Things in The Body

The direction of asking questions

Two spaces

The somatopsychotherapy questions are topographically structural: “where and what?” at the first stage, and “where to and what?” at the second one. The psychotherapist aims to help the patients find their sensation, associated with the certain experience, in their special internal space – the space of sensations. It is different from the one with the realities of the objective external world. The table which I am sitting at, the tree which I can see in front of me, the sky above me are outside my space of sensations. The space of things and the space of sensations complement each other. Both are parts of the reality of our consciousnesses. The reality associated with the external space can be called “the reality of open eyes’, whereas the internal one is “the reality of closed eyes.”

Psychocatalysis of awareness of the space of sensations reveals three areas of this «psychogenetic’ world which is parallel to the material world.

Three areas of self-awareness

The world of phenomena that opens up when referring to the “reality of sensations’ is rather rich. It consists of in-body sensations, sensations of an integral body, the “landscape’ sensations.

We will mainly be talking about in-body sensations. To begin with, we will mention the «boundary’ and «over boundary’ sensations, for example:

Someone is holding his shoulders up.

«What do you have on your shoulders?»

«A stone.» (or «a bag’, or «a log’, or «a pole with two buckets’, or

«my mother’, etc.)

(This is a state of neurotic, psychopathic responsibility, or concern.)

One more dialogue with another patient – a young woman.

«Who are you?»

«A pineapple.»

«Where are you?»

«On a plantation.»

«Is everything all right?»

«The peel’s damaged».

These are some more examples:

A man stretches his arm along the sofa, which he is sitting on, as if embracing someone invisible. You should ask him:

«Who is there?»

His answer can be:

«A cat. (or «my friend’)

«What for?»

«For calmness.» (or: «to reinforce my position.»)

A man is walking late at night. His right hand is clasped.

«Is there anything in your hand?»

«A gun.»

«Will you shoot it?»

«No.»

«What will you do with it?»

«Throw it away.»

He throws it away and starts to observe “an arsenal of weapons, both modern and ancient, including axes, etc., falling out of it. How about his left hand? Quite primitive tools like cudgels and stones are falling out of there. Disarmed, he continues his way under the highest protection with his hands lightweight and free.

The subjective space of each person, as it is described in this book, is saturated with different things and essences. Each of the elements of this internal world is «alive’ only because of a certain energy current, formed and fed by its carrier.

Perhaps, that is what Jung called «the semantic field¹⁹», Menegetti – the psychosemantic field, Arnold Mindell – «the field, the area in space, within which the force lines operate²⁰», Vasily Nalimov – «the Semantic Universe²¹.»

This work is focused on the phenomena of a person’s self-consciousness of their own mental space, namely, their in-body space. Knowing about the possibility of talking about «hallucinations’, somatopsychotherapy prefers to be interested in what «subsidizes’ their being, what charge is in the body consciousness. «Where is the feeling that makes you get armed?» (The feeling of fear in the stomach). «Where is the feeling that makes you shoulder the burden?»(The feeling of guilt in the chest).

Correlations

Here are some examples of correlation between a person’s awareness of the ‘body composition’, their own holistic image and “landscape’.

A woman feels that the cause of her deathly fatigue, which she complained of initially, is her greed. It comes out in the image of her gnarled hands with claws running into a bag, tied on her wrists, which turns out to be empty. She realizes herself as a rat, carrying everything into her hole.

Another woman has not left her house for fear of peeing in public for about eight years. In her stomach there is the sensation of a hot heavy lump, pulling together all her forces. The rest of her body is completely devastated, cold, and trembling. She feels like a fluffy animal-marten, locked in a cage.

A young man of twenty years old, suffering from inability to satisfy his sexual needs and experiencing failure in dating girls, feels on the hand a bracelet with spikes inside it which hurt him. It is the image of the painful circumstances that do not allow him to obtain the necessary warmth. He says, «I’m freezing, I’m cold!» In his chest there a is a black cloud with the solid black ice in it.

There are also natural correlates of good states that occur at the end of the work. They are usually characterized by a feeling of lightness, loss of body boundaries, merging with space: water, air, etc. BEST, which we have already mentioned, also encourages the identification of these «missing links’ in imaginative perception, both internal and external {«boundary’). («What are you lying on?» – «On the sand.»).

