> [Original Message] > From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> > To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Date: 5/1/2006 1:47:50 AM > Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Tune in and turn off > > > > --- Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > > For Omar, talking about feelings is like talking > > about hunger. Does talking about hunger water down > > hunger? > > *No, but I don't think that emotions and bodily > sensations are the same thing, though they can be > lumped together as 'feelings.' > I agree, they're not the same thing. The term feeling is so broad it might as well be used to distinguish someone dead from someone alive. A stomach ache is a feeling, a sensation, but it's not an emotion. However, emotional/feeling states can cause gastric upset (ulcers are often caused by Helicobacter pylori bacteria; they need antibiotics). Likewise headaches, back pain, panic attacks. It's called somatizing, as in psychosomatic. It's real pain, (including real death from heart attack), but the source of the pain originates in the mind. Hunger originates in not enough calories, or in the body's messed up metabolism from improper nutrition. But it can also be a way of stuffing one's self with love in the form of food and creating a shield of fat around one?s self, or in the case of bulimia, feeling unworthy of love (in the form of food) and throwing it back up again, or with anorexia a way of controlling one's life (which is to say, one?s parents), etc. > There is a school of thought that says one > > can control one's feelings by addressing the > > underlying unconscious thought process. But > > emotions are beyond logic or reason. > > *As such, yes, but it is possible to rationalize them > by talking about them constantly. That is the idea of > psychotherapy. My point is that there is a danger of > losing the emotion by constantly analyzing it, > discussing it, expressing it verbally etc. > Psychotherapy almost never talks about emotions. Psychotherapy (PT) searches for the connection between present day behavior patterns and childhood experience and conditioning. It offers a safe supportive environment where people can be accepted for who they are and be re-parented by the psychotherapist. Out of the safety and support the ice holding back emotions begins to melt and the emotions begin to flow. The problem is basically two fold. The biggest one is denial. People go into PT wanting to change their spouse, their coworker, whoever. The person never has the problem, and their parents are never at fault. And two, many psychotherapists stink. They have their own issues and will countertransfer back to the client. But talking about emotions is staying in the head. We can do it on this list because that's all we can do. The point in therapy isn't to talk about emotions, it's to create an environment where it's safe to feel (since that's why emotions were shut down in the first place), and process emotions and be done with them, along with learning why we do what we do and why we feel what we feel. Psychodrama is an especially good way to do that, again depending on the therapist and the client's level of awareness. But talking about emotions for its own sake doesn't happen. There's no reason for it. It?s pointless. > O.K. > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, > digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html