Chapter 5 - Mind-body Connection
Our previous chapters have addressed the phenomenon of learning to feel in a particular way, the storage of that learning and its haphazard origins. The presentations have also been intended to illustrate that there is another way to look at the business of ‘therapy’, beyond ‘talking therapies’, and another way to look at the business of ‘self-improvement’ beyond ‘affirmations’ and ‘think yourself better’. The meta-systemic view of Affectology (a broad view, but with a spotlight on preverbal affect) is that there exists another dimension to the facts relating to emotion and feeling, and that there exists in all of us, aspects of self that cannot be cognitively defined.
But all of that information remains merely academic unless we look at what are the results of that phenomenon and exactly how our lives are affected by emotional learnings. In a time-honored way, we again draw on science in its certainty of the neural connectedness of brain, body, organs, systems and sub-systems. Is it really every thought that affects every cell in our body, or every feeling? If it’s the latter, what are the implications?
A Swift Tour Through the Development of the Brain
It may be worth pointing out here that I refer to the matter of “survival” in two distinctly different ways, each referring to a function of two different features of the brain. In evolutionary terms, the reptilian brain came on the scene first. It was, among other things, responsible for an animal’s physical and environmental survival (life, preferable to death).
Later in the hominization* process, the mammalian brain developed along with its constituent part, the limbic system. The "old mammalian" brain evolved in our mammalian ancestors in an environment of constant danger of being killed by larger animals. Mammals that overreacted to signs of danger had better chances of survival than those who under-reacted. So evolution selected in favor of amygdalae that overreacted to survival threats.
*Hominization: the theorized evolutionary development of human characteristics that set hominids apart from
other primates
That's why some modern humans have amygdalae that are overly sensitive to perceived threats. Some people's amygdalae seem hair-triggered to generate strong feelings that drive emotional overreactions.
In addition to strong feelings and emotions, the amygdalae stimulate the release of fight/flight and stress hormones (see “Alarm Bells”, below). A hugely interesting but indeterminate aspect of how these two ‘brains’ operate is what can be called a ‘freeze’ response. The reptilian brain has a highly effective freeze response that is directed toward physiological survival. In evolutionary terms, this “freezing” and remaining motionless may have been essential to escape detection by a predator. So, from that perspective, the reptilian brain can produce a “play dead” or freeze response.
On the other hand, the later mammalian brain – or more specifically, the amygdalae – has potential to produce a similar reaction. But this is ‘same reaction, different process.’ The existence of well-developed neural pathways between the limbic system and the cerebral cortex (and neocortex) mean that an amygdaloid stimulus can cause a ‘play dead’ or freeze reaction of an entirely different nature than that of the reptilian survival reaction.
This “deer in the headlights” style of stunned immobility probably results from some small cognitive influence brought about by an added neural pathway stimulation of the neocortex. Added to the quasi-trance-like state there can be a “what do I do now?” quality to the experience that can also be remembered at limbic level.
Through perseveration of a similar response through childhood, adolescence and into adulthood, this ‘what do I do now?’ modus vivendi* can go on to contribute to many forms of helplessness and depression or depression-like personality and behavioral characteristics in adulthood.
*Modus Vivendi (Lat): A manner of living; a way of life.
So, owing to the brain’s developmental structure, the issue of ‘survival’ can have two quite different meanings; one, physical life-or-death survival, the other, a maintenance of equilibrium of a particular state of learned emotion (albeit obsolete). In the context of this site's information, and in Affectology, the second meaning is the relevant one.
The Autonomic Nervous System
Fundamental to our existence is the central nervous system (CNS) that carries electrical impulses to the entire body – a highly complex message system. The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is that aspect of the overall nervous system that is responsible for the transmission of signals to other systems of the body in order to create fluctuation and regulation of the somatic manifestations of those systems.
Some of the more important systems that are affected by the ANS are: respiratory (lungs), pulmonary (heart and blood vessels), tear and sweat glands, digestive, metabolic, hormonal, immune, gastro-intestinal, genitourinary and auto-phagocytic (the body’s capacity to clear away extraneous cells). The ANS is responsible for the control of not only these systems, but every organ of the body that is part of those systems.
Psychosomatic scientists and practitioners fully believe that every cell and organ of the body is directly influenced by, and driven by, the brain and its generalized functioning. Traditional Japanese thought was that every disease is caused by a dis-ease of the mind. Clinical Affectologists accept (and operate from that acceptance) that there exists a direct neuro-physiological “drive pathway” from the amygdala and its emotional encodings via the limbic brain stem and ANS to every organ, every system and sub-system and cell of the body.
