Only art penetrates what pride, passion , intelligence and habit erect on all sides-the seeming realities of this world. But there is another reality a genuine one, which we loose sight of ..
Our persistent intuitions ,our true impressions, will without art be hidden from us and we will be left with nothing but a terminology for practical ends which we falsely call life.
Saul Bellow, about art in human experience/ from his nobel laureate speach
Related Topics and Concepts in Alphabetical Order
Dynamic Pscyhotherapy
Dynamic psychotherapy As people, we are infl uenced by the physical environment, the presence or absence of other people, genetics, and social or cultural variables. In other words, we are infl uenced by our destiny. That is, because we are stimulated in certain ways, we respond in certain ways. As subjects, however, we are aware of the fact that these things are happening to us. We perceive, ponder, and act on this information. We determine which experiences are valuable and which are not and then act according to these personal formulations. What is crucial is “man’s capacity to stand outside himself, to know he is the subject as well as the object of experience, to see himself as the entity who is acting in the world of objects” (May, 1967, p. 75). As humans, we view the world, and we can view ourselves viewing it. It is this consciousness of self that allows people to escape determinism and personally infl uence what they do. Consciousness of self gives us the power to stand outside the rigid chain of stimulus and response, to pause, and by this pause to throw some weight on either side, to cast some decision about what the response will be. (May, 1953, p. 161
Existential Pscyhotherapy
Existential psychotherapy is not a specific technical approach that presents a new set of rules for therapy. It asks deep questions about the nature of the human being and the nature of anxiety, despair, grief, loneliness, isolation, and anomie. It also deals centrally with the questions of creativity and love. Out of the understanding of the meaning of these human experiences, existential psychotherapists have devised methods of therapy that do not fall into the common error of distorting human beings in the very effort of trying to help them. İrwing Yalom writes Psychological distress issues are not only from our biological genetic substrate (a psycho–pharmacologic model), not only from our struggle with suppressed instinctual strivings (a Freudian position), not only from our internalized significant adults who may be uncaring, unloving, neurotic (an object relations position), not only from disordered forms of thinking (a cognitive–behavioral position), not only from shards of forgotten traumatic memories, nor from current life crises involving one’s career and relationship with significant others, but also—but also—from a confrontation with our existence.
Philosophy
Philosophy a pure product of a free human being and itself an act of freedom . The first postulate of all philosophy is to act freely. Rousseau called the dilemma of being in the world as ‘Nobel savage’ : Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains. Existential psychotherapy rests on existential philosophy and refers on thinkers like Kierkegrad, Heideggers , Sartre ,Camus. Even though these experts have little influence on pscyhotherapeutic practice. The purpose is not to discuss the major tennets of existential philosopy, but resource from the depth of work that has been done in understanding human being and suffering . Humanistic psychologists as Rollo May, Jaques Lacan and furthered insights as far as the existential frame is of great importance . In their emphasis on freedom choice, purpose, values responsibility, the dedication to appreciating the unique experiential world, while speaking less of limits and contingency than of development and potential, less of acceptance than of awareness less of anxiety than of peak experiences and oceanic oneness, less of life meaning than of self realization, less of apartness and basic isolation than of encounter. Which all leads us to the crucial role of the future as an influencer of behavior. Rather than embracing the deterministic role of the past events on life emphasis on the importance of the will which motivates the individual forfinding purposes and goals .Training in Philosophy is a school of freedom in thought ,and of ethics . Art is thus beyond the act of freedom and that of human agency.
