Re:emdr and meditation

"You're right about in DID many parts "own" pieces of spirit - or body memories - or visual channels and so forth. When those parts are under pressure because they have been containing the material for years without releasing it they are very intensified pieces of experience, often without a big picture perspective since they are only a fragment."

The end of this statement seems to tend toward the idea that the perception of the experience will diminish once it is integrated into the whole. That it will de-intensify or dissapear.

In my experience, this is true of stuff like the introjects you are speaking of: once guilt and other affect has been apporpiately placed and/or resolved, the part integrates and the experience diminishes. (Whether it dissapears I will address later.) However, precisely the opposite has happened with parts that are "good" or dwelling in some sort of internal light. In those cases, the "goodness" generalizes, and I suppose that observation affirms your last point:

"Goodness does survive. The tendency toward healing, toward the light, is inherent." :)

For the record, I did not mean that good does not survive. That is not what Frankl says... he says the "best" do not survive. As for good... well, certainly he himself was "good".

What the "best" means, I do not know.

To disagree on a point, it is too easy to say, not having experienced a trauma or loss, that it can or cannot lead to irrevocable change in, or degradation of, one's spirit. I am speaking here not of ptsd symptoms, or the ability to function, but the ways we are changed when we encounter something beautiful. No one denies that beauty can alter our perceptions, why would it be different with experiences of horror?

I like the idea that good and the light always win out... but most faith traditions teach that, ultimately, good and evil are symbiotic, that suffering is everpresent... that it is not suffering but our interaction with it which determines its effect upon us.

I think this is where I draw the line between "spirituality" and "psychology": if psychology attempts to disregard the broader meanings of suffering, if it reduces suffering to a set of symptoms and thought/emotional distortions which can be remedied... then it does not take into full view what being human is all about.

We do suffer, it leaves craters in our souls, accepting those hurt spots is the surest way to healing... but in acceptance, for me, is the idea that healing is not always possible. It is a "catch-22".

When I have an image of such an internal crater, I can see it being filled up, a garden appearing, beautiful things growing... but the echo and parameter of the crater remain. I can't personally understand that echo as an invaildation of my healing, but believe it to be a witness to, and integral part of, that healing.

I know this may sound like "stuck" parts... I don't think it is, but I can't argue that point... I'm the "ill" one, and, in this case, that invaliates my experience and beliefs. That's ok, tho...

In any case, this was why emdr (and/or meditation) was so profound for me: it uncovered both those craters and a personal core of light, and provided a structure in which to accept each. In as much as that is healing, I am healing...

Replies:

Re:emdr and meditation, by Sandra Paulsen Inobe, PhD, 09/18/02 Re:emdr and meditation, by another client, 09/19/02

| Behavior OnLine Home Page | Disclaimer |

Copyright © 1996-2004 Behavior OnLine, Inc. All rights reserved.