This re-addresses a topic that we discussed in Chapter 4 – Emotional Hijacking – but it’s important to get the picture that reactions and ‘message drivers’ utilizing the autonomic nervous system immediately originate in the amygdaloid-hippocampal pathway, and are maintained by the information also originating from the amygdala.
Alarm Bells and Rest Times
The functioning of the ANS is basically divided into two distinct aspects, known as the sympathetic phase and the parasympathetic phase. We’ve all heard of the fight or flight response, so let’s look at what occurs during that phenomenon.
Our previous chapters have addressed the phenomenon of learning to feel in a particular way, the storage of that learning and its haphazard origins. The presentations have also been intended to illustrate that there is another way to look at the business of ‘therapy’, beyond ‘talking therapies’, and another way to look at the business of ‘self-improvement’ beyond ‘affirmations’ and ‘think yourself better’. The meta-systemic view of Affectology (a broad view, but with a spotlight on preverbal affect) is that there exists another dimension to the facts relating to emotion and feeling, and that there exists in all of us, aspects of self that cannot be cognitively defined.
But all of that information remains merely academic unless we look at what are the results of that phenomenon and exactly how our lives are affected by emotional learnings. In a time-honored way, we again draw on science in its certainty of the neural connectedness of brain, body, organs, systems and sub-systems. Is it really every thought that affects every cell in our body, or every feeling? If it’s the latter, what are the implications?
A Swift Tour Through the Development of the Brain
It may be worth pointing out here that I refer to the matter of “survival” in two distinctly different ways, each referring to a function of two different features of the brain. In evolutionary terms, the reptilian brain came on the scene first. It was, among other things, responsible for an animal’s physical and environmental survival (life, preferable to death).
Later in the hominization* process, the mammalian brain developed along with its constituent part, the limbic system. The "old mammalian" brain evolved in our mammalian ancestors in an environment of constant danger of being killed by larger animals. Mammals that overreacted to signs of danger had better chances of survival than those who under-reacted. So evolution selected in favor of amygdalae that overreacted to survival threats.
*Hominization: the theorized evolutionary development of human characteristics that set hominids apart from
other primates
That's why some modern humans have amygdalae that are overly sensitive to perceived threats. Some people's amygdalae seem hair-triggered to generate strong feelings that drive emotional overreactions.
In addition to strong feelings and emotions, the amygdalae stimulate the release of fight/flight and stress hormones (see “Alarm Bells”, below). A hugely interesting but indeterminate aspect of how these two ‘brains’ operate is what can be called a ‘freeze’ response. The reptilian brain has a highly effective freeze response that is directed toward physiological survival. In evolutionary terms, this “freezing” and remaining motionless may have been essential to escape detection by a predator. So, from that perspective, the reptilian brain can produce a “play dead” or freeze response.
On the other hand, the later mammalian brain – or more specifically, the amygdalae – has potential to produce a similar reaction. But this is ‘same reaction, different process.’ The existence of well-developed neural pathways between the limbic system and the cerebral cortex (and neocortex) mean that an amygdaloid stimulus can cause a ‘play dead’ or freeze reaction of an entirely different nature than that of the reptilian survival reaction.
This “deer in the headlights” style of stunned immobility probably results from some small cognitive influence brought about by an added neural pathway stimulation of the neocortex. Added to the quasi-trance-like state there can be a “what do I do now?” quality to the experience that can also be remembered at limbic level.
Through perseveration of a similar response through childhood, adolescence and into adulthood, this ‘what do I do now?’ modus vivendi* can go on to contribute to many forms of helplessness and depression or depression-like personality and behavioral characteristics in adulthood.
*Modus Vivendi (Lat): A manner of living; a way of life.
So, owing to the brain’s developmental structure, the issue of ‘survival’ can have two quite different meanings; one, physical life-or-death survival, the other, a maintenance of equilibrium of a particular state of learned emotion (albeit obsolete). In the context of this site's information, and in Affectology, the second meaning is the relevant one.
The Autonomic Nervous System
Fundamental to our existence is the central nervous system (CNS) that carries electrical impulses to the entire body – a highly complex message system. The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is that aspect of the overall nervous system that is responsible for the transmission of signals to other systems of the body in order to create fluctuation and regulation of the somatic manifestations of those systems.
