What is Mind: A Therapists perspective?

I suppose the best place to start in explaining what the mind is, is to explain what it is not! The mind is not a real anatomical structure, and many people debate exactly where it is, e.g. is it in the brain, heart, tissues, or even in our bones? I think the answer can be found in people who suffer some kind of brain injury or damage, e.g. head injury, stroke, tumour, nutritional deficiency, even stress or perhaps even a dental abscess! When something of this nature occurs, it is very often accompanied by a pronounced change in the way the person functions, talks, thinks, behaves etc. So, for the purpose of this article we can assume that the seat of the mind is the brain.

My inclination, at this point, is to describe the mind as a function of the brain; a metaphorical construct that allows us to communicate with ourself and the outside world!. The uniqueness of being human is by virtue of the fact that we can think and talk. However, psychologically speaking, thinking is as much our nemesis as it is our uniqueness! Quite frankly, thinking is over rated and I would guess many therapists would tend to agree with that; more about that later?

However, for the thinkers out there (Rodinists), let me explain why. Basically we humans are feeling animals, we function in response to our feelings. And the emotional feeling which seems to predominately pervade most of modern society is the feeling we know as fear. In other primates and mammals there is apparently no convincing evidence that when they respond with the fear (fight or flight) system that they actually experience subjective fear; that seems to be fairly unique to us humans? They might cower and freeze but those are essentially components of the fear response, not evidence of the existence of subjective fear itself!

Why is this you may ask? It’s because the emotional and cognitive systems of the brain are separate systems but they experience danger (a fear provoking experience) simultaneously as part of the same event in real time. The perceived danger enters the brain via the sensory Thalamus and then splits in two. Part 1 goes to the Sensory Cortex and onward to the Cingulate Cortex and the other part goes to the Hypothalamus and then splits again. Here is where it gets a little complicated because a portion of the sensory experience goes to the Amygdala (the major emotion centre of the brain, this is a shorter and therefore quicker route than the one to the Sensory Cortex), which basically means we feel before we think and part 2 of this Hypothalamic circuit feeds back to the Cingulate Cortex, via the Anterior Thalamus, thus completing the loop (Joseph Le Doux – The Synaptic self 2003). Simplistically this means that we have a cognitive awareness of the emotion, but that awareness lacks emotion! The emotion that we feel in the context of bodily responses comes purely from the activation/arousal of the Amygdala and related regions; of which there are many.

So, what does this mean for us? Well quite a lot actually. Just because we can feel, does not necessarily mean the articulation of those feelings are correct; and sometimes this articulation is simply a consequence of verbal globalization! What does that mean? Verbal globalization means that we use global words that have no real definitive meaning; for example, many clients say “I feel anxious,” but what does this actually tell you about what they are feeling? Well, in reality nothing. The only way you can make sense of what they appear to be feeling, unless of course you ask them, is to self-reference. But it seems that those of us that self-reference, often don’t fully articulate what they are feeling either, this kind of leaves us in an emotional limbo!

The reason for this may be explained by what is known as explicit – declarative- memory and implicit - non-declarative - memory. Explicit memory is that which we can articulate, or declare, it is in the realm of consciousness. Implicit memory, is that which we cannot declare and is in the realm outside of consciousness, however, this does not necessarily imply that it is part of the subconscious mind.

At the onset of dementia, it attacks explicit memory, although not necessarily exclusively so. It impairs our ability to form new memories and impairs memory that still relies on the Hippocampus for retrieval; dementia is a gradual and progressive process. Similar things happen in anterograde amnesia. However, things that are learned via the implicit memory system, e.g. playing an instrument, driving a car or a sport are seldom affected until much late in the disease.

The emotion of fear is mostly a learned experience and is learned via the implicit memory system, and basically that is why thinking, part of the explicit memory system, is mostly ineffective when trying to control emotional experiences by rational thinking, analysis and or logical processes!

Clients often say, I don’t know why I do this, I’m intelligent, I should be able to control this, why do I keep on doing it and on and on and on it goes! However, we can’t say that the cognitive system is totally neutral either, because thoughts can, via the feedback loop explained above, stimulate emotions. So having a frightening experience creates emotions and at the same time, thoughts of the event create emotion. However, the emotions and thoughts are separate aspects of the emotional, fear provoking experience. This can tricks us into thinking that because we can explain the emotion, in words, that change behaviour in an intellectual or cognitive way. . . . WRONG! Through conditioning, the thoughts alone are capable of arousing the emotion and in time the thoughts can become part of the conditioned fear response.

So, where is the mind in all of this you may ask? Well simplistically we have two minds, one which we call the conscious mind and the other the subconscious or unconscious. Consciousness is facilitated by working memory, a function of the frontal lobes of the brain, in conjunction with the Cingulate Gyrus, Hippocampus and several other cortical and sub-cortical regions. The subconscious mind refers to aspects of everything else, memories, emotions, feelings etc.

However, there is a big difference between what we call the subconscious mind and subconscious processes of the brain. Breathing is an example; breathing is mediated by the medulla oblongata in the lower part of the brainstem, it occurs outside of consciousness and so, is a subconscious process, but it cannot be defined as a function of the subconscious mind. Although breathing is an involuntary process it can be controlled consciously, we can regulate the speed of our breathing, we can even hold our breath for a while; but only until it presents a threat to life and then the subconscious need to breathe overwhelms us!

One of the things I have learned over the years as a therapist, is that we assist clients in gaining a better and more effective way of neural communication. Put simply we help them to think in a way that better serves their emotional life.

The evidence to support that is in the many testimonials received from clients stating how a therapist changed their life; although I think helping them to change their life is a more accurate statement, as it is the client who must do the work at the end of the day!

It is also noteworthy, as being evidential, to drawer the conclusion that if the past blighted a client’s mind, and that ceased to be the case following therapy, it would be reasonable to assume that therapy brought about that change? Since therapists cannot medicate or operate and they certainly can’t change the past; then what promotes change? Well, I believe this is a consequence of helping the client better utilise their whole brain/mind system. From a neurological perspective we appear to be the outward manifestation of our inner (neuro)chemical experience at any given point in time. And that which we refer to as our mood or state of mind is consequential to this chemical soup as well as the neuro-networks involved. In a sense, it seems as if neither part of this brain/mind system can function fully, at least from a human perspective, without the other, and so, the whole mind approach appears to have credence after all!

One of the most profoundly satisfying aspects of being a therapist comes from helping clients make changes in their life and the only way we can do this is by working with these seemingly (in a physical sense) non-existent structures called the mind(s). The mind may be a function of the brain, it might be how we describe the way we work, but most of all, it is the system by which we can implement and direct the way we choose to live our life. When we learn to use and work with our whole mind in such a profoundly non-instinctive way; the results truly can be Life Changing!

Warm wishes

Thom

Trans4mational Therapy Calming Life's Ripples

www.trans4mationaltherapy.com www.t4t.sg

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