Memories of the body

The Bombbor publishing house represents the book by the psychotherapist Babetta Rothschild “Memoirs of the Body. Psychophysiology and therapy of psychological trauma. "

After any traumatic experience, not only our brain, but also the body stores the memory. Often all our nightmares, flashbacks, sensations and emotions are given to pain and discomfort, fatigue and weight. The body refuses to be ignored and attracts attention in all possible ways.

The world -famous psychotherapist with forty -year experience of clinical practice Babetta Rothschild in his new book “Memories of the Body. Psychophysiology and therapy of psychological trauma ”explains what sensations and reactions arise after the injuries and stress, and gives practical exercises to get rid of them. She will also tell how the body reacts to forgotten injuries, will teach to use bodily memory in therapy and develop bodily awareness. Babetta Rothschild serves the entire scientific theory in an easily accessible form so that it can be easily embedded in practice.

We offer to read one of the sections of the book.

Emotions and body

Despite the fact that emotions are called and interpreted by our mind, they are an unconditional experience of the body. Each emotion has its own bodily expression. Each is characterized by its special pattern of the contraction of the skeletal muscles, which manifests itself in the face and in the body of the body (somatic nervous system). In addition, each emotion is felt differently inside the body. Various patterns of contractions of the visceral muscles are perceived by us as bodily sensations (inner feeling). Then these sensations are transmitted to the brain through proprioceptive nerves. The way emotion manifests itself outside, in the expression of the face and pose, conveys it to the people around us. The way the emotion is felt inside the body transfers it to us. To a large extent, each emotion is the result of the interaction between the sensory, autonomic and somatic nervous systems, which is interpreted in the cerebral cortex.

English is a little clumsy when it comes to distinguishing between experiencing emotions in our minds and experiencing bodily sensations. The words “feeling”, “feel” with us usually mean both: I feel sadness, and I feel a lump in my throat. However, it is possible that it is no coincidence that the word “feel” means both facets of experience - as a semantic recognition that emotions include bodily sensations. A possible way out of this confusion may be to establish the difference between feelings, emotions and affects. Donald Natanson (1992) proposed his decision of this dilemma. He distinguishes affect as a biological aspect of emotion, and feeling as a conscious experience. Memory, in his opinion, is necessary to create emotion, while affects and feelings can exist without information about previous experience.

The fact that emotions are in some way connected with the body should not cause surprise. In everyday speech - in many languages ​​- we meet many phrases that reflect the connection of emotions and body, psyche and catfish. Here are a few examples from American English:

• Anger - he is a real splinter in one place.

• sadness - my throat intercepted.

• Disgust - I feel sick of him.

• Happiness - I just burst out with happiness.

• Fear - I have frost on the skin.

• Shame - I can't raise my eyes on you.

Most people have a physical sensation of emotions - that is, how emotion is felt in the body - also similarly:

• Anger - muscle tension, especially jaws and shoulders.

• sadness - moisturizes the eyes, the feeling of a coma in the throat.

• disgust - nausea.

• Happiness - deep breathing, sighs.

• Fear - rapid heartbeat, trembling.

• Shame - blood rushes to the face, the skin burns.

There is also a typical physical behavior that accompanies every emotion:

• Anger - scream, fight.

• sadness - tears.

• disgust - turning away from the object/subject of disgust.

• Happiness is laughter.

• Fear - flight, trembling.

• Shame - attempts to hide.

And, of course, emotions expressed on the face and in a pose are usually easily recognized by a third -party person (although some of them are much thinner):

• Anger - compressed jaws, red neck.

• sadness - tears or reddened, moistened eyes.

• A disgust is a wrinkled nose and an elevated upper lip.

• Happiness is a smile, shiny eyes.

• Fear - wide open eyes with raised eyebrows, trembling, pallor.

• Shame - flashed cheeks, a look to the side.

