Posted by llrrrpp on May 13, 2006, at 8:50:09
In reply to Re: llrrrpp and LarH » madeline, posted by Larry Hoover on May 13, 2006, at 8:24:57
Yes, I definitely don't want to unload this stuff on my friends. That would be unkind at best, and destroy all my relationships at worst. I also appreciate the acumen and insight that the therapist brings to the session. It's just so painful. Seriously, I would rather have thoracic surgery than to lay all this out on the table and sort through it and try to put the pieces together. humpty-dumpty style. Why do I have to feel so miserable in order to make progress?
One thing from my cognitive psychology classes that comes to mind is this simple maxim about long-term memory: "Every act of recall leads to re-encoding". That is, that everytime we recall an episode or a fact, we re-interpret it. By re-interpreting it, we can place it into a different category and form new associations and create new meaning. Usually I think about this principle in terms of eye-witness testimony -- by asking a witness to recall an incident, she will necessarily be changing the memory simply by recalling it over and over. Certain details will be emphasized. Leading questions can create false memories, and the net result is a distortion from reality. I suppose, however, that this principle might apply to my current state of affairs. I have had a profound negative bias for the last few months. Everything is rotten and hopeless. Naturally I only access memories that are associated with these dark feelings. Sadly, the memories of events that have transpired in the last few months are similarly tainted. Hopefully T will help me reinterpret these memories and move them towards a more-neutral, less-biased place.
poster:llrrrpp
thread:641878
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060505/msgs/643400.html