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This paper was originally presented as "Archetypal Determinants of Reframes in Addictions. 2) Ericksonian Approaches to the Ego-self Axis: Establishing Futurity and a Sense of Self in Addictive Clients." Seminar:Innovative Approaches to the Treatment of Substance Abuse for the 21st Century. St. Francis College, Brooklyn, NY. June 5,1997.
The Ego-Self axis as described by Edinger (1972) reflects a developmental pathway that is traversed in the process of individuation. For normal individuals, the path reflects a continually changing set of goals and directions which shape and give meaning to life experiences.The path itself is characterized by the numinous draw of the teleological Self (Jung, 1969; Gray, 1996).For many addicts the archetypal Self has been overshadowed by the demands of addiction and ceases to provide either a base for personal definition or a direction for growth.By reintroducing a sense of Self and its promise of individuation, the therapist provides a motivational foundation for overcoming addiction.In order to provide continuing, conscious experience of the Self, the author uses techniques gleaned from the work of Milton Erickson, Robert Dilts (1990), and Wyatt Woodsmall to assemble personal experiences of competence, personal- adequacy, and hope into what he terms a Feeling Toned Vector (FTV) which becomes a source of personal direction and a background for personal choice.
Addictions are characterized by several behavioral traits. Peele and Brodsky (1991) note that addictions include "the single minded grasping of a magic-seeming object or involvement, the loss of control, perspective and priorities...(p. 42).Other significant behaviors associated with addiction are: social isolation, loss of self respect, depressed mood, and lack of motivation. They often include a loss of futurity beyond the next opportunity to engage in the addictive behavior..
While much of the research in addictions works from the perspective of the disease model and the search for physiological mechanisms of addiction, there is significant evidence that any biological factors represent a relatively minor portion of the development and maintenance of the behavior.It is strongly suggested that addiction is a normal biological response to powerfully reinforcing stimuli and that they are shaped and maintained at the behavioral level (Gorsuch, 1995; Newcomb and Earleywine, 1996; Rodgers, 1994; Rose, et al., 1996).
Addiction treatments to a large extent follow spiritual or medical disease models and are represented by a few basic categories: spiritual transformative, including AA, NA and religious outreach programs; medical model approaches which seek to treat the disease of addiction as a physiological or psychological malady; and medical model programs that focus on pharmacological interventions.
Marlatt (Shattuck, 1994) understands the field as divided by four perspectives: the moral model, the disease model, the enlightenment model, and the compensatory model.
In the moral model, the individual is held responsible for both the development of the problem behavior and its solution. An addict is addicted because of personal weakness and is considered morally responsible for changing the problem behavior. This view is favored by the criminal justice system in its "three strikes and you're out " approach.
In the disease model as opposed to the moral model, an individual is not held responsible for the development of the behavior; its cause is considered to be genetic or biological.Because addiction is a disease, treatment is needed.Noone can change on their own.
Related to the disease model, and in many senses its source, is the 12-step enlightenment model.In the various 12-step groups, AA, NA, etc., the individual is held responsible for the development of their addictive problems.They can be helped through regular attendance at AA meetings, commitment to their world view, and the help of a "higher power."
The compensatory model, also called the biopsychosocial learning model or habit model does not blame the individual for the problem but believes that person can change on their own (Shattuck, 1994).
The current model takes a perspective that is allied with the compensatory model and is intellectually related to empowerment and efficacy models (Miller, et al., 1995; Saleebey, 1996; Schwartzer and Fuchs, 1995).More specifically, it builds on the Jungian model of the psyche to create an affective background from which the addict or other client can draw a sense of personal worth, direction, and empowerment.It is specifically designed to provide a sense of positive future and to reframe the meaning of the individual's current state in terms of a positive, believable future.In some cases the intervention will provide the basis for radical recovery from addictions.In others it provides a foundation for further changes.
Carl Jung, the great Swiss psychologist, is known as the source of several standard ideas in modern psychology. The complex, the archetype, and the interpersonal styles of introversion and extraversion are his.Less well known is his advanced and very modern theory of the structure of the human mind and personality.
Often remembered as a disciple of Freud's, it is not common knowledge that Jung began his collaboration with Freud as an already well-respected psychologist in his own right.Freud was as interested in bringing Jung's credibility to his own work as Jung was in allying himself with Freud. In the course of their association, ideas that Jung had already developed in his work at the Burgholzi Institute matured and grew in a direction that ultimately became incompatible with Freud's rigid demands.Those ideas came to first light in the publication of the work now known in English as Symbols of Transformation and led to his split from Freud (Jung, 1965; Jung 1956/1967).
At the root of the Jungian psyche is a dynamic, living system. Its parts are known more by their relations to one another and the world about them than by any reified and unchanging topology.Indeed, the whole plan of the Jungian psyche is a snapshot of a system in conscious and constant motion towards the realization of a biological and spiritual potential that is the driving force behind every human life.It is to this life that our program appeals as a source for personal development (Gray, 1996).
Moreover, in contradistinction to other perspectives, the Jungian psyche moves away from the negative, medically focused view to one that focuses on the psyche as an autopoetic, self maintaining system.The Jungian psyche carries a presupposition of hope for health, proper function, and individual development. Jung even saw schizophrenia and other severe mental problems as opportunities for the psyche to recreate itself in a natural and life-giving manner.In Jung's view, psychic health grows out of maturity and is an underlying value.It is essential to see that the Jungian psyche is fundamentally a self regulating, autopoetic system with an inbuilt aim of wholeness.
Jungian theory suggests that there exists in each individual a natural direction of personal development.Every life, from the moment it is born, seeks this potential and is naturally drawn to it.In its most basic form, it represents the full realization of our genetic, intellectual, and spiritual potential.Jung called the path towards realization of this potential individuation.
Typically, the time from birth to adulthood is developmentally aimed at the production of a stable ego: a relatively consistent representation of the Self and the focus for consciousness.Until its stabilization in early adulthood, the ego is driven and drawn, molded and founded in unconscious process.
With maturity, each person begins the move towards individuation in which the projections of unconscious process (and with them the possibility of personal growth), are brought increasingly under conscious control.What had been unconscious is now brought into the realm of consciousness and the individual is led to fulfill the potential that lay dormant in the primitive psyche.This is the path of individuation in which the individual becomes increasingly conscious of his own potential and the directions that it implies.
The word 'self' is often used by Jung in three different and seemingly contradictory ways.First, it represents the whole of the individual; body, soul, and spirit.Next, it is often used to represent the unconscious center of the individual and the archetype of wholeness.Third, it represents the goal of personal development; the fullest realization of personal potential as the end result of the process of individuation.I have called these the existential, archetypal, and teleological aspects of the self (Gray, 1996).
Classical Jungian psychology held that individuation was the course laid out for the latter part of life.However, implicit in the concept of individuation and the Self as telos, we find the idea that there is accessible to every individual a path which represents the highest good and the fullest realization of their potential.What Edinger has called the Ego Self axis represents a road of maximum benefit for which all of our personal biology yearns and which, when found, moves life into high gear.It is the Bliss referred to by Campbell in the oft repeated, and little understood maxim "Follow your bliss." Here, following one's bliss becomes the discovery of the unique developmental pathway determined by your individual bio-social heritage (Edinger, 1972; Campbell, 988).
Ira Progoff expresses the same idea in terms of the unfolding of a "protoplasmic image" which unconsciously guides the psychic development of each individual.In humans, the protoplasmic image takes the form of a stream of images which may or may not be understood on a conscious level, but that are often available through dreams.These images represent the direction in which the individual potential is unfolding, and how that potential may be realized.
It is as though a tulip bulb, with the style and color of its flower were already contained directly within it, grew toward the unfoldment of this flower by a process in which images followed one upon another until the ultimate image contained originally in the bulb was fulfilled.What was present as potentiality at the very outset acts as the pervading and unifying principle throughout the life of the organism (Progoff, 1958, p.166).
In the context of change work, especially with regard to addictions, this idea that there exists in every person a dynamism propelling them towards their highest good can be useful in energizing futurity, personal direction, feelings of personal efficacy, and hope. The existence of a Telic Self also provides a set of personal definitions which can powerfully inform the search for identity and purpose.
As the Telic Self is nascent in the individual's genetic makeup, the author determined that recurring, consistent styles of positive experience must reflect the root potentials and affective tone inherent to it.A parallel concept in Maslowian psychology, the idea of peak experiences, fits in with the Jungian idea as each such experience reflects the goal state.These peak experiences, understood as reflections of the Telic whole, may be thought of as providing a significant experiential ground for establishing a present experience of efficacy, self worth, and positive futurity.
The root assumptions for this technique are these: Every individual has a personal direction for wholeness, growth, and development which corresponds to the Ego-Self axis.The Telic Self represents the organism's innate goal for full realization of his or her innate potential.The individual abilities, directions, dreams, and preferences which most closely correlate to the Telic Self have been manifested throughout the individual's life by peak experiences, dreams, and special competencies.By assembling affective representations of these states into a complex feeling-state, therapists can provide their clients with a powerful tool for inner directed growth and development.
The basic technique consists in assembling, over several sessions, a group of positive experiences drawn from different stages of life: youth, adolescence, and adulthood.The experiences are typically specific instances of the experience of self worth, learning easily, flow state, and personal direction. Each is reexperienced as fully as possible.At what appears to be the peak of the regressive experience, the affective tone of the experience is abstracted and used as a link to identify the exemplar drawn from the next phase of life.The feeling tones from each stage and each style of experience are collapsed and the resulting Feeling Toned Vector (FTV), is used to provide a present experience of positive self-regard and personal potential which is then projected into the future as a goal state.
Milton Erickson, MD was the well-respected founder of the modern discipline of hypnotherapy.Responsible for the acceptance of hypnosis as a valid form of psychotherapy, he founded its first professional Journal.
It was Erickson who first pointed out that hypnosis is but one of a series of normal trances that all of us experience every day.Ericksonian hypnosis is an approach to trance eschewing traditional notions of depth and dominance, replacing them with linguistic patterns adapted to unconscious patternings and the idea that the client's cooperation was the center of change work.It was rooted in meeting the client at their own understanding of the world (Bandler and Grinder, 1975, 1975a).
Erickson's approach to the unconscious was positive without being naive.He believed that the unconscious could be a potent ally but was also wary of its power.He observed that a psychotic who is unmanageable in normal consciousness will be no less unmanageable in trance (Bandler and Grinder, 1979).
Crucial to Erickson's approach was the idea that every person has access to the information needed to make the changes necessary in their life.He viewed the unconscious in part as a vast repository of experiences and resources which could be marshaled to overcome almost any adversity.He also believed strongly that every response, neurotic or otherwise, had an underlying purpose which was aimed at self preservation.Erickson's interventions were often focused on redefining or "reframing" the meaning of behaviors in terms of this purpose and then redirecting them.
Especially relevant to the current application of his techniques is the idea of a pseudo- orientation in time, in which resistance to change is eliminated through the simple expedient of moving the client into a positive imagined future.Having experienced the future in a positive mode, he can now look back to the present to discover the changes necessary to reach that imagined goal.As the exercise is only imagined, there is no need to resist.The change is accepted as fantasy.
The basic techniques involved in the Feeling Toned Vector (FTV) strategy are derived from the discipline of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Timeline Therapy, an application of NLP.Neuro Linguistic Programming arose in the 70s at the University of California, Santa Cruz under the influence of John Grinder, Richard Bandler, Robert Dilts and Judith Delozier. It is essentially an integrative discipline drawing successful strategies for communication and change from various sources.Significant theoretical contributions are derived from both Chomsky's structural linguistics and Milton Erickson's trance work.Central to its approach are cognitive interventions based upon visualized representations of various mental processes.One of the more powerful therapeutic applications of NLP is Timeline Therapy, as developed by Tad James and Wyatt Woodsmall in the 1980s (James and Woodsmall., 1988).
According to James and Woodsmall, most individuals experience time symbolically and unconsciously, as a line: a time-line, with the past behind the head and the future in front.They maintain that this is evidenced by gestures, figures of speech (thinking back, looking back), and other common experiences.Made conscious and explicit, the timeline becomes a powerful tool for change.
The entire intervention is designed to be delivered in the repetitive, fuzzy and non- grammatical fashion of Ericksonian language and hypnotic tones.It can, in fact, serve as a light trance induction.
Insofar as these are trance-based interventions, care needs to be applied in their application.They should not be used with deeply disturbed individuals.In general, if the patient is unmanageable or unpredictable in a normal state, they should not be expected to act differently in trance.
In the discussion of interventions based upon NLP principles, there always appears the idea of well formedness conditions.As in linguistics, psychological phenomena are assumed to adhere to specific conditions which are perceived as natural and healthy by most individuals.For the time line, the future is well formed when it is 1) distinct from the past, 2) oriented in front of the client, and, 3) (for most subjects) oriented slightly to the right of center.Similarly, the past, for most individuals should be 1) distinct from the future, 2) behind the individual, and, 3) oriented slightly to the left (in most cases) of center (More complete discussions of the logic of the well-formedness conditions can be found in James and Woodsmall, 1988; and Dilts, 1993).
Before the actual elicitation of the timeline and memories is begun, the basic ideas of self discovery, personal direction, and futurity need to be discussed with the client.An appropriate response set and context must be established.
A convenient metaphor which I often use to provide a proper response set, is based upon the flow of a river.
Imagine that your psyche is like a river.Old, slow running rivers, with shallow channels spread their energies widely.As they meander down their course, they create swamps and backwaters, their channels fill with silt, and they are subject to dry spells and floods.When our minds function without a strong sense of where we are going or what we do best, we get caught in similar kinds of problems: we get bored, we get into the wrong business for the wrong reasons, we find life unappealing and unexciting, and many of us fall into drinking and drugging.
Newer rivers dig deep channels.In their flow to the sea, they overcome every obstacle.Their moisture is constantly replenished and the more water they have the deeper they dig their channels.Because the stream runs so fast, the channels are always scoured clean and stay deep.If an old river is renewed by a new source of fast water, the new flow re-digs the channel and drains the waters from the swamps and backwaters into the main channel. Just so, when we align our lives with our own, unique energy, many of the problems which we may have encountered in the past give way rather quickly to the energy of self realization.When you begin to recognize who you really are, the same kind of energy begins to propel you towards new and exiting life choices.
Further, within the orientation, the client must be told that for each memory elicited, we are only interested in using the good parts.We may even use experiences which were ruined later, but in those cases we are only going to use the good parts, the best parts.
The process is content free.That means that the therapist can reassure the client that he will not be prying into his memories, and that they need only be shared if the client wishes.Again, the therapist will reassure the client that the process is safe and relaxing, it requires no effort and can be ended by the client whenever he wishes, simply by opening his eyes. The most important task is to relax, listen, and allow the unconscious to do the work.
To begin, the client is asked to imagine that his memories are stored in the space around him.He is then asked to remember several significant, usually pleasant, times from his past.Memorable events like last Christmas, the day you got your drivers license, etc. are used.One at a time the client is asked where in the space around him he will find the memories.Typically, the client, by gestures and turns of the head discovers that the past events are lined up, in order, behind him.When clients display such a well-formed organization, a few more examples are discussed and the linear aspects of the timeline are emphasized.Sometimes the therapist may wish to use the visual image of a long stack of photographs extending back to the day of birth (or before, depending on the client's belief system) in order to reinforce the metaphor.
In some cases the client will find it difficult to visualize such a well ordered past.In fact, their time line may be ordered in a completely different manner.For the purposes of the intervention, the client can be told to find the place where he represents his birth. Instruct the client to make believe that he can take the day that he was born, and stretch it back and to the left. As he does so he can be told that his unconscious can help him find the best place and to hook it, way back, at a place that feels just right.While he is doing this he can be told to imagine that as he stretches his timeline, he can see the long line of cards (or pictures or lights) that represent his past experiences stretching back over the line, reaching back to the day that he was born.
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