Victim Or Illusion: Supporters And Opponents Of Psychological Constellations

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

What are constellations?

They were originally created as a group psychotherapeutic method designed to help cope with family problems. During constellations, the client talks about his problem with the constellation psychotherapist, after which he selects “substitutes” for the role of his loved ones and himself, shifts problem images onto them and places them in space. Proponents of the method believe that during the placement, the client sees images of his unconscious and can change them in the desired direction. Later, the constellation scheme began to be expanded from the family level to the level of peoples and states, now they are also used to solve practical problems - for example, in business.

Systemic constellations appeared in Germany. They were based on the analysis of life scenarios according to Berne, classical systemic family therapy, psychodrama and hypnotherapy. In Russia, the method was personally represented in 2001 by the founding fathers of the direction, the psychiatrist Gunthard Weber and the psychotherapist Bert Hellinger.

A few years later, a split occurred between them: Hellinger declared himself not as a psychotherapist, but as a philosopher. This was preceded by a conflict over the role of victims and aggressors - from Hellinger's point of view, aggressors and victims belong to the same system, so the person who committed the violence should be included in the system, not excluded from it, in order to restore balance in the family and prevent the problem from recurring in the next generations. The deputies of the aggressors said that they were drawn to their victims by an irresistible force, which they were not able to resist - and he called it "the movement of the spirit." This method is called "new family constellations." Proponents of classical systemic constellations did not accept the changes and excluded the name of Hellinger from the name of the method.

In Russia, systemic constellations are recognized as a direction of psychotherapy and counseling by the All-Russian Professional Psychotherapeutic League (APPL). She also calls other techniques using the word "constellation" or references to Hellinger, "unscientific" and "harmful to clients and patients." However, this does not prevent the proponents of new systemic constellations from conducting sessions for clients and training seminars for specialists.

"Such cases" learned what a supporter of classical systemic constellations, a teacher-practitioner of constellations and field therapy, as well as a psychotherapist, a supporter of evidence-based medicine, think about constellations and their interpretation of violence.

Mikhail Burnyashev, Ph. D. in Psychology, systemic family therapist, director of the Institute for Consulting and Systemic Solutions (ISKR), head of the direction "System-phenomenological psychotherapy (counseling) and client-centered constellations"

As a development of classical systemic constellations, our institute has developed trauma-oriented constellation work and client-centered constellations. The main focus of the therapist in this work is the client, his well-being and the result determined by the client himself. If we understand that there is a person in front of us who had traumatization or violence in his personal or family history, then we cannot work with such a client as with an ordinary person, even in the approach of classical systemic constellations.

The “new family constellations”, “spirit movements” or “field practices” propagated by Hellinger Sciencia and their followers are, in fact, a new kind of sect based on philosophical tenets, and they have nothing to do with psychotherapy and practical psychology. In the mid-2000s, one of the founders of family constellations B. Hellinger, an unconfirmed philosophical dogma appeared that everything in the world is driven by a "spirit", and all people are supposedly led by this "spirit", they consciously and unconsciously fulfill his will, and therefore everything and everything that different people do is right, in the world there is no division between good and evil. From this point of view, all the problems begin to arise for those who follow this "philosophy", because this view lacks universal human ethics.

This is where all the "quirks" of the followers of the "late" Hellinger begin, for example: incest in the family is "right", violence is "normal", violent sex is "active", that it is needed in order for a woman to "get together" and get strength "To be able", the rape of women in war serves to "cure" male aggression, and women should uncomplainingly agree with this and rejoice that they serve the "spirit" in this way. Usually the same is done in totalitarian sects, where women are collectively raped and made slaves and suicide bombers out of them, the only thing that a woman “can” after that is to kill others and ultimately kill herself.

In "new family constellations" and "field practices" a person is made responsible for the actions of the aggressors

In "new family constellations" or "field practices", the client's emotional state is practically not paid attention, and they only look at what is happening in the constellation space, since, according to Hellinger, it is there that the "spirit" or "field" acts. which leads the client and his environment, and with which the client must agree and follow him, often contrary to his feelings and will.