«Who are you?» and «Where are you?» are proven work approaches. But they are not presented in this book. They are additional to the question" What do you feel?». Further we will discuss the approach which I consider to be more effective and shorter. As I will not have the opportunity to illustrate the" Who are you?» and «Where are you?» approaches, I will give one of the examples of this kind of work, not only with diagnostic, but also therapeutic parts.

Escaped from captivity

Patient L. M., born in 1953, hesitates for a long time before starting to tell. “You do not understand… people have this kind of attitude! I fall asleep every time with one wish – not to wake up again.”

She feels as if lying on her stomach with a granite seven-story building crushing her. Her body is flattened, arms and legs do not even move, but her head is able to rotate. What is underneath her? Also, the stone. Her head is in abyss and at the bottom there is a river. The cliff is 30 meters deep. She is in constant stiffness. No medicine can help her.

«When you are clamped down, what do you feel?»

«Complete despair. I have been in this state for several years.»

She recalls the circumstances when she was «crushed by a granite rock’: «I worked at school and always wanted to do my best. (I had studied in a boarding school, and our director who loved and respected very much, used to say: whoever you are – a cleaner, or a minister – you must do your best. I forgot many of her words, but I remember those ones.) With no experience I had to be a class teacher. The result was good. A lot of responsibility. At the same time, I was studying in the university, my daughters were small… and suddenly – a conflict situation. The school has been allocated one place at a seaside resort. My daughter was in the school council. I knew how much she was doing there… Then the question arose, who would go there. They chose the director’s daughter. I started to argue. But the director said to me, «Resign, or we will crush you.» I started to work in a college. I thought it was a promotion. New environment, new job. I was always self-confident. But after some time, I faced the fact that… I must go to a lecture, but I do not remember anything. I was stressed.

After a month I resigned again. Doctors, pills. Even eating was hard. I did not talk. Just slept. My husband was surprisingly tactful. I started talking and smiling. Only a year later I felt better. Since then, as soon as there is a stressful situation, I change my job. I have changed ten places already. I don’t work anywhere for more than six months.»

Back to the actual. It is impossible to stay in the rock any longer, it threatens death. The patient thinks what to do, so do I. Maybe she should call for help.

«Did you try to call for help?»

«What is the use to shout if I know that here people can’t get here?»

«Perhaps, someone will be able,» we continue conversation searching for more real way out.

«My head is over an abyss, the river is roaring, and I hear what’s behind me,» says L. M.

«Should we go in the opposite direction?»

«It’s impossible.»

«Maybe just to relax and to take the weight.» I suggest her (meaning to die and to be reborn, to experience her own death to live).

«This is unacceptable for me.»

It turns out that to get out it is necessary to turn into someone or something, as in a fairy tale. We come to a joint conclusion.

«A stream? A bird? A snake?»

«A stream, going to a mountain river,» decides L. M., but immediately she gets scared. «I can fail to reach the river… But in any case, I start to flow.» She exhales.

«Are you out in an open place?»

«Yes, but my soul remained there. My desire is to take a knife and scrape it off. It is a balloon of some kind… not scraped off. The place, where my body was, is a cave now. My soul is in it, witnessing from above. I cannot see myself. Ball that you have to push, to pull away from those walls. Transparent. It’s like a river of fire down there. I did not notice it before… Maybe my soul is afraid? There is no blue coolness, but fiery tongues of flame, like lava.»

«Maybe you can go right or left, if you change your volume?» I suggest.

«Like whom? An ant!» L. M. exclaims and continues her description. «I get out of this cave (It is a huge space for an ant!) and go right. I see cracks in the ground, on the rocks… A long road. I don’t see any sky, nothing else,» the patient is perplexed.

«You’re an ant,» I guess. «So, you can’t see beyond the surface of the stones and the soil!»

«I’ve overcome a small stone,» reports L. M. and exhales. «But it is felt as a huge mountain!»

L. M. does not understand where to go next.

«Back?»

