Negative emotions also have a very important function in regulating a persons behavior. They restrict possible was of behavior which, as a rule, are dangerous, harmful or socially unacceptable. Trying to avoid such feelings as shame, guilt, fear or anger at oneself, the person doesnt make actions which can arouse such feelings. But once they arise such feelings have a destructive effect on a persons health and psyche. But sometimes a person can have such chronic feelings not because he did something that deserves punishment but for no reason at all. These and similar emotions may be destructive for the person himself and for the people surrounding him.
5. How people deal with emotions
Lets remember that emotion is energy directed at performing some action. If there are no emotions there will be no actions which is exactly what happens to a person who suffers from apathy. However, if there are no emotions it means that they are fixed somewhere where there is no hope that they will be realized. Apathetic person ousted all his emotions because he was disillusioned about reaching his main goal, and without achieving it all other things of no importance to him.
If some emotions are not desirable are in a way dangerous for a person, he starts to resist them. For instance, he controls them, ousts them, suppresses, freezes, sublimates, projects, isolates etc. People worked out many ways to deal with emotions but essentially they are the same, in the sense that what you can mainly achieve by them is not a solution of the problem but escaping from it, not their remaking [treatment] but their withdrawal from consciousness. However, realization of these emotions in actions which may be dangerous is avoided. Though this final point is not so evident, as in some cases these emotions break out indirectly. Anger, for instance, may be directed not at the one who caused it, but at a different person. Besides, suppressed and ousted emotions sometimes distort psychic activity itself and lead to inadequate behavior.
The main characteristic feature of EIT is just that it offers quite different ways of working with emotions, primarily with chronic negative emotional sates as it is chronic negative states that lead to psychic and psychosomatic distortions. The treatment is made on the basis images of emotional states, which make it possible to remake the very emotion and resolve the problem. But images are not the aim in itself. They are only a means of affecting emotional states. An emotion is a kind of energy, so negative, destructive energy can be transformed into positive, creative form. In another case, negative energy can be simply let go, then it disappears and positive energy comes to its place. In this case, much energy which was spent on controlling bad energy is saved. Opposing forces can be reconciled and joined More details will follow.
6. Emotion as the basis of choosing a decision
To understand the logic of EIT it is necessary to keep in mind that emotions are not just the immediate energy source for actions but the basis for a particular form of behavior and thinking too. Emotional states constitute the basis of behavioral reactions, thoughts and feelings. Every emotional state determines the selections of actions and circumstances which a person faces. Being in a certain state people dont notice any delightful events around them, in another state they dont notice difficulties, in a third they invariably find some reasons for fear and worries and in fourth find some pretext to enjoy oneself and so on.
Every emotional state makes it possible to pull to the fore some forms of behavior which are potentially possible but cannot be elicited if a person is in a different state. In other words, earlier existing emotional states determine a possible choice of actions and thoughts which can be realized by a person proceeding from these states. Thus, if a person is in the state of fear, this state will not let appear the reaction of joyful laughter or thoughts about your successes. Anger lets attack, behave aggressively. Joy lets laugh and have fun, socialize in a friendly way. Sadness lets complain, cry, avoid socializing, pity oneself and so on. It is difficult to imagine a situation when a person in anger would express joyful and kind reactions. Such behavior would be insincere, and everybody will see it, even if he manages to successfully imitate another state. But in case a positive emotional state comes the needed reactions will come by themselves, without any additional instruction. Though sometimes additional instruction is necessary.
One of the most frequent complaints that makes a client turn to a psychologist for help is about poignant, irrational and uncontrollable negative emotions, which they would like to get rid of. Just take obsessive fears which are absolutely groundless, and yet they may sometimes destroy a persons life. For example, the fear of closed up spaces [claustrophobia] may lead to the situation when a person cant not only go up and down in a lift but even enter a toilet in the office and working becomes impossible.
Phobias and worries, depressions and sorrows, anger and guilt, grief and a psychological trauma, emotional dependence or absence of any emotions, inability to understand emotions [alexithymia] all this may be the reason to go to a psychologist. Emotional disorders [the last word reminds of a hospital, of diseases diagnoses and medicines for that reason in future Ill avoid such terms] are numerous and various. They cause many additional life problems. But therapy through emotions and images deals not only with such problems.
From our point of view all psychological and psychosomatic problems are caused by some chronic fixed negative emotions which at present may be quite groundless. As soon as you remove this fixed pathogenic emotion, all problems that have grown like shells on the initial ground will disappear. It is this that can explain such miracles made with the help of EIT as immediate cure if the right method is applied. The best illustration is the correction of psychosomatic problems. When fixation is removed, the pain goes away, breathing becomes free, complete relaxation comes, and the client feels an unusual surge of energy. But in order to apply the method correctly it is necessary to find the right point for applying it first that means the initial fixation point. You will read about it later. Now, however, we will give one example of such quick cure, though there will be many such examples ahead.
Example 2. A spider on the back
At one of the seminars I asked my students to show their work. One student asked to solve her psychosomatic problem. For two months, she has been suffering from constant pain in the back, which didnt let her sleep well, the back hurt in any position of her body. She went to doctors but they failed to help her.
I asked her to make an image of this pain. She saw it as a very big spider sitting on her back. As a spider is usually the symbol of a man, I supposed that she had a serious problem with a man. It turned out that her friend is a drug addict and she keeps trying to save him from this addiction, but in vain. She tries to break up their relations but for some reason cant get rid of him. We tried different methods to free her from the presence of the spider on her back but nothing helped to save her from the harmful emotional dependence.
She realized that she would not be able to save him that she sacrifices her health and her life, but for some reason she couldnt let him go. Then I offered her to imagine that the spider is sitting on a chair, sit on this chair and become this spider in her mind after that on his behalf answer the question: Does he want to be saved and brought on the back to some place where he doesnt intend to go?