Freud concluded this article assuming that:
"melancholia consists in mourning over loss of libido"
Loss of libido could be equated with loss of his aliveness.
The basic characteristic of life is change, although very often we experience life as composed of an almost infinite number of separated objects, people and situations, more or less fixed and predictable. When we lose a loved object, or lose an illusion of an expectation we may get depressed because we had directed our life energy (libido) towards a fantasy, a constructed reality of how the future should and would be. Lowen (1976) says that:
"A depressive reaction occurs when an illusion collapses in the face of reality".
REALITY
Reality is experienced differently by different people at various times of one's existence. We know that the experience of reality, or better realities, is dependent on a series of factors, as for example our social conditioning, the environment stimuli, our age, and above all the specific state of consciousness we are experiencing at a certain time.
In an ordinary state of consciousness we assimilate and interpret sensory data in unities of meaning. We look at the world around us and our eyes select certain information which will ultimately be "archived" as a partial picture of the physical reality. Our senses are not able to grasp the whole process and interchangeable way of existence of the outer and inner universe. We see the world as composed of many different things, which are separated from each other by space and consequentially we are cognizant of a picture of the world as consisting of more or less static entities. If I look for example at the solid and beautiful building of the Royal Library in Copenhagen, I will be somehow
experiencing that firm construction as something almost eternal. I will not give any thought to the possibility that those aggregates which compose that specific house were not there in that specific place five hundred years ago, and I do not even think that those aggregates of molecules and atoms are in constant movement and change. I cannot see the building getting old, but as a matter of fact, every second this apparently very solid construction is in constant deterioration, and even if well kept and repaired, in the long run those aggregates, dispersed by the wind of time will not be there any longer. This psychological issue of the cognitive dimension makes us hardly aware of the change from birth into old age towards death that is happening in our bodies at this moment. This specific human mode of grasping reality is probably the main cause of the conceptualization of the universe in a dualistic manner, making sharp separation between I and you, body and mind, life and death.
CONSEQUENCES OF DUALISM
The existential consequences of the dualistic way of being cognizant reflects in our environment representing a wide social spectrum. This specific way of being conscious of something, may make the individual feel like an isolated ego flowing in a more or less dangerous ocean, where he must secure to himself some specific devices to survive in this specific society. His aim, which is basically the conscious or unconscious aim of every human being, will be to attain a feeling of pleasantness in the physical, psychological and social context. In order to attain his short - or long term goals - he will negotiate with his social world. It is a clear fact that he will deal with existence according to the way he is cognizant of his universe. And negotiating with his universe based on an inaccurate view (the way he is ordinarily cognizant of his environment and himself) he will have similar results. He may attain temporary "happiness" but he will always feel threatened by his environment and the prospect of loss, of being hurt and eventually dying.
Our actual science and technology is based in a Newtonian-Cartesian view of reality where the universe is basically experienced in a dualistic sense and this universe is suggested to be composed of almost an infinity of separated objects. This concept of separateness is viewed differently today in modern physics where the universe is conceived as one gigantic dynamic web. Capra (1975) says:
"In modern physics, the universe is thus experienced as a dynamic, inseparable whole which always includes the observer in an essential way. In this experience, the traditional concepts of space and time, of isolated objects, and cause and effect, lose their meaning".
In the dualistic context the human being is living in at least two different worlds: one which is the physical world of his everyday life and the other is his conceptual world, i.e. how he feels, senses, cognizes, recognizes and computerizes the myriad of information which he receives from his inner and outer universe. In this case he creates a consensual reality, which he understands and comprehends in unities of meaning and in the linear context of past, present and future.
REALITY
It seems that this conceptually created reality of more or less sharp separateness ( I and the world) starts from the moment we are born and anatomically separated from our mother, and more specifically when we learn a code-system called language. One of the first unities of meaning we apprehend in this system of language is the concept of the I, or ego (Ego here means the individual's conception of himself, the way he imagines he is). . In order to identify this ego I need to separate and add certain qualities to it. In this way I create an image of myself. This image is not really permanent and changes in the course of one's lifetime. There are certain elements which are constant in this image (or identity) such as sex, the quality of being a human being, etc. There are other qualitative attributes which may vary with time as for example social and financial status, feelings and personal qualities and capacities. In this way the human being creates an image of himself, believing he knows who he is. He identifies himself. And this identity sometimes appears to him as being very pleasant and sometimes as being unpleasant, all depending on how his life is unfolding. He creates an image of how the future should be (he more or less tries to eternalize or program the future in a certain way). He has his expectations and hopes that people, himself and situations will fit the more or less clear or unclear pattern that he has pre-fabricated or planned. When the world does not react to his created fantasies of how it should be he may become frustrated and repress these unpleasant situations. In this way he is storing these traumatic situations as blocks of static energy, or in other words he is blocking or storing pain. Other sources of 'stored pain' or traumas have been situations the individual has been experiencing from pre- and perinatal experiences to all experiences in the psychodynamic level where the person was not able to meet his natural needs of development (motherly nearness and warmth in early infancy, adequate physical conditions for normal physiological development, emotional security offered by parents and the general environment, appropriate intellectual stimuli, etc.).
