Things in The Body - Andrey Ermoshin

Things in The Body

Andrey Ermoshin

Translator Elena Lysenko

Cover design Maria Ermoshina

© Andrey Ermoshin, 2021

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Acknowledgements

Have you ever received gifts? I was asked by one of the neuro-linguistic programming specialists. Apparently, he wanted to anchor my state in my process of recollecting the pleasant experiences corresponding to receiving gifts, and then use it for some purpose which was unknown to me. I do not know if that specialist achieved his goals, most likely not, but I am grateful to him. When I conscientiously turned to my experience, I was horrified to find out that I could not remember a single occasion when I received gifts, until I suddenly realized that the main gift is life itself. All the others are simply lost in comparison with it.

Who made this gift for me? I do not know. But I know that my parents, who managed to survive difficult times, are a big part of it. I am grateful to them for their viability and for caring for me. This applies to all my relatives. My positive thinking, or even more broadly, my positive attitude to life is owing to my mother Elena Sergeyevna, who was also my first school teacher, and all my other teachers, among whom I remember with special warmth Galina Alekseyevna Kolobina, Valentina Konstantinovna Tarasova, my History teacher Mikhail Ivanovich Chekalin; my Philosophy teacher at Medical University lion Semyonovich Chernyak, Professor of Psychotherapy Mark Evgenievitch Burno, my internship tutor Vladimir Elizarovich Smirnov, whose clinical thinking is still a model for me; my associates Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Tsapkin and Vera Kerpelevna Loseva, who helped me, a doctor by training, to get closer to the psychological vision of a person; my friend, a symbolic primitivist artist, Vladimir Boldyrev, whose creativity prompted me a number of ideas; all my patients, without the cooperation of whom this book would not appear.

I thank all my colleagues. I especially would like to mention Igor Kanifolsky (St. Petersburg), Alexander F. Bondarenko (Kiev), and Steven Shoen (USA). The experience of their work and behavior were significant for me. Thank you to everyone I have ever met.

To the english-speaking readers

«Things in The Body» is the first of a series of books that describe Psychocatalysis. It has been published in several editions in Russian and has already become a kind of classic for a whole generation of specialists. An increasing number of psychotherapists are adopting the ideas of this book: to organize the reverse development of symptoms associated with the experience of problems and injuries, to lead the patients to calmness and regeneration of their state without re-traumatization and without provoking catharsis.

In most of the cases catharsis is not only useless, but also harmful. It gives just temporary relief. It does not solve the basic problems of a person, but, on the contrary, it aggravates them. Nowadays many specialists come to understanding of this fact, whereas, when the first edition of this book was published about 20 years ago, it was not so obvious.

To psychologists and even some naive doctors, the psychodynamic approach, with its working through resistance and unleashing the repressed reactions of the body, seemed attractive, although it is only an imitation of psychotherapy.

Such seduction by seemingly effective work led to many secondary problems of the patients: loss of time, effort, and resources. For some patients and clients that was fatal. They committed suicide or, having passed into the category of psychiatric patients, had miserable life under neuroleptics.

Psychocatalysis, as an alternative approach to working with neurotic patients, goes back to the traditions of the inner practices of Orthodox monasticism and, in part, to the healing traditions of Russian people. It is in this tradition that the hysterization of a patient is not welcome. What is practiced is the «shrinkage of passions and «laying off the perceived provocations on them, «letting go of fears.»

I hope that the English-speaking readers, whatever culture they belong to, will be interested in correlating their approach with this «Russian approach.

Other books on Psychocatalysis: «Phobias, Disappointments and Grief: A Fast Remedy», «Learn Languages Easily: Methods of Self-Regulation for Successful Learning» are also available in English. Other books: «Geometry of Experiences» and «Enigmatic Syndrome: Panic Attacks and Their Treatment" are in the translation process.

I will be glad to get your feedback: erm@list.ru.

Have pleasant and useful reading!

Authors preface

Two patients are talking in a surgical ward in the presence of a third person who has just regained consciousness after an operation: «Our surgeon often leaves things in the bodies of his patients. «He left a glove inside me,» says the first one. «and I had his hat,» says the second. The newly operated patient looks at them with concern. At that very moment, the surgeon comes in and asks: «Has anyone seen my coat?»

Things in the body First of all, I would like you to note that we are not talking about things forgotten by the surgeons in the bodies of their patients, but about the objects in the body of consciousness left there by the people themselves. They are not tampons or scalpels, but anger and resentment, disappointment and sorrow, jealousy and anxiety. Though these objects cannot be seen with X-rays, their effect on our health is disastrous.

Fuel

We usually speak about feelings, emotional charges, or affections (as psychiatrists call strong feelings, which arise in extreme situations) not as items, but rather as something fluid and striving for expression. Love leads to hugs, disgust  to repel, anger  to kill, and compassion  to heal the wounds of a neighbor. An emotional charge is sort of fuel that drives a particular action.

Is that what nature conceived? When the «action is done, a feeling of satisfaction comes. All would be well, if not for situations in which emotions do not find their natural way out.

A person is burned

What happens to a charge when it cannot be released? Such emotions can be left burning for many years if there is no way to send them to their addressee or to cancel them. Then a person burns. In some cases, those emotions burn out, leaving behind an unpleasant sediment.

The «fuel, which was originally light, thickens to the consistency of gas, gas  to the consistency of liquid, then liquid  to mass, and mass  to stone. Finally, we get a «petrified emotion. Sometimes the human soul is left holding these «stones of mental anguish. As the cause of these emotional charges originate from the outside, we can think of these «stones as «foreign objects, which are difficult to experience, understand, and to convert.