Such an attitude, with the trusting consent of the client, breaks the defense mechanisms of his psyche, leads to the occurrence of traumatic situations right during work or some time after it, which leads to depression, exacerbation of symptoms, and in some cases psychosis and subsequent psychiatric hospitalization. In "new family constellations" and "field practices" the leader is not responsible for anything, all responsibility is placed on the client, and often he is simply accused: "You yourself answer that this violence happened." It turns out that a girl who grows and takes shape as a woman is already responsible for becoming the object of sexual aggression by her father, brother or grandfather. And when she, the victim of violence, is forced to say to the rapist: “I want you,” it’s just madness. If the client agrees to say such a phrase, then it becomes stuck in the trauma. The problem model is fixed, and the person gets stuck even more in a state of guilt and thinks that now the responsibility for what happened lies with him. Such a philosophy can justify the action of any criminal, because everyone is driven by "spirit" or "field", and the client, so that he does not have problems, must agree with everything.

Elena Veselago, Director of the Center for Contemporary Systemic Constellations

For my part, I am not criticizing Hellinger. I know how hard our work is, and I deeply regret the breakdowns that sometimes happen to him. It can happen to anyone, especially a pioneer. I am well versed in both the classic constellations and the "Movement of the Spirit" constellations, I had the opportunity to see them in the original. At the present stage, the division into “old” and “new” constellations is no longer relevant, there is a huge variety of styles in constellations, and most of them are no longer even Hellinger's - neither in philosophy nor in technology.

Hellinger teaches not method, but meditation

At the beginning of his work, Hellinger himself moved the figures and looked for a solution, relying on the principles of systemic family therapy. But at some point, he did not rearrange the figures and saw that they were moving towards a good solution on their own, without therapeutic influences. For several years he tried to understand what was happening, and came to the realization that they were driven by the higher, that is, the Spirit. Which is not surprising for a former monk - or, on the contrary, it is surprising that he understood for many years and did not see the Spirit. Having come to this understanding, he began to work: he puts a number of figures and waits for a decision. These are the constellations of the "Movement of the Spirit". For a solution to come, the therapist must be in a special state, Hellinger calls it “empty middle”. This is meditation. We can say that Hellinger teaches not a method, but meditation. Specialists, especially psychotherapists, tried to make a rigorous method out of this - with about the same success as a robot is taught to paint.

I am currently defining my practice as field therapy - a separate new art. Field therapy is all about reading the field and finding a solution for the individual (or group). There are about 15% of constellations, 20% of shamanic work and 65% of unique finds just for the soul of this person. These finds have never happened before, because all people are unique. But there are techniques for where and how to look.

Reading the field is an art. Challenging the descriptions of what you read is like challenging the music. I can describe what kind of music I hear, but this is not an "opinion", it is poetry. The constellation concept of what we "should" see in the field does not exist - there is the poetry of various constellators and field therapists. Therefore, I can say words, describe my vision, but I will not allow this to be passed off as an opinion, especially on behalf of the whole method, because the constellators are all different.

Now I no longer want to drag constellations into my vision. I would also like to free field work from the rigid attachment to the name of Hellinger - the number of developments with other authorship is already very large, and personally Hellinger expressed a strong rejection of my work. Field therapy is a free non-proprietary name for working in the field to help an individual, family and community.

I don’t know if I need to say that I don’t share the ideas “a woman wants violence herself,” “a girl seduces dad herself,” and the like, which mad commentators ascribe to me? For example, I once did a job for a woman who was brutally raped (details below are changed). The rapist called her “my baby,” and she experienced the first orgasm in her life after years of dissatisfaction with her husband. And she asked again and again. This woman came with the fact that she cannot enter into a relationship and is burned with shame and guilt. Her soul was entangled. I separated the violence and the way dad called her “my baby,” and my mother was jealous, [that is] I kind of “taught” her to separately experience tenderness for her father (and to allow it to herself, even if the mother is angry, seeing this), and separately see the event of violence and your feelings in it. The woman will recover now. Here we can say that violence paradoxically served to reveal love.

I am willing to make an effort to understand the topic of violence in a different way than "she is the victim, him in prison." The rapist who said "my baby" to [the woman], he entrusted the victim to hear and experience these words, because he himself, if he heard this, would die of pain. So he was not called and will not be called. Thus, the rapist seeks a place for [his] pain and finds it. And her pain is suspiciously similar - this is the law of field resonance [that is, such sensations come into resonance]. Their pain is likely an extension of their parents' pain. Therefore, they could not show tenderness. And on and on for generations … Field therapy will regulate these pain resonances for everyone. Even those who did not seek therapy. That is, her mother and his father will also feel better if they are alive, the tension subsides.