Emotions are manifested from the first moments of life outside the womb. The first cry of a newborn, when he takes his first breath, can be completely interpreted as the first expression of emotions. The emotional repertoire of the newborn is very limited. At first, he is able to distinguish only discomfort and comfort, crying or screaming in response to the first and calm down in response to the second. During the first weeks of life, the variability of emotions is scarce. However, it grows quite quickly, nuances appear within the “Comfort/Discomfort” range.

There are several theoretical models of emotions. The theme of individual individual affects is still the subject of disputes, but most of the models include one or another form of “anger”, “sadness”, “fear”, “disgust”, “happiness” and “shame”. Of course, as a person calls his own emotions, can vary depending on how such emotions were called in his family and culture. However, in this chapter we are not interested in what this or that emotion is called. In relation to the discussion of the relationship between the experience of injury and body, it is important for us how emotion is felt and expressed.

Selected theories of the relationship of emotions and bodies

Cross-cultural study of Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin was the first scientist who, on a systematic basis, began to investigate the versatility of emotions and somatic features of their expression in humans. In 1867, he conducted a survey of a group of missionaries, as well as people who lived around the world among different cultures: Aborigines, Indians, Africans, Indians, Chinese, Malays and Ceylon. Darwin asked strictly defined questions to find out whether the types of emotions and their observed expressions in different cultures are comparable to each other. He discovered that there is not only a significant commonality of the entire spectrum of emotions in unrelated and often isolated cultures, but also unity in the somatic expression of these emotions (Darwin, 2001). Studying the works of Darwin, you practically have no doubt that emotions and their manifestation in the body are similar everywhere in the world.

Tomkins theory of affects

The theory of the affects of Silvan Tomkins was born simultaneously with his first child. When he witnessed a significant event, he was struck by the emotional outburst of the baby, the similarity of his scream with a cry of an adult. Thanks to this impulse, he devoted himself to the study of the similarities of the expression of emotions throughout generations. He tried to classify each identified affect in accordance with his physical expression, noting not only the expression of the face characteristic of each of them, but also changes in the body position. Donald Natanson (1992) later developed Tomkin's theory.

Joseph Leda and emotional brain

Joseph's concepts Leda about the relationship of the body and emotions are well known and enjoy great authority. He recognizes the interdependence of the brain and body, as well as the bodily expression of emotions. He believes that the evolutionary function of emotions is associated with survival, which is understood as the fight against the hostile environment and as the development of the species through the continuation of the genus (Ledoux, 1996).

Hypothesis of somatic markers Antonio Damasio

Neurologist Antonio Damasio worked with people who had damage to the areas of the brain associated with emotions. He found that emotions are necessary for rational thinking. In addition, he found out that bodily sensations serve as a kind of key to a person’s awareness of his emotions. As a result of research, Damasio (1994) came to the conclusion that in order to be able to make a rational decision, one must be able to feel the consequences of this decision. Simple projection of cognitive judgment is not enough; Its sensation is important. According to Damasio, emotion is a conglomerate of sensations, positive and negative, experienced to varying degrees. They form what he called somatic markers that we use to make decisions. That is, bodily sensations underlie emotions and are the basis for weighing the consequences of our solution, determining the direction of our actions and our preferences.

The most recognizable example of the action of somatic markers is the choice that people make every day on the basis of their “intuition”.

Somatic basis of emotions

Below you are offered an exercise consisting of four parts. Its goal is to give you the direct experience of what we mean by the somatic basis of emotions.

Step 1. Give yourself a minute to study the sensations of your body right now, at the moment. Pay attention to your breathing - where it is located, how deep it is. What is the temperature of your skin, is it the same throughout the body? Check the heart rate - either subjectively or measuring the pulse. Check the position of your shoulders - they are raised, lowered, stooped? Are they tense or relaxed? Pay attention to the sensations in your stomach-the stomach is relaxed, tense, you are hungry, etc. Finally, pay attention, move, twist or whether you tilt your body or any part of it in a certain way.

