A Glossary of terms for Communicative PsychotherapyIntroductionThe New psychoanalysis is founded on the principle that adapting to external life conditions and inter-current events is the primary task of the emotion-processing mind, the mental module that has evolved to cope with emotionally-charged events and conditions. These adaptations take place both within awareness (consciously) and outside of awareness (unconsciously). Unconscious adaptations deal with unconsciously perceived traumatic events and their meanings that are so severe as to be unbearable to awareness. Also of note are the findings that there is a deep unconscious intelligence or wisdom system devoted to adaptive processing outside of awareness, and a powerful deep unconscious system of morality and ethics. The deep unconscious system is focused on ground rule, boundary, and frame issues. The operations of this system do not reach awareness directly and without disguise, but do so solely through encoded dreams and other narrative communications. The meanings of encoded messages are determined through a process called 'trigger decoding' - the deciphering of encoded messages in light of their evocative triggers. Synonyms you may come across include:
The GlossaryAdaptation The attempt to effectively cope with and survive environmental challenges. Adaptation is the prime function of all living beings, including humans. Adaptive context Synonymous with 'trigger,' the term alludes to an event to which the deep unconscious system is responding-the context that defines the disguised meanings of responsive encoded, narrative messages. Approach - strong adaptive The theory and therapy of human emotional life that adopts the basic premise that the emotion-processing mind has evolved primarily to cope with environmental events and only secondarily to cope with inner mental fantasies, memories, and conflicts. Approach - weak adaptive The theories and therapies of human emotional life that minimize or ignore adaptations to environmental events and tend to stress the role of inner mental life in this regard. Associations, free Unencumbered communications from patients who are saying whatever comes to mind without censorship. Associations, guided A technique used in psychotherapy and self-processing which requires patients to associate to the elements of a dream or story with fresh narratives. These associations are, then, guided by and a response to dream images and themes and those of stories that patients make up in sessions-so-called origination narratives. Guided associations promote the expression of encoded stories that tend to be more powerful than the dreams and origination narratives to which they are connected. They are an invaluable and essential part of working with dreams in the effort to interpret the most powerful meanings of the deep unconscious experiences connected with emotional disturbances. Bipersonal field A term used to describe the therapeutic setting and context, one that emphasizes the systemic aspects of the relationship and interaction between patient and therapist in which both parties are seen to contribute to all of the happenings in a treatment experience. Countertransference See Therapist madness. Cure, modes of The optimal means by which patients find lasting relief from their emotional disturbances include therapists' offers of unconsciously validated, trigger decoded interpretations, the healing qualities of the secured frame and the therapist's sustaining or establishing as many of the ideal ground rules of therapy as possible with a given patient, and via patients' unconscious introjective identifications with their well functioning therapists. Cure through nefarious comparison A patient's achievement of symptom relief through an unconscious comparison with the therapist at a juncture in the therapy when the therapist's madness or countertransferences are active. Death anxiety, existential The universal, entrapping, claustrum-related anxiety evoked by the realization of ultimate personal demise. This type of anxiety mobilizes a variety of forms of denial and obliteration through the use of both mental defenses such as perceptual blindness and denial-based actions such as manic flights. Death anxiety, predatory The anxiety caused by threats of harm and death from others and from natural disasters. This type of anxiety evokes a mobilization of mental and physical resources in preparation for fight or flight. Death anxiety, predator The anxiety that's activated when we harm others psychologically or physically. This type of anxiety evokes conscious and deep unconscious guilt and an unconscious need for punishment that tends to lead to guilt-motivated acts of self-harm. Unconscious guilt is a major problem for humankind to this very day. Denial A psychological mechanism through which many unbearable incoming reality-based events and meanings are barred from conscious registration. Because adaptation to external events is the primary function of the emotion-processing mind, denial is seen as the basic human psychological defense. It is as well our prime defense