Clinical Practice and the Architecture of the Mind PDF
Preview Clinical Practice and the Architecture of the Mind
ROBERT LANGS CLINICAL PRACTICE AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MIND Foreword by Arthur H. Feiner KARNAC BOOKS CLINICAL PRACTICE AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MIND Robert Langs CLINICAL P R A C T I CE AND T HE A R C H I T E C T U RE OF T HE MIND Robert Langs Foreword by Arthur H. Feiner London KARNAC BOOKS First published in English in 1995 by H. Karnac (Books) Ltd, 118 Finchley Road, London NW3 5HT Copyright © 1995 by Robert Langs The rights of Robert Langs to be identified as author of this work have been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Langs, Robert Clinical Practice and the Architecture of the Mind I. Title 616.8914 ISBN 978 1 85575 088 3 Printed in Great Britain by BPC Wheatons Ltd, Exeter CONTENTS FOREWORD by Arthur H. Feiner vii Part I Observation and architecture 1 The fundamentals of psychotherapy 3 2 Some basic tenets 10 3 Issues of adaptation for patients and therapists 17 Part II Pursuing the design of the mind 4 The classical models of the mind 31 5 The communicative-adaptational model of the mind 41 Vi CONTENTS 6 Some features of the emotion-processing mind 52 7 The conscious system of the mind 65 8 Probing the deep unconscious system of the mind 80 9 Essential features of the deep unconscious system 97 Part HI Consequences of the architecture of the mind 10 Techniques of therapy and the design of the mind 113 11 Syndromes of dysfunctional design 124 REFERENCES 143 INDEX 145 < FOREWORD Arthur H. Feiner, Ph.D. I first became familiar with Robert Langs's work when, as editor of Contemporary Psychoanalysts, a paper of his about collusion and misalliances caught my eye. It was an exciting introduction to his work. We began publishing his writings in 1975, and continued to do so enthusiastically, because we believe Langs has something to say to all psycho therapists. This current volume is the culmination of all his seminal thinking: his is a fecund mind at work. And it is a labour of love, growing out of more than 30 years' interest in the theory and dynamics of psychotherapeutic practice and his desire to base psychoanalysis and psychotherapy on the realities of what goes on communicatively between patient and therapist, and what goes on intrapsychically in each as well. Dr Langs was trained as an orthodox psychoanalyst. In addition to his clinical experience and acumen and training, he has the further enviable gift of being a prodigious writer of clarity and incisiveness. This aspect of his evident talents is reflected in the many papers and books he has published or has edited, as well as their outstanding merit and the original ity of their contributions. vii Viii FOREWORD Early in his career, following the production of a two volume exposition of psychoanalytic theory and technique, Langs began trenchant revisions and extensions, which even tuated in what he called an adaptational-interactional point of view, with its particular emphasis on frame maintenance. With this current publication he has gone beyond that in an attempt to describe the structure of the human mind and how it reveals itself in empowered psychotherapy, which is his term for his evolved, now matured, communicational approach. Since he is clear that his conclusions come from what is evident in the therapeutic process, what he writes is immediately applicable as a powerful contribution to thera peutic action. Any study of the human mind requires that we look at how humans interpret their worlds. This book echoes that dictum as an interpretation of the human acts of interpretation. The study is difficult because as researchers we are caught in a dilemma. Our minds are the object of study as well as the agent of the study. This means that our struggle to describe the limitations of the human mind is itself subject to those limitations and blind spots. Fortunately, Langs courageously moves in this direction, sometimes subjecting himself to the same scrutiny. With any knowledge comes awe and mystery, if we take the time to look deeply enough. And with this brilliant effort—more wondering, producing more knowledge—we are seduced into penetrating deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of our being. As therapists, this is where we need to go. If the physicist can tell us that the atoms of our brains are constantly being re placed—that is, the ones that were there a week ago are not there now—we can legitimately ask: what is the mind? How is it possible that the atoms of today remember and react to what went on with the atoms of a year ago, atoms that have long ago been replaced? There is no easy answer. Although therapists probably take it for granted, one of the more remarkable things that Langs has discovered is that our deep unconscious processing system is largely in contradis tinction to our conscious system, which functions practically, keeping us oriented towards the real world. We often respond consciously to negative stimuli (e.g. therapists* mistaken inter FOREWORD ix ventions) with endorsement and, much to our chagrin, even by asking for more of the same. On the other hand, our deep unconscious system seems ever available to protest against these self-abusive, destructive situations. What this suggests is that self-definition has two parts. One functions homeo statically in the world around, defensively perhaps; but the other—deeper, and far out of awareness—functions in a more visionary way, implying, not least, how things might be better. But the messages are cryptic and need careful monitoring and decoding, for them to be useful at all. Langs's contribution is particularly practical in that decoding search so that therapy and its purpose, change, becomes viable. Man's uniqueness follows his growth as an individual dependably related to the history of his species. This is not a history reflected in genes and chromosomes but, rather, as J. Bruner points out, reflected in the culture external to him, and wider in scope than is embodied in any one person's view or experience. Therefore the growth of mind is always a growth encouraged and assisted from the outside. Langs's work, therefore, becomes a searchlight helpful in scrutinizing the real effects of our assumed assists in response to someone asking for help. The destructiveness as well as the expansive ness and enhancement of therapy, and how these are accomplished, are our responsibilities as a mini-cultural experience transcending the bounds of an individual's self hurtfulness or competence. It seems logical, then, that the relief and transformation of the limits to growth depend on how therapy engages the individual in using his intellectual and emotional potential. By spelling out the various meanings of decoded triggers, or those stimuli to which patient and therapist respond adaptationally, Langs has set us on a journey of exciting discovery. His reminder of the significance of the total setting of psychotherapy—the background framework, the therapists' interventions, as well as the patients' responses, and the patterning of these from session to session—sharpens our inquiry. While we do not have any complete sense of all of the possibilities of the growth of a person, Langs's effort to reveal and understand the structure and the process of the mind
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