Serial Killers

Countess Erszebet Bathory was a breathtakingly beautiful, unusually well-educated woman, married to a descendant of Vlad Dracula of Bram Stoker fame. In 1611, she was tried - though, being a noblewoman, not convicted - in Hungary for slaughtering 612 young girls. The true figure may have been 40-100, though the Countess recorded in her diary more than 610 girls and 50 bodies were found in her estate when it was raided.

The Countess was notorious as an inhuman sadist long before her hygienic fixation. She once ordered the mouth of a talkative servant sewn. It is rumoured that in her childhood she witnessed a gypsy being sewn into a horse's stomach and left to die.

The girls were not killed outright. They were kept in a dungeon and repeatedly pierced, prodded, pricked, and cut. The Countess may have bitten chunks of flesh off their bodies while alive. She is said to have bathed and showered in their blood in the mistaken belief that she could thus slow down the aging process.

Her servants were executed, their bodies burnt and their ashes scattered. Being royalty, she was merely confined to her bedroom until she died in 1614. For a hundred years after her death, by royal decree, mentioning her name in Hungary was a crime.

Cases like Barothy's give the lie to the assumption that serial killers are a modern - or even post-modern - phenomenon, a cultural-societal construct, a by-product of urban alienation, Althusserian interpellation, and media glamorization. Serial killers are, indeed, largely made, not born. But they are spawned by every culture and society, molded by the idiosyncrasies of every period as well as by their personal circumstances and genetic makeup.

Still, every crop of serial killers mirrors and reifies the pathologies of the milieu, the depravity of the Zeitgeist, and the malignancies of the Leitkultur. The choice of weapons, the identity and range of the victims, the methodology of murder, the disposal of the bodies, the geography, the sexual perversions and paraphilias - are all informed and inspired by the slayer's environment, upbringing, community, socialization, education, peer group, sexual orientation, religious convictions, and personal narrative. Movies like "Born Killers", "Man Bites Dog", "Copycat", and the Hannibal Lecter series captured this truth.

Serial killers are the quiddity and quintessence of malignant narcissism.

Yet, to some degree, we all are narcissists. Primary narcissism is a universal and inescapable developmental phase. Narcissistic traits are common and often culturally condoned. To this extent, serial killers are merely our reflection through a glass darkly.

In their book "Personality Disorders in Modern Life", Theodore Millon and Roger Davis attribute pathological narcissism to "a society that stresses individualism and self-gratification at the expense of community ... In an individualistic culture, the narcissist is 'God's gift to the world'. In a collectivist society, the narcissist is 'God's gift to the collective'".

Lasch described the narcissistic landscape thus (in "The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an age of Diminishing Expectations", 1979):

"The new narcissist is haunted not by guilt but by anxiety. He seeks not to inflict his own certainties on others but to find a meaning in life. Liberated from the superstitions of the past, he doubts even the reality of his own existence ... His sexual attitudes are permissive rather than puritanical, even though his emancipation from ancient taboos brings him no sexual peace.

Fiercely competitive in his demand for approval and acclaim, he distrusts competition because he associates it unconsciously with an unbridled urge to destroy ... He (harbours) deeply antisocial impulses. He praises respect for rules and regulations in the secret belief that they do not apply to himself. Acquisitive in the sense that his cravings have no limits, he ... demands immediate gratification and lives in a state of restless, perpetually unsatisfied desire."

The narcissist's pronounced lack of empathy, off-handed exploitativeness, grandiose fantasies and uncompromising sense of entitlement make him treat all people as though they were objects (he "objectifies" people). The narcissist regards others as either useful conduits for and sources of narcissistic supply (attention, adulation, etc.) - or as extensions of himself.

Similarly, serial killers often mutilate their victims and abscond with trophies - usually, body parts. Some of them have been known to eat the organs they have ripped - an act of merging with the dead and assimilating them through digestion. They treat their victims as some children do their rag dolls.

Killing the victim - often capturing him or her on film before the murder - is a form of exerting unmitigated, absolute, and irreversible control over it. The serial killer aspires to "freeze time" in the still perfection that he has choreographed. The victim is motionless and defenseless. The killer attains long sought "object permanence". The victim is unlikely to run on the serial assassin, or vanish as earlier objects in the killer's life (e.g., his parents) have done.

