Prologue

Introduction

Psychiatry

Psychotherapy

Literature

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SOCIETY &
The SCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Please cite all information taken from this chapter of my website in the following manner:

Prologue

One might think of consciousness as a correlate or biunity between two minds. Just as perception, intuition, love and knowledge are each meaningless without reference to a respective pair of correlate concepts: the perceiver & the perceived, the anticipator & the anticipated, the lover & the beloved, the knower & the known, respectively, the basis for consciousness may be the capability to imagine what might be going on in the mind of someone else. As an example of this idea, a computer would only then be said to be conscious when it begins to ask itself what someone else might be doing with its keyboard!

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Introduction

The science of consciousness has many aspects. In the following chapters, I will try to touch upon some of these. One of the most interesting, I find, is the quantitative relation between the amount of conscious and unconscious activity in the human brain.

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Psychiatry

The Present State of Psychiatry

Psychiatry is still in a dismal state of progress compared with somatic medicine. Hundreds of years ago physicians believed that mental disturbances originated in malfunctions of special glands in the brain. These were assumed to exude hormones responsible for human thoughts and feelings and which govern human intuition and behavior. Main-stream, modern psychiatric research has made little effort to look beyond this view, still stubbornly adhering to the basic idea: The "mind hormones" are now called «neurotransmitters», and the "glands" emitting them are «nerve cells». On the one hand, we can take the glass-is-half-full attitude that the survival of the "gland theory" over several centuries attests to its validity. On the other hand, no medication based upon this theory (antidepressives, antipsychotics etc.) has been able as of yet to heal mental disturbance in the way that, say, antibiotics can heal someone from an infectious disease. Indeed, the medication and treatments based upon this gland paradigm seem to be nothing more than "the pill that the patient takes so that the psychiatrist does better".

So we can rightly ask: "Is that all?" What about the unrefutable evidence gathered since the inception of psychotherapy as to the effectiveness of the mind (thoughts, feelings, pictures, anticipations etc.) to directly modify the growth and networking of nerve cells via what neuroscientists call «neuroplasticity»? The mind can influence the way the mind works, not only at the purely psychological level of attitudes, but also by actually changing the «cortical maps» directing information processing in the brain. In fact, the mind is even able to influence the body at large in the most drastic manner imaginable, namely, death: If a person and his social environment believe firmly enough that someone else can kill this person with a curse, this person will die if cursed. Voodoo death is a reality, not due to supernatural powers, but resulting from the hypnotic influence of one's own mind over one's own body (autosuggestion). The same mental influence can result in tabu death and homesickness death, as well as many other psychogenic death phenomena. (See my link IMAGINATION.)

"Changing the sign" on such psychogenic death phenomena, we have strong evidence for the reality of psychogenic healing, that is, healing by imagination. The success of the «placebo effect», «hypnosis», «psychotherapy» and other imaginative healing methods which influence the way the mind-brain processes information within a given neural network attests to how the mind can heal both mind and body. Why is there so little attention being paid to these facts in main-stream psychiatric research?

We seem to degradate psychiatry and psychiatric patients no less than we denounce the legislation of mind expanding drugs. What is society so afraid of? Consciousness, in general, or altered states of consciousness in particular? But isn't it just these altered states which can give us insight into the chthonic mysteries of the human soul and help pave the way for creative solutions to world problems? After all, aren't the "crazy" insights of modern physics (relativity theory, quantum physics ...) which, at the same time, offer mankind untold possibilities for the future? (Here I'm thinking, for example, of space travel and computers, to mention only two.)

Perhaps the problem is that we all too quickly equate consciousness with reason, and consider reason as a necessary and sufficient characteristic of being human. And if we can't reason with someone? Are they still human? There might be an unconscious, archetypal prejudice hidden in each and every one of us that someone is less human to the same extent that we can't reason with them. If someone hears voices that I don't hear, I can't reason with them. So, are they all the less human for it? Or am I?

This subsection of this chapter of my website is devoted to attempts at answers to the above and similar societal questions relevant to the concept of consciousness.

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Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy, in the broadest sense of the concept, is a means of "expanding" consciousness.

In particular, psychotherapy increases our awareness of five important things:

1. the extent to which our attitudes and behaviour are subject to the suggestive influence of our conscious outer world.
   Part of these surroundings are quite personal, coming from our parents, relatives, lovers, friends etc.. Other parts of our social environment are quite impersonal, coming in general from governmental, religious and other bodies or institutions.
   
   Until roughly the first 20 years of our life, we are strongly involved with fulfilling the expectations which others have imposed upon us - for our own good or to our detriment - while we were growing up. The rest of our life is involved with challenging these motives, correcting them and discovering or creating new ones while continuing to be under the influence of our conscious outer world.
   
   
2. the extent to which our attitudes and behaviour are subject to the suggestive influence of our unconscious inner world.
   Part of this inner life is populated with personal prejudices, superstitions, convictions, beliefs etc. Other parts of this internal life are populated with collective ideas and pictures native to our inborn human nature.
   