The frustrations and traumatic past situations which the person has not been able to express were printed in the self image (ego), and later eventually repressed (forgotten but still being very alive, like a film with painful emotional connotations in the subconscious). These blocked painful situations, which now are repressed, may then appear as depression (or other mental dis-order) and/or as bodily symptoms such as tenseness, pain and even psychosomatic diseases.
THE SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION
The most common symptoms of depression are sadness, feeling of inferiority, pessimistic views, feeling of tiredness, of being insufficient, of being discouraged, of hopelessness, tenseness and change in body position. A feeling of melancholia may pervade the whole scene with feelings of anxiety, body dis-orders like headache, feeling of tightness in the head area, lack of appetite and constipation and eventually suicidal thoughts will be frequent.
Analyzing the above symptoms we will observe that:
Sadness: Feeling produced by the unconscious or semi-conscious interplay of three different pictures: (1) the subject expects in the future something from someone, from himself or from some life situations and he believes that really will be realized; (2) when this future becomes now and the actual reality shows to be different from the S's expectations S experiences frustration; (3) S now is seeing pictures 1 and 2 which are somehow contradictory and then he creates an image (picture 3) where he sees himself in a situation where he is dejected and he may stand as 'the little poor abandoned one'. As he looks at himself in this way (picture 3) a feeling of sadness arises. As a matter of course what is causing his sadness is not the departure of a loved one, is not the loss of something precious, and is not the non-fulfillment of his expectations, but what is causing his sadness is just a picture (3).
Feeling of inferiority: The S is viewing himself (the self image) as being poorly equipped in one or various aspects in relation to other human beings, he is blocking and pressing down (depressing) an image of himself as inferior, and this image returns to him the feeling of inferiority. As a matter of fact inferiority is not a feeling but an image.
Pessimistic views: The S is projecting his image in the future where some negative event is happening to himself. Again we see him creating, fixing, pressing together (or pressing down) and depressing an image which transmits to him an unpleasant feeling.
Feeling of tiredness: The individual is using very much of his available energies in his repressed conflicts and specially is pressing down (depressing) himself. Actually what he is pressing down (i.e. fixing) is some aspects of his self-image, but, as he, in his confusion and pain, has forgotten that the self image is just an image and not himself, he presses himself down getting depressed.
Feeling of being insufficient: The S has created an image of himself in a certain fantasy context where he is not capable of satisfying his own expectations of a specific performance. Again we note the S fixing and pressing down a certain image.
Feeling of being discouraged:>/I> The S feels he has no courage to cope with a certain situation. This feeling comes from an image he creates of himself of inadequacy. On fixing this picture he gets a feeling of being discouraged.
Feeling of hopelessness: It is the image or imagination of a hope that the future will be without accomplishment of the realization of a positive expectation. The S is fixing an image of a negative future and in most cases he will not be aware of this fantasy because he has repressed it.
Tenseness: It is blocked energy and when not duly used but stored in a block for long period may be experienced as unpleasant, may become pain and eventually a psychosomatic disease. Here we see the S now blocking himself, and pressing his own body down by making the body tense. Of course his making his body tense is done unconsciously, however by no one else but by the individual himself. Here the body may take a slightly curved position in the direction of the ground as if the person would be carrying some heavy load or being pressed down by something or by himself.
Feeling of melancholia: It is a feeling of sadness (see "sadness") and dejection. The S fantasize himself being dejected. As he blocks this picture, he immediately creates another picture (which may appear for him in a semi-conscious or totally unconscious way) where he sees himself as 'a little man not loved by anyone and 'pushed down', which he may call 'poor me', and this picture will give him this feeling of melancholia.
Anxiety: This feeling is often produced by a fear concerning the future. The S creates a fantasy of a disastrous future and very quickly he represses this unpleasant future possibility, and from an unconscious level this image feeds back fear of an unknown cause to the person. The person is between the present moment (now) and the future. He has pressed down the picture of a negative future.
Headache: It may often be produced by tenseness which is a form of pressing muscles down as in a situation of danger. As the tension is never released it becomes a headache.
Lack of appetite: It could be interpreted as an unconscious way of mistreating one's own body in order to make this body sick and in the long run destroy this body. It could be seen here in this case as a form of unconscious suicidal tendency.
Constipation: It is another form of pressing some system of the body down for, unconsciously, not allowing a free flow of noxious material for natural body purification. This could also be seen as another form of mistreating one's body towards an ultimate issue of self-murder.
