New Ideas in Psychology

[ Reversal of Values ] [ Immoral Compulsions ] [ Morality & Ethics ]

[ Sexual Abuse of Children ] [ Suggestion ] [ Examples ]

I give examples of short-term desire.

1 ) Masturbation begins with excitement and often ends in guilt.
The arising of guilt denotes that abreaction in feeling mode is occurring. Whilst the person may be aware of the subsequent guilt, he/she may not realise that the guilt is followed by resentment.

2 ) Sexual intercourse too begins with excitement.
If the sexual partner is pleased with the person’s performance, guilt does not arise in the person. The person experiences only the stages of narcissism and jealousy : the self-pity mode of jealousy is neutralised by the partner’s social approval. However, if the partner is unaffected or dissatisfied, guilt arises in the person and the full sequence of abreaction runs its course. Hence sexual intercourse can lead to feelings of degradation and resentment.

3 ) On a holiday coach trip I sat next to an elderly woman.
For about three hours she talked incessantly. First she talked about what she found to be exciting (= narcissism) ; when these ideas ended she began to mildly criticise people that she knew (= jealousy). Her monologue was completed by the airing of her resentments. This was the abreaction cycle, in feeling mode. It has repercussions on communication. When a person is highly anxious and under pressure to talk, they will not listen to the other person but will follow the abreaction sequence. They have to continue talking until the anxiety has evaporated. Only when the abreaction sequence, and the compulsive need to speak, comes to an end can a two-way dialogue begin.

There is often a time scale to the compulsive need to speak. If time is plentiful the person will speak at a moderate pace, non-stop. As the time nears for the listener to depart, the person will increase the rate at which he speaks. He acts as though he has a quota of words to off-load onto the listener before he can relax.

4 ) Often in psycho-analyses the clients fall in love with the therapists.
This attachment occurs during the abreaction of guilt, in the intermediate stage of jealousy and sexual desire. The therapist should avoid participating in a sexual relationship because after the jealousy stage ends, guilt and resentment are likely to follow if the client is unsatisfied. Any sexual relationship will now be felt by the client to be repulsive and the therapy may come to an end in discord.

5 ) New-Age encounter groups.
Here personal relationships are explored in a group setting within the atmosphere of a superficially-generated catharsis. The group interaction gives the impression that problems of relationships have been solved, or at least ameliorated. This might well be true if the group was a permanent reality, that is, encounter groups might be a good way to initiate communal living, when the group chooses the new rules that it will function by. But when this is not the case, when the person returns to the normality and dreariness of everyday routine then both resentment and the problems return as well – the artificial catharsis achieves little of permanence.

6 ) A physiological form of abreaction happens with drugs that are used to change mood.
Alcohol is usually drunk in order to free inhibitions (that is, to simulate catharsis) ; when over-indulged, it ends in a hangover. Likewise cannabis is smoked in order to become high ; when over-indulged, the end feeling is usually lassitude. Both the hangover and the lassitude are physiological analogues of resentment, that is, they both represent the rejection of the cathartic mood.

This understanding of two common drugs puts a question mark over the usefulness of some psychiatric drugs. Any drug that attempts to induce a better state of mind in the person will eventually lead to some form of ‘relapse’. The induction of a better state of mind usually means switching to narcissism, and the relapse probably indicates subconscious resentment. Therefore all mood-changing drugs that follow the abreaction pattern will end in generating subconscious resentment, and this must defeat the purpose for which the drugs are used.

Such drugs are not an acceptable alternative to counselling (assuming that the client is receptive to counselling and can have insight into their problems). Mood-changing drugs are needed in emergencies. But their long-term use cannot solve problems ; the best that they can do is to help clients to control problems.

In examples (1) to (6) the excitement is generated by suggestion, based on feelings. An alternative way of generating excitement through suggestion is by switching to mania. Hence there are three forms of excitement : two based on suggestion and one on insight. All forms relax the repression of subconscious memories and desires. But only in insight mode is the relaxation permanent, since anxiety is eliminated.

The euphoria of catharsis often centres on what is forbidden, whilst that of mania may centre on noble wishes or a desire to be socially benevolent in some way. The excitement generated by suggestion ends either in resentment or in the depressive stage associated with mania ; then the repression is re-instated. In episodes of mild excitement, often the only way to distinguish catharsis from mania is to see what follows it : resentment is always the hallmark of abreaction, whereas a depression usually indicates mania.

These ideas have implications not only for adult relationships but also for parent - child ones too. A parent who is recovering (that is, in the throes of guilt and resentment) from the party the night before is not likely to be accommodating to a child’s demands. The process of abreaction is likely to be the main source of discord in a family, and the young child is the member least capable of bearing such conflict.

The problems created by resentment and bitterness are the subject of the next chapter A4 : Resentment and Bitterness, beginning with the article Removing Compulsion.

[ E1 [ ] E2 ] [ E3 ] . [ Table of Contents ] . [ A1 ] [ A2 ] [ A3 ] [ A4 ] [ A5 ]

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Copyright © 2002 Ian Heath
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