Slim Novel 16 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage
3. Dr. Stan and Xenia
Dr. Stan is doing ongoing psychoanalysis of Xenia Green.
Psychoanalysis may start with a short term goal; here; stopping her urge to suicide. Once the goal is reached, the analysis may end but in some cases, the patient wishes to continue to improve the qualities of her living. Dr. Stan, with Miss Xenia’s concurrence, decides Yes, we shall continue, despite two risks: seduction and the temptation of monetary gain. In Xenia's case he feels he has Risk 1 under control and, as for Risk 2, this is pathfinder research, so he waives her fee.
Xenia's starting problem was mental pain driving her to end life. Once that is solved it is natural they pursue the question of happy. What is it? How best to achieve it?
In this session, Stan gives his answer to What is happy? and Xenia responds. They sit in the golden mean office, facing each other, in high-back, plush, black-leather chairs and far enough apart so neither can touch the other. Curtains are blocking outside view and the overhead gives low light. The room is conditioned so temperature and air quality is what Stan has judged perfect for perception and cognition. Soundproofing makes for quiet except their voices. A timer is out of view but set to go off on the hour.
"What is happy for me?" asks Dr Stan and he answers quietly, "Happy is a moment-to-moment state of ease --"
Xenia interrupts, "Ease? I don't get that?"
"Oppose it to unease."
"Oh, now I get it. Absence of worry."
"Yes. When I analyze what is unhappy, I come up with a state of worry - anxiety: about one's health, one's finances, one's relationship, one's security, one's safety."
"That's true. Those are what keep me from feeling happy. But, how, Doc? It's easy to say but hard to do."
"Much of the time, most of us cannot achieve it. That is why real happiness is so fleeting." He fixes Xenia with a look. "But think of moments that stand out as happy. When did you last have such a moment?"
"Oh, of course, how could I forget? Last night, I felt unhappy like before. And I used the medicine. And within minutes I got happy. I mean all my worry feelings - the ones you just mention, left me. What is that medicine, Doc? You never say."
"OK, Xenia, now you will know. It is morphine, a very low dose, one milligram in the pill,"
"No wonder you never said. But thanks anyway. It saved me." She stops to think. "So happiness is chemistry?"
"Yes, it can be that. But that is because of what it does in your brain. If it were just that, it would be a problem because not everyone has access to happiness chemicals. Happiness is got by stopping anxieties and that starts with success at this."
"Psychoanalysis?"
"Yes. By learning techniques such as the win-win attitude to neutralize the unhappy of failure."
"That's a good one. You win if you make the right move but you also realize you can win even by losing. But that too is a sometimes technique. Most of the time a person is just sitting around, eating, reading, thinking. And the underside of her mind has worry this, worry that, and she ain't happy."
"Well, Xenia, if we can succeed, each one of us, in a self-psychoanalysis, first of all we identify a source of our fear or worry, then we check if it is real or not. And if it is not real, we come to see its notness clearly, and, seeing it clearly, then the worry from our subliminal consciousness is erased. But if we judge worry to be real, then we do good actions to remove it."
"Whoa, doc! What is this subliminal?"
"Oh, excuse the jargon but it is the best and only word I can think of for a mental activity that goes on just slightly beneath the surface of your mind. Close enough to your consciousness to disturb it with the feeling of the thought. Some psychiatrists use subconscious but Dr Freud gave that a special meaning. So subliminal."
"OK, got it. But get back to real versus the unreal worries? The difference is not so clear."
Dr Stan thinks a minute for example. Then, "One real worry comes from the pain or discomfort a middle age man is getting in his chest when he walks too fast on a cold night. The worry is Maybe it's my heart? Maybe I"ll die now? It is often subliminal and makes him constantly unhappy because it gets in the way of all his thinking. So in analysis the question comes up: What is the thought that is constantly bothering me? And quiet consideration reveals it is the chest discomfort's possible."
"So how to get rid of it?" Xenia asks
"Pretty obvious, isn't it?"
"Oh, I see, he goes to a heart specialist, gets tested and finds out what the real story is and if it is not real then he relaxes and it goes away but if it is real then has it treated and the anxiety gets less."
"Yes, a simple example, but shows the way."
"Well, what about an unreal worry?"
Dr Stan says, "Allow me to stick to heart and medical symptom. Say you are a 35-year-old woman with a retarded child whose needs for care are ruining your life? You just witnessed your old dad die of heart attack after years of chest pain. So you start getting chest pain and it makes you unhappy and you go to doctors and are given medicines and are constantly unhappy. That is, unless you get a good psychoanalysis."
"Good psychoanalysis? How is that going to help that woman care for her retarded kid and deal with her heart pain?"
"Stan shifts in his chair and looks past Xenia at the golden mean dimensions painting on the far wall of the office. "This example is short term psychoanalysis. It deals with a specific time limited problem. Here the analyst would direct the patient's attention first to the fact of her symptoms not being based on true heart disease but rather being a neurosis picked up by seeing her old father die from the heart and she using it as an excuse for her to become an invalid forcing her to stop caring for the retarded child."
"So the neurosis is a force?"
"A force outside of one's control. Religious believers might say "Act of God".
"Oh! Now I see! I call it getting you off the hook."
"Yes, but in the psychoanalysis it is used analytically, not to blame or scold. The person comes to realize she is using a neurotic illness to allow her to evade the real problem of dealing with her retarded child."
"But how would it help, even if she understood all of that?"
"It might not. She might choose the route of psychological denial and say "This analyst is full of shit!" and stop the analysis. But, then again, especially if the analyst was highly talented, she might get insight into her own self-destructive behavior, give up her neurotic heart symptoms and seek advice and help about her child that allows her to put it in an institution or hand it off to another couple who might be more willing and able to spend the time and money on helping the child."
The alarm rings. 2 PM.
Xenia says "Doc I am slowly understanding the usefulness of a life analysis."
Dr Stan: "It is not an answer; it is a suggestion of the way of successful psychoanalysis." He stands. "OK. End of session."
End of Chapter, To continue next, click 16.4 Potpourri
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