   Once again during roughly the first 20 years of life, our nervous, horomonal and immune systems are developing biologically and unfolding according to certain genetic predeterminants. It is during this time that important cortical, hormonal and immunal networks are laid out in the brain and body, like the instructions for a music piece or the steps of a dance are written down on paper for a choreography. Accordingly, it is during this time that these systems learn to "harmonize and dance" with each other: the "musical" of physical and mental health. If things go too wrong during this important developmental period, if this "musical" is not well-learned, we may be prone to later develop certain stubborn physical and mental illnesses which resist usual medical treatment. These mind-body illnesses can also be triggered later in life by certain unfortunate life events like the sudden unexpected loss of partner, job or home, or by other severe stress factors such as a serious physical illness caused from the outside (environmental/food poisons, bacteria, viruses ets.) or a serious injury or trauma (mental cruelty within a relationship, rape, torture etc.).
   
   
3. the extent to which we unconsciously project or transfer contents from our inner world into our social environment. The attitudes and behaviours associated with the projections and transferences of our own inner contents upon others belong to what psychotherapists call "complexes". When complexes cause us or our social environment problems, they make up a good part of what psychotherapists call "neurosis".
   
   Such complexes are part of normal life and belong to superstition and prejudice. Most people don't realize, however, that they also harbor superstitions and prejudices about themselves, not only about others!.
   
   
4. the extent to which our inner world has become invaded by other people's unconscious projections or transferences upon us. Our reactions to the projections and transferences of others upon ourself are called "countertransferences". These are also part of normal life. However, when they cause us or our social environment problems, they also - together with our troublesome complexes - make up another good part of what psychotherapists call "neurosis".
   
   Here we have, for example, the problems arising from growing up or living as an adult under situations of constant stress (compulsive parent, family tensions, marital/relationship problems, mobbing, captivity ...).
   
   
5. the extent to which our inner world has become invaded by certain contents of the overall unconscious common to the world in general. This is often what happens when a person becomes psychotic. Of course, both psychosis and neurosis of the mind also have corresponding parallels in the body. I have more to say about these neurobiological issues elsewhere in this site.

All these things can contribute in an individual way to the development of the various disorders known to medical science such as emotional disorders like depression and mania, as well as marital and family problems; neurotic disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder; stress disorders like panic attacks, burn-out and post-traumatic stress syndrome; somatoform disorders like sleeping or sexual problems; developmental and behavioural problems like attentional deficit hyperactivity syndrome (ADHS) and multiple personality disorder; eating/digestion disorders like anorexia, binging, bulimia, morbus crohn, overeating and ulcers; personality disorders like "borderline" and narcissism; substance-abuse (alcoholism, drug adiction, smoking etc.); psychotic disturbances such as paranoia and schizophrenia; mind-body illnesses such as multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) and all kinds of auto-immune illnesses, to mention only a few. In all cases, an individual combination of psychotherapy and hypnotherapy can be of major help.

A combination of psychotherapy and hypnotherapy can also be useful within consciousness medicine in order to help boost or control the interplay between the immune, hormone and nervous systems in cases of cancer, HIV-positive/AIDS, multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), myasthenia gravis, polyneuropathy and other primarily physical illnesses including chronic pain.

In the following I offer an orientation to depthpsychologically oriented psychotherapy and hypnotherapy. Since my own practice is in Zürich, Switzerland where most of my patients speak German and Swiss-German, I also offer the entire information below in German.

Information about depthpsychologically oriented Psychotherapy

As of date (25. December 2005), I only have the German texts available.

Information zur tiefenpsychologisch-orientierten Psychotherapie

• Einleitung

• Fragen aus meinem Klientenkreis

Bevor Sie mit einer Psychotherapie anfangen, haben Sie wahrscheinlich zahlreiche Fragen an den/die Therapeut/in. Im Folgenden versuche ich, einige übliche Fragen aus meinem Klientenkreis zu beantworten.

• Brauche ich eine Einzeltherapie?

• Welche Richtung der Psychotherapie ist für mich die geeignetste?

• Woran erkenne ich seriöse Psychotherapeut/innen?

• Wie geht die Psychotherapie vor?

• Worin zeigt sich die Wirksamkeit einer Psychotherapie?

• Wie oft muss ich in die Psychotherapie gehen?

• Wie lange dauert eine Psychotherapie?

• Werde ich von meinem Psychotherapeut / meiner Psychotherapeutin abhängig?

• Wieviel kostet eine Psychotherapie?
• Ausblick

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Literature

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I need your help!

Have you had a true first-hand experience relevant to the theme of consciousness like, for example, a premonition or a distant anticipation which turned out to be true? If so, please send me an e-mail describing it in detail! If it's interesting enough, I'll share it with other readers in my Data Bank on this home page and may even publish it in the next version of my book! Thanx!

Send me TRUE STORIES (in English or German) about premonitions to mind@mind-body.info with the comment "Premonition".

Send me TRUE STORIES (in English or German) about distant anticipations to mind@mind-body.info with the comment "Distant Anticipation".

With each true, first-hand story please include the following information:

• Your name in full
• Your complete home address and e-mail address
• Your telephone number
• The exact source of your story and any necessary background information which may be important to understanding the full impact of your experience
• Your expressed agreement allowing me to tell your story further (orally, in print, online etc.).
  Your anonymity is guaranteed! (If you would like me to explicitly mention you by name in quoting your story online or in print, please send me per post ("snail mail") a signed statement to this effect at my business address: Trittligasse 2 / CH-8001 Zürich / Switzerland.)

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