In malignant narcissism, the true self of the narcissist is replaced by a false construct, imbued with omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. The narcissist's thinking is magical and infantile. He feels immune to the consequences of his own actions. Yet, this very source of apparently superhuman fortitude is also the narcissist's Achilles heel.

The narcissist's personality is chaotic. His defense mechanisms are primitive. The whole edifice is precariously balanced on pillars of denial, splitting, projection, rationalization, and projective identification. Narcissistic injuries - life crises, such as abandonment, divorce, financial difficulties, incarceration, public opprobrium - can bring the whole thing tumbling down. The narcissist cannot afford to be rejected, spurned, insulted, hurt, resisted, criticized, or disagreed with.

Likewise, the serial killer is trying desperately to avoid a painful relationship with his object of desire. He is terrified of being abandoned or humiliated, exposed for what he is and then discarded. Many killers often have sex - the ultimate form of intimacy - with the corpses of their victims. Objectification and mutilation allow for unchallenged possession.

Devoid of the ability to empathize, permeated by haughty feelings of superiority and uniqueness, the narcissist cannot put himself in someone else's shoes, or even imagine what it means. The very experience of being human is alien to the narcissist whose invented False Self is always to the fore, cutting him off from the rich panoply of human emotions.

Thus, the narcissist believes that all people are narcissists. Many serial killers believe that killing is the way of the world. Everyone would kill if they could or were given the chance to do so. Such killers are convinced that they are more honest and open about their desires and, thus, morally superior. They hold others in contempt for being conforming hypocrites, cowed into submission by an overweening establishment or society.

The narcissist seeks to adapt society in general - and meaningful others in particular - to his needs. He regards himself as the epitome of perfection, a yardstick against which he measures everyone, a benchmark of excellence to be emulated. He acts the guru, the sage, the "psychotherapist", the "expert", the objective observer of human affairs. He diagnoses the "faults" and "pathologies" of people around him and "helps" them "improve", "change", "evolve", and "succeed" - i.e., conform to the narcissist's vision and wishes.

Serial killers also "improve" their victims - slain, intimate objects - by "purifying" them, removing "imperfections", depersonalizing and dehumanizing them. This type of killer saves its victims from degeneration and degradation, from evil and from sin, in short: from a fate worse than death.

The killer's megalomania manifests at this stage. He claims to possess, or have access to, higher knowledge and morality. The killer is a special being and the victim is "chosen" and should be grateful for it. The killer often finds the victim's ingratitude irritating, though sadly predictable.

In his seminal work, "Aberrations of Sexual Life" (originally: "Psychopathia Sexualis"), quoted in the book "Jack the Ripper" by Donald Rumbelow, Kraft-Ebbing offers this observation:

"The perverse urge in murders for pleasure does not solely aim at causing the victim pain and - most acute injury of all - death, but that the real meaning of the action consists in, to a certain extent, imitating, though perverted into a monstrous and ghastly form, the act of defloration. It is for this reason that an essential component ... is the employment of a sharp cutting weapon; the victim has to be pierced, slit, even chopped up ... The chief wounds are inflicted in the stomach region and, in many cases, the fatal cuts run from the vagina into the abdomen. In boys an artificial vagina is even made ... One can connect a fetishistic element too with this process of hacking ... inasmuch as parts of the body are removed and ... made into a collection."

Yet, the sexuality of the serial, psychopathic, killer is self-directed. His victims are props, extensions, aides, objects, and symbols. He interacts with them ritually and, either before or after the act, transforms his diseased inner dialog into a self-consistent extraneous catechism. The narcissist is equally auto-erotic. In the sexual act, he merely masturbates with other - living - people's bodies.

The narcissist's life is a giant repetition complex. In a doomed attempt to resolve early conflicts with significant others, the narcissist resorts to a restricted repertoire of coping strategies, defense mechanisms, and behaviors. He seeks to recreate his past in each and every new relationship and interaction. Inevitably, the narcissist is invariably confronted with the same outcomes. This recurrence only reinforces the narcissist's rigid reactive patterns and deep-set beliefs. It is a vicious, intractable, cycle.

Correspondingly, in some cases of serial killers, the murder ritual seemed to have recreated earlier conflicts with meaningful objects, such as parents, authority figures, or peers. The outcome of the replay is different to the original, though. This time, the killer dominates the situation.

