Unconscious Thoughts and Feelings in Psychotherapy
The mammalian brain continuously and automatically makes associations. Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux gives the example of a rabbit that encounters a fox at a specific watering hole and barely escapes. The watering hole and the fox are now associated in the rabbit’s brain and connected together by fear. If the rabbit visits the watering hole again, it will automatically think about the fox and feel afraid.
Related associations join to form schemas — that is, internal working models of ourselves and others. Imagine a young girl we’ll call Jasmine who repeatedly gets criticized by her parents for expressing an opinion. This experience evokes feelings of shame. Like the rabbit that comes to associate the watering hole with (physical) danger, Jasmine comes to associate expressing her opinion with (social) danger. She, in other words, comes to develop a schema that holds that it is unsafe to express her opinion with others.
Like the associations that form them, schemas are originally adaptive. By adopting her schema that it is unsafe to share her opinion, Jasmine prevents herself from being further hurt by her parents. However, even though schemas are originally adaptive, they can become maladaptive. Once Jasmine grows and finds herself around supportive individuals, her schema will continue to prevent her from sharing her opinions, and as a consequence, she will forgo the opportunity to receive support from others and thus have an important psychological need met.
One problem with schemas is that they are generally unconscious. Jasmine will likely grow to become afraid when others ask her to share her opinions, but she might not even realize that she’s becoming afraid. Or if she recognizes that she’s afraid, she might not know why. She might, for example, wrongly attribute her feelings to something about the other person.
Although Sigmund Freud lived decades before the modern neuroscientific revolution, he was a careful observer of the human psyche and developed a number of techniques for uncovering our schemas. Freud, for example, learned that it was possible to make unconscious schemas conscious by paying close attention as his patients freely expressed their associations. He later found that the same result could be achieved by focusing on relational patterns, dreams, and slips of the tongue.
Although gaining awareness of our schemas is a necessary first step, awareness alone is usually not enough. Jasmine could grow up and become aware of her schema. She could realize that the current people in her life would not shame her for expressing her opinion but still be afraid to share with them. The only way to truly overcome her schema might be to have a series of corrective emotional experiences, which are lived experiences that contradict the schema.
Corrective experiences can occur outside therapy. For instance, Jasmine would benefit by opening and expressing her opinions in her current relationships. If the people in her life responded with acceptance, and not the criticism exhibited by her parents, her schema would start to lose its power.
Corrective experiences can also occur within sessions. Object relations theorists have long articulated ways in which the therapist-client relationship can itself be curative, providing patients with important relational experiences that they were denied earlier in life. More recently, a number of thinkers, influenced by the neuroscientific discovery of memory reconsolidation, have devised additional methods for fostering such experiences.
Related associations join to form schemas — that is, internal working models of ourselves and others. Imagine a young girl we’ll call Jasmine who repeatedly gets criticized by her parents for expressing an opinion. This experience evokes feelings of shame. Like the rabbit that comes to associate the watering hole with (physical) danger, Jasmine comes to associate expressing her opinion with (social) danger. She, in other words, comes to develop a schema that holds that it is unsafe to express her opinion with others.
Like the associations that form them, schemas are originally adaptive. By adopting her schema that it is unsafe to share her opinion, Jasmine prevents herself from being further hurt by her parents. However, even though schemas are originally adaptive, they can become maladaptive. Once Jasmine grows and finds herself around supportive individuals, her schema will continue to prevent her from sharing her opinions, and as a consequence, she will forgo the opportunity to receive support from others and thus have an important psychological need met.
One problem with schemas is that they are generally unconscious. Jasmine will likely grow to become afraid when others ask her to share her opinions, but she might not even realize that she’s becoming afraid. Or if she recognizes that she’s afraid, she might not know why. She might, for example, wrongly attribute her feelings to something about the other person.
Although Sigmund Freud lived decades before the modern neuroscientific revolution, he was a careful observer of the human psyche and developed a number of techniques for uncovering our schemas. Freud, for example, learned that it was possible to make unconscious schemas conscious by paying close attention as his patients freely expressed their associations. He later found that the same result could be achieved by focusing on relational patterns, dreams, and slips of the tongue.
Although gaining awareness of our schemas is a necessary first step, awareness alone is usually not enough. Jasmine could grow up and become aware of her schema. She could realize that the current people in her life would not shame her for expressing her opinion but still be afraid to share with them. The only way to truly overcome her schema might be to have a series of corrective emotional experiences, which are lived experiences that contradict the schema.
Corrective experiences can occur outside therapy. For instance, Jasmine would benefit by opening and expressing her opinions in her current relationships. If the people in her life responded with acceptance, and not the criticism exhibited by her parents, her schema would start to lose its power.
Corrective experiences can also occur within sessions. Object relations theorists have long articulated ways in which the therapist-client relationship can itself be curative, providing patients with important relational experiences that they were denied earlier in life. More recently, a number of thinkers, influenced by the neuroscientific discovery of memory reconsolidation, have devised additional methods for fostering such experiences.
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