You have to give credit to the brilliance of our psychological mind. Our psychological structure is set up to help us survive feelings that otherwise surpass our ability to cope at the time (read, especially.. but not always in childhood). When a feeling is overwhelming our psyche protects us by shutting down like a computer on overload. We are protected temporarily- much like fainting when physical pain overwhelms us. That protection comes at a price however. That price comes in the form of unconscious (read out of awareness) notions that many times run our lives (again out of our awareness). The more overwhelming the trauma a person has stored in his or her unconscious (read cumulativebaggage/unprocessed feelings) the more likely they are to be influenced by these unconscious notions. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
So what does this have to do with therapy? These feelings hang out on the edge of awareness, regardless of life experience or passage of time. However, when a person is in emotional pain- and these feelings start to surface they are most readily accessible for processing. It is important to capture the opportunity. The whole point of therapy is to bring these feelings to the forefront so they can be made accessible to the conscious mind for working through. Ideally these feelings get reintegrated into the psyche, thereby losing some of their charge and giving control back over to the conscious mind. Real control is not a bad thing!
WHAT IS THE UNCONSCIOUS AND WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH THERAPY?
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