The killings allow him to inflict abuse and trauma on others rather than be abused and traumatized. He outwits and taunts figures of authority - the police, for instance. As far as the killer is concerned, he is merely "getting back" at society for what it did to him. It is a form of poetic justice, a balancing of the books, and, therefore, a "good" thing. The murder is cathartic and allows the killer to release hitherto repressed and pathologically transformed aggression - in the form of hate, rage, and envy.

But repeated acts of escalating gore fail to alleviate the killer's overwhelming anxiety and depression. He seeks to vindicate his negative introjects and sadistic superego by being caught and punished. The serial killer tightens the proverbial noose around his neck by interacting with law enforcement agencies and the media and thus providing them with clues as to his identity and whereabouts. When apprehended, most serial assassins experience a great sense of relief.

Serial killers are not the only objectifiers - people who treat others as objects. To some extent, leaders of all sorts - political, military, or corporate - do the same. In a range of demanding professions - surgeons, medical doctors, judges, law enforcement agents - objectification efficiently fends off attendant horror and anxiety.

Yet, serial killers are different. They represent a dual failure - of their own development as full-fledged, productive individuals - and of the culture and society they grow in. In a pathologically narcissistic civilization - social anomies proliferate. Such societies breed malignant objectifiers - people devoid of empathy - also known as "narcissists".

What is Narcissism

A pattern of traits and behaviours which signify infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of all others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of one's gratification, dominance and ambition.

Most narcissists (50-75%, according to the DSM IV-TR) are men.

The Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is one of a "family" of personality disorders (known as "Cluster B"). Other members of Cluster B are Borderline PD, Antisocial PD and Histrionic PD.

NPD is often diagnosed with other mental health disorders ("co-morbidity") - or with substance abuse and impulsive and reckless behaviors ("dual diagnosis").

NPD is new (1980) mental health category in the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM).

There is only scant research regarding narcissism. But what there is has not demonstrated any ethnic, social, cultural, economic, genetic, or professional predilection to NPD.

It is estimated that 0.7-1% of the general population suffer from NPD.

Pathological narcissism was first described in detail by Freud. Other major contributors are: Klein, Horney, Kohut, Kernberg, Millon, Roningstam, Gunderson, Hare.

The onset of narcissism is in infancy, childhood and early adolescence. It is commonly attributed to childhood abuse and trauma inflicted by parents, authority figures, or even peers.

There is a whole range of narcissistic reactions - from the mild, reactive and transient to the permanent personality disorder.

Narcissistic Supply is outside attention - usually positive (adulation, affirmation, fame, celebrity) - used by the narcissist to regulate his labile sense of self-worth.

Narcissists are either "cerebral" (derive their narcissistic supply from their intelligence or academic achievements) - or "somatic" (derive their narcissistic supply from their physique, exercise, physical or sexual prowess and romantic or physical "conquests").

Narcissists are either "classic" - see definition below - or they are "compensatory", or "inverted" - see definitions here: "The Inverted Narcissist".

The classic narcissist is self-confident, the compensatory narcissist covers up in his haughty behaviour for a deep-seated deficit in self-esteem, and the inverted type is a co-dependent who caters to the emotional needs of a classic narcissist.

NPD is treated in talk therapy (psychodynamic or cognitive-behavioural). The prognosis for an adult narcissist is poor, though his adaptation to life and to others can improve with treatment. Medication is applied to side-effects and behaviours (such as mood or affect disorders and obsession-compulsion) - usually with some success.

The American Psychiatric Association, based in Washington D.C., USA, publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR), 2000.

Click here to read the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for the Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

The international equivalent of the DSM is the ICD-10, Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders, published by the World Health Organization in Geneva (1992).

Click here to read the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for the Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

The DSM defines NPD as "an all-pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration or adulation and lack of empathy, usually beginning by early adulthood and present in various contexts."

The ICD regards NPD as "a personality disorder that fits none of the specific rubrics." It relegates it to the category "Other Specific Personality Disorders" together with the eccentric, "haltlose", immature, passive-aggressive, and psychoneurotic personality disorders and types.

The DSM specifies nine diagnostic criteria. For NPD to be diagnosed, five (or more) of these criteria must be met.

(In the text below, I have proposed modifications to the language of these criteria to incorporate current knowledge about this disorder. My modifications appear in bold italics.)

(My amendments do not constitute a part of the text of the DSM-IV-TR, nor is the American Psychiatric Association (APA) associated with them in any way.)

