3 indispensable requirements for the healing process

Modern science has yet to produce a calming medicine as effective as a few good words. (Sigmund Freud)

Hello friends!

In our Course 100 Study Techniques, we are now working on some strategies brought by NLP called genius strategies. The basis is the work of Robert B. Dilts, The genius strategy (in 3 volumes).

In the last volume he analyzes Freud’s work at length. As the knowledge that this endur arrives at is more focused on our work here at Psychology MSN and is less useful as study techniques, I will take advantage of a part of Dilts’ work and today we will talk about 3 basic requirements for healing.

See too:

Course Freud – The Interpretation of Dreams

Freud Course – Three Essays on Sexuality

Course Freud – Psychopathology of Everyday Life

3 requirements for healing

The 3 requirements that are always present in a healing process, especially in the area of ​​mental health, are:

1. Intentionality (wanting to change)
2. Relationship (transfer)
3. Ritual (technique)

Let’s look at psychoanalysis. Freud was certainly a genius author and we can learn a lot about people by reading his works. However, if he had only analyzed behavior in his books, he would be an important author but closer to a novelist. However, he did more.

In his works he demonstrates that psychoanalysis can heal, bringing the possibility that the patient really wants to change with the analysis. At the same time, he emphasizes the need for transference, for a deep relationship between patient and analyst, and, last but not least, he creates a technique (which Dilts calls ritual) that is innovative: the couch and the association. free.

Intentionality (wanting to change)

They say wanting change, wanting healing is half the process. When we study psychoanalysis, we learn that analysis does not start on the first day. Before the entry into analysis takes place, there are preliminary interviews. Through them, it is verified whether the patient really has a demand for analysis or not, in addition to evaluating the clinical condition.

But after entering analysis, at each session, we also notice that the patient now and then runs away from what is most important – what Freud called resistance. Instead of saying what he needs to say, he talks about banalities, about everyday life.

Over time, however, resistance is overcome and wanting to change, or finding one’s own truth, in Lacan’s words, ends up occurring given the patient’s intention.

Relationship (transfer)

However, not with all the will to want to change, there will be change if there is no relationship, rapport or transference between patient and therapist or analyst. Lacan was very happy when he said that the analyst occupies the position of knowing. In other words, the patient believes that the analyst has knowledge, knowledge that will help him overcome his difficulties.

On the emotional and affective level, many contents can surface when the analyst identifies with an important person from the past, such as the father, mother or another.

Ritual (technique)

The point that I think is most fundamental to bringing about change is what Dilts calls ritual. The innovation of psychoanalysis or other lines of psychology (such as Mindfulness, Gestalt, Psychodrama, etc.) resides in the creation of a ritual. But don’t confuse the word ritual with a religious event. We understand and use the word ritual here as an analogy for a process that is repeated, that is repetitive, and that has well-defined norms.

In this sense, doing analysis on Wednesdays, for 50 minutes, lying down on the couch and associating freely is a ritual. Sitting in a meditative practice every day for 20 minutes is a ritual. Going to the office and putting yourself in the role, in the skin, of people we live with – as in Gestalt or Psychodrama – is also a ritual.

For this reason, one of the most central texts in Freud’s work is Remember, Repeat and Elaborate.

the religious cure

Without wanting to mix things up, we can also look through the psychology of religion, here briefly, how the process of religious healing follows a similar pattern.

There is an adage that says: “when the disciple is ready, the master appears”. This gives rise to the interpretation that the cure begins to happen, the change, from the time when the person has the intention of at least starting the process. The religious leader exercises a role of authority that constitutes a deep relationship with the faithful and the rituals are the rituals that we know.

Conclusion

There are evidently many differences between the process of change within psychoanalysis, within other psychotherapeutic models, and within religious traditions.

However, changing the forms, we realize that there is a standard structure. After all, healing or change is not possible without seeking, without intention. Just as there won’t be if there isn’t a relationship and a constant practice that is maintained for a certain time.

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