Therapy As Justice

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

There is nothing more constant in the world

vicissitudes, losses and partings.

And Guberman

I wrote this article because of the difficulty in dealing with trauma, especially shockingin which it is important for the client to hear the therapist's unambiguous opinion about the traumatic situation and its participants. I share my experience.

This article is my personal opinion as a therapist. I am only describing the legal aspect of injury here.

Therapy is not a legal court personified by the unbiased Themis with a bandage over her eyes. Moreover, the therapist's attempts to deal with the traumatic situation impartially and objectively can turn into a judgment seat for the client. Premature showdowns can block a person's ability to share their experiences, since they can give him doubts about the validity of the feelings and affects that have arisen.

Therapy is a deliberately biased "judgment" in favor of the victim seeking help, suggesting an attentive open gaze of the therapist. The measure of fairness is the client's feelings.

The client is always right. Dot

But to find out why and in what he is right is the business of all therapy.

As a result of trauma, a person's self-esteem seriously suffers, in other words, he is defeated and is deprived of the experience of the most important universal human rights - first of all, to protect oneself, to the right to act, to the right to vote, to desires and feelings, to recognition and respect, in the worst case - for existence in this world.

Therefore, in trauma therapy, the client is right even when he is wrong. In a post-traumatic situation, distortion of the cognitive picture of the world is inevitable, but in crisis therapy, the main focus is on affects. Acceptance and recognition of all experiences, even those that seem at first glance unreasonable, are the basis for creating a therapeutic environment that is safe for the client.

To inform the client, knocked down by the horror of the revealed betrayal of the spouse, about the notorious truth that the contribution to the relationship is 50/50, or to find out why the man crippled in the car accident did not give way to the truck, or why the mother suddenly needed to search the pockets of her son, who turned out to be a drug addict, and " where have you been before ?! " - in a crisis situation, it is not therapeutic, IMHO.

Trauma is half the trouble. But to be unheard, misunderstood, to face the disbelief of others, including. a therapist - really bad. Not to mention condemnation, too, about condemnation and reproaches. and I don’t speak.

It's scary when mom instead of sympathy says:

… why did you go there? who invited you there?

… why did you do that?

… why didn't you leave?

… why did you stay?

… so what's wrong with that?

… you wanted it yourself, didn't you?

… I told you back then …

… I understood long ago, and you….

… so I would be in your place …

Faith is an irrational feeling by definition.

Facts are not needed for faith, only the resonance of feelings is needed.

Logic and mathematics have nothing to do with it. The whole trick is in the inner knowledge.

And then the question is: is mom ready to hear and how to relive the pain - now for someone else? can a father or husband or friend share the bitterness of admitting defeat? failure, failure? And if their souls are overwhelmed with their own pain, then can the therapist be sympathetic to the experiences, to the troubles and ailments of the Other?

In the absence of the therapist's trust in the traumatic material of the client, empathy for his misfortune and the willingness to accept hatred and anger, the latter drifts towards merging with the abuser, which complicates the post-traumatic syndrome. And this is a test for the therapist - to refrain from responding aggression in any form and presenting his point of view, which is not consistent with the client's feelings or blocks them.

Since the perception of a person in post-trauma is extremely polarized, an insufficiently supportive therapist can turn into an aggressor for him. And this is despite the fact that the client appeals to him as a human rights defender.

By virtue of splitting, the supporting specialist can become an adversary or hostage, especially considering saturated projections and charged projective identifications.

Then a variant of a "recourse claim" is possible (a term from jurisprudence, but the word recourse pleases) - the creditor's claims for the return of the amount of money that he paid through the fault of a third party - the debtor.

In other words, claims and affects are sent to the therapist instead of the abuser as a demand to repay the debt, to repair the damage. "I don't need someone else's, give me back mine." In the case of "default", the therapeutic relationship falls apart. These requirements in themselves are legitimate and recognized, the trick is to find the right addressee of feelings - the expropriator of rights.

Ultimately, the client should feel that the therapist is his support, personal advocate and ally, ready to defend his rights and interests, that he is against violence. And it has nothing to do with the accusing party and is not going to have. All you need is the therapist's Faith in the right and correctness of the client.