Click here to download a bibliography of the studies and research regarding the Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) on which I based my proposed revisions.

Proposed Amended Criteria for the Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Feels grandiose and self-important (e.g., exaggerates accomplishments, talents, skills, contacts, and personality traits to the point of lying, demands to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements);

Is obsessed with fantasies of unlimited success, fame, fearsome power or omnipotence, unequalled brilliance (the cerebral narcissist), bodily beauty or sexual performance (the somatic narcissist), or ideal, everlasting, all-conquering love or passion;

Firmly convinced that he or she is unique and, being special, can only be understood by, should only be treated by, or associate with, other special or unique, or high-status people (or institutions);

Requires excessive admiration, adulation, attention and affirmation - or, failing that, wishes to be feared and to be notorious (Narcissistic Supply);

Feels entitled. Demands automatic and full compliance with his or her unreasonable expectations for special and favourable priority treatment;

Is "interpersonally exploitative", i.e., uses others to achieve his or her own ends;

Devoid of empathy. Is unable or unwilling to identify with, acknowledge, or accept the feelings, needs, preferences, priorities, and choices of others;

Constantly envious of others and seeks to hurt or destroy the objects of his or her frustration. Suffers from persecutory (paranoid) delusions as he or she believes that they feel the same about him or her and are likely to act similarly;

Behaves arrogantly and haughtily. Feels superior, omnipotent, omniscient, invincible, immune, "above the law", and omnipresent (magical thinking). Rages when frustrated, contradicted, or confronted by people he or she considers inferior to him or her and unworthy.

The Psychology of Torture

There is one place in which one's privacy, intimacy, integrity and inviolability are guaranteed - one's body, a unique temple and a familiar territory of sensa and personal history. The torturer invades, defiles and desecrates this shrine. He does so publicly, deliberately, repeatedly and, often, sadistically and sexually, with undisguised pleasure. Hence the all-pervasive, long-lasting, and, frequently, irreversible effects and outcomes of torture.

In a way, the torture victim's own body is rendered his worse enemy. It is corporeal agony that compels the sufferer to mutate, his identity to fragment, his ideals and principles to crumble. The body becomes an accomplice of the tormentor, an uninterruptible channel of communication, a treasonous, poisoned territory.

It fosters a humiliating dependency of the abused on the perpetrator. Bodily needs denied - sleep, toilet, food, water - are wrongly perceived by the victim as the direct causes of his degradation and dehumanization. As he sees it, he is rendered bestial not by the sadistic bullies around him but by his own flesh.

The concept of "body" can easily be extended to "family", or "home". Torture is often applied to kin and kith, compatriots, or colleagues. This intends to disrupt the continuity of "surroundings, habits, appearance, relations with others", as the CIA put it in one of its manuals. A sense of cohesive self-identity depends crucially on the familiar and the continuous. By attacking both one's biological body and one's "social body", the victim's psyche is strained to the point of dissociation.

Beatrice Patsalides describes this transmogrification thus in "Ethics of the unspeakable: Torture survivors in psychoanalytic treatment":

"As the gap between the 'I' and the 'me' deepens, dissociation and alienation increase. The subject that, under torture, was forced into the position of pure object has lost his or her sense of interiority, intimacy, and privacy. Time is experienced now, in the present only, and perspective - that which allows for a sense of relativity - is foreclosed. Thoughts and dreams attack the mind and invade the body as if the protective skin that normally contains our thoughts, gives us space to breathe in between the thought and the thing being thought about, and separates between inside and outside, past and present, me and you, was lost."

Torture robs the victim of the most basic modes of relating to reality and, thus, is the equivalent of cognitive death. Space and time are warped by sleep deprivation. The self ("I") is shattered. The tortured have nothing familiar to hold on to: family, home, personal belongings, loved ones, language, name. Gradually, they lose their mental resilience and sense of freedom. They feel alien - unable to communicate, relate, attach, or empathize with others.

Torture splinters early childhood grandiose narcissistic fantasies of uniqueness, omnipotence, invulnerability, and impenetrability. But it enhances the fantasy of merger with an idealized and omnipotent (though not benign) other - the inflicter of agony. The twin processes of individuation and separation are reversed.

Torture is the ultimate act of perverted intimacy. The torturer invades the victim's body, pervades his psyche, and possesses his mind. Deprived of contact with others and starved for human interactions, the prey bonds with the predator. "Traumatic bonding", