A Mechanistic Outline of Control Mastery Theory

In attempting to formulate a way of summarizing my analysis of Freud's Irma dream, I found myself loathe to do so in a way that leaves logical loose ends dangling about, so I will preface my analysis with a mechanistic interpretation of Control Mastery Theory, which you may amusing, but which in any case will allow me to present a tidy logical package.

A good deal of physiological evidence suggests that REM dreams are inner experiences in a literal sense. That is, they are inner events that our minds react to in much the same way that they react to externally derived sensory input. We are not the only animals that can do this. Most mammals can, and to a limited extent so can birds.

We can also generate inner experiences when awake. Many animals can generate the sensation of pain. That is, their tendency to stay off of an injured limb, for example, is not merely an instinctive response, but is mediated by a disagreeable inner sensation.

We humans are possibly able to generate the greatest variety of inner experiences. Examples of these would be mental images, an inner voice, emotions, feelings, so-called neurotic symptoms, and moods. The question arises, what purposes do these inner experiences serve? The first two, of course, support our analytical abilities, but what of the others?

We are the most adaptable of all animals. That doesn't quite mean that we are most able to learn. Rather, we are most compelled to learn. Adaptability implies a withdrawal of instinct. It implies a dependency on external reality for guidance in life. Our adaptability also takes a highly social form. The experiences we are most sensitive to and need the most involve other humans.

We are so lacking innate inner guidance and are so easily swayed by the actions of others that we would easily risk losing our sense of self altogether were it not for our ability to generate inner events. These inner experiences give us a distance from people around us, and so add to our inner stability. Moods, emotions, feelings, neurotic symptoms, inner images and thoughts all preserve, defend, and promote our sense of self even when that sense has been damaged.

We are not totally devoid of instincts, but what instincts we have mostly serve to provide structure to our quest for learning. For our inner experiences to provide stability, they must possess the aspect of arising from reality in the absolute even though they arise from a child's experiences in a very particular family setting. Thus, as Control Mastery Theory puts it, children overgeneralize.

Another developmental instinct, one that Freud first noticed, is that children are sensitive to the relative sex of each parent, and from this discrimination, look to each parent for somewhat different information about themselves.

We are all vulnerable to experiences, so we take chances when we strive to grow. We want success, but we may fail, and failures will inevitably hurt. So growing necessitates choosing safe avenues of experience, which entails a measure of self-deception. Committing ourselves to a particular route by means of a conscious thought or emotion before we are certain that the way ahead is free of danger would be to court disaster. So we remain innerly quiet about the feelers we put out and the halting steps we take.

Freud noticed that sometimes we respond to others as if they were one or other of our parents. He called this transference. I believe, however, that we don't ever put our childhood overgeneralizations entirely aside. Our childhood overgeneralizations take the form of expectations in the absolute. I believe that these overgeneralizations participate in our behavior whether or not they are recognizable as transferences in particular situations, and that we continue to overgeneralize throughout our life. Such later overgeneralizations are precisely why the reactions of another particular human being, a therapist, can help correct pathogenic beliefs.

A corollary to this is that it is impossible for any of us to rid ourselves of pathogenic beliefs without the help of others. This, in a nutshell, explains Freud's various relationships with authority figures. He could not change himself alone. He needed these others. These various relationships are central to an understanding of the Irma dream. I'll deal with them next.

Having put such a stress on learning, I should address the question of when does all this learning take place. Some of it during the day, certainly. But, with this concern for safety planning, it must be that learning is given its own special time, a time away from the hubbub of new experiences, that time of course being sleep.

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