«No. There is a river below. To the right! Yes, to the right… Now I am in my proper person, trying to go right. No people, no one, nothing. But I have the feeling that, if I go this way, I will reach some place. I must find it… I will walk along this path.»

She finishes the session and opens her eyes, now glowing with a completely different light.

Comment. Identifying the «fairy tale’, in which a person lives, can be productive. The contact with that patient was interrupted for external reasons after a short cycle of meetings. It was obvious to me that the neurotic facade was hiding (or opening?) serious constitutional problems: emotional instability, sensitivity. The leading characterological radical was cycloidal, «expressed’ in her appearance (round face, plumpness). Also, L. M. had a thin neck, which questioned her ability to adapt successfully without supporting work.

Four years later I was talking to her again. L. M. testified that, thanks to our sessions, in many cases she was able to stop her anxiety by asking herself: “What do I feel? Do I feed it or not?” etc., And thus, she saved herself from much stress. However, there was no complete peace of mind. Moreover, six months ago she was in the hospital, being treated with amitriptyline, so she gained weight. She did not have any psychotherapy since then. She worked in two other places. In one case, she resigned because of the difficulties in fulfilling a new job, in the other – because of the dissolution of the company. She experienced increased stress because of the difficulties in acquiring additional skills and qualifications at new places of work and because of problems with her relatives with her daughter.

I asked L. M. to describe her present «landscape’ of feelings. She easily continued the description:

«A high steep bank of the river. The sun is shining ahead. There is a thick forest behind, which is hard to go through. I can go left or right. I am in the state of a deep thought.»

She recollects that for a long time she was thinking about the phrase: «You cannot enter the same river twice» until she decided to talk to her husband. Now she wants to enter this bright river, but the cliff is so high and steep!

«What does this river symbolize for you?» «It’s a symbol of the future.»

«Suppose you are already in the river, what happened?»

«If I went into the river, it would, probably, be easier for me.»

«Why?»

«I would feel saved from thirst and heat.»

«So, are feeling heat now?»

«Terrible heat. My soul burns».

«Coals or open flame?»

«Flame.»

«What your state does of it express?

«Anxiety for loved ones.»

«How many such «alarms’ do you have?»

«Five: unsuccessful marriage of my daughter; absence work and fear of work; the relations with my mother-in-law; worries for the husband, for his health, for my younger daughter.»

«How many percent of your force does it take?»

«Fifty, at least. I am thinking about it all the time. When I am talking to someone and thinking about the problems, my fear is amplified. When I have a pleasant talk (I have a neighbor who can reassure), the flame ceases. When I talk to my daughter, the flames blazes.»

Comment. Note that all the experiences of L. M. are actual and real. Her daughter, for example, is unhappy in marriage. She is in the position of a slave with a stingy husband, who is much older than she and blackmails her, threatening to take away their child.

L. M.’s reaction itself is natural. But the intensity of her worries about the unresolved problems harms her own health and the very solution of those problems.

The diagnosis of cyclothymia in this case is not excluded, taking into consideration the constitutional features of the patient.

As a doctor, I was pleased to hear that she had irrevocably left the «cave in the granite rock’. Her hesitation in entering the river of the future was a problem. Working on her «landscape’, it would be necessary to achieve «smoothing of a cliff’, so that she could feel herself close to water, or in the water.

Although the «landscape’ work can be effective, it is, in my opinion, not the best one. The most convenient way to achieve levelling, «smoothing of the cliff’ is by identifying the feasibility of such worries, by redirecting sensations of heat-heaviness inside the body. The landscape will be changed by inner calmness.

A stone in seaweed

Working with the images “who are you?” and “where are you?” are like working with concentric circles from a stone thrown into water. If you want to get the stone that on the bottom of the reservoir, it is better to dive into its center. The seaweed, growing around, can be mixed up, and the search under water can be difficult.

The advantage of turning to inner feelings is that they convey information about the main thing, which is the state of the one who sees everything directly, not implicitly. Everyone is in the “landscape’, which they are “ready to be in.