Art
Artistic activity is exemplary of human agency and that of freedom. Artistic activity resides in this necessity to be and act free. İn Nietzsche s phrasing : The desire for ‘freedom of the will’ in the superlative metaphysical sense . . . ; the desire to bear the entire and ultimate responsibility for one’s actions oneself, and to absolve , the world, ancestors, chance and society involves nothing less than to be precisely this causa sui and . . . to pull oneself up into existence by the hair, out of the swamps of nothingness. Nietzsche explains that a necessary condition for fully effective agency or masterly sureness resides in the ’ tyranny of ...capricious laws ‘ full quote : Beyond Good and Evil ,section 188 . . . one should recall the compulsion under which every language so far has achieved strength and freedom—the metrical compulsion of rhyme and rhythm. How much trouble the poets and orators of all peoples have taken ... —‘submitting abjectly to capricious laws’, as anarchists say, feeling ‘free’, even ‘free-spirited’. But the curious fact is that all there is or has been on earth of freedom, subtlety, boldness, dance, and masterly sureness, whether in thought itself . . . , or in rhetoric and persuasion, in the arts just as in ethics, has developed only owing to the ‘tyranny of such capricious laws’( Verwegenheit ) and in all seriousness, the probability is by no means small that this is ‘nature’ and ‘natural’—and not that laisser aller. Every artist knows how far from any feeling of letting himself go his most ‘natural’ state is—the free ordering, placing, disposing, giving form in the moment of ‘inspiration’—and how strictly and subtly he obeys thousandfold laws precisely then, laws that precisely on account of their hardness and determination defy all formulation through concepts . . . [G]iven that, something always develops, and has developed, for whose sake it is worth while to live on earth; for example, virtue, art, music, dance, reason, spirituality.
Intersection of Art and Sciences
The intersection of Art and Science The western intellectual life is divided in to two cultures. That of science and arts. Both cultures were divided as in theory and in praxis – new approach is to intersect both disciplines in a new school of knowledge . As both seek answers to the same fundamental questions of life living and meaning . As literature so Art and Music and all associated humanities use the same methodologies in finding explanations to what living is.Art demands curiosity boldness and free agency , these characteristics are mostly relevant for sciencitific endeavors , Science attemps to move us toward greater objectivity a more accurate decription of the nature of things within an empirical language ,thus art moves us towards (an understandging on the meaning of existence ‘’Dasein ‘’ thus towards subjectivity of holistic and hermeneutic insight . An İntersection of both cultures can enhance each other and thus further ‘’knowlegde’’ synergically..According to Kandel both modern science and art especially abstract art adresses in direct and compelling fashion questions and goals that are central to humanistic thought thus has a crucial function especially in psychiatriy . Both discipline can meet and influence each other and by closing the chasm betweeen the two knowing can be furthered . As Wilson said – knowledge is gained and science progresses through a process of conflict and resolution . For every parent discipline there is a more fundamental field and antidiscipline that cahllenges its methods and claims.Typically the parent discipline is larger is scope ad deeper in content. And it ends up incorporation and benefiting from the antidiscipline.These evolving relationships we can see in art and Brain science where Art is the parent discipline and Brain science is the antidiscipline .
Creativity
Art has Truthcontent ( Wahrheitsgehalt ) The progress of civilisation is essentially attributable to creativity . On a personal level Creativity is linked to freedom. The connection of human drive and creativity leads to sense of self. Together with learning, creativity is thus essential for self-actualization” (Burleson 2005, p.437). Human creativity began as an urgency and strategy to overcome the “here and now. the state of lack that qualifies our being in the world . Creativity is the driving force that not just demands for authenticity but further enables to look beyond the state of things ( transcendence ). Creativity opens the possibility that there is something more than the mere existence they lead, something more than the arrangements of the world to which men is irremediably bound” (Adorno 1956, 1990,.”it is the ability (or necessity) to find new connections that plumbs the most ancestral areas of the human being. Thus through our capacity of Imagination -the most distinctive human characteristic of all, precisely because it makes creativity possible, projects us beyond the concrete objectivity of things. İn an attemp to unravel the origine of creativity that we see in the genius the child and the artist. Freud concluded that the desire to create fantastical worlds are created by the same motivating impulse: the desire to satisfy an unfullfillled desire (see Freud 1907/1989). it is obvious that ordinary expressiveness cannot aspire to solve problems of this magnitude; it serves much simpler and instrumental dynamics and procedures. Hence Creativity is the gift to establish connections between what is here and now and what is not here but can be evoked, projecting us beyond the concrete objectivity of things - The “high” creativity, what we normally define as “artistic” (big-C), would therefore have the ponderous task of helping man in this immense effort to reconstruct the “ultimate” senses of existence: in this perspective, art would document the attempt to express a sense ungraspable by other forms of knowledge and representation. This is why artists and creative scientists “transcend themselves” in a certain way they have not only gone beyond the world , they have gone beyond themselves; they have transcended their Selves” Cognitively intelligence and creativity occupy two extremes of a dichotomy .intelligence (incorrectly) the pinnacle of deductive reasoning, accounts as THE domain-specific adaptation to solving novel problems in the environment. In contrast, creativity emerged as an adaptive cognitive mechanism ” where solutions to problems are unsighted (Simonton, 2013), and probabilistic approximation could lead to novel solutions. In this conceptualization, creativity is an evolved cognitive mechanism to abstract, to synthesize, to solve non-recurrent problems in the environment. Finally, intelligence should be seen as a rather stable evolved mechanism over the last 1.6 million years (i.e., the singular “innovation” being the Acheulean hand ax), while creativity appears to have appeared, in humans at least, in the last ~30,000 years (Gabora and Kaufman, 2010). Intelligence may not be evolutionarily novel, but creativity certainly is.
