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Gaffer Variety:
Creativity and Craziness Three 012:
By Willie Gaffer:
October 31, 2005:
I this essay I will continue by discussing techniques of recovering from personality fragmentation. In looking at ways to recover lost capacity and expand our personality, we confront another problem in language. There was a time when the words pathology and disease implied a physical anomaly. Unfortunately, those words have been extended to include emotional, mental anomalies. Thus, we have no easy way of even discussing these conditions without lumping them in with the physical. This is a large part of our dilemma. We don't even have a decent language to discuss personality problems, let alone address them.
Treatment becomes kind of an ad hoc affair and we find that anyone can hang out a shingle to do it. Theories abound, from the ravings of religious nuts to mystics, psychics, astrologers, and bartenders. This could worry us unless we realize there is no convincing evidence that these folks do any worse than the so called professionals. The rate of recovery and growth seems to be unrelated to the theory, the method of treatment, or the absence of treatment. One thing seems to stand out in all of this. There is considerable anecdotal evidence to support the idea that many people will recover their creative functions if they get a great deal of loving support and space to act out their problems. No theory is even needed. Sadly enough, most of us do not find the time to create that space, even for the ones we love. It takes one large helping of commitment and personal courage. It requires a person who can give unconditional, non-judgmental support. This support creates the space for a person to begin a process of personal growth.
The goal of personal growth is to have the complete spiritual and creative talent of a child welded to the wisdom, knowledge and experience of the mature adult. The goal is to have a genius. The theory is that any person not physically damaged has the potential to be a genius. This genius we can define as the totally creative person. At this point, we acquire the childlike insightful connection to our universe. We cannot give the child the experience of the adult. However, I submit, with effort we can return the child's attributes to the adult.
It seems that unconditional, non-judgmental support is the basis of all methods which actually work. There are a great many theories and therapies which, in some way, embody this concept. To the extent that they focus on creating the supporting environment, they offer us the opportunity to recover our fragments. I have examined several of these theories. One of them with a five year personal involvement as a client and as a counselor. I believe it worked. I was also involved, to a lesser degree, in others. Let's take a look. The most important of the theories to me is a creation of Harvey Jackins, a Seattle based man. Jackins is important to me because his theory is the one I used and know most about. It may or may not be the best method of personal growth but it does work when practiced honestly. It's very possible that Mr. Jackins is deceased by now. I lost track.
Jackins called his process Re-evaluation Counseling and he founded a community of participants which he called, ponderously enough, The Re-evaluation Co-counseling Community. My nearest guess is that the community at its peak numbered some 200,000 persons spread over the country. There was a great deal of ritualistic behavior and nonsense within this community when I participated. Some of it was specified by Jackins and some was slipped under the tent flap by his disciples. For the neophyte, separating the ritual and nonsense from the discipline became a problem and is the main reason the community eventually disintegrated. That's just history. The tools developed by Jackins remain viable. Here is the essence of his theory, in my words. It is not about healing, it's about rediscovering and integrating lost capacity.
As we grow and develop, we inadvertently experience traumas of one form or another. If we had a great deal of caring support at the time of each trauma, we could experience an appropriate emotional response, such as crying or rage, and the emotional pain of the trauma would be dissipated. It could then be set aside in true closure. Much of the time, no such support is forthcoming, so we suppress the emotional response. The trauma is then internalized along with some portion of our life energy and creative talent. I call these internalized portions personality fragments. When enough of the same type of them are internalized, we have an alter ego lurking in our subconscious cellar.
To the extent that our life energies are engaged in maintaining these internalized traumas, they are not available to us in our current activities. We become inflexible, rather than creative in our response to the world. As Mother Gaffer would say, "We get sot in our ways." The good news is, there is no statute of limitations on these alter egos. They are always fair game. We can hunt them down any time after the event. We can re-experience a trauma and dissipate the emotional energy which holds it to the alter ego. Chipping off each fragment as we expose it allows us to have closure on past painful events wherein we recover the creative energy they have tied up. Jackins developed techniques for doing just that.
When we cut through all the crap, the practice reduces to this. Two people agree to take turns creating a supportive space for each other with the proviso that they will examine their history and personality toward the goal of reintegrating lost creative capacity. It's a masterpiece of simplicity. It only takes two people who want to get better to create a growth environment. In a suitable private place, one person gives unconditional non-judgmental support to one other person for a specified time. Then, they switch roles for an equal amount of time.
With the encouragement of the person in the support role, the one in the client role looks at his current behavior patterns, evaluating any that seem to be unwholesome. This examination always leads to some past trauma or group of traumas whose energy can then be recovered through the appropriate emotional response. When this is done regularly over time, growth or recovery takes place. This does not require a therapist. The partner can be an acquaintance or friend. It must be someone we can trust. Because of the crap that can occur in an emotional involvement, it should not be someone we know intimately.
There are just a few key concepts to this practice, or any like practice, which often get lost in the dogma. When the keys are ignored or forgotten, the practice simply will not work. The most important of these is the unconditional, non-judgmental support. We cannot help a person by judging them or by explaining their shortfalls to them. We can help by giving them a loving space where they can risk pain while they examine and relive past events. The supporting person must be capable of observing and approving emotional behavior which would be inappropriate outside the counseling environment.
There is a second key point which I have noticed in my study of various therapeutic practices. I have watched a great number of people talking the talk who never improve. After much observation and thought, I conclude that these people want an excuse or game. They want to pretend they are trying very hard but they do not want to change. In that case, practice becomes no more than a pastime. Of course, it is sociable and probably as good as bridge, chess or pinochle in that sense. The key is if you don't want to change, you won't.
In hand with that is another thing I have noticed about attitudes.
Many of us do not believe change is possible. It's the old, "That's
just the way I am" notion. Isn't that odd? If we saw a clumsy
cat, we would immediately know that cat was not normal. We would
not say, "That's just the way it is." We would say,
"My God! What's wrong with that cat?" I find it a bit
bizarre that we can see a diminished human and say, "That's
just the way he is." The key is, we must realize change is
possible. I will finish this discussion in my next essay.
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