Some of the more important systems that are affected by the ANS are: respiratory (lungs), pulmonary (heart and blood vessels), tear and sweat glands, digestive, metabolic, hormonal, immune, gastro-intestinal, genitourinary and auto-phagocytic (the body’s capacity to clear away extraneous cells). The ANS is responsible for the control of not only these systems, but every organ of the body that is part of those systems.
Psychosomatic scientists and practitioners fully believe that every cell and organ of the body is directly influenced by, and driven by, the brain and its generalized functioning. Traditional Japanese thought was that every disease is caused by a dis-ease of the mind. Clinical Affectologists accept (and operate from that acceptance) that there exists a direct neuro-physiological “drive pathway” from the amygdala and its emotional encodings via the limbic brain stem and ANS to every organ, every system and sub-system and cell of the body.
This re-addresses a topic that we discussed in Chapter 4 – Emotional Hijacking – but it’s important to get the picture that reactions and ‘message drivers’ utilizing the autonomic nervous system immediately originate in the amygdaloid-hippocampal pathway, and are maintained by the information also originating from the amygdala.
Alarm Bells and Rest Times
The functioning of the ANS is basically divided into two distinct aspects, known as the sympathetic phase and the parasympathetic phase. We’ve all heard of the fight or flight response, so let’s look at what occurs during that phenomenon.
Since the discovery of the fight-or-flight response in human and animal bio-function, much has been said on the topics of “stress” and the ANS; trauma and the ANS; grief and the ANS, and so on. In times of stress, the ANS does indeed signal for the activation of the fight-or-flight response in order for the organism to be able to physically respond to immediate danger. When we anticipate danger or other stressful stimuli, the Autonomic Nervous System is immediately relegated the job of carrying signals to the many and varied systems within the body in order to produce an increased excitation of survival systems and a temporary shutting down of systems that are not immediately vital. This is called the sympathetic phase.
During this phase, skeletal muscles tense (contract), breath rate increases, nervous alertness increases, and in order to deal with the extra required oxygen and nutrients, more blood is required, causing the heart to work at a more rapid level. All these functional increases are, of course, servicing that requirement to fight or run in order to survive. The classic example of this profound reaction is ‘panic attacks.’
In order to provide the added energy to these systems, other systems and organs not immediately necessary for survival, temporarily shut down. The ANS signals a short break for the gastro-intestinal system, the urinary system, the reproductive system and the immune and auto-phagocytic systems. When the danger has passed, and the ANS is allowed to re-tune, the system enters into a relaxation phase called the parasympathetic phase, bringing about an increased effectiveness in those systems that have been shut down during the sympathetic phase.
Mental stress and emotional stress are both stimulants for the sympathetic phase of the ANS, and if we live our lives with a predominance of either, the ANS insists on the continued operation and excitation of the sympathetic phase. In our modern world, those of us who do not achieve relief from worry, stress, so-called repressed emotions or continued anger live with the results of high excitation of the sympathetic phase of the ANS.
During this phase, skeletal muscles tense (contract), breath rate increases, nervous alertness increases, and in order to deal with the extra required oxygen and nutrients, more blood is required, causing the heart to work at a more rapid level. All these functional increases are, of course, servicing that requirement to fight or run in order to survive. The classic example of this profound reaction is ‘panic attacks.’
In order to provide the added energy to these systems, other systems and organs not immediately necessary for survival, temporarily shut down. The ANS signals a short break for the gastro-intestinal system, the urinary system, the reproductive system and the immune and auto-phagocytic systems. When the danger has passed, and the ANS is allowed to re-tune, the system enters into a relaxation phase called the parasympathetic phase, bringing about an increased effectiveness in those systems that have been shut down during the sympathetic phase.
Mental stress and emotional stress are both stimulants for the sympathetic phase of the ANS, and if we live our lives with a predominance of either, the ANS insists on the continued operation and excitation of the sympathetic phase. In our modern world, those of us who do not achieve relief from worry, stress, so-called repressed emotions or continued anger live with the results of high excitation of the sympathetic phase of the ANS.
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Here’s a self-question for you. If you live with what is called a “low-index” stressor as your companion – that is, continually experiencing a low level of stress, either consciously or unconsciously known about, then what do you think this is doing to the activity of the body’s organs that are influenced by the ANS?
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Yes, I think you’ve got it … the whole affect-neural system is slowly but surely – for as long as you experience this low-index stress – nibbling away at the effectiveness of organs and aspects of what makes you healthy. Stress is a killer. And now you know how and why.
Much research has been done on the ability of meditation and mental relaxation to return the ANS to its parasympathetic phase. This ‘re-balancing’, or 'reframing' is also one of the fundamental aims of clinical affectology.