Suicidal thoughts: These are an expression of an attempt to eliminate (to kill) the self image, which now has been introjected and is actually confounded with the body (Matos, 1977). This is one way the S is trying to cure himself from his depression, but as he is mistaking the body by the self image he may actually murder himself.
THE SUICIDAL CRISIS
In the turning point of his wish for dying the person, who has most likely been contemplating suicide for sometime, now is ready for his final act in this life and may be presenting a desperate state of mind, or be at peace with himself when this final decision has been taken. If this person is not helped by someone who can handle such a crisis situation, this person will be in close danger of meeting his biological demise.
To understand the mechanism of the language of suicide within a theoretical framework, I propose that the act towards self-elimination is caused by five basic, often unconscious, wishes. These wishes or psychophysiological needs are the motivations and purpose for committing or attempting suicide:
1. Attention
2. Revenge
3. Moving away from an unpleasant situation
4. Moving to a better situation
5. Peace (Peace in this context means harmony with oneself and with the environment)
Any type of suicide will fall in one or more of the above categories and the ultimate motivation of all suicidal persons is to attain a final state of peace. Rechardt (1976) elaborating further the theories that Freud presented in his work "Beyond the Pleasure Principle", states that the 'Instinct of destructiveness" is a psychological mechanism to get rid of inner and outer disturbing stimuli. And seeing this in relation to the self destructive act of suicide we can easily comprehend that this endeavor to free oneself from physical and psychological pain is one way of attaining peace.
Achte (1976) clearly states:
"Today it will hardly be denied that very often - if not in most cases - the wish "to be dead" in the mind of the person concerned only amounts to a wish to attain peace and safety and to regain a previous state of security".
The obvious question in this context is why then, a human being searching for peace, will attempt to kill his body.
Charon (1972) says that the notes left by most suiciders indicate a striking preoccupation with the things of this world, especially human relations, which contrasted oddly with the wish to die. Here it seems that we are facing a paradox. And this paradox is explained when we realize that the individual is not trying actually to kill his body but is trying to eliminate a disturbing self image. The only problem now is that he may be merged in pain and confusion and mixes issues, i.e. instead of eliminating the negative self image he will attempt to destroy his body bringing eventually his biological death.
THE TRANSPERSONAL APPROACH
Transpersonal psychology is a science which approaches and studies man in his wholeness. Here man is not only seen as an individual per se or an individual in society, but the ecological and cosmic relationships are of utmost importance. In this way transpersonal psychology encompasses other scientific approaches such as medicine, anthropology, sociology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy and metaphysics. This "new" science is basically intercultural, and in this way other cultures from all times, with their various approaches to life (psychological, religious, medical, etc.) are studied.
Transpersonal psychology uses elements of other schools of psychology such as behaviorism, psychoanalysis, Jungian psychology, humanistic psychology, and specially studies human consciousness which transcend the person and the ego concept. Therefore transpersonal psychology can be defined as the scientific study of states of consciousness.
The model of transpersonal psychology is very close to the quanta-relativistic model presented by modern sub-atomic physics (see Matos, 1978).
Among the many psychotherapeutic techniques developed by the school of transpersonal psychology and psychiatry it seems that the most powerful approach for treating and eventually curing suicidal tendencies is the psychological ego-death-rebirth experience.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EGO-DEATH-REBIRTH EXPERIENCE
In ancient cultures, and in Oriental countries in particular, learning to die is considered an indispensable and integral aspect of the art of living. In various mystery religions, temple mysteries and initiation rites performed over millenia in many different countries of the world, persons were guided to experience their psychological death and rebirth. This procedure performed up to our days within a shamanistic and tantric frame of reference is supposed to result in spiritual enlightenment and make possible for the initiated to live for the rest of his life in a more fulfilling and meaningful way. Concomitantly this experience is supposed to prepare him for dying. Manuals for dying as old as the Egyptian and the Tibetan books of the dead revealed intricately complex psychological practices and were considered manuals preparing a person for the ritual of death-rebirth, as well for the actual experience of death.
Grof (1970, 1972, 1972a, 1972/1973, 1977) working independently of other investigators with LSD therapy and without previous knowledge of shamanistic and tantric practices of the death-rebirth technique encountered this therapeutic issue when applying psychedelic peak psychotherapy (Grof, 1976).
As we know, from ancient cultures, this technique can as well be employed without the use of any drugs. Working within a transpersonal framework and without the use of drugs I have developed a technique for bringing a person to this psychological issue of ego-death-rebirth.
