Psychotrauma As A Way Of Adaptation

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-12 20:57

Medical experience shows that mental disorders do not occur due to psychological conflicts, as grandfather Freud believed, but suggestively - as a result of an obsession from the outside. Most often, due to physical violence or its threat. Moreover, such events in the human psyche occur at the age of no more than five years. Yes Yes! All cases of mental breakdown occur in an unconscious period of a person's life, when he does not yet identify his individuality, observing himself as part of the world around him

Probably for this reason, the infantile stage of childhood in a person passes under the auspices of the instinctive part of his mental activity. We most often call it "subconsciousness", meaning the complex of unconditioned reflexes (according to Pavlov's theory), which we receive upon our birth. All of these reflexes are reactions that are not related to the activity of the brain, since our body is able to demonstrate them, even completely without a head. It is this “crazy” feature of the structure of the infantile psyche of a person that allows us to reveal the mechanism of the appearance of mental illnesses belonging to the suggestive (psychosomatic) group. The fact is that the key moment in the phenomenon of psychotrauma is the situation when something already known to the infant (phenomenon or object) is unexpectedly revealed to him from an unfamiliar side. Deceived expectation, broken hope, betrayed faith are not yet able to generate, for example, resentment, because the child is not yet aware of his “I”. A catastrophe is perceived in the form of an unconscious complex of impressions and in this form is covered with amnesia. In other words, a candy that turns out to be an empty wrapper will not generate resentment in the child, not anger, but also a completely wild emotional impulse, which will never be experienced, because there is no subject of reflection (personality) yet. Moreover, at the level of the autonomic nervous system, this reaction can be worked out in a "black and white" version - as a threat to physical safety. In this case, the infanta's system of unconditioned reflexes acts according to the principle of "apple from apple tree", giving rise to another reflex, or rather its embryo. It will rank lower than congenital reflexes, since its triggering is due to more particular circumstances (for this reason Pavlov called it "conditioned"), but it will still be a reflex - an unconscious reaction of the organism.

Here is how the father of this theory, Academician Pavlov, describes the mechanism of the generation of a conditioned reflex: “The main condition for the formation of a conditioned reflex is generally the coincidence in time of one or several times of an indifferent stimulus with an unconditioned one. Most likely, and with the least difficulty, this formation occurs with the immediate precedence of the first stimulation to the last, as shown above in the example of the sound acid reflex. A conditioned reflex is formed on the basis of all unconditioned reflexes and from all kinds of agents of the internal and external environment, both in an elementary form and in the most complex complexes, but with one limitation: from everything for the perception of which there are receptor elements in the cerebral hemispheres. Before us is the broadest synthesis carried out by this part of the brain."

It is interesting that in the post-infantile period of a person's life, when he stops talking about himself in the third person, his psyche almost never burns out. In any case, while examining my patients, I hardly find any psychotraumas received after the fifth year of birth. Perhaps the very moment of the formation of a psychosomatic ovary consists of two parts. First, as a rule, there is a "rediscovery", which was mentioned above, and this is an emotional outburst, the energy of which in an unconscious age goes "into a beep", forming a corresponding "valve" in the infantile psyche - an unaccountable model of behavior under certain circumstances. At a conscious age, the same emotional cataclysm interacts not with the human body, but with his personality. In this case, shock has a hardening effect, participating in the formation of what we call "character."In other words, if a person does not have an individuality contour, then the development of excess emotional energy occurs at the archaic level of the psyche - at the level of life and death. And this is the reason that the traces of such traumas can be epic in nature, affecting a person's worldview. In fact, we have a paradox: the primitive, almost bestial reaction of a person takes shape in the status of a worldview capable of attracting similar experiences to itself, overgrowing them. This complex forms an autonomous cluster in a person's personality - "identity". After all, it is no coincidence that during a psychosomatic attack, the patient "does not look like himself." In any case, we see an unfamiliar and therefore frightening face.

So, let's summarize. An infantile idea is a way of unconsciously mastering the surrounding reality, characterized by delayed comprehension. The "Infant" (a child up to five years old) who has survived the shock lays aside the memory of this event in the form of an embryo of a possible conditioned reflex. Remaining in memory as an "idea", this embryo reveals itself to be able to explain similar situations throughout a person's life, filling them with infantile meaning. During a psychosomatic attack, a forty-year-old uncle looks ridiculous because he behaves like a four-year-old.

