. The brain biofeedback therapy discussed above is an example of a bottom up synthesizing therapy. The patient starts with what are normally unconscious elements, brain waves of specific frequencies, and attempts to combine them in such a way as to produce a desired state. It is of considerable interest that making the unconscious brain activity conscious is also a critical element in the feedback therapy. Another fundamental constituent of the therapy is the meaning that is given to the experience. The meaning determines how we react to whatever happens. We not only have a feeling or a thought, but we have a feeling or an attitude about the feeling. In itself a feeling or a thought is just so much sensation or perception. The significance that we give to the sensation or perception determines how we react to it. One might think that pain hurts and that it is "self understood" that pain is to be avoided. The pleasure principle, maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain, is seen as a fundamental organizing and motivating canon. However, an athlete can motivate himself during a strenuous and painful workout with the saying, "no pain, no gain". The pain means that he is "really" stretching some limit. This discussion approaches the question of hierarchy of control.
A basic notion in Gestalten formation is that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Put the other way around, the whole can not be reduced to its parts. If you reduce a cube to its six sides you no longer have a cube. The "cubeness" is something that emerges from the juxtaposition of the sides. Chunking sensation into perception is a fundamental process which enables biological and psychological survival. Perception and meaning are closely linked. To be able to pick out important figures from a complex background with minimal cues is clearly an adaptive advantage. Some of the most interesting models of perceptual functioning are the connectionist models. These models have grown out of the attempts to emulate the functioning of the neural perceptual apparatus. The basis of the connectionist movement evolved out of what was called the "Hebb" synapse
When an axon of a cell A is near enough to excite cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A's efficiency, as one of the cells firing B is increased. (Hebb, Donald O., The Organization of Behavior, New York: Whale , p 50)
Hebb was trying to explain associative learning at the neurological level. This is interesting in its own right, and potentially very useful clinically. How much there is a kind of isomorphism between the neurological level and the psychological level is an interesting question. However, connectionism can be used as a metaphor for higher level functioning. So moving up to a psychological level, if two things are perceived at the same time a connection will be made between them. When this association happens repeatedly the strength of the link between them will be increased. The implication of this is that after the association becomes strong it takes very little of A to trigger off B. This is a way of explaining Gestalten formation, and possibly of accounting for a process of sensitization. As is generally true, there is an adaptive range. Insufficient sensitivity creates one set of problems, hypersensitivity creates another. To be able to pick out important figures from a complex background with minimal cues is clearly an adaptive advantage. When a patient comes into a therapists office each sizes up the other in the first moments of their interaction. Indeed, the evaluative process begins on the telephone when the first appointment is being arranged. Each begins to form impressions of the other. These impressions are chunked together into familiar patterns. After a while the patient reacts to the therapist as if the therapist were some important person from the patient's past. This is a way of thinking about the formation of transference.
Gestalt psychology started with the study of perception, stimuli originating from out side of ones body. Psychoanalysis began with the study of hysteria, psychologically caused physical symptoms. In his studies of hysteria Freud was led to explore stimuli emanating from within the body, the instincts, and the ideational -- emotional patterns which were driven by the instincts. Symptoms emerge when the wishes emanating from the instincts conflict with internally felt social constraints. If we expand the idea of Gestalten to include the whole complex of inner and outer stimuli, the notion of social-emotional Gestalten emerges. Thus, one forms Gestalten of emotionally toned relationships. An important class of pathologies is normal processes gone awry. The normal ability to pluck figure from ground repeatedly picks out old figures from new grounds. The difficulties emerge when either partner gets stuck in a particular Gestalten and can not shift it when the conditions change. The very important adaptive process of making configurations from minimal cues becomes the source of difficulty. The therapy then becomes a process of altering the linkages, the connection strengths of the parts of the pattern. This gets us to the important issue of repetition.
Gregory Bateson pointed out the layering of classification and process. Science generally starts out with attempts to find fruitful classification. When presented with the disorderly array of illnesses medicine attempted to arrange them into serviceable diagnostic groups. Clinically observed clusters of signs and symptoms were sorted and labeled. An hysterical paralysis could not be separated from physical paralysis until there was some understanding of biochemical processes which cause limb immobilization. The original classification of paralysis had to do with the clinical observation that some patients are unable to move their limbs. Neurology had to study the underlying processes of nerve degeneration before a differential diagnosis could be made between an hysterical paralysis and an organic paralysis. Prior to the understanding of the distinction between normal and pathological nerve functioning hysteria could not be separated from an organic illness. Indeed, an erroneous theory gave hysteria its name. Originally hysteria was thought to be a malfunction of the uterus and therefore it was not possible for men to become hysterics. The diagnosis of hysteria can not be made until organic pathology is ruled out. One of the ways that an organic condition is ruled out is by carefully observing the form the paralysis takes. If the paralysis does not follow a known nervous and or circulatory distribution, then it can safely be assumed that the condition does not have a neurological basis. So the classification, paralysis can have different underlying processes, organic or psychogenic (hysteria). Then the classification hysteria can be analyzed into underlying psychological processes, i.e. conflict and repression. Conflict then become a classification with its own underlying set of processes , i. e. an unconscious wishful impulse in conflict with a moral constraint , an id - superego conflict. Much of the work of therapy has to with the repeated process of classifying what is seen clinically, and then exploring the processes which give rise to the category.
