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AUTOGENIC PSYCHOTHERAPY and PSYCHOANALYSIS José Luis González De Rivera

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AUTOGENIC PSYCHOTHERAPY and PSYCHOANALYSIS José Luis González De Rivera En: The Body in Psychotherapy Ed.: Guimón J, .Int. Congress Geneva 1996. Autogenic psychotherapy Basel, Karger, 1997, pp 176-181 and psychoanalysis AUTOGENIC PSYCHOTHERAPY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS José Luis González de Rivera Initiated by J.H. Schultz in Europe, autogen- certain extent, many conceptual similarities. ic training is a form of meditation which in- Although it is impossible to review both duces a slightly modified state of conscious- fields in a short chapter, I will elaborate on ness by passive concentration on selected some of the common areas. proprioceptive sensations. Schultz attrib- The Abreactive Phase of Psychoanalysis uted the therapeutic action of autogenic training to an increase on the self-regulatory The concept of neuronal excitation in capacities of the organism, operating response to external and internal stimuli through functional modifications in the cen- and its subsequent need for discharge is tral nervous system. basic to the development of psychoana- For a long time, it had been observed lysis. The pathological potentiality of undis- that many patients developed transient charged neuronal excitation is discussed by training symptoms, consisting of short-lived Breuer and Freud in their 'Studien liber motor, sensory, emotional or experiential Hysterie' [6]. According to them, a traumatic discharges. Those unwelcomed phenom- event that strongly aroused unpleasant ena were considered unavoidable side emotions in the patient may form the basis effects, which occasionally forced the dis- of the hysterical psychopathology. The continuation of treatment. A major advance mental representations related to the event came in 1961, when W. Luthe discovered became repressed and thus could result in the meaning of these autogenic discharges, hysterical symptoms or psychophysiological showing them to correlate with the symp- disturbances. toms, clinical course and traumatic history The cathartic method of therapy is the of the patient [1]. logical consequence of this theoretical for- The paroxysmal involuntary complex mulation. If the repressed memories of the manifestations, which could break through traumatic event could be brought back to the most relaxed state, were then consider- consciousness, and the associated affect ed as homeostatic adjustment reactions, allowed to discharge, a therapeutic result permitting the elimination of the neuronal should ensue. excitation associated to memory engrams The first difficulty, of course, was the re- of traumatic events. To exploit the potential sistance of the patient to reexperiencing therapeutic value of this discovery, Luthe [2, what he had already decided was better not 3] developed a new technique - autogenic to experience at all. To overcome this emo- neutralization - which encouraged the oc- tional resistance, Freud and Breuer made currence of autogenic discharges and as- use of a popular tool of their time, hetero- sured its management in a safe technical hypnosis. When in a hypnotic state and en- environment. couraged to remember, the patient was The method was perfected and further often able to recall traumatic events, and to developed in Canada by Luthe and Gonza- release the accompanying affect by emo- lez de Rivera [4, 5], evolving progressively tional expression. Although a clinical im- into a complex and most effective form of provement usually followed the procedure, psychotherapy. Despite many differences in it was often short-lived. Furthermore, the technique and in approach, autogenic psy- hypnotic technique introduced problems of chotherapy and psychoanalysis share, to a its own. Página 1 de 5 Pr. Dr. Jose Luis González de Rivera The Interpretative Phase of out to be such distortions; new recognition Psychoanalysis had to be given to the pathogenic impor- tance of unacceptable impulses and wish- Hypnosis promoted strong dependency es in contrast to the previously held view of on the therapist, often with erotic overtones, real traumatic life events as sole determi- a situation that greatly interfered with the nants of psychopathology. The concept of abreactive process. Rather than uncovering psychic conflict was thus elaborated, to- his unconscious memories, the patient gether with that of the structural organiza- would tell what he felt the doctor wanted to tion of the psychic apparatus. hear, and superficial clinical change would The goals of psychoanalysis were ex- appear out of a desire to please the thera- panded to include not only the mere abre- pist, rather than from discharge of re- action of traumatic events, but also the re- pressed affects. This led Freud to abandon solution of intrapsychic conflicts and modifi- the