against existential death anxiety and its use often is supported by obliterating actions such as ground rule violations, manic activities, and a shut down of encoded narrative communication. Derivative An encoded message, which usually takes the form of a dream or narrative-a daydream, novel, play, movie, news, story, fantasy, etc. Evolutionary biology The most fundamental of the biological sub-sciences, one that deals with both the nature of organismic adaptations and their long term histories, including the forces or selection factors that have led to changes in adaptive structures, functions, and strategies. There's a consensus that a full and in-depth appreciation of biological structures and operations-including those that are mental, psychological and emotional-must include an understanding of the selection factors and evolutionary history of these structures and their operations. Fantasies, conscious and unconscious Products of the human imagination, often in the form of daydreams, these mental contents are motivated externally by triggering events to which they are manifest and encoded adaptive responses, and internally, by instinctual drive needs. Fantasies come in two forms: conscious and unconscious. Unconscious fantasies are encoded in dreams and stories, and are far more powerful than conscious fantasies. Emotion-processing mind The organ of adaptation-the mental module-that has evolved in humans to cope with environmental conditions, events (triggers), and their meanings. Encoded messages Narrative communications with both manifest or surface/conscious meanings and latent or encoded/unconscious meanings. The encoded meanings are decoded in light of the triggers that have activated the deep unconscious system which has, in turn, generated the encoded imagery. Fear-guilt subsystem A term used to allude to the deep unconscious subsystem of morality and ethics. Frame, ideal The set of universally and unconsciously validated ground rules. This includes a set fee, frequency, time and length of sessions; total privacy and confidentiality; the relative anonymity of the therapist; the absence of physical contact between patient and therapist; and the use of neutral interventions based on trigger decoding patients' material. See also: frame, secured. Frame, modified A set of ground rules for psychotherapy or counseling in which one or more of the ideal, unconsciously validated ground rules is either not invoked or is altered. The use of a modified ground rule obtains non-validating, encoded, unconscious responses. This type of frame evokes predatory death anxieties in patients and predator death anxieties in the therapist who has altered the frame and who is thereby seducing and harming the patient-however inadvertently and unconsciously. Frame, secured The ideal, soundly holding set of ground rules that universally are supported and validated by patients' responsive encoded or unconscious narrative imagery. There is, then, a universally and unconsciously confirmed and unconsciously sought set of rules and boundaries that promote trust and emotional healing. These frames also, however, activate notable existential death anxieties that often cause an unconscious dread of the optimal conditions for a psychotherapy of counseling experience.. Frame, therapeutic The ground rules and setting of a therapy as they create the context for the ongoing therapeutic exchanges and experience. Ground rules, of therapy The ground rules of psychotherapy frame and afford background meaning to the therapeutic experience. They have multiple functions. When properly secured, they establish sound physical and psychological boundaries between patient and therapist; create the holding-healing qualities of the therapist's relationship with the patient; establish a basic trust in the patient toward the therapist; and facilitate the patient's openness to communicate to and with the therapist. Indicators The signs of disturbance in patients. This includes frame modifications and other forms of resistance, emotional-related symptoms, and interpersonal disorders. Indicators are the target of trigger decoded interpretations which are designed to illuminate the deep unconscious basis of these maladaptations and to enable patients to insightfully resolve them. Intellectualizations The generic term for all non-narrative communications-the opposite of narratives. Intellectualizations include general descriptions, speculations of all kinds, analyses and evaluations, formulations, interpretations, and the like. These communications have little or no deep meaning in that they tend to convey single-meaning messages that generally lack encoded implications. Intelligence The means by which we analyze and grasp the meanings of our environments and inter-current events, and find the means of responding to them adaptively. There is both a conscious intelligence or wisdom and a deep unconscious intelligence and wisdom. In the emotional domain, the latter is far more effective than the former. Interpretation, communicative The means by which deep unconscious perceptions and processing