This technique can be illustrated by the following clinical example:
John is a radio telegraphist, 31 years old and he has been traveling around the world several times serving in ships bearing flags of various nations. He is in a very depressive mood, which he claims he has been coming in and out during the last five years. He had tried to commit suicide in several occasions and came to therapy in a suicidal crisis. He told me that he had fought again with his girl friend, beaten her and was beaten by her, was very depressed and wanted to commit suicide. He seemed to be in a desperate mood and complained that destiny "did not let me die 3 months ago when I prepared everything for a beautiful death". The following dialogue took place:
Therapist: How did you try to commit suicide?
(The attitude of the therapist here is of paramount importance, he accepts the genuiness of John's wish for committing suicide because he knows that John is in pain and confused and what he wishes really is to attain peace by eliminating his negative self image. Verbal communication and specially meta-communication play a decisive role in the unfolding of the therapeutic process. Here the therapist does not ask John why he tried to commit suicide, but asks how to allow John feel again the emotions connected to his self-destructive reaction).
John: I took some sleeping pills.
T(herapist): How?
John: Well, I prepared everything to have a beautiful death.
T: Tell me your experience.
John: I was very depressed, it seems that everything went wrong to me in my life, I was feeling hopeless and there was no future for me. So I decided to plan my death. Near my apartment is a very beautiful park and I decided that I would take some sleeping pills and before they would start to take effect I would drive my car to that park, lie under a tree and let myself die among that beautiful green nature.
T: And what happened?
John: Well, the pills took effect before I had expected. When I started to drive my car I fell asleep and they found me out in my car and took me to the hospital.
(The therapist notices that John is beginning to relive his past suicidal experience, and gently asks John to lie on a couch, to relax, close his eyes and tell again his experience in the present tense, as everything would be happening now.)
John repeats his story in the present tense, now much more involved in his whole drama, which when told in the past tense was just like the story of someone else. Now he was living again every detail and emotion of his suicidal adventure. When he came to the point of falling asleep in his car, the therapist gently intervened telling John:
T: Now I want you to fantasize that no one will find you in your car and that you will really die from the effect of the sleeping pills.
(Usually it is not difficult to the patient to let his own unconscious fantasize - like in a dream - the continuation of a whole scene which he is living now in describing it in the present tense, lying down relaxed and with closed eyes.)
John keeps silent for few seconds and then continues.
John: I am dying now, it's soft, I am not afraid... now my breath has stopped... I am dead.
T: What are you seeing now?
John: ... I can see my body lying in the car... it's like I am floating out of my body.
T: Where you are now, that you can see your dead body?
John: ... I am in the air... I am floating. I can see the car down there, my body, the street and the houses.
T: How do you feel now?
John: I feel good. It's a very pleasant feeling to float. Now, there is a very wonderful space... I feel I am floating upward, like an irresistible force is gently carrying me upwards... Now I see everything down there as far away and unimportant...
John continued in this inner journey for about 45 minutes, describing unusual scenes of great beauty, some of it frightening. He encountered archetypical phenomena, finally ending with an awesomely beautiful vision of a golden sun. He could feel the warmth of this magnificent sun replenishing him with life, and in his words he was feeling like he was being born anew.
After this experience John felt elated, his eyes were shinning with light and he seemed to be at peace with himself. He declared that he was experiencing at that moment a profound peace, and that all his previous problems which he had seen as overwhelmingly disturbing and unsolvable were now of little significance. And he realized that most of his problems were caused by the workings of his own mind. Asked how he felt about suicide now, John replied that it did not exist for him now. He was feeling himself now young and the prospects of life for him were like an exquisitely peaceful and fulfilling adventure.
His feeling of elation and profound peace lasted for about 2 weeks. After that he told that he had become "visible again". He meant now he was feeling well without being depressed, but not any longer experiencing a pleasant high state of consciousness.
In the 5 years following this experience John did not feel any need for regular therapy and his depressive suicidal states never occurred again. He felt, what he explained, in the course of these last 5 years, some experiences of "mild depression" but soon he was feeling all right again.
Not all persons undergoing the psychological ego-death-rebirth process have exactly the same experience as John. Some persons have very much difficulty in passing the threshold of life into this psychological experience of dying. A few persons will first come to a dark space or tunnel, will hear sounds (usually described as ringing bells) and see different places described as fairy tales scenes with preternatural colors. Others may have very unpleasant experiences, seeing places reminiscent of the descriptions of the Christian purgatory and the hells of various cosmologies, before entering into spaces of more pleasant experiences, and finally being able to experience their own psychological rebirth.
It seems that the experience of psychological ego-death-rebirth has a powerful effect on treating depression and suicidal crisis, however the material we have accumulated until now is too restricted to come to a final conclusion. It seems to me that this technique could be used with other methods of transpersonal approaches in conjunction with methods developed by other schools of psychotherapy with beneficial results.
REFERENCES
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Charon, J. (1972). Suicide. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
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