Magical Thinking, Placebo Effect And Psychosomatics

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

Starting to write a cycle of notes on private psychosomatics, I cannot but mention the so-called. "the phenomenon of popular psychosomatics" or in simple words - "why in psychotherapy of psychosomatic pathologies it often happens that one person is helped by a table on the Internet and an affirmation, while another has to work on himself" tirelessly. " "and" true "," primary "and" secondary "psychosomatic pathologies in this article, we will not touch, since I will write about this almost all the time. To focus on the declared phenomena, I was prompted by the increasing requests for a" psychosomatic miracle. " what is the actual speech?

The fact is that the popularization of psychosomatics through pivot tables, diagrams, etc., has created a stereotype among many people that psychosomatics is something magical and mystical, or, on the contrary, elementary and obvious for "initiates". In order to fix this magic (psychosomatic problem), you just need to know the "spell and anti-spell" (reason and affirmation). In an extreme case, if your disorder is not found in the table, you can contact a specialist - a magician, and find out the spell and anti-spell from him (a psychotherapist can tell the reason for the symptoms and give a prescription for what needs to be done to remove it).

Unfortunately, in reality, this is nothing more than a marketing ploy that is used solely to attract customers or to increase sales of related literature. But what does the placebo effect and magical thinking have to do with it?

Let's begin with that magical thinking is one of the earlier forms of psychological defense that helps the psyche to adapt in situations in which we do not have constructive coping experience. Normally, it is typical for children 3-5 years of age. During this period, children go through a kind of developmental crisis, where at first they believe that they (their actions, thoughts, words, etc.) are the cause of everything that happens around, however, in the process of growing up and learning, they are faced with the fact that a lot in the world does not depend on us. For the formation of adequate self-esteem, it is important for a child to learn to recognize what is really in his sphere of influence and what is not. An adult who, in this or that question, gets stuck on manifestations of magical thinking, demonstrates that he is "confused, lost his bearings", he does not know what to do, and his "inner child" starts to panic, he freezes. In particular, psychosomatic diseases can signal that a malfunction has occurred in our brain, it has begun to process information inadequately, and what should be worked out in the mental sphere is brought to the physical level.

The so-called placebo effect, or in other words spontaneous self-hypnosis, which we often hear about in other people's examples. In fact, these are two sides of the same coin, where we associate the development of some psychosomatic pathology with spontaneous self-hypnosis (a person does not do this on purpose, the disorder happens by itself), and getting rid of it through various rituals is the placebo effect (a person believes that the ritual it will heal and the disease goes away on its own, even when the ritual is essentially fake). The bottom line is that, despite all the efforts of modern science, we call many mechanisms of thinking phenomena precisely because we can only explain their nature hypothetically. The fact that a person is able to influence his body is a fact. But the algorithm of this influence is actually unknown to anyone, and the problem is that all it happens spontaneously and unpredictably … Doctors, psychologists, priests, physicists, esotericists and shamans all have their own version of what is happening. However, we can neither confirm nor disprove these versions experimentally, since we cannot establish a real causal relationship, therefore, we cannot use this effect as a tool. Yes, such a phenomenon exists, but it is impossible to cause it by certain actions in clients. So, of course, we can build hypotheses regarding the consideration of a person as a unit of the universe, where changes in himself lead to a change in the world as a whole, etc. However, the disease is fleeting and occurs here and now. It is in working with psychosomatics that the skills of critical thinking, prioritization and reflection on how often our brain plays cat and mouse with us become so important.

The crux of the problem is that most psychosomatic requests are based on neurosis … In addition to other "mind games", neurosis is almost always accompanied by magical thinking and spontaneous self-hypnosis. Why? I'll start right away with the fact that this is NOT GOOD AND NOT BAD, IT JUST IS

In many areas of psychotherapy, neurosis is nothing more than a reaction to obstacles in the process of personal growth and development. A person stuck in one or another neurotic manifestation, in different issues and to varying degrees, one way or another, always demonstrates mental infantilism - immaturity, childishness. It's not bad, it's just a kind of psychological defense that helps to level the complexity of the "surrounding reality". Anyone can and will succumb to many life circumstances, because we are not born with a full set of instructions where and how to respond so that everything is satisfactory. At the same time, some of us in childhood were better taught the algorithm for creating those very individual response strategies, some are not. Therefore, when faced with new circumstances, some people overcome and use them faster and more efficiently, while others, on the contrary, get lost and get stuck, stop developing. In a sense, parents, psychologists, teachers, etc. are people who help us search for and develop algorithms for responding to the circumstances of reality. And in general, any psychotherapy basically has a striving for personal GROWTH and DEVELOPMENT, the development of individual algorithms and the client's reaching the level of a mature and adult personality. However, this is ideal.

In reality, however, any neurosis always seeks to preserve itself and multiply, and magical thinking, along with a reference to the placebo effect, are ideal helpers in this

What makes marketing a popular psychosomatics? He appeals to the basis of psychosomatic pathology - neurosis, through the infantilism of the client (through that very inner child in a panic who is frozen and cannot find a way out of his state). The table on psychosomatics tells the subconscious: "I am a caring parent who will do everything for you, my child" = just read the reason and choose your affirmation, no work, no analysis, no specialists, no effort, live as you lived, just think the right thought and pr.. Well, as a last resort, forgive, let go and love yourself (which is essentially nothing more than an abstraction, beyond which there is no way out).

In fact, in addition to real help, this only aggravates and reinforces the neurosis (pulls the person into a state of sticking even more = "I am a parent who now decides everything, but you believe and wait … does not work out? - affirm better and wait", etc.., until the client reaches a doctor with an inoperable problem). And the more the client returns to magical thinking, the more difficult it is for him to enter the growth stage (note how psychological disorders associated with the passage of various non-professional trainings have increased in recent years - unfortunately mental health is our price for believing in a magic pill). At the same time, the client not only aggravates his health, but what is important, he ceases to believe in real psychotherapy, loses faith in specialists and remains with his problem one on one, multiplying the pathology and not being able to get an adequate solution to the situation.

Therefore, when it comes to truly psychosomatic disorders and diseases, it is important to remember that there is no reason suitable for all clients and there is no magic pill suitable for all clients only on the basis of their diagnosis, symptom, etc. However, there is a very important condition or basic understanding what work with a psychosomatic client is always work with personal growth, inner maturity and the birth of self (self-knowledge, becoming and self-realization), for someone in specific areas, up to the development of certain skills, and for someone from the most elementary, basic, stretching from childhood. Therefore, such work does not look like marmalade, but the result in the form of inner freedom and independence, mental and physical health, self-realization, personal working tools and algorithms, accumulated psychological and physical resources, the opportunity to be highly productive and naturally motivated, etc., is always worth it. the labor invested in it.