This article published in the Journal for Neurocognitive Research of the World Psychiatric Association (Activitas Nervosa Superior).
Read the full text at: http://www.activitas.org/index.php/nervosa/article/view/157 (available as a pdf).Here is the abstract:
"This opinion article presents the result of years of observation of depressive patients. It is a report on their treatment while undergoing a feeling therapy that deals with reliving past imprinted trauma in context of new research in neurology and biology. The underlying premise is that early traumatic events, including the time in the womb and at birth, leave an imprint aided by epigenetic methylation that endures and comes to dominate our lives. It later accounts for serious ailments and the imprint plays a role in our behavior, interests and attitudes. Through a feeling psychotherapy that allows patients to relive their traumatic history might be possible to found a way to make profound changes in depression. "
Hi Art
ReplyDeleteA wonderful piece of writing from which I learned a great deal.
I don't really get depression very badly any longer. 3 or 4 years ago my whole body was wracked with it. I could hardly move as I felt every step was like wading through treacle. I had been reading your books by then so decided to use all these symptoms as my friends. These symptoms were telling me something about my past. Why fight those symptoms when what I needed to do was understand them and feel them.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that you state that should a depressive be given a new job for example he will throw himself into his work. He will be happy for those moments when his work made him happy. This tends to back up Alice Miller's statement in Drama of being a Child where she states that her experience is that those who are manic depressive had the great weight of a failed family placed upon their shoulders. These people would only be loved when they are successful rather than for themselves. Thus if they fail in their work they plunge into deep depression. Obviously Miller did not research much about birth though I am sure she would have been open to your theories. Obviously if a Mother has rejected a child while still in the womb that swing between depression and mania would be very deep. Such damage can run deep. I was told that my christian name was chosen because it would look good in neon. The weight that lifted from my shoulders when I felt the significance of that emotional pressure was incredible.
ReplyDeleteArt,
ReplyDeletesome no oftentimes.. I want To urge -better put drive...by"force" ...Your detractors and ignorers!!
to read this (and the other papers) -but I fear their tenuity and ...
will prevent them to look (like those Guys who refused to look when Gallileo urged them..
Yours emanuel
Art: I read your article this morning (speed reading) and certainly will read it some more times (carefully). I really hope that many peers in your field will do the same and learn more about this state “depression”, especially that it is closely connected with early trauma and its repression. “The Mystery Known As Depression” is a great pioneering paper – spontaneously I would presume it’s the best article that has ever been published in Activitas Nervosa Superior.
ReplyDeleteRecently I came across a German online paper about stress (http://www.mentalmed.de/blog/uploads/Downloads/PDF/JKoepchen_Stress-Buch-2.pdf)
that describes chronic depression as a state of chronic sympathetic nervous system (SNS) – activation, which means in detail (no complete listing, only a sample):
Increase of heart rate and blood pressure, elevated tonus of arteries, elevated heart work. Furthermore the flexibility of heart rate and thus adaption to changing circumstances seems to be affected. Moreover, blood cortisol is chronically elevated, thus promoting changes that lead to a higher risk of arteriosclerosis. All in all – and this is the result of some studies - the risk for cardiovascular disease is described as substantially increased in chronic depression.
No doubt the system is under heavy attack and presumably the only way to solve this problem durably is to get rid of the aggressor – to go down the chain of pain and relive early trauma.
You also say in your paper that early trauma/imprinting is closely connected with epigenetic changes in a person. In this context I’d like to mention a study conducted by Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn and others. I came across this study in the “study section” of a very professional website (in 11 languages) promoting vegan nutrition (www.provegan.info/de). The study was published in The Lancet Oncology (volume 14, issue 11, pages 1112-1120, Oct. 2013) and is reported about on this website: http://www.today.com/health/healthy-diet-may-reverse-aging-study-finds-4B11175619
The highlight of this study: A relatively simple change in current lifestyle factors (a vegan diet based on whole plant food instead of meat, milk, eggs and sugar, a little bit of bodily exercises every day, practizing some relaxation techniques and going to stress-reduction group sessions) resulted in significantly longer telomeres (5 years later) and changes of gene expression on 500 genes, “in every case in a beneficial way” (Dr. Ornish).
So if even such a relatively simple thing like a change of current lifestyle factors results in such a friendly reaction of our genes – what would then be the effect on our genes if we could combine a change of our toxic lifestyle habits with a primal therapy journey where we could get rid of early trauma and pain? We certainly would have the most friendly and benevolent genes and telomeres the world has ever seen.
the question is: how to make lifestyle changes an not block the primal process?
Deleteso the primal process can support the lifestyle changes.
the answer could be self-regulation in safe environment. environment that includes
interesting books that can help the patient to experiment if he/she feels to.
lifestyle is so many things. and the application of them ideally shouldn't be too stressful.
imposed.
it would be interesting to read all the lifestyle changes over the years in primal patients.
Vuko: that is a very good idea and I need to make a book on it. Art
DeleteA facebook comment: "He's brilliant and a very good writer. After I finish reading it, I will post
ReplyDeleteit on my wall. So far, it's the best thing I've ever read on the topic of
depression."
i just think how indefinitely beautiful is the opportunity to talk about what is bugging you.
ReplyDeletewith someone who is indefinite and speak the language of indefinite, of the unpredictable..
unknown.
someone who can absorb whatever there is. whatever you can't escape from.
to make the present moment important and full.
no limits, no force, just freedom. to finally move and explore.
that is the science. even if we don't know how to write,
don't know how to teach, don't know how to explain it to anyone.
it is the science of survival. of fast, precise, just appropriate reactions
in ever changing natural environment. love is the connection with
the elements of life. knowing how to recognize them. the science
that is as old as the universe. technology is just the tip of it.
or it is an island away from it?
what is the use of written wisdom? fascination?
i used to get involved watching movies. but then it was the name of
the actor, director of photography or the message of the movie that
became more and more important. i started to think more.maybe i
got too much involved in the first place. thoughts are not there to
replace the experience but to enrich, encompass many of them.
to help us learn on different level. i think that we integrate with all of us
but whenever we understand it is the extra quality of integration.
it is the peace of wisdom. the tip of science. not an island away
from it.