INFANTILE AMNESIA

What does hypnosis have to do with it? The thing is that the emotional shock that the Infant receives ("a person without personality") is incompatible with the intellectual activity of which he is capable. Therefore, almost immediately after physical violence (or its threat), the mechanism of infantile amnesia - instant oblivion - comes into play. This is precisely the main reason why children, having received a trauma, do not complain to anyone, do not tell anyone anything. They just forget what happened to them after a couple of hours. Only hypnosis can destroy infantile amnesia.

By opening infantile memory, we get the opportunity to explore events that have never been experienced. This is necessary to relieve the patient of his disorder.

TYPES OF PSYCHOTRAUM

The experience of the world medicine of hypnotic penetrations under the cover of infantile amnesia reveals an amazing picture. The lion's share of childhood shocks, on the basis of which, for example, a hysterical personality type was formed, are described as sexual abuse by an adult. As a rule, it is performed by the closest people (friends of parents, nannies, older sisters, brothers, as well as uncles, aunts, grandfathers) who do not want the death of the child. The nature of pedophilia requires a separate discussion, but it is obvious that this phenomenon is so widespread that there is hardly a person among us who has not been sexually harassed or even abused in deep childhood. We just don't remember this - in the minds of adults, such tragedies are completely absent, because their consciousness was formed after they happened (infantile, that is, unconscious age, usually lasts up to 4-6 years). But the memory stores all the details, and in a hypnotic state a person can turn to them.

I will cite an excerpt from the book of the famous hypnotherapist, chairman of the Moscow hypnological society, professor S. Ya. Lifshits, who wrote down a fairly standard set of events that gave rise to a hysterical patient, described by her in a state of hypnotic immersion. We are talking about a 43-year-old married woman who is physically healthy and happily married.

“When I asked why she wants to explore herself, she said the following: her husband was leaving for a while. This did not cause any special emotions on her part. But by the time of his arrival, he was late for several days due to circumstances beyond his control. The patient spent these days as insane. She does not understand at all what happened to her. She rushed from one institution to another for information. She sent stupid telegrams, suffered, did not sleep, etc. It seems to her that for the second time she will not withstand such an explosion - she will go crazy.

During the research it turned out that under the external efficiency and restraint there is a well-established hysterical reaction; in childhood and adolescence, there were moments of major mental depression from reasons unclear to the patient. An indelible painful mark was left by the suicide of his brother, who by that time was only 18 years old. He was a nervous, unsuccessful boy and did not study well.

The main traumatic complex was as follows: the girl was 3 years old. The family in a big company goes to the forest for berries. Arriving at the place, everyone scattered in all directions. The girl walks with her mother and a friend of the house, K., a respectable man of about 47-50 years old. Mother and friend at home chatting, laughing and quietly being taken aside. The girl was left alone. She does not have time, however, to become very frightened, since she is soon found by K., now alone. They walk together, slowly at first, then faster and faster. The girl begins to worry about it; besides, it seems to her that they are going in a different direction, she protests. Then K. grabs her and drags her into the thick of the forest. The girl comes to a complete frenzy: she breaks, kicks, pinches, bites, but soon she is completely exhausted. Then K. calms her down, puts her on the ground, takes off her trousers, which he puts in his pocket. Then he sits down, unfastens everything, puts the girl with her naked body on his penis and offers to play. “You see what a goose! And you were crying, you bad girl. The girl is exhausted, stupid and crazy. After playing a little, K. begins to enter the penis in vaginam; the girl is knocked over, then she wakes up in pain, then she again falls into a semi-fainting state. K. fumbles for a long time. This time, ejaculatio prhaesokh.

The exhausted child fell asleep. So he woke up: his soul is hard, lying uncomfortable, painful, pine needles prick his naked body. The girl wants to go to hers, she imagines how everyone is happily bragging about the collected berries, but she is alone left. At the same time, she realizes that insisting will only anger K, who can do anything with her. She ingratiates herself and gently persuades K.: "Let's go home, they'll give us something tasty there." "OK, let's go". K. takes the girl by the hand and they walk. It is difficult for her to walk. “Well, you see, you're tired, you need to rest. They sit down. K. gets out some ointment from somewhere and starts rubbing himself, then takes the child, puts it down, and begins to inject the penis a second time. The child is in a semi-faint state, he does not react with anything, lies "like a log." Terrible - pressure, cramped, painful, complete depression and dying. This time a complete coitus is performed without great external injuries; only a few small tears that quickly stop bleeding. When everything is over, the girl feels strong physical relief and … sexual arousal.