The situations that trigger strong feelings are different, however, both petrified emotions of «our own production and these «stones or «foreign objects that have been taken into the soul from the outside, are capable of disturbing the human condition

A heavy stone pulls to the bottom

The basic form of loss associated with the carrying of stones in the bosom is a distraction from perception and activity. The feeling of resentment in the chest depresses the hands, the feeling of fear in the stomach influences the legs and all other parts of the body. Attention is taken not only from the parts of the body, but also from the parts of life. A person is wrapped.

Collected negative charges are not only stealing a persons potential. They also distort it, and therefore increase the risk in a persons life. This risk affects almost all areas: health, family, work.

Talking about health, such a risk, under certain circumstances, comes out in the form of psychosomatic diseases. The most common of them are gastric ulcers and duodenal ulcers, hypertension, bronchial asthma. The whole list occupies a lot of pages in medical manuals.

In the sphere of interpersonal relations, the harm caused by untreated lumps of resentment in the chest, or balls of irritation in the temples, or the fog of anxiety in the forehead, etc., is well known to everyone. They lead to those «twists in our relationships that make life so difficult. The destinies of entire generations, peoples, not just individuals and families, are collapsing. There are more than enough such examples in human history.

Creative activity also suffers from the emotions which do not find their outcome. A person does not fully use their potential and unprocessed charges spoil the results. Not to mention the fact that a one-time failure in psychic functioning can cost a person their life. A heart attack, a fight, a fatal mistake at work  the risk can manifest in thousands of different ways, and it «knows how to wait. I do not think we should let it just happen.

Something must be done

Everyone intuitively understands this. We rely on our self-regulation: the body seeks to solve problems while asleep, or in the process of life itself. However, when in stress, self-regulationfails, and time is not a cure.

In such situations some people use alcohol or drugs, but they cannot solve the souls problems. In cases of failure of the bodysself-regulation, many people turn to a psychotherapist. At the same time, patients often ask the question: how do you expect to help me?

Something new

It is not about medicine, hypnosis, or psychoanalysis. Though, all of them can be used. We are going to talk about working through sensations.

This is an amazing kind of work when such expressions as «lump of resentment in the chest, «a fog of anxiety in the forehead, «a steel plate of control in the back of the head, «a jellyfish of fear in the stomach, and «a dagger of betrayal in the back sound like a diagnosis. «Cupids arrows in the heart seldom become a reason for complaining. People more often consider them a sign of happiness, though, not always knowing what it really means.

You do not have to be in delirium tremens

Maybe to find such things inside ones own body a person needs some special conditions? For example, is it necessary to be poisoned with ethyl alcohol to the state of delirium tremens? The doctor holds out an empty hand to the patient and asks:

«What is in my hand?»

«A wire.»

«What will you do with it?»

The patient starts to wrap it around his arm.

Is anything else needed to help people to realize what they are «carrying inside their bodies? Not at all! Moreover, it is not about the understanding of what is absent, but only of whatis really present.

A person, encouraged by a few questions, is able to describe the «content of their inner space. However, they are invited to advance in this a little further than they usually do.

How many cats are there?

Very often people describe their anxiety as cats are scratching my heart, my tower is bursting, etc. In such cases a psychiatrist begins to think about the medicine for a patient and a psychologist studies the conflict in the relationship that gave rise to such a state, but it is very unlikely that the patient will be asked the clarifying questions: How many cats? Color? Size? Did they start to tear your heart at the same time or one after another? Are the walls of the tower thick or thin? Is there anything gaseous or liquid in it? Is it like a mass or like a solid body? Anything else?

Therapy based on sensations opens an amazing opportunity through such questions to go to the energy charge associated with the experience.

The mouth of a shepherd

I was in my early twenties when I was attacked by a male shepherd dog. In the moment, when I saw its open mouth, I automatically put my hand in and grabbed its tongue following my fathers advice. So instead of closing its jaws, it tried to unclench them as much as possible. However, I did not know what to do next. The idea is to swing the dog away. Unfortunately, I realized this later, and had to wait for the owner to arrive. When I let the dog go, it bit my forearm. I still have scars from its teeth.

Why am I telling you this? Well, somatotherapy is something like inserting your hand into the mouth of a shepherd: a movement by the shortest path, then an open confrontation with the agent upsetting the consciousness, «grasping the tongue As we see, the most important thing is to understand what to do next.

Three types of psychotherapy

According to the tradition started by Freud, most types of psychotherapy seek to bring out what is hidden or pushed back. They consider dreams, free associations, and other manifestations of human mental activity, often similar to a complicated cipher. With the help of a secret code, which is known to a highly experienced psychotherapist, it is possible to open the deep mental movements of the patient during their collision and resolve the conflict.

This applies to the so-called psychodynamic tradition in psychotherapy, working with the content of symptoms in the in the collision of the souls motives. Since this approach considers the meaning of symptoms, it can be called psychosemantic.

The so-called clinical psychotherapy is not so interested in the meaning of symptoms, but very closely examines the basis on which they have grown. This psychotherapeutic tradition is addressed primarily to the human constitutional (body structure) and genetic type of the patient and helps a person with the specific traits of personality to find their place among other people. Clinical psychotherapy found its vivid expression in the works of Ernst Kretschmer, who, in my opinion, is a figure, at least equal to Freud.