Abstraction
Abstraction (tearing apart what in reality brings together is the new clame of truth. Accoring to Avital Ronnel abstraction needs courage. Why? "The material of experience is not the material of expression." The "material of experience" are the historical data, social events; the "material of expression" is the universe that is depicted by the artist - the claim of truth. The passage from one to the other is gained through abstraction. It is in this precise sense that Beckett called for "an art of empêchement (impediment or hindrance), a state of deprivation that is material and ontological in equal measure": an invisible obstacle renders impossible the continuous transition from abstract experience to concrete social totality. According to Lacan there is no Real or what we call reality is imcomplete anc cracked This obstacle acts like the Lacanian Real/Impossible which makes reality (the reality of social totality, in this case) incomplete, cracked. The persisting unfreedom, uneasiness, and dislocation in a modern formally "free" society can be properly articulated, brought to light, only in an art which is no longer constrained to the "realist" representative model. The modern uneasiness, unfreedom in the very form of formal freedom, servitude in the very form of autonomy, and, more fundamentally, anxiety and perplexity caused by that very autonomy, reaches so deep into the very ontological foundations of our being that it can be expressed only in an art form which destabilizes and denaturalizes the most elementary coordinates of our sense of reality. parallel to these insights from humanities cognitive research claims that abstraction is the highest most elaborated cognitive ability important for survival and evolution ,linking it herby to creative capacity. Neuroscientific research on abstraction investigation perception and vision has shown that by dismantling perspective abstract art requires our brain to come up with a new logic of bottom up processing,Jack Flam 2014. More fundamentally research have shown that we do not have direct access to the physical World , it may feel as if we have direct access but this is an illusion created by our brains .Firth 2007.This konwledge interacts with the evaluation of the perceived object. Imaging studies of brain function have shown that abstract art does not activate category specific regions rather it activates the regions that correspond to all forms of art . Zeki 2004, The abstraction of an image gives us a certain detachment from reality and this encourages top down free associations which we find rewarding Taylor 2011. İnsight form psychological studies reveals that Abstraction depends on psychological distance, to be abtracted is to be at some distance from the material world ( construal theory of psychological distance) it is a form of local exaltation but also sometimes disorientation even disturbance . Art in its most powerful can induce such state , art without literal content perhaps most potently. Princenthal 2014.
Psychiatric Diagnosis
Treat Diseases and Not Symptoms
Clinicians should treat diseases, not symptoms. Diagnosis thus becomes extremely important, which entails careful attention to be as scientific as possible in our diagnostic system. As discussed elsewhere, the DSM approach has failed in this regard for the past three decades. One cannot, therefore, solely rely on DSM diagnoses in the practice of clinical psychopharmacology. The key insight here is the fact that clinical symptoms by themselves are inadequate, insufficient, and misleading for medical diagnosis. Additionally since many symptoms, like anxiety, and even depression can occur in many conditions . These symptoms as depression and anxiety should be considered as a common final pathway and should be investigated further on different levels on their causality.
In the context of clinical diagnosis for psychiatric diseases it is needed to involve diagnostic validators, as proposed by Robin : these are genetics as if diagnoses are genetic, you’ll find evidence in family members further more obtaining information from family members on symptoms and course and treatment response , laboratory tests and biological markers of illness are integral for diagnostic purposes. Alltogether they can add to make a diagnosis more probable than others.