The idea of holon comes from Arthur Koestler. A holon is a whole which is part of a larger wholes, and which contains smaller wholes. i.e. An atom is a whole which is part of a larger whole--a molecule. An atom contains a smaller whole, the nucleus, which in turn contains sub atomic particles. Wilber, 1995 goes on to say that everything is a holon. Thus, there are ... sub atomic particles, atoms, molecules, cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, people, families, communities, nations, the planet, the solar system ... And the holons go all the way down and all the way up. He gives the following tenents which apply to holons:
In a therapy session the therapist is confronted with the stream of material that the patient brings into the session. This is the content. Somehow it is necessary to chunk the raw data of the patient's dialogue with the therapist into meaningful and useful terms. Thus the therapist imposes a clinically helpful structure onto patient's spontaneous utterances. The therapist asks himself: "What does this mean?" "What is the function of this behavior?" "What in the world is he talking about?" "What conflict is this and expression of?" "Where did this come from?" "What kind of a problem does he have?" "What is the diagnosis"? The structure that the therapist brings to the material is at a different level from the material itself. The structure is the map to the territory of content. Seeking the meaning and function of the patient's utterances and other behavior is one of the primary jobs of the therapist. The therapist's Gestalten are different from the patient's. If the therapist saw things only in the exactly same way as the patient, they would both get lost. The structure that the therapist brings is essential to the success of the treatment. The patient gets caught in his own content. If he could find a way out he would not need the therapist. The therapists theory and belief system provides a map for the clinical territory. The therapist experiences the patient's verbal and behavioral activity in order to find a structure which will be helpful to the patient. A central aspect of therapy is helping the patient to restructure his experience. The patient learns to change the habitual ways in which he chunks together the raw data of his daily encounters with life. While both content and structure are important, it is the restructuring that is the basis of the therapy. When things are viewed differently new content emerges.
A frequent source of misunderstanding and conflict in relationships comes from dissimilar focus on content verses relationship. The most common example occurs when couples get into arguments. The wife approaches the husband upset about an arduous confrontation that she had with a subordinate of hers at work. The husband responds by giving her advice about how to solve the problem with her employee. The wife becomes frustrated and angry saying, "Don't tell me what to do!" The husband becomes irate, "I was only trying to help!!" Depending upon their style this can escalate into a full blown fight or one or the other withdraws. In any case, both wind up hurt and frustrated. This kind of interchange is commonly seen in couples therapy. It usually does not take much exploration to learn that the wife is seeking empathy for the emotional pain that the she is suffering. She is much less interested in being given a solution to her problem than in having her husband understand her distress and be supportive. She values emotional expression and a sense of bonding. The husband feels that he is trying to be supportive by helping the wife solve the problem and thus not be upset in the first place. He values efficiency and composure. Each deeply believes in the validity of his or her position, and they are both right. His major focus is on the content, the practical functioning of the work situation. Her primary concern is about the loving quality of their own relationship. He is fixed on content, and she on relationship. This is a being doing conflict, but more of that later. While both views are important, the relationship is primary. If the alliance is not secure discussion of content is often subverted. This is a major issue in therapy of any sort. Most simply if the patient and therapist are not en rapport there is not sufficient trust for the work to proceed beyond a superficial level.
Analysis of transference is one of the major concerns in psychoanalytic treatment. The basic rule of psychoanalysis, free association, focuses attention on content. Telling the therapist ones inner thoughts and feelings is the basic content of the treatment. When the patient stops the open flow of associations there is some kind of resistance. A major source of resistance is the patient's concern about how the therapist will react to what the patient is about to express. This is called transference resistance. The patient's focus shifts form the content of the associations to nature and quality of relationship with the therapist. Concern about the relationship moves into the foreground and becomes the major domain of inquiry. The basic idea of transference is that the patient recreates the difficulties that he had earlier in his or her life directly in the relationship with the therapist. Working out the difficulty in the transference then enables the relationship to recede into the background. The patient is then able to return to explore the content of his consciousness. The relationship is the context, the holding environment, to use Winicott's term. Disruptions in the relationship bring it to the fore. When the working alliance is in good order the relationship issues can recede into the background.
