Making a Nightmare into a Nightmare

You know, when I run the schools of psychology, which ought to be never, I would insist that students learn a minimum of neurology so that they do not concoct theories that fly in the face of how the brain works. It is not that neurology will offer up psychological insights, but that it will dictate what you must not invent. A case in point: the NY Times just ran a piece entitled, Therapy Takes the Terror Out Of Nightmares (also in Intn’l Herald Tribune July 27/10). It is the brainchild of Dr. Krakow of the Sleep Clinic at Maimonide’s Sleep Arts Center. What he has decided to do to take the force out of nightmares is give the person a new script. So what does he do? He offers a script that is more “normal” and less frightening. So the dangerous enemy becomes a friendly ghost. “We call that a new dream,” he says. It is known as dream mastery. But wait a minute, is the dream just the symbol or is it also the terrible feeling? When you master a dream it should be all of it, unless you are once again skimming the surface.

OK, so where is that dream coming from? Is it just a whim by the person? Something that can be change so easily? Or does it come from the depths of our consciousness, or unconsciousness? I have written enough now to indicate that deep sleep where much of the terror lies is on what I call the first-line. It has to do with sensations of terror, rage and murder, being crushed, suffocated, chased, etc. These are imprints from traumas that happened while we lived life in the womb, or at birth and just after. They are registered low in the neuraxis and later form the feeling/sensation stuff of nightmares. They tell us that there are dark matter down there that must be dealt with. The nightmare is the topmost element, the verbal and image we put on it. It is not the nightmare per se. It is the effluvia of the feeling, the intellectual part we ascribe to it. The feelings are imprinted which accounts for the obsessive, compulsive and repetitive nature of the nightmare. They are part of our nature, our biology and must be understood as such.

This mastery theory is another nonsense by the cognitive school, sold by intellectuals who do not understand about feelings and their nature in our biologic economy. So when they concoct a new scenario, and it is exactly the cognitive therapy applied to dream sleep, where we provide a new more wholesome scenario for your bad and naughty thoughts. Do they think our dreams and nightmares are just capriciousness? Do we make them out of whole cloth or do they fill an important function in our neurologic functioning? What they do is help patients adopt a new outlet for the very same sensations/feelings. And what happens to those feelings? Do they go away? No. Imprints never go away until resolved. Their pressure then leads to high blood pressure, headaches and all sorts of maladies perhaps leading to serious ailments such as cancer. They pressure always remains and drives us. Yes we can choose a nice thought but that is literally icing on the cake. It has no effect on the lower level feelings. But those feelings have a lot of effect on images on thoughts provided by higher nerve centers. We could provide endless new scenarios that would change nothing. Worse, it is being used on combat fatigue and trauma of war. They are simply providing a better defense. And that is what cognitive therapy is: better defenses provided by those who have better defenses and who apotheosizes defenses as the "nec plus ultra". These professionals have the imprimatur and cachet of major research centers and are more likely to be believed. That makes them all the more dangerous. What are they doing? Trying to influence and dissuade biologic processes. First, we need to understand what those are and what role they play in our physiology. Maybe they are normal, necessary and absolutely essential. They should not be summarily altered at our whim. Certainly not by someone who skims along the top and ignores what our bodies are doing and what they need. They are using it for rape victims. I have treated many rape victims; their pain is beyond belief and has to be relived over months and months. There is no shortcut for that. None. Here we are again, rearranging the furniture on the Titanic while there are big holes in the hull. Jesus! Wake up!