The most important validator is course of illness which was Kraepelin’s key criterion. Some conditions are chronic, and symptoms are present all the time (like schizophrenia); others are episodic, with symptoms coming and going (like manic-depression). Additionally
When it comes to depression and anxiety we should also consider carefully more deeper levels of being and suffering ,understanding ,life events , adversities, traits, temperaments ,defense and coping mechanisms and especially existential factors that is origin and source for burden and expression of symptoms.
Pharmacological Treatment
Truths of Psychopharmacology
1. Your treatment is as good as your diagnosis.
2. Treat diseases, not symptoms.
3. All drugs are guilty until proven innocent.
4. All drugs are toxic; only the dosing and indication makes them therapeutic.
5. Always have an exit strategy.
6. Most psychiatric drugs are symptomatic, not disease-modifying. The clearest exception is lithium.
7. Older drugs are more effective than newer drugs.
8. Newer drugs are more tolerable than older drugs.
9. Treatment “resistance” usually reflects either misdiagnosis or an invalid diagnosis.
10. Course, not symptoms, reveals the diagnosis.
Depression
Depression may occur as a ‘common final pathway’ of various psychiatric disorders as well as mental processes. Some individuals experience depressive episodes as part of a ‘primary’ mood disorder previously referred to as ‘endo- genous’ or ‘unipolar/bipolar’ depression. Such episodes may have a genetic component to its causation where life events are seen as precipitating factors. On the other hand, a significant number of people develop chronic mild depres- sion known as ‘dysthymia’, or full-blown episodes called ‘major’ depression in response to ongoing or past stressful life experiences. This type of depression is often termed ‘reactive’ or ‘neurotic’ depression, which can also be influenced by temperament, character, personality traits, and/or developmental processes.
Dissociative Depression
Dissociative depression, outlined in research of Vedat Şar (Şar, 2011), comprises a significant proportion of such resistant or persistent cases of depression .It is therefor of importance to understand the unique characteristics and challenges associated with dissociative depression in order to provide appropriate and effective interventions for these individuals.
A closer examination of the individuals with dissociative depression reveals that they have often experienced chronic environmental stress throughout their lives, typically beginning in early childhood (Şar et al., 2013). This stress is frequently associated with various forms of abuse (sexual, emotional, or physical) and neglect (physical or emotional). Other factors such as early parental loss (Şar, 1989), growing up in extreme poverty, or educational deprivation (Şar & Ozturk, 2013) can also have profound mental influences on individuals, potentially contributing to the development of dissociative depression. Additionally, subtle traumatization within seemingly functional families is not uncommon. Last but not least, despite their essential role in healing and treating illnesses, medical services can also inadvertently become sources of trauma for children. For example, extended stays in incubators without sufficient interpersonal con- tact and repeated painful surgical procedures during childhood may have life- long psychological effects (Diseth, 2006).
As a general guideline, the consequences of such developmental adversities tend to respond better to psychotherapeutic interventions than solely relying on biological treatments (Nemeroff et al., 2003). However, it is crucial to accurately diagnose dissociative depression and provide specifi- cally tailored psychotherapeutic approaches to effectively address this chal- lenge.
Personal Growth
According Tolstoy true develepment arises from within within a moral introspection spiritual allignment simplicity and continuous self education , guided by etihical principles and conscious effort to lead a life of purpose and authenticity . Tolstoy emphesizes in his philosophy virutes of humility, hard work and the rejection of excess.
Yet Personal growth a distincitive perspective , challenging conventional self improvement narratives that is rooted in psychoanalytical theory and critical examination of ideology.
Pgrowth is self awareness, confronting uncomfortable truth and understanding the underlying structures that shape desires and beliefs .. thus growth is distinct from happiness
We must but also see the permeation of ideologies on society and that permeation into individual consciousness . stating that every so called individualist endeaver is deeply interwined in societal structures and cultural expectations. Therefor understanding the impact of how our culture can affect our brain ( scientific way in directing attention perception and further our emotions as volition desire and will ) is important for genuine self improvement .
This bring us unevitably to the importance of authenticity, which involves confronting discomfort, embracing complexities of ones psyche but this requires to face inner contradictions and societal conditioning .
We dont really want what we think we desire . says Lacan and he continues :
The only way to be yourself is to accept the fundamental alienation in the symbolic network.Thats what he phrases with traversing the fundamental fantasy.