Of course, it is possible to perceive circumstances in a synchronistic way, as equal to the state. Zen Buddhists are known to equate the expressions «It is hot, that is why I sweat,» and «I sweat, that is why it is hot» (Alan Watts). This is correct if we proceed from the belief that nothing depends on the will of a person. However, if to adhere to European «active life position’ and choose what depends on a person not indirectly, but directly, the thesis" Start with yourself» still has a meaning. In this case, among others, there can be the question: «Shall I sweat or take an umbrella?»

F. Perls divided «consciousness’ into three zones: self-awareness, awareness of the world and awareness of what lies between those two²². He proclaimed the principle of «from the actual.» But what is offered to the patient in therapy is rather the «reality of things.» D. Simkin testifies that in gestalt therapy he seeks to adjust his patient to the perception of what is happening «here and now’. The patients «can see the room in which we are, hear sounds or feel their body, which is comfortable or uncomfortable in the chair, etc.²³». There is no shift to «unusual’ perception with this approach.

Let us summarize this chapter.

What’s inside is primary

When closing their eyes, people begin to see with their inner vision the composition of their world. There is a correlation between the “things’, which are the charges they carry in themselves, and the world in which they live, their position in it, and their environment.

While exploring the nature of their charges, they can choose what ’to feed’ and what «to turn off’. With this inner transformation they anticipate their entry into the new world. The new world appears as soon as its contributor is ready.

Somatopsychotherapy focuses on the elaboration within the component of bodily sensations.

Characteristics of what is found in the body

In case of introspection, no one found bones, muscles, vessels, nerves, but only a variety of light and darkness, heaviness and lightness, heat and cold, density and sparsity. These are the peculiarities of human self-perception. In rare cases, which apply mainly to doctors or lovers of scientific and popular medical literature, the patients begin to talk about their feelings of, for example, vessels in the head. «Are they thick or thin?» we specify in such an unusual situation. «Are there one, three, five, or ten of them?» Pretty soon, people of such «natural- scientific’ mindset stop to transfer their once acquired knowledge, and move on to describe their real inner sensations in the categories of weight, color, consistency, material, temperature, etc.

The quasi-material

The artist Kandinsky complained that in the physical world there are no colors that convey the colors of the metaphysical world. We can only talk about the similarity of sensations from the contemplation of the first and second ones, but, in any case, not about the identity of impressions²⁴. The characteristics of the world of the “open eyes’ are used to describe things of the world of the “closed eyes.” It is obvious that we can talk only about the similarity of what is felt inside as physical pounds, centimeters, and degrees. Things of consciousness are described by the characteristics of material things.

Jung used to say the same about the so-called «landscape’ images. «The principle of conscious life is: Nihil est in intellectu, quod non prius fuerit in sensu. (There is nothing in consciousness that was not previously in sensation (lat.). But the principle of the unconscious is the independence of the soul itself, reflecting its images in its game: not the world, but itself, even if it uses the illustrative possibilities provided by the conscious world to make its images clear (emphasis by A. E.)²⁵" In the somatopsychotherapeutic process, a patient also uses «illustrative opportunities provided by the outside world’ to clarify what they are experiencing inside. Of course, there cannot be literal understanding of the patient’s report: «I have a kilogram of wood in my head.» Both the patient and the doctor understand that they talk about sensations.

Heat in the feet

There is a contour of sensations, adequate to each of the normal human states. In particular, the state of rest corresponds to the coolness of the forehead, warmth in the hands and feet, as noted by I. Schultz and as it is advised by the proverb: “Keep your feet warm, and your head – cool.” Joy corresponds to the feeling of being filled with inner light. Love gives the feeling of subsistence of the whole being with warmth and light and readiness to fly.

Being in one of the negative states (resentment, anger, anxiety, etc.) corresponds to the disturbed contour of sensations. Feelings gather in one of the areas of the body, a person’s soul «shrinks’ and «pupates.

A touchstone

In one of the philosophical conversations my opponent declared: “Is there any criteria of truth of life of a person?” I answered him: “Yes, there is! They are the sensations in the body. If the sensations are evenly distributed, the warmth reaches the tips of the fingers and toes, and there are no concentrates plundering the filling at the level of the head, or chest, or abdomen, you are on the right path. But, if there are some concentrates, if the hands or feet are cold (or the forehead is not cool), something is wrong.”