Step 2. Think about the emotions of anger. Remember, when the last time you got angry. Can you cause at least part of that anger? Why are you angry or to whom? What did you say or thought? Do you feel echoes of that anger now? Now again pay attention to the sensations in your body: check your breath, skin temperature, heart rate, shoulder position, sensation in the abdomen. Also pay attention to the position of your body, to a pose, to some likely actions. What has changed compared to step 1: autonomic signs, muscle tension, movement?

Step 3. Remember the time when you felt happy and safe. Where were you? What were you dressed in? Who were you with? Remember as many visual, auditory and sensory images of this scene as possible. What do you feel in your body? Have the sensations changed compared to when you felt anger? Is your muscle tension the same or has changed? And the heart rhythm? Are you smiling?

Step 4. Remember the time when you felt fear. Do not choose a terrible and traumatic event - only where you experienced little fear. What scared you so much? When do you remember this now, what is happening in your body? Has the breath changed? Has the heart rhythm changed? Muscles became tense or relaxed? What is the temperature of your arms and legs?

Before completing the exercise, return to the memories of the time when you felt happy and safe. Call the images of the place that you did at that moment, other people who were then present. What do you feel in your body now?

Emotions and trauma

Anger/rage

Anger is an emotion of self -defense. It may include efforts to prevent injury or to defend personal boundaries. This is a completely natural reaction to a threat caused by pain or fright, including in relation to the person who caused this. Anger can grow into a rage with an excessive threat or when the calls are "not necessary!" Or "Stop!" The actions did not take. When anger or rage becomes chronic after a traumatic incident, after a person’s life, tangible difficulties may arise in a person’s life. Inappropriate or incorrectly directed anger can interfere with interpersonal and working relations; provocation by others to anger may be a different possible problem. How many cases of "road rage", for example, are caused by a temper that is rooted in unresolved injury?!

Anxiety/Fear/Horror

Fear warns a person about danger or potential negative impact. Both fear and anxiety are common emotions for people with PTS and PTSR. Leda (1996) makes a distinction between them: fear, in his opinion, is stimulated by something in the environment; Anxiety is stimulated inside the person himself. Leda also considers fear as the driving force of several psychological disorders: phobias, alarming and panic disorders, as well as obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Horror is an extreme form of fear. It occupies a central place in the experience of injury, which includes (perception) of the threat of life. The biology of fear is based on the features of the functioning of GGN-Osi and the excitation of the sympathetic nervous system, which were discussed earlier in this chapter. As soon as the traumatic incident is completed, horror usually becomes fear, even among those who suffer from the consequences of the experience. However, with a memory, horror can return in all its original intensity.

One of the problems of people with TCP and PTSR is that fear remains long after the threat has disappeared, gradually associated with an increasing number of incentives from the environment. The fear that they once experienced as a result of an external threat becomes anxiety generated from the inside. As mentioned earlier, this can be caused by insufficient production of cortisol or a chronic perception of the threat. Whatever the reason, the result for a person is very exhausting. When fear is tested at a chronic level, its protective function decreases. When almost everything is perceived as a risk, the ability to distinguish what is really dangerous, is lost. This is similar to a security alarm, which is triggered on the slightest reason. You never know whether it works because of a real threat or not. People with PTSD are also characterized by the fact that they repeatedly fall into dangerous situations. Their internal signaling systems are so overloaded that, in fact, they do not work. One of the results of work with the injury is the restoration of the protective function of fear.

Shame: disappointment in yourself

Shame is a complex emotion with which it is difficult to work regardless of the context. This is especially true if shame occurs as a result of injury. In people with PTSD, a sense of shame is an impressive component of their condition. It is believed that shame will be an undoubted component of PTSD, if the injury is the result of sexual violence. However, he is less expected for other circumstances. But why then shame is a common feature for other categories of injuries? With almost any unresolved injury, the question arises: “Why couldn't I stop it (do more, give a rebuff, run away, etc.)?” Perhaps people with PTSD at some deep level believe that they failed themselves (and, possibly, others) and/or something is wrong with them if they became victims of this case. Of course, shame is not the only driving power of PTSR, but, of course, its important factor.