We are producing illusion or maya as a significant part of our every day waking activity. However, the most easily accessible example of virtual reality that we create is a dream. Every night we spend a considerable amount of time creating a vivid world which, at the time, seems very real to us. With the exception of lucid dreams, during which we are aware of ourselves dreaming, we react to the images of our dreams as if they were external reality. Major aspects of our physiology react to the scenes and emotions of the dreams as it would respond to events of what we regard as the tangible world of reality. So it is easy to believe that we no not construct our dreams. Fortunately our muscles are immobilized when we dream, protecting us and those around us. It is harder to appreciate how much we construct the our view of our waking material world. The most striking example is the fact that the lens of our eyes invert the images that we see. An up side down view of what we look at is cast on the retina. Clearly, it is adaptive to turn the image right side up. We are only able to sense restricted ranges of the electronic spectrum. Sound can only be heard from about 16 to 20,000 cycles per second. Dogs and dolphins have a much higher frequency range. Infrared and ultraviolet light are outside our visual range. X-rays can seriously damage us but we do not sense them. Thus, our view of the material world is truncated. The movies, audio, and video recordings create satisfying experiences even thought they are illusions. We are passive in response to these media. The virtual reality of computer simulations enable us to be come active in the illusory worlds that they generate. The ability to control our view intensifies the experience, and makes it acutely engaging. Many of us find our most satisfying experiences the ones we create in our fantasies. Frequently harsh reality is disappointing. The need for biological adaptation has shaped our sensory apparatus. Being able to see at a distance confers a distinct survival advantage. There are really two major ideas here. I believe that there are real material things out there whether I look at them or not. The mountains are mountains and the rivers are rivers. How I choose to look at them and the meaning that I give them are another of order. The way that I chunk things together and the significance I give to the Gestaulten is the virtual reality that I live in and by. Only the enlightened masters consistently live in the "isness" of the world.
One of the best documented examples of a kind of virtual reality is transference. The patient reacts to the analyst as if he or she were a parent or some other important person from the patient's past. Transference reactions can become very intense in psychoanalysis, but they are not limited to the treatment situation. There are clear adaptive advantages to being able to perceive some circumscribed characteristic of an individual and then quickly be able to fill in the missing information and make judgments about how the person is likely to respond. We do this all the time. One of the most striking examples is falling in love. We meet some one, are attracted to them, and are propelled into an ecstatic state. All sorts of wonderful characteristics are attributed to the loved one. However, as we get to know them we discover that in many important ways they are very different from or original view of them. This is what is meant by the expression, "After the honeymoon is over". A significant value that a therapist has for the patient is that the therapist is trained to stay very close to the patient's experience and to minimize the imposition of his or her own concerns and views on to the patient. The therapist's effort to consistently see the patient's virtual reality is one of the central ingredients in what makes the treatment work. The basic point here is that the illusion of the virtual realities that we all assiduously create is a compelling illusion. As soon as we carve off a piece of experience and start to think about it, we have lost the immediacy and fluidity of the experience itself. The memory of the experience is no longer the ever changing reality. A substantial aspect of psychopathology is the obstructions that our wishes and fears impose on our ability to consistently stay in the present. The virtual reality of the past or of the future obscures the instantaneous reality of the present. This is a truly significant issue. Living in virtual reality is so pervasive that we loose sight of it. It is like the air that we unconsciously breathe.
Our culture does not support living in immediate reality. There are several levels of complexity here that are worth trying to untangle. The most comprehensive model of human development that I know is Ken Wilber's spectrum model (Wilber 1977, 1980, 1983, Wilber, Engler, & Brown 1986). Here is an early statement:
This was Wilber's way of confronting the blind men and the elephant
problem. People at different times and in different cultures
have attempted to describe and explain various segments of the
broad spectrum of consciousness. Each investigator defends his
or her portion as reality, often regarding the other sections
as illusions or as psychoses. The most outstanding example of
this is what Wilber describes as the pre-personal transpersonal
fallacy.
Site Maintained by William Dubin wd16@columbia.edu
The essence of the pre/trans fallacy is easy enough
to state. We begin by simply assuming that human beings
do in fact have access to three general realms of being and knowing--the
sensory, the mental, and the spiritual. Those three realms can
be stated in any number of different ways: subconscious, self-conscious,
and superconscious, or prerational, rational, and transrational,
or prepersonal, personal, and transpersonal. The point is simply
that, for example, since prerational and transrational
are both, in their own ways, nonrational, then they appear
quite similar to the untutored eye. Once this confusion occurs--the
confusion of "pre" and "trans"--then one
of two things inevitably happens: the transrational realms are
reduced to prepersonal status, or the prerational realms
are elevated to transrational glory. Either way a complete
and overall world view is broken in half and folded in the middle,
with one half of the real world (the "pre" or the "trans")
being thus profoundly mistreated and misunderstood. (Wilber 1983
p. 201-202.)
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