Spinoza said: «Veritas est index sui et falsi» (Truth is the criterion of itself and of lie). This is absolutely true. The even distribution of filling in the body is the «touchstone both of itself and of lie.» However, it should be clarified if the examining is not in winter and not of a long-armed asthenic, the heat in the hands is not a result of the drug or does not occur due to hypersthenic constitution.

I would also include the patients’ relatives in the concept of a «human body’. If in their bodies the sensations are evenly distributed according to their activity, then they live right.

“Heat – heaviness’

Perhaps this is what the Hindus called prana, the Chinese – qi, Mesmer – magnetic fluid, Freud – libido, Reich – orgone, and his follower Lowen – bioenergy.

It is difficult to talk about the nature of this phenomenon. Wilhelm Reich (1897—1957) asserted confidently: «Cosmic orgonic energy exists in living organisms as a specific biological energy. By this capacity it controls the whole organism and is expressed in emotions, as well as in biophysical movements of organs²⁶.» However, he decided on it not at once. «What is biopsychic energy?» he asked a rhetorical question. Further he answered: «This question for me, as a clinician, who had to treat sexual disorders in people, in other words, neuroses (Reich equated neuroses and sexual disorders. – A. E.), remained unanswered after 60 years of sexual research in the world of science, 40 years of development of psychoanalysis and almost 20 years of my own work on the theory of orgasm²⁷.»

It is known that Reich’s beliefs did not found support in the medical community, although, according to Kelly (1979), nowadays there is no serious work that would refute this theory.

«The brief psychological dictionary», on the contrary, is very concrete in determining the source of energy for emotional reactions: «The level of energy mobilization (activation) of the body, necessary for the emotional functions, is provided by the autonomic nervous system in its interaction with the structures of the brain that makes up the central substrate of emotions²⁸.» Further we will discuss the nature of bodily sensations in different emotional states.

For reasons of scientific correctness and consistent implementation of the phenomenological approach, which will be discussed below, I prefer to think about what is felt in the body when experiencing, in a different way. This is a kind of subjectively felt substance that is noticeably collected in the forehead with anxiety, in the back of the head – with overcontrol of the situation, in the temples – with irritation, in the chest – with resentment and grief, in the stomach – with fear and jealousy. I call it «the substance of the heat-heaviness’, or «HH», by the main (though not only) sensations that accompany its movement and concentration. However, the term «HH» sometimes have to be replaced by the more general one – «energy’, because it is the strength of the body response that correlates with the amount of «HH», gathered in a particular place.

This is something that determines the quantitative characteristics of the experience. It is the mass, involved in the experience of «HH», depends on how upset the state of a person. Gathering in certain places in the process of forming of pathological charges, it becomes the source of an unpleasant weight and unpleasant heat. When relaxing, the same «substance’ moves to the periphery of the former focus of tension and determines the feeling of «a pleasant heaviness’ and «pleasant heat’, described by Schultz in the book «Autogenic training». It is the HH substance that is distributed in the body in the process of calming down (we will talk about it at the therapeutic phase), acquiring the characteristics of light, air, liquid or even a thick mass, spreading in all directions, sometimes painful at first, and filling the periphery, like the long-awaited rain, irrigating fields suffering from drought.

The body is the contour map of the soul

The idea that each area of the body is simultaneously a zone of consciousness, is known since ancient times. These are Indian ideas about chakras as special energy centers, which are simultaneously centers of consciousness; Chinese ideas about energy channels in which the psychic energy “Shen’ circulates, etc. The idea of the heart as an organ of consciousness is developed in Orthodoxy. (St. Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky); not recognized canonically.

The observations by Ferenczi, Reich and Lowen, who developed the «somatic approach» in psychoanalysis²⁹, are significant in the context of this discussion. These authors considered the relationship between muscle tension and mental function in general. Reich formulated the thesis about the functional identity of muscle tension and emotional block. Lowen came to the idea of «functional unity of character and muscle rigidity pattern.» Earlier Freud assumed that «Self» is bodily first of all («Self and Id»): «Self», undoubtedly, is generated by bodily feelings, its sources mainly lie on a body surface». A little later we will mention Henri Bergson, who also spoke about the effects of muscle tension in the process of experiencing (back in 1889).