Physical Effects of Feeling
Affectologists practitioners are not fond of maintaining that feelings and emotions actually cause serious illness, even though there’s strong evidence that supports this. They don’t deny, however, that emotion (affect) has an influence – either subtle or profound – on the creation and/or maintenance of these conditions. Returning to the information above about the direct connectedness of amygdala and body (via the ANS), we can now have a very brief look at how emotional stressors may influence and underlie many medical conditions.
In spite of overwhelming evidence of the above, western medicine largely ignores the role of the emotions in the existence of the following few examples, opting for treatment only of the symptoms:-
Common scientific understanding seems to focus on the extreme results of the flight/fight response, yet more recent research strongly indicates that more subtle affect information ‘drivers’ at amygdaloid level also influence our body through the ANS. Our personal belief systems, for instance, create emotional energy; affect information that’s also stored in the amygdala. If we believe that we are destined (for example) to suffer all the negative symptoms of menopause, then we will create an affect dynamic as a result of the emotional investment in that belief.
That belief structure is processed by the amygdala, ensuring that those beliefs are physiologically manifested in the body – the organs, and in particular, the hormonal system. Common belief, by medical and lay people alike, is that these symptoms are caused by hormonal activity. The Affectologist does not disagree, but knows that the production of hormones is highly influenced by the affect material generated by our personal beliefs.
Another relevant example of this is depression. In a later chapter (7) we will look at the chemistry of feeling, but I want to touch on the fact that depressed feelings are maintained by the amygdala’s subtle responses to our beliefs about depression, and so sends those signals to the body (see next chapter – The Territory of Feeling). So, we move further into our investigation as to whether it is every thought that affects every cell in our bodies, or every feeling.
Chapter Wrap-up:
Chapter 6 - The territory of feeling
Most people believe that feelings and emotions originate and are experienced in our brains. We simply take for granted that emotions are experienced cerebrally. This chapter presents the facts that all emotions are expressed and experienced somatically, that is in the body. This realization offers new insights into healing paradigms.
Closing the Loop
Following closely on from the information in the last chapter, let’s look at how the mind/body system processes its own internal information. Without an extensive study into neural networks, it’s enough to say that we know that the brain receives information from the body in complex but definite ways.
When the limbic brain has signaled (from the amygdala) that a certain emotional response is necessary or critically appropriate, we have seen that the body responds. This immediate amygdala/limbic/ANS/body shock provides the primary message. The body then sends information about “how it is experiencing” back to the brain. This information is immediately processed by the amygdaloid-hippocampal pathway, so reconfirming that the affect message has been received and the feedback loop is connected. The circle of information is closed. Although information reaches, and is processed by, the neocortical part of the brain – the thinking part – the information feedback is truly unconscious and serves to stabilize the initial response.
Put simply, following an affect reaction in which the body responds, the feedback loop of information confirms to us on all levels that the emotion is stable (locked in), and becomes more difficult to destabilize (correct) through the action of the rational conscious mind.
The unconscious neural and biological systems are what are actually doing all the (automatic looping) work, while the conscious mind merely looks on.
The Source of Emotion
Notwithstanding the above, we need to understand that the whole brain is not responsible for the generation or experience of emotion or affect feeling, although it is responsible for a recognition and confirmation that emotion and affect is being experienced somewhere.
It is important in the affectological view, to see that although the mind and body set up a pattern of repetitive feedback of information, and that information is complex, the initial pattern is always established by the neuroencodings stored by the amygdala. Yes, we react to an external stimulus; yes, the whole brain is eventually implicated, including the neurochemistry, but the trigger source of emotional response messages is always the amygdala by dint of its previous learnings (see chapters 1 to 4).
A Somatic Experience
The brain recognizes and confirms that emotion and affect is being experienced somewhere. That somewhere, as we have seen, is in the whole body. To use two examples of this, let’s look at anger and depression. In these cases, the myth prescribes that they are ‘brain’ or ‘mind’ problems. If we subscribe to the idea that the mind embraces the whole body – the whole organism, and not just what’s inside the head, then the latter is half right.
But anger is expressed entirely in the body. Following the initial limbic signal, the body experiences a flushing of the face, an excitement of the nervous system resulting in accelerated breathing and pulse, a clenching of the jaw, and all the other expressions of the “fight” side of the fight or flight syndrome. The rational mind is hijacked, and we recognize that we’re angry specifically because of what the body is experiencing.