Antinomy of postmodern person is because the subject is caught in the double bind – first he is free to assert himself to be an individual, this very desire to perform in certain ways means that you conform . commodification of resistance - mechanization of modern life – the pressure of being free and diversifed –
This perspective encourages individuals to critically assess their motivations and the societal influences that shape our understanding . İn critical self reflection we need to discern authentic aspirations from those imposed by societal norms. From this perspective a confrontation with discomfort can lead to embrace challenging emotions as pathways for o deeper self awareness and later transformation, that might enable autononous decision making.
Trauma and Dissociation
Psychological trauma refers to psychological injury, wound, and pain.Traumatic experiences can lead to dissociative states and syndromes The physical response to overwhelming threat to homeostasis, the psychological response to traumatic stress comprises protection of vital parts of the psychobiological system, even at the cost of other parts, until the threat is over. Thus psychosocial adjustment, in developmental periods of life in particular, may constitute arrest or delay in realization of one’s unique and authentic potentials which necessarily leads to a division of mind. The consequence is disavowal of or inability to develop one’s integrated self-identity with the possibility to subsequently reclaim it under favorable conditions.
Much of the trauma-related dysfunctions are “attempted solutions to dilemmas which are more focused on survival than recovery” (Briere, 2002). For instance, when confronted with an imminent lifethreat for which flight-or-fight is no longer an option to counter danger, the organism may shift to immobility. To escape the threatening situation as well as the internal distress and arousal, the response of “shutdown dissociation” may be adaptive for survival (Schalinski et al., 2015) leading to freezing or submission.
Much of the trauma-related dysfunctions are “attempted solutions to dilemmas which are more focused on survival than recovery” (Briere, 2002). For instance, when confronted with an imminent life-threat for which flight-or-fight is no longer an option to counter danger, the organism may shift to immobility. To escape the threatening situation as well as the internal distress and arousal, the response of “shutdown dissociation” may be adaptive for survival (Schalinski et al., 2015) leading to freezing or submission. Dissociation is a psychological defense mechanism as response to traumatic events that involves a disconnection between thoughts feelings memories or sense of identity .
Dissociation serves therefor as the common factor in all types of post-traumatic syndromes- and is facilitated by violation of boundaries by relational omission and intrusion as represented by distinct effects and consequences of childhood neglect and abuse. Recent research shows both bimodal (undermodulation and overmodulation) and bipolar (intrusion and avoidance) neurobiological and phenomenological characteristics of post-traumatic response. This understanding provides a conceptual framework to assist explanation of diverse post-traumatic mental trajectories which culminate in a common final pathway comprised of partly overlapping clinical syndromes such as complex PTSD, dissociative depression, dissociative identity disorder (DID), or “borderline” phenomena. Of crucial theoretical and clinical importance is that these maladaptive post-traumatic psychological formations may perform in that internal detachment can serve to preserve the genuine aspects of the subject .
Child hood trauma or chronic abuse can lead to dissociative depression which is a recurrent depressive disorder that is mostly resistant to conventional therapy. Dissociative depression is a complex and chronic mood disorder characterized by a combination of persistent depressive symptoms and intermittent major depressive episodes. A key feature of dissociative depression is the existence of dissociative symptoms that are linked to prolonged stress experienced during childhood and infancy. Disturbances of sense of self and agency are core indicators of the disorder. Common symptoms include thoughts of guilt and worthlessness, difficulties with concentration and decision-making, changes in appetite and sleep, and suicidal ideation. Additionally, individuals may exhibit various expressive patterns such as borderline phenomena, psychoticism, trauma-related enactments, and attempts at control through somatization, compensatory narcissism, and obsessions. One challenge is that dissociative depression often does not respond well to biological treatments alone.
Psychotherapeutic interventions that do not specifically address the dissociative aspect may also be ineffective. The required comprehensive approach involves working through layers of therapeutic reality to reverse the process that led to the status quo.
Many traumatized patients continuously wish to “forget” their disturbing experiences without being able to do so. In fact, intrusion and avoidance constitute a vicious cycle rather than totally independent phenomena. Healing of the psychologically wounded individual is based on the congruent sequence of discourse, theory, model, technique, and application, where none of these can replace any of the others.