The depth of the human psyche is immeasurable, and constellations and field therapy is one way to learn about it. Cognition is rarely simple, unambiguous, and convenient. You cannot bait for knowledge, even if the conclusions reached by the seeker seem incomprehensible, “unscientific”, strange, terrible and dangerous to you.

Amina Nazaralieva, psychotherapist

Today it is considered good practice to conduct research on their effectiveness and safety before starting any interventions. This is common in evidence-based medicine.

There are very few scientifically proven methods in psychotherapy

[In Russia] Evidence-based medicine principles are applied in some well-established individual clinics, but unfortunately they are in the minority. In most institutions, we have developed a dependence on what the “opinion leaders” think - for example, the head of a department or an academician. This approach justified itself in the past, but it does not justify itself at all today, when we can collect statistical data and conduct research. One of its major drawbacks is that it is very easy to fall into "guruism" if you have no idea about the evidence-based approach. From here grows a minefield of problems in the domestic health care, including in psychotherapy. There are very few scientifically substantiated methods in psychology: in particular, it is cognitive-behavioral therapy and its directions, they are the most researched to date. Everything else is poorly researched or not researched at all.

I have not been able to find a single study of the safety and effectiveness of constellations for PTSD, depression, and work with survivors of violence (including domestic violence, as it involves a huge number of rapes). All I have been able to find are single studies on fairly small samples of generally healthy people. Healthy people seem to benefit from constellations, which I see as spiritual experiences rather than serious therapeutic tools.

The situation with [Elena] Veselago is the situation with guruism. People trust her words, without subjecting them to any criticism or testing them, and we get what we get: a lot of people who begin to blame the victims and look inside the victim for the rapist. Even those constellations that exist in the psychological community have a different view of this problem.

According to the WHO, one in three women has experienced violence. What then is wrong with almost a billion women? What such property can they have, except that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and there was a rapist nearby who decided to take advantage of it? All attempts to explain by the woman's behavior that she was raped is, in my opinion, a moral crime, because they support victim blaming. Her body couldn't say yes, no one chooses to be raped.

In reality, violence happened not because something is wrong in the “field”, but simply because it is very widespread - regardless of whether the woman is confident or not, whether she is dressed “correctly”, whether she makes eye contact. … There is no such behavior, except to lock yourself in a castle and not communicate with anyone, which would be guaranteed to protect you from violence.

As part of the evidence-based approach, there are studies in cognitive-behavioral therapy for victims of domestic violence. There you can discuss the strength of the evidence, the quality of the research, but somehow there are studies, albeit small ones, that show that [this approach] helps women not to be harmed again in the same relationship or in new ones.

In 2011, a publication was published, which for the first time examined the relationship between a decrease in PTSD and depression with a decrease in episodes of interpersonal violence against women who applied (we are talking about physical, sexual, emotional and economic violence. - Approx. TD). Studies have shown that if a woman begins to recover, her PTSD and depression decrease, then this reduces the risk of revictimization.

But if a woman is told that she herself is to blame, this will only worsen her mental state. She finds herself in a vicious circle: first, she is abused, she develops depression and PTSD in this regard, and then the disorders themselves increase the risk that she may be victimized again. There is an assumption that the mechanism is as follows: the violence that preceded the mental disorder leads to devastation, detachment, the meaning of these symptoms is to cope with pain and trauma. Such "emotional anesthesia" dulls responses to danger signals and can occur in such a way that the woman does not respond to signs of danger in interpersonal relationships. By themselves, the consequences of PTSD, such as anger and emotional dysregulation, can lead to more conflicts within relationships and thus place a higher risk of interpersonal violence.

Psychotherapy should be secondary, laws should play a key role - protection from the state, the police, shelters (shelters for women. - Approx. TD), a protective order. We must focus on preventive measures, do everything to prevent violence from happening. As long as in our country only psychotherapists are involved in helping victims of violence, people will continue to die. You can carry out psychotherapy as much as you like, but then the aggressor can calmly return to his home, where his wife and children live, and do whatever he wants, and he will not get anything for it.