One of the difficulties of working with a sense of shame is that it is not expressed and is not released in the same way as other feelings: sadness and grief are released through crying, anger - through scream and stomping with their feet, fear - through scream and trembling. What then can be done to facilitate shame, if it does not discharge, does not go through discharge or catharsical experiences? Acceptance and contact are the most likely keys to getting rid of a sense of shame. Although it seems that it is not discharged, shame is visible in a visible way under completely special circumstances - an impartial, accepting contact with another human being.

Speaking of a feeling of shame, it is worth considering it on both sides. Usually, shame is perceived as a terrible emotion, because it is such a terrible experience - to feel shame. Who wants to feel shame? However, shame, like any other affect, is a value for our survival. Fear, for example, warns of danger, while anger signals another not to approach a step (in the literal or figurative sense). What then is the value of shame for survival? Shame, at least in the process of evolution, helped maintain the behavior of the individual in accordance with cultural norms that contribute to the “survival of the tribe”. It contributes to socialization and is its generally accepted component in many cultures. For millennia, this emotion has been caused when a person’s behavior threatened not only himself, but his entire group. Shame is one of those elements that prevent us from behaving so that it can harm us, our families and our community. It is likely that this is an emotion underlying conscience. That is, shame is not so bad. It is well known that acceptance is the first step in resolving any undesirable emotional state, and understanding the positive function of shame can help in achieving this.

Woe/sorrow

Woe is a reaction to loss or change in life. This is a great resource in the treatment of injury and PTSD. By its nature, grief (or sorrow) is a sign that the experience has gone into the past. When the client who survived the injury reaches the stage at which sorrow occurs, this is usually considered a positive sign. Sometimes the client is afraid that his grief is a regression into injury, but usually this is just the opposite - progressive healing. When working with the awareness of bodily sensations, most customers notice that their grief helps them to feel more confident and less timid. Sorrow usually occurs at various stages of injury therapy, when some aspect of the injury is allowed and internal experience changes from the present to the past: “I was really scared”, “it was really menacing”, etc. In this context, sorrow is a sign of what healing occurs.

Constructive and destructive expression of emotions: sentence

The concepts of catharsis and abrection are often interchangeable and are used to describe the expression of emotions in the environment of the psychotherapeutic session. In fact, catharsis refers to the cleansing power of emotions, when anxious memories pass into consciousness. Abrectia is an emotional discharge that often accompanies catharsis. Regardless of how to call these outbreaks of emotions, it is necessary to be cautioned, especially with customers who have survived the injury.

Currently, among experts, debates are underway regarding the usefulness of abreaction in the treatment of PTSD. When the client cries or expresses anger, it is not always easy to determine whether such an emotion helps or only worsens the situation. Basically, the issue of whether to allow or encourage abrection should be discussed. However, the most important is the question here: when abrection helps, and when not?

These disputes indicate another important field of research: how to distinguish constructive abrection from destructive. Can observation of the excitation of the autonomic nervous system (APS) during the treatment of injuries give us the key to distinguishing these two extremes in the expression of emotions - that which seems to be healing and constructive, and that which can be destroying and, possibly, lead to retracinmatization?

It is possible that healing abrection can be determined by the signs of primary parasympathetic arousal: the skin gains color, deep breathing, emotional sounds come on exhalation. On the other hand, it is possible that destructive abrection has signs of mainly sympathetic arousal: the skin is pale, sometimes sticky, rapid breathing, sometimes abrupt, emotional sounds come mainly on inspiration. The study of the ANS for the differentiation of the two indicated types of abrection can greatly facilitate and simplify the therapeutic process.