Hi,

I want to understand something, especially as it is very likely relevant to me.

Are feelings sometimes at least partly a consequence of buried trauma? And if so, what is the rationale for COGNITIVE (read: in the conscious realm) therapy healing in the subconscious realm?

I don't make a lot of assumptions, but I am 99% sure that much of why I am "me" is driven by subconscious forces. (I wrote an intro that summarizes.)

Now, if I play devil's advocate, the effectiveness of a cognitive approach would seem to correlate to the degree to which one's brokenness is in the conscious part of a person and not in the subconscious part of a person.

Know what I mean?

As an example, consider the movie Good Will Hunting. Now, I know it's fictional, but I don't think this necessarily invalidates what I am trying to say. The crescendo moment of the movie was when the psychiatrist (played by Robin Williams) tells Will, "It's not your fault."

If you go to the scene, mark Will's response. At first, his consciousness only is operating. He says casually, "Yeah, I know it's not." But, the psychiatrist keeps pressing. "No, you don't understand. It's not your fault."

I think what is shown is something the Will character believed that was unknown to his conscious self. Deep down, he believed it WAS his fault. Healing (including his intense episodes of anger) would only come about when what was in the subconscious could seep into his consciousness.

When it did, the lie no longer held him. "It's not my fault."

Does the cognitive somehow make changes in the subconscious? Yes or no? I'll take references.

I am not trying to be a defeatist here, just a realist. I am at least partly driven by buried trauma and I really WANT TO UNDERSTAND THIS.

Will a cognitive approach provide healing in the buried parts of a person? Why or why not?


Tony

you're doing a good of convincing yourself that you cannot be helped. It's not true you can be helped with this program. Cognitive therapy helps to relax the mind, and to help you realize things about yourself that you didn't. Realize you were doing and why you were doing them.

I am a black woman and I relax my hair. For many years, every time I would wash out the relaxer I would get very anxious and panicky. I never understood why I felt that way, until months ago, while I was relaxing with my tapes, it just came to me that while doing a chemical hair process, it was then that I had a traumatic experience where all of my hair fell out. Ihat happened over 20 years ago. I thought that I had gotten over it but I guess I hadn't. Well after I had that "ah ha!" moment I never had those anxios feelings again while relaxing my hair.

Sometimes progress happens in unusual ways. Cognitive therapy "loosens" those subconscience thoughts so that you can get close enough to them to to figure them out. Give it a chance.

Hello. You are mixing up two completely different types of therapy. Psychoanalysis has a HUGE deserved place in treatment of the mind. Cognitive treatment is a different theory all together. So, my answer here is that your belief that you are 99% who you are today because of buried past events, means you would probably do very, very well in the hands of psychoanalysis.
Just for your interest: http://www.apsa.org/ABOUTPSYCHOANALYSIS/tabid/202/Default.aspx

Hi deedee,

quote:

you're doing a good of convincing yourself that you cannot be helped.

I kind of think you're reading into my post.

I am just trying to understand. I am not insisting on anything.

quote:

It's not true you can be helped with this program. Cognitive therapy helps to relax the mind, and to help you realize things about yourself that you didn't. Realize you were doing and why you were doing them...

Cognitive therapy "loosens" those subconscience thoughts so that you can get close enough to them to to figure them out.

This is reassuring. Thanks. I take it as reassuring because you are saying that cognitive therapy can at least sometimes make inroads into the subconscious.

That is very reassuring.


Tony

Hi pecos,

I didn't think I was mixing up two therapies as I understand this therapy to be cognitive. Just wondering what its impact might be in the subconscious part of us.

As for me, I have no idea what my percentage is. Temperamentally, I make few assumptions and am open to many possibilities.

Regardless, 99% is probably a little high!


Thanks,

Tony

Tony, I had goose bumps and cried at that scene in Good Will Hunting. It was the most profoundly healing thing for Will. It helped me at a deep level as well. The subconcious was tapped. very powerful for fiction.