Beyond the Brain : Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy (9781438405087) by Grof Stanislav

Author:Grof, Stanislav [Grof, Stanislav]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781438405087
Publisher: LightningSource
Published: 1985-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

Fig. 31. Unleashing of powerful instinctual forces of an aggressive nature is quite characteristic for experiences related to the death-rebirth process. These four drawings represent various manifestations of murderous aggression in an LSD session dominated by BPM III.

Fig. 32. Aggression oriented both outward and inward is one of the most typical manifestations of BPM III. This is reflected in the above symbolic self-portrait of a psychiatric patient, drawn after a powerful perinatal LSD session. A stylized bird of prey is crushing with his right claw a helpless mouse. The left claw is transformed into a cannon turned against the predator’s own head. The antique car on top reflects a play on words (self-portrait=auto-portrait), but also the relationship of this type of aggression to reckless driving and accident-proneness.

Furthermore, this finding puts malignant aggression in the context of the death-rebirth process and thus connects it with the striving for transcendence and with the mystical quest. If faced internally and worked through in a safe, structured, and socially sanctioned framework, experiences of malignant aggression and self-destructiveness can become an important instrument in the process of spiritual transformation. From this point of view, much of the senseless violence, oriented toward both self and others, and both individual and collective, appears to be the result of misunderstood and warped spiritual drives. In many instances, in a therapeutic framework and with the use of appropriate techniques, these energies can be redirected to their spiritual goals. It is useful at this point to focus more specifically on the sources of malignant aggression and its clinical and social manifestations.

In general agreement with psychoanalytic concepts, much aggression appears to be related to traumatic material from childhood and other biographical factors. It is usually connected with the reliving of memories that involved interference with the satisfaction of the basic needs or security of the child and the ensuing sense of frustration. Conflicts around the achievement of pleasure in various libidinal zones, emotional deprivation and rejection by parents or their surrogates, and gross physical abuse are the most typical examples of such situations. The involvement of the oral and anal zones seems to be particularly relevant from this point of view. If the psychotherapeutic process uses techniques with rather limited power to penetrate the unconscious, such as face-to-face discussions or Freudian free associations, all the aggression may appear to be connected with biographical material, and the client, as well as the therapist, never reaches a deeper level of understanding of the processes involved. However, with the use of psychedelics or some powerful experiential techniques, an entirely different image begins to emerge quite early in therapy.

Initially, the individual may experience aggression in connection with various biographical events from childhood, but the intensity of the destructive impulses attached to these events seems excessive and out of proportion to the nature and relevance of the situations involved. In some instances, various seemingly psychological traumas may be found to derive their emotional power from physical traumas in the person’s life to which they are thematically related.

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