Muscle Clamps As A Defense Mechanism

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Nowadays, various areas of work with the body are quite popular. Indeed, by influencing the physical in a certain way, it is possible to change the psychological and physiological state of a person.

For me in this article, it is important to pay attention to the fact that just as the premature, violent destruction of the classical mechanisms of psychological defense only leads to their strengthening, the same happens with chronic muscle tensions.

With the rapid removal of muscle clamps by direct methods of influence, a large number of feelings and emotions are released in a person, with which he may not be ready to come into contact. In this case, the muscle clamps will only strengthen in the future. Even W. Reich, W. James, A. Lowen, D. Ebert and other scientists discovered that the human psyche is projected onto its physical body in the form of constitutional features, muscle clamps and joint and muscle contractures, reflecting on physical development. The followers of the experimental school of V. Wundt, I. Sechenov and others proved the existence of a connection between emotional and somatic processes.

V. Reich referred to “muscle shell” (chronically tense muscles in certain parts of the body) in humans as a mechanical type of defense, like shells and shells in animals. Muscle clamps (muscle blocks, chronically tense muscles) are an organic method of displacing real needs and unpleasant reactions to frustration from consciousness. They allow you to avoid the unwanted fear of being sensitive again and insure against the risk of re-trauma. Chronic muscle tension serves as a defense against psychological pain. These are some of the patterns of human behavior in stressful situations. And if a certain pattern is often repeated, it is fixed as a permanent mechanism.

F. Perls described defense mechanisms as such maneuvers and ways of thinking and behavior that the brain turns to in order to get rid of painful emotional material. These are some neurotic processes aimed at interrupting contact with the external environment. Despite the fact that these mechanisms protect us from emotional pain, they also lead to a limitation of the individual's ability to maintain optimal balance with the environment, to a violation of the body's self-regulation process, which underlies all physiological disorders.

How do muscle clamps form in humans?

When a newborn baby feels threatened, archaic responses are the first to emerge. The child cannot yet run away or actively react to the frustrating object. The mechanisms of psychological defense are also not yet formed, since the psychic sphere is not sufficiently developed.

The only way to respond is muscle tension. Children hold their breath, freeze and shrink, thus making themselves “less visible” to the threat.

In further development, the pressure of the social environment appears, which additionally puts forward its own conditions for existence. Psychological defenses appear, the functional purpose and purpose of which is to weaken the intrapsychological conflict caused by the contradictions between the instinctive impulses of the unconscious and the learned requirements of the external environment.

Personal research has also confirmed the social theory of psychological defense mechanisms, based on the fact that most of these mechanisms are associated with the “please others” directive (according to the theory of transactional analysis). Social pressure limits the release of the child's spontaneous energy and leads to an increase in the already present body clamps.

Above all, in addition to restrictions, the child also receives introjects as one of the mechanisms of psychological defense. They provoke the formation of new clamps, since the child receives from outside the phenomena that are actually not characteristic of him. Introjects come from parental figures who are the first carriers of social functions. Parents try to place the child in some framework, thereby creating the image of an “ideal”, “socially desired” child.

The body reacts to frustration from the environment not only by changing behavior, but also by controlled and even involuntary changes in the muscles. When a young organism encounters strong and overwhelming negativism and frustration, then in order to survive, it makes attempts to suppress the impulses that, it seems to it, are responsible for such a negative experience. The manifestation of oppression is a spasm of those muscles that hold back negative impulses. This kind of spasm becomes chronic and as a result can lead to serious changes in body posture, and even in the functioning of internal organs. If adults often cause frustration or blocking of the child's organic self-expression (instincts, libido impulses, etc.), then such impulses are internalized and then unconsciously reproduced.

It is important to say about the development of retroflection - the term originated in gestalt therapy and explains one of the ways to interrupt contact with the external environment. Retroflection means that some function, initially directed from the individual to the world, changes its direction and returns to the initiator. As a result, the personality is split between itself - the performer, and itself - the recipient.

Retroflection has its functional meaning and, when used “healthy”, allows a person to adapt in society. In the process of development, retroflection manifests itself behind E. Erickson during the stage of autonomy and comes from the physiological need to control one's own intestines and bladder, that is, to “restrain” and “release”. This physiological necessity then turns into a psychological need to “allow” and / or “let go” of feelings, behavior, which Freud wrote about. In the case of “unhealthy” use of retroflection, there is a violation of contact with the external environment and a malfunction of the functioning of the internal system of a person.

You can observe the manifestation of retroflection when:

1) hold your breath (with surprise, fear, anticipation);

2) tighten your muscles - clench your fists, bite your lips, etc.;

3) the color of the skin in places where blocks appear may differ from the rest of the skin;

4) some psychosomatic illnesses can be the result of retroflection.

That is, by the age of three, the child already has the experience of primary body response to frustrating factors, with the development of the mental apparatus, he builds his own system of psychological defenses, and then on the system of psychological defenses, the “bodily shell” unfolds more fully. The blocking stereotype becomes a survival stereotype, which in turn becomes part of the ideal self. This ideal self is threatened from now on by living spontaneous self-expression and is maintained by the control of impulses of this nature. An illusion is formed that the weakening of this blockade will inevitably cause a catastrophe both within oneself and outside.

In our culture, most often and strong all muscle clamps are observed in the neck.

Further in terms of strength, there are clamps in the right hand and in the area of the right shoulder (according to some theories, the right side is associated with an appeal to society and masculine qualities, for example, D. Shapiro's theory).

Even I. Polster wrote that movement in the direction of liberation can consist in the redistribution of energy so that the inner struggle was revealed. Instead of being only inside a person, energy is released and can manifest itself in relations with the environment.

Avoiding retroflection is about successfully looking for appropriate other actions.

This process is accompanied by breathing work, which allows you to become aware of tension;

cognition of the body and cognitive keys;

actions directed not so much at themselves as at others;

expressing needs and exploring introjects that interfere with the free expression of emotions.

It is impossible to free yourself from chronic muscle tension by working only with the body. On the contrary, it can lead to even greater muscle tension or to severe emotional upheaval. Work should begin with an awareness of your physical, your true impulses and needs. Then you can understand the latent needs of the body and follow them.