On the other hand, when the limbic brain signals a need for a ‘depressed feeling’ response, the body obeys the signals conveyed by the ANS, experiencing reduced vitality, sluggishness, lethargy and a general feeling of perhaps not even wanting to get up in the morning.
This set of somatic manifestations then, by the feedback loop, informs the brain of the experience, and stabilizes the acknowledgment. So, the territory of emotion is in the body, not in the brain.
The Role of the Brain
Much research has been done on the ability of meditation and mental relaxation to return the ANS to its parasympathetic phase. This ‘re-balancing’, or 'reframing' is also one of the fundamental aims of clinical affectology.
Physical Effects of Feeling
Affectologists practitioners are not fond of maintaining that feelings and emotions actually cause serious illness, even though there’s strong evidence that supports this. They don’t deny, however, that emotion (affect) has an influence – either subtle or profound – on the creation and/or maintenance of these conditions. Returning to the information above about the direct connectedness of amygdala and body (via the ANS), we can now have a very brief look at how emotional stressors may influence and underlie many medical conditions.
In spite of overwhelming evidence of the above, western medicine largely ignores the role of the emotions in the existence of the following few examples, opting for treatment only of the symptoms:-
- Asthma – result of the excitation of pulmonary responses and constriction of lung passageways (affected by the ANS).
- Eczema and psoriasis – result of degeneration of cells and associated feeder systems in the body’s largest organ – the skin (affected by the ANS).
- Migraines – result of dilation of the blood vessels in and around the brain (affected by the ANS).
- Stomach ulcers – result of reduction of maintenance systems in the alimentary tract during sympathetic phase (affected by the ANS).
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome – the result of disintegration (lit.) of maintenance messages to the bowel (affected by the ANS).
- Hypertension (high blood pressure) – result of excessive anxiety or stress informing (through the ANS) the circulatory (venous and arterial) systems.
Common scientific understanding seems to focus on the extreme results of the flight/fight response, yet more recent research strongly indicates that more subtle affect information ‘drivers’ at amygdaloid level also influence our body through the ANS. Our personal belief systems, for instance, create emotional energy; affect information that’s also stored in the amygdala. If we believe that we are destined (for example) to suffer all the negative symptoms of menopause, then we will create an affect dynamic as a result of the emotional investment in that belief.
That belief structure is processed by the amygdala, ensuring that those beliefs are physiologically manifested in the body – the organs, and in particular, the hormonal system. Common belief, by medical and lay people alike, is that these symptoms are caused by hormonal activity. The Affectologist does not disagree, but knows that the production of hormones is highly influenced by the affect material generated by our personal beliefs.
Another relevant example of this is depression. In a later chapter (7) we will look at the chemistry of feeling, but I want to touch on the fact that depressed feelings are maintained by the amygdala’s subtle responses to our beliefs about depression, and so sends those signals to the body (see next chapter – The Territory of Feeling). So, we move further into our investigation as to whether it is every thought that affects every cell in our bodies, or every feeling.
Chapter Wrap-up:
- This chapter has illustrated the very definite and direct relationship that affect storage and activation (in the limbic brain) has on every part of the physical body.
- It has shown also that the ‘fight or flight response’ conveyed as part of the autonomic nervous system plays a hugely significant part in our long-term health, and that any perennial imbalance can have very serious results.
Chapter 6 - The territory of feeling
Most people believe that feelings and emotions originate and are experienced in our brains. We simply take for granted that emotions are experienced cerebrally. This chapter presents the facts that all emotions are expressed and experienced somatically, that is in the body. This realization offers new insights into healing paradigms.
Closing the Loop
Following closely on from the information in the last chapter, let’s look at how the mind/body system processes its own internal information. Without an extensive study into neural networks, it’s enough to say that we know that the brain receives information from the body in complex but definite ways.
When the limbic brain has signaled (from the amygdala) that a certain emotional response is necessary or critically appropriate, we have seen that the body responds. This immediate amygdala/limbic/ANS/body shock provides the primary message. The body then sends information about “how it is experiencing” back to the brain. This information is immediately processed by the amygdaloid-hippocampal pathway, so reconfirming that the affect message has been received and the feedback loop is connected. The circle of information is closed. Although information reaches, and is processed by, the neocortical part of the brain – the thinking part – the information feedback is truly unconscious and serves to stabilize the initial response.
Put simply, following an affect reaction in which the body responds, the feedback loop of information confirms to us on all levels that the emotion is stable (locked in), and becomes more difficult to destabilize (correct) through the action of the rational conscious mind.