activities are decoded in light of their triggers. Interpretations usually illuminate a patient's indicators-his or her resistances and emotional symptoms. Intervention An all inclusive term that refers to everything a therapist says and does, as well as the conditions he or she sets for a given therapy. There are two basic classes of interventions: Verbal comments and managements of the ground rules. Comments range from questions to interpretations, but only trigger decoded interpretations obtain encoded/unconscious validation and they therefore are seen as the healing class of comments made by therapists. Frame management activities that secure the ideal grounds rules obtain encoded/unconscious validation and also are healing, while departures from the ideal frame lead to non-validating responses and are harmful to patients. Intervening, recipe for A valid communicative interpretation requires that a patient express deeply meaningful, power-laden derivative/encoded themes and either allude manifestly to their evocative trigger, or encode the trigger in the imagery in a form that is easily decoded. A therapist keeps this recipe in mind in deciding whether or not to intervene. Memories, conscious and unconscious Recollection of past events which come in two forms: conscious and unconscious. Unconscious memories tend to highly traumatic, powerful emotionally, and are encoded in dreams and stories. Misalliance cure Symptom relief experienced by a patient on the basis of the unconscious experience of the countertransferences or madness of the therapist. See for example, Cure through nefarious comparison. Misalliance, therapeutic An unconscious collusion between patient and therapist designed to undermine therapeutic progress. Module, mental A collection of mental faculties-e.g., perception, thinking, reasoning, etc.-organized around a central adaptive task. The mental module that has evolved to adapt to emotionally-charged events and their meanings is called 'the emotion-processing mind.' Morality and ethics, deep unconscious subsystem of An unconscious system of the mind that sets moral and ethical standards and enforces them by unconsciously orchestrating self-punishments and self-harmful actions and choices for non-compliance and self-directed rewards and sound decisions for compliance. Unconscious guilt is its hallmark. In psychotherapy, this system's values are represented by the ideal frame and the system operates accordingly-unconsciously rewarding frame securing efforts and punishing deviations. Narrative The generic terms for all storied communications-the opposite of intellectualizations. Narratives are adaptive responses to triggering events and are two-tiered messages, in that they convey a manifest set of directly stated meanings (along with their implications) and a more powerful, latent, indirectly stated or encoded set of meanings that are camouflaged in the manifest themes. Narrative, origination Any story or fantasy that a patient composes in the course of a therapy or self-processing session that is then used as a source of guided associations. These stories are used in narrative-driven, self-processing psychotherapy when a patient does not recall a dream. Non-validation, of therapists' interventions Encoded storied responses to therapists' interventions in which negatively-toned themes such as harmful, inappropriately seductive, blind, or ignorant people appear. These themes indicate that the therapist has intervened erroneously and they call for refomulation. Perception, conscious An all inclusive term used to convey the reception of incoming stimuli-visual, auditory, and otherwise-that register in awareness, along with their directly experienced meanings and implications. Perception, subliminal see Perception, unconscious. Perception, unconscious An all inclusive term, identical to subliminal perception, that alludes to the reception of all incoming stimuli-visual, auditory and otherwise-that resister outside of awareness, along with their unconsciously experienced meanings and implications. Psychoanalysis Defined by Freud as the study of the unconscious, transferences, resistances, and infantile sexuality, it is redefined by the strong adaptive approach as the investigation of emotional cognition. That is, psychoanalysis is the study of conscious and unconscious human adaptations to emotionally-charged triggering events-their universal features, evolutionary history, and personal history and variations. Psychotherapy An effort by a therapist to help a patient to favorably resolve and modify emotional maladaptations. Rectification, models of A term that refers to the finding that when a ground rule is modified and departs from the unconsciously sought ideal frame for therapy, patients consistently encode correctives-images that point to securing the deviant ground rule and frame. Repression The obliteration of inner mental contents such as traumatic fantasies and memories. Repression is a second order defense, denial being the more fundamental of the two. Repressed contents, which are activated by ongoing events, do however find