The psychological "Chicken or the Egg" question
By Thomas Griner
There is a long history of the popular acceptance of the idea that a mind-body couple exists insofar
as the mind is capable of psychosomatic-ally disturbing normal body function. This has shaped the
psychological
approaches to concentrate solely on emotional environmental and experiencial factors. The thought being
that if the emotional disturbances are resolved, this will automatically resolve any physiological disturb-
ances which may have psychosomatically followed.
A newer mind-body couple concept has been slowly developing a following among some psychologists.
This allows that physiological disturbances can also somatopsychlcally disturb emotional function. Most
of those who accept this concept still tend to believe that much of the physiological disturbances are the
result of psychosomatic beginnings. Since they believe that there is a psychosomatic-somatopsychic two
way street, they feel that therapy can be accelerated by treating the body as well the mind.
Historically, the word somatopsychic was coined more than a decade before the word psychosomatic.
This resulted from repeated observations of patients who became cranky and irritable during the onset of
an infection and depressed and listless during the infection. Their emotional recovery came with their physical
recovery. The majority of people agree that susceptibility to succumbing to an infectious agent is
increased by physical abuses such as fatigue from overworking or muscle chilling.
The type of physical disturbances that are commonly involved in creating somatopsychic disturbances are
not so overt as an infection. Indeed, the major problem, which has complicated development of physical
approaches appropriate for the body, has been a lack of knowledge of the exact nature of the physical
disturbances. The accumulation of recent interrelated observations of detailed body functions, which
have been methodically collected by physiologists now points to one very common type of physical
disturbance. This disturbance, like the infection, is basically the result of physical stress and not emotional
stress, yet it
can irritate the nerves to somatophychically produce emotional disturbances.
An emotionally happy and optimistic person is said to have "good karma". A person who is emotionally
depressed or angry and pessimistic is said to have "bad karma", A person with "bad karma" is socially
said to be a disturbing element. Physiologically speaking, anything which makes the body tissue happy
could be called "good physical karma" while anything which acts as a disturbing element could be
called "bad physical karma". The most abundent "bad physical karma" found in the body tissue fluids
is lactic acid. This lactic acid has no connection with that which is ingested with yogurt and other milk
products. Intestinal lactic acid is "good physical karma" to the flora and fauna which symbiotically grow
there.
Diet has no effect on the body's production of lactic acid because the lactic and is a natural "ash" left-
over after the tissues have burned the blood sugar (glucose) to obtain metabolic energy. Starches, fats
and proteins can all be converted to blood sugar as needed. The muscles are the main producers of lactic
acid because a working muscle forces itself into anaerobic (without oxygen) metabolism and lactic acid is
only produced by anaerobic metabolism. A contracting (working) muscle compresses the blood vessels
running through it and thus reduce the blood flow to the rate needed to supply enough oxygen to maintain
aerobic (with oxygen) metabolism. Once formed, the lactic acid must reach the liver because the muscles do not contain the needed enzymes which can eliminate lactic acid whereas the liver does.
If a muscle is held in tension for a prolonged time period, it will act not only to produce large amounts of
lactic acid but the resulting reduced blood flow will also prevent the lactic acid from reaching the liver and
cause it to become concentrated. Concentrated lactic acid acts as a disturbing element by irritating
nerves, triggering muscle cramps, activating thrombosis (blood clots, including hemorrhoids), eliciting
burning pain,
and disturbing muscle tone control. Emotions can contribute somewhat to this problem thru tensing of
muscles particularly in the jaw, diaphragm and shoulder muscles. A much greater amount is produced,
however, by pure physical stresses to which the muscles are subjected. A physical trauma causes
muscles
The nerve irritation produced by the lactic add causes increased emotional irritability. This causes a
portion of an individual's ability to cope to be expended on enduring the internal irritation so that less
"cope" is left to deal with external emotional irritation. This causes emotional reactions to reach the point
of tensing of muscles more often than would be the case if the internal irritation were less. Conversely,
when people become emotionally "drained", they can no longer cope with internal irritations and usually
assume that their physical reaction is psychosomatic rather than the unmasking of a pre-existing
condition. This "robin round" of physical tension causing emotional tension causing physical tension is
what has lead to the confusion as to which comes first.
Another type of mind-body couple exists that is more complicated in its action. Sometimes a past event
with both physically and emotionally traumatic so that the two became neurologically intertwined. The dis-
covery three years ago of body produced "morphine" (called endorphins) has shown that the old
saying "time heals all wounds" is inaccurate and should say "time numbs all wounds". As the conscious
pain of the physical hurt is numbed, so is the conscious pain of the emotional hurt. The emotional
memory then works insidiously to disturb emotional function.
It is nearly impossible to bring such a "buried" emotional memory back to the conscious mind by purely
psychological techniques. Yet this must be done if the conflicts the memory creates are to be resolved.
Certain physical techniques can readily resensitize the physical hurt thus remove its activity as a block to
conscious awareness. The stored emotion then surfaces usually with tearful recall of the circumstances
which created it.