Those authors, consistently seeking to supplement the «analysis from above’ with the «analysis from below’ (the expression by Sandor Ferenczi), revealed the relationship between the levels of the body and experiences of various kinds. They were mainly investigating in the surface of the body: «relaxation exercises’ (Ferenci), study of «muscle shell’ (Reich), poses, body positions (Lowen).

The “good and evil’ book

Where do the equivalents of different states find their place?

Head:

– forehead – anxiety

– temples – irritation

– back of the head – responsibility, the need to control the situation

– top of the head – osteochondrosis of the spine, «poor nutrition’ of the head (later we will talk about the origin of psychic bodily sensations)

Chest: resentment, anxiety, spite, anguish, grief.

Abdomen: solar plexus area – fear, anger.

Archpriest Eugene Popov tried to present a list of «sins against the ten commandments of God.» In this book³⁰ there were 1087 pages. If we consider that the beginnings for sins and the beginnings for neuroses are often the same, the list of neuroses may be no less. And each of them «rents’ its area of the body. Each SPT work provides new material for the creation of a detailed atlas of «continents’ and «islands’ of experiences of the human body. Here are the most common ones, although if you want you can make a detailed map of the passions. The body acts as the «contour map’, which describes the location of the structures of consciousness.

The body is a beautiful reference point. In the register of the body marks there could appear even little things like the consequences of undeclared gratitude to the abandoned places (say, school) or discarded containers (boxes, bottles, packages). These areas are located on the sternum below the level of the nipples. Hands from shoulders to fingertips are reference points for recording relationships with trees, herbs, amphibians, birds. If a person uses a tree in their household without a sense of gratitude to it, the right humerus is tightened with a birch bark, and it turns out that shoulder is bound for a reason. If a person once burned the grass, the area of «shoulder girdle’ hurts. The sins to the birds are recorded below in the forearms, to the animals – in the legs.

So, we can assume that the «book of good and evil’, which, according to the beliefs of Christians, angels and demons read on the Day of judgement and where all the sins and virtues of a persons are recorded, are they themselves, the bodies of their souls. SPT, using psychocatalysis, helps the patient «to read’ this book before it is read to them, and to change its content, to decide which pages are to be included

The periodic system of experiences

In the periodic system by D. I. Mendeleev, the qualities of some elements, such as sodium, potassium, rubidium, cesium, are similar. All these elements belong to the same category of alkali metals. However, they repeat their qualities on new registers, having a new core charge and a new number of electronic shells. The commonality of their characteristics is explained by the fact that at the external level of all these elements have the same number of electrons that can connect with other elements. The repeatability of the characteristics of experiences in the human body resembles the repeatability of the characteristics of chemical elements in periods. The experiences are found in strictly defined parts of the physical body. The experience of a seemingly close orientation, such as anger, irritation, anger, differ precisely in the fact that they occupy different “territories.” Irritation is concentrated in the temples, spite – in the chest, anger– in the stomach.

It is known that clinical psychotherapy differs, say, anxiety and fear. What is the criterion of their differentiation? Fear is objective, anxiety is objectless. In SPT, these states, which are distinguished by the patients themselves, show their non-identity in a special way. They are experienced at different levels of the body: fear – at the level of the abdomen (animal), worry – at the level of the heart (soul), anxiety – at the level of the forehead (head).

There are several such «rows.»

Multipolarity of experiences and dreams

In somatic analysis some dreams can be traced to an interesting phenomenon: the different parts of the dreams correspond to sensations in different areas of the body. As an example, there are some dreams of M., a young man, who was prone to drunkenness. He dreams that he is between two slopes of the mountains, in front of him there is a big pile of shit, and behind him there rolls a huge ball.

When asked about the feelings associated with each part of the dream, he replied as follows. The image of «the pile of shit’ corresponds to the feeling in the forehead. There is a plate of parabolic antenna there. This corresponds to his experience of self-concern: «I am aware of it, I understand it. I do not want to get there,» says the patient.