Absorption Cycle And Release Cycle

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

There is a wonderful concept in the gestalt approach, which is almost the main one - this is contact cycle.

It is graphically described by the contact curve along which energy moves over time, from the moment the impulse appears until the end of satisfying the need. This is if it is simplified. Energy, ideally, peaks and then declines; stress goes away, satisfaction comes, and the body returns to a state of homeostasis. On the way of energy rise there are some kind of “dams” - adaptive mechanisms, which can also be mechanisms for interrupting contact.

In the process of social adaptation, they are absolutely necessary, but how from adaptive they become neurotic is an individual story of each. Thanks to socialization, we lose some of our personal freedom, which we then try to restore all our lives.

(Illustration is borrowed from the site "Coaching in Life" dybova.ru)

Therefore, often the need remains unfulfilled if the resistance mechanisms are too strong. Energy simply does not reach its peak, merges, dissolves in space, leaving fatigue, tension, feelings of regret and sadness. In a word, a state of dissatisfaction. Also, there may be another picture: energy reaches its maximum, contact occurs, but the most important final stage - assimilation - does not occur. Experience is depreciated, not appropriated to oneself, a lesson is not learned. And satisfaction also does not come, there is a background tension that pushes a person to new "deeds".

I will not dwell here in detail on the mechanisms of interrupting contact, I will only say in general that effective contact with objects of the surrounding world is associated with the ability to isolate a figure from the background, which corresponds to the dominant need of the body at the moment. Simply put, in order to get something, you need to test reality well, to feel the context of what is happening in order to accurately find ideal objects to satisfy your need.

In addition to the absorption cycle, in the same way, there is a selection cycle, when we want to highlight something, implement it into the environment. It can be a creative act of creating a work, or the implementation of a business project, in general, any human product. In the context of relationships, this is the realization of the energy of excitement, when it is necessary to place it in contact, in a suitable form. Sometimes you need to throw out your anger and irritation, and sometimes you need to express your gratitude, tenderness, love … Regardless of the charge, it is quite harmful to hold on to feelings. But does everything need to be thrown out?

An energy impulse, being born in the depths of Id, can break out too early, too damp and out of place, or, on the contrary, linger and "sour" somewhere inside, dissolve and stall, it can be placed at the wrong address … The reason is the same - insensitivity to the context (background), to another in contact, insensitivity to oneself.

If a man pounces on a woman he likes, almost on the first date, then she will most likely leave and will not return. A woman can also scare, presenting her expectations to a man, plans and dreams from the doorway before he even had time to figure out why he actually needs her. But also, you should not hide your feelings for years by looking down, but all for reasons that do not fit, they say …

With creativity in general it is interesting … As Lev Tolstoy said: "You need to write when you can't help but write," and this thought was then picked up by Zhvanetsky: "You need to write as you write and you need to write when you can't stand it anymore!" Inspiration (read - excitement) is a capricious thing, and you need to be able to "catch the wave", as they say."Verbal diarrhea" or "constipation of thoughts" are good physiological metaphors, just in the spirit of the food model of gestalt therapy … It is not easy to create, and if simple, then as a rule, something is not very good.

It is necessary to highlight, but not always and not everywhere. And if only to absorb, but not to emit anything, or disproportionately little, then sooner or later intoxication will come. Or, on the contrary, exhaustion, when a person produces and distributes everything outside, but takes almost nothing for himself. It is an art to maintain a balance of absorption / release, a creative appeal to the environment. Be both spontaneous and self-possessed when needed. We have been learning this art all our lives, and gestalt will help us.