encoded expression in patients dreams and narratives. Resistance, communicative An obstacle to the progress of a psychotherapy in which the patient does not express viable encoded themes and/or a clear indication of the activating trigger for those themes. That is, he or she does not fulfill the recipe for intervening. Resistance, interactional Obstacles to progress of a therapy that are products of the bipersonal field, and thus those to which both patient and therapist have contributed. Self-processing A new form of therapy created through the new psychoanalysis. It involves a 90-minute session and concentrates on the build up of narrative themes and their decoding in light of their evocative triggers. It also may be carried out personally, although this is done in the face of strong conscious system resistances. System, conscious The adaptive system of the emotion-processing mind that operates within awareness with contents that are directly or potentially known or knowable. This system has a superficial unconscious subsystem as well. System overload A general term to refer to situations in which the processing capabilities of the emotion-processing mind are taxed well beyond its adaptive resources. The protective use of denial and obliteration of incoming events and their meanings is a common response to this type of situation. Strong adaptive approach, the A synonym for the new psychoanalysis which stresses the basic thesis that adaptation to environmental conditions and events (triggers) is the fundamental task of the emotion-processing mind. Themes, bridging A term used to refer to themes found in patients' dreams and stories that connect or link up to meanings of the their evocative triggers. For example a dream of being robbed bridges to a trigger in which a therapist has overcharged the patient. Therapist madness A non-intellectualized term that refers to therapists' countertransferences as expressed through unneeded frame modifications, erroneous verbal interventions (essentially those that do not utilize trigger decoding), and errant forms of behavior like physical contact with the patient and ending a session early. Trauma An emotionally-charged event that is sufficiently harmful as to activate not only conscious adaptive reactions, but also unconscious perceptions and adaptive responses. By and large, the emotion-processing mind has evolved to deal with traumas, psychological and/or physical. Trigger or triggering event An emotionally-charged incident, verbal or physical, that activates the emotion-processing mind. These events are, with few exceptions, traumatic in nature. Trigger decoding Deciphering the disguised meanings of a dream or story by using its activating trigger as the decoding key. Unconscious mind A mainstream psychoanalytic term that refers to all manner of contents and processes that exist or operate outside of awareness, but are lacking in intelligence and adaptive capabilities. Unconscious, deep system The unconscious mind as conceived of by the new psychoanalysis. This system takes in information and meaning subliminally, processing these inputs with a highly intelligent wisdom system, checks out the inputs for moral and ethical implications, and then encodes these processes and their outcome in dreams and narratives. The conceptualization of this system is to be distinguished from that of mainstream psychoanalytic views of the unconscious mind in that this system has adaptive capabilities absent in the old view. Unconscious, superficial subsystem of the conscious system An unconscious reservoir of contents and images that easily access awareness either directly (having been preconscious) or in obvious encoded form (e.g., a teacher who represents or encodes a therapist). Validation, of therapists' interventions The unconscious confirmation of the correctness and healing qualities of an intervention, which takes the form of encoded stories that feature helpful and wise people, rewarding events, and other positive themes. This response indicates that an interpretation or ground rule securing effort has been correctly carried out and is serving the healing process. Wisdom, deep unconscious subsystem of A term used to allude to the remarkable knowledge-base and adaptive resources of the deep unconscious mind and its processing activities. In the emotional realm, deep unconscious wisdom far exceeds conscious wisdom and it's operations are reflected in trigger-evoked narratives which encode its processing of, and adaptive solutions for, traumatic triggering events. Recommended Reading Langs, R. (1993). Empowered Psychotherapy. London: Karnac Books. Langs, R. (1996). The Evolution of the Emotion-Processing Mind, With an Introduction to Mental Darwinism. London: Karnac Books. Langs, R. (1997). Death Anxiety and Clinical Practice. London: Karnac Books. Langs, R. (1998). Ground Rules in Psychotherapy & Counselling. London: Karnac Books. Langs, R. (1999). Dreams and Emotional Adaptation. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker & Co. Langs, R. (1999). Psychotherapy and Science. (London: Sage Publications). |