A lawyer in jurisprudence is a person equipped not only with knowledge of laws and regulations, but also with the ability to skillfully interpret the rules of law, i.e. search and clarification of its original content, subject to implementation in these specific conditions. Their meaning is to be used in court for the best protection of the interests of their ward, for taking care of his preferences, regardless of personal attitude towards him. "The true (true, real, real) content of the interpreted norm in a given specific situation (case) of its implementation is an actual (effectively focused and specific) expression of its regulatory potential at a given time, in a given place, in a given specific regulatory situation (case) "from the highest value-legal positions.

Understanding law as equality, as a general scale and equal measure of freedom of people includes justice. By definition, law is fair, and justice is an intrinsic property and quality of law. Justice embodies and expresses universally valid correctness, which means universal legitimacy. The law works precisely in the relations of those people who actually or virtually find themselves together.

Law, therefore, rests on justice, not force

Arbitrariness is based on force

Eligibility = legality

A person's experience of his rights leads to a feeling of inner freedom and dignity.

To have grounds, To be entitled, To have personal rights means not to feel shame and guilt when exercising them, i.e. to be innocent, innocent, on the one hand, and to be offended, angry and hurt when they are violated, on the other. Here the concept of law is close to the concept of "personal space", and feelings are an indicator of its violation. Conscience and responsibility allow you to correct mistakes and compensate for the damage caused to the other party.

As a result of trauma, a real loss of rights can occur as an opportunity, physical and / or psychological. It is experienced in anger at the cause of loss, pain, and later - in grief, mourning, sadness.

Since the victim of a trauma feels that he is defeated in human rights, the therapist, like a lawyer, uses every clue to rehabilitate, restore the client, leaving out those facts and circumstances that can weaken the position and worsen his well-being.

Suffering can be seen as a testament to how important it was in a person's life that it was damaged or abused as a result of the trauma. The intensity of suffering is a measure of how significant the loss is to a person. The therapist's recognition of the value and importance of what is lost is to share the pain of suffering.

According to Jung, "All neurosis is a substitute for legitimate suffering."

The experience of one's rights is impossible in a dissociated and split state, which does not interfere with knowing and remembering them.

The ability of the victim to feel implies the preservation in his memory of the idea of his identity and rights. Although their implementation after trauma is difficult due to pain and uncertainty, fears of stepping on or "illegally" claiming the rights of others, in the course of therapy they are appropriated anew.

The therapist's direct assessment of events - in accordance with the client's feelings - is sometimes needed in acute trauma, when his affects are dissociated from rationality. To understand, to feel what the client's current Truth is, and to accept it means to give him support. Due to psychological instability, this Truth can change from day to day. Truth is a spiritual truth, "the meaning of which bears witness to itself from within itself," that is, subjective.

One way or another, it is reflected in the conglomerate of post-traumatic feelings. Countertransference is the main source of knowledge, especially if the client is unable to formulate his thoughts. The indivisible content of the countertransference testifies to a deep regression of the victim and non-experience of the right to life, oppression - that is, literally suppression of will, desires, emotions, consciousness, deprivation of his rights and opportunities for free life and development.

Agreeing with the client's, albeit superficial and vague, assessment, regardless of its intelligibility, affective charge and even possible inadequacy, which may be the result of fragmented perception, means accepting and confirming the client's right to his (his) vision and his assessment.

To name and defame a rapist, aggressor, or criminal means symbolically (but not always psychologically) to return the victim's painful feelings - shame, shame, guilt, dishonor, to clear the way for the client's anger and the return of his rights.

A kind of restitution as an alternative to revenge.

As compensation for the loss in crisis therapy, the client forms or revives the figure of an internal advocate - a protective, protective, understanding and consoling person in adversity.

In fairness, I will add that Themis is not only an impartial guardian of order, but also the goddess of law and good behavior, the patroness of the oppressed, the injured, the offended and the disadvantaged. Sometimes she is depicted with a cornucopia - a symbol of retribution to the victims for suffering.

Healed trauma enriches and ennobles a person, making him sensitive to the trouble of others.

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