The unconscious neural and biological systems are what are actually doing all the (automatic looping) work, while the conscious mind merely looks on.
The Source of Emotion
Notwithstanding the above, we need to understand that the whole brain is not responsible for the generation or experience of emotion or affect feeling, although it is responsible for a recognition and confirmation that emotion and affect is being experienced somewhere.
It is important in the affectological view, to see that although the mind and body set up a pattern of repetitive feedback of information, and that information is complex, the initial pattern is always established by the neuroencodings stored by the amygdala. Yes, we react to an external stimulus; yes, the whole brain is eventually implicated, including the neurochemistry, but the trigger source of emotional response messages is always the amygdala by dint of its previous learnings (see chapters 1 to 4).
A Somatic Experience
The brain recognizes and confirms that emotion and affect is being experienced somewhere. That somewhere, as we have seen, is in the whole body. To use two examples of this, let’s look at anger and depression. In these cases, the myth prescribes that they are ‘brain’ or ‘mind’ problems. If we subscribe to the idea that the mind embraces the whole body – the whole organism, and not just what’s inside the head, then the latter is half right.
But anger is expressed entirely in the body. Following the initial limbic signal, the body experiences a flushing of the face, an excitement of the nervous system resulting in accelerated breathing and pulse, a clenching of the jaw, and all the other expressions of the “fight” side of the fight or flight syndrome. The rational mind is hijacked, and we recognize that we’re angry specifically because of what the body is experiencing.
On the other hand, when the limbic brain signals a need for a ‘depressed feeling’ response, the body obeys the signals conveyed by the ANS, experiencing reduced vitality, sluggishness, lethargy and a general feeling of perhaps not even wanting to get up in the morning.
This set of somatic manifestations then, by the feedback loop, informs the brain of the experience, and stabilizes the acknowledgment. So, the territory of emotion is in the body, not in the brain.
The Role of the Brain
It’s not as though I don’t want to acknowledge the brain or its vital importance, but given all the previous information, we can see that the brain, in the case of experienced feelings and emotions, is the clearing house of the information that passes through it. While it is a part of the brain that is responsible for initial triggering of emotional responses, its job is done in the triggering, and acts just as the rest of the brain in its task of receiving, processing and re-distributing affect information.
This may bring into serious question the social and professional beliefs that the whole brain is the source of emotional and mental “disease.” We investigate the neurochemistry of emotion in the next chapter.
New Insights into “Healing”
The question now must be, ‘can any therapy effectively turn around the complex whole of what makes up the human in distress?’ Can pharmaceutical methods change everything merely by changing the brain chemistry? Can talking therapies change the complex mechanisms? Can so-called emotional healing therapies really bring about total healing through the discharge of emotional material? Can persuasive cognitive restructuring as experienced in self-development courses really bring about a completely different unconscious mind set?
These are the questions that originally contributed to the development of clinical affectology variants, where the re-learning of learned affect responses at amygdaloid level are the aims, and affectology focuses on our preverbal affect point of origin and the way in which those early preverbal scripts have perseverated and established themselves into our everyday present way of being.
Chapter Wrap-up:
To Continue to be fascinated, go now to PART FOUR
This may bring into serious question the social and professional beliefs that the whole brain is the source of emotional and mental “disease.” We investigate the neurochemistry of emotion in the next chapter.
New Insights into “Healing”
The question now must be, ‘can any therapy effectively turn around the complex whole of what makes up the human in distress?’ Can pharmaceutical methods change everything merely by changing the brain chemistry? Can talking therapies change the complex mechanisms? Can so-called emotional healing therapies really bring about total healing through the discharge of emotional material? Can persuasive cognitive restructuring as experienced in self-development courses really bring about a completely different unconscious mind set?
These are the questions that originally contributed to the development of clinical affectology variants, where the re-learning of learned affect responses at amygdaloid level are the aims, and affectology focuses on our preverbal affect point of origin and the way in which those early preverbal scripts have perseverated and established themselves into our everyday present way of being.
Chapter Wrap-up:
- This chapter has shown us that we should never consider the whole of the human being as anything other than WHOLE.
- The brain does not exist in any vacuum. It operates and engages with the complete rest of the body and organs in order to work in a cyclic ‘information-exchange’ way.
- Given that preverbal affect is a factor in establishing limbic reactive behavior, the same can be said for deep emotions.
- Look to the body to register emotional status. Look to the emotional status to register whole health.
To Continue to be fascinated, go now to PART FOUR