K. wipes off sweat and rests. Then he takes out a handkerchief and carefully, for a long time, wipes the girl's crotch. It is painful to touch the vagina. He puts on the girl's pants, puts her on his shoulder and carries her to everyone else. Aukaet … Then he tells how he found the child alone and crying.

The girl is exhausted, depressed and only thinks about how to fall asleep and forget. The next day, everything is completely forgotten. At times, a kind of vague melancholy rolls up. For some time the girl experiences an unusually frequent urge to urinate …

The next blow comes from Wu, the beloved nanny. She has been living with the family for a long time. One evening, having undressed the girl for bed, as usual, the nanny remains by the crib, caresses the child, and then suddenly begins to irritate the girl's crotch. "My God, how can she do this?" The girl is seized by sexual arousal in connection with the first traumatic complex. The nanny begins to masturbate the child, kisses, forces herself to kiss. Then he gets furious and violently masturbates himself, forcing the child to scratch and pinch her (nanny). This continues for a long time. The child is depressed and completely tortured. The next day, everything is forgotten, there are only nightmares: "the gray cat scratches endlessly."

A few years later, a younger brother is born. The girl loves him very much, loves to kiss his hands and cheeks. But one day, when my brother was one year old with something (the girl was 8), her brother's penis caught her eye. The sight of him brings the girl back to the main trauma. “In such a position, he is no good for anything,” a thought rushes through her, shaking her. From this moment on, the girl's relationship to her brother is sexual in nature. Holding them to her, she tries to masturbate them. Once her excitement becomes great, the girl passionately kisses her brother, first on the buttocks, then in the penis, and finally takes the latter in her mouth. All this shocks the boy so much that he defecates. The girl herself is frightened and later leaves her brother alone and, in general, her sexual excesses no longer appear.

Undoubtedly, in relation to her brother, the girl herself played the role of a rapist and inflicted the first traumatic blow on him, which, in connection with further experiences, led him to commit suicide.

In the future, the external manifestations of sexual excesses are not present, but all life flows according to a hysterical pattern.

Periods of gloomy loneliness are replaced by hobbies for girlfriends, who are selected on the basis of traumatic: associations. One of them, oddly enough, was associated with the rapist K. in her stoop and in her manner of assuming special hysterical poses. Love stories are of a hysterical nature. At the most powerful moment, a traumatic sourness sets in, and the novel ends in nothing."

If sexual nightmares breed tantrums, social phobia is rooted in very different stories. As a typical example, I will give a case from my own practice

The client is 29 years old. A decent earning professional. Stupor when dealing with girls, skin rashes under stress. Two sessions of deep hypnoanalysis made it possible to find out the following picture of the onset of the disease.

During the first year of her life, my mother swaddled so heavily that she could not move. It's stuffy and painful. One day he screamed, snapped, tried to free himself, but to no avail. Resigned. 5-7 years old Mom, before leaving, asked to get out. Came earlier, and he plays. She screamed. Against the background of fear, suggestibility grows a hundredfold, so the mother's phrase that she decides everything here has become a mental attitude. Until the age of 20, my mother really decided where to go to her son, with whom to communicate. As a result, he received two higher educations, concentrated on work, and became a good narrow specialist.

The patient's fear of communication was removed at the very first session. The patient began to proactively get to know the opposite sex, which he had not done before, but it did not help. The changed behavior model became discordant with the attitude. The patient began to be overcome by thoughts about the futility of gestures and actions new to him. Apathy covered. The reason is the conviction that the real value is not your own decisions, but the opinion of authorities. Performer's perception of the world. In order to change the personality in terms of confidence, the patient was asked to go through not experienced infantile psychotrauma, to which he agreed. As a result of several hypnotic sessions, the symptoms of skin allergy disappeared completely, the patient began to look confident, as well as ceased to be skeptical of himself.

CONCLUSION

Concluding the conversation, I would like to express one important point. Our childhood psychotraumas are actually not psychotraumas at all, but a way of adaptation of a living being in a changing reality. Any human personality is a set of adaptive mechanisms (read reflexes) developed in the process of life, and above all in its unconscious period. And then our behavior ceases to be conditioned. Intellect comes into its own, for which character is a given that existed before it. This is why you have to resort to hypnosis. Otherwise, consciousness cannot be stopped - it will not allow you to weed out reflexes that have outlived themselves, even if they interfere with your personal life or work. Consciousness is confident that all conditioned reflexes are equipment, thanks to which you have survived to the age at which you are reading these lines, which means that there is nothing to change. Agree, it's hard to argue with this.