cathartic method, especially after he cations of the personality of the patient, in discovered the phenomenon of transfer- particular of his defensive organization, by ence. means of interpretations and other interven- Although the emotional resistance to re- tions. member traumatic events could be tempo- rarily overcome by hypnosis, the patient The Autogenic State would again repress the uncovered memo- ries in his normal waking state, and the The autogenic state is a particular state attached affect would recover its pathogenic of consciousness, self-induced by the prac- potential. Furthermore, the unbearable tice of passive concentration on selected mental representations not only aroused an proprioceptive sensations. The objective unpleasant emotion, but also had the qual- physiological concomitants of the autogenic ity of being `incompatible with the dominant state have been reviewed in detail by Luthe mass of ideas constituting the ego' [7], and and Gonzalez de Rivera, and are similar to their logical incongruity, if not their unpleas- the relaxation response described by ant quality, would force them out of con- Benson et al. [10] with other forms of medi- sciousness. This resistance to accept in- tation. Subjectively, we may distinguish compatible ideas is of a plastic nature, and three types of changes during the autogenic is related to what Freud [8] termed `psychic state. The most important manifestation is inertia', that is, the resistance of libidinal of an affective nature, and consists in the impulses to abandon their previous objects reversal of the subjective experience of and modes of discharge, and, I may add, of anxiety to a state of psychophysiological the psychic structure to reorganize itself in relaxation. Whereas we can define anxiety order to include previously unacceptable as a vague and diffuse feeling that some- mental contents. thing very damaging is about to occur, After this discovery, the study and disso- relaxation can be defined as an equally lution of resistance and transference be- vague and diffuse feeling that everything is came the basis of psychoanalytic tech- in order and nothing bad could possibly nique, with the assumption that the uncon- happen [11]. The second most relevant scious memories would in this way come manifestation is of a cognitive nature, and under the conscious control of the patient. consists in a marked increase in the aware- However, resistance consisted not only of ness of internal processes. The autogenic the suppression of unacceptable mental state allows the subject to be more open to content, but also of a distortion of what was all inner experience, and, in the therapeutic expressed [9]. When the repressed ideas session, to maintain the attitude of a de- finally reached consciousness, they did so scriptive observer of his internal processes. in a disguised manner, and the analyst had In psychoanalytic terminology, we could say to interpret the real meaning of those elabo- that the ego, under conditions of reduced rations. anxiety, increases its observing function, Many reports of traumatic events turned decreases its defenses, and allows the Página 2 de 5 Autogenic Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis passage into consciousness of previously of right-hemispheric functions, reported in repressed ideas, memories and impulses. individuals practicing autogenic training and The enhanced awareness of unconscious related approaches [14]. material and the increase in introspective Dreams, Autogenic Abreaction and Free capacities is not restricted to what we may Association call the psychodynamic unconscious, but also includes awareness of engrams related Dreams, the `royal road to the uncon- to physical traumas (i.e., accidents, intoxi- scious', present, in disguised form, the cation), spatial relationships, and mnemonic dreamer's forbidden wishes and repressed material of nonverbal nature. The third conflicts. Free association of ideas connec- group of subjective phenomena during the ted with the dream's manifest content per- autogenic state consists in the autogenic mit the uncovering of the real wishes, im- discharges, which we have mentioned abo- pulses and conflicts at the source of the ve. While those discharges tend to be short- dream, transformed by the 'dream work' into lived and of the most varied nature in the the actual dream [15]. basic training method, they tend to develop The attitude recommended by Freud for into complex and vivid experiential se- the technique of free association is quite quences when the advanced methods of similar to the attitude of passive acceptance autogenic neutralization are applied. developed during the practice of passive concentration on the autogenic formulae. Verbalization of Inner Processes The verbal process of description of internal imagery and body perceptions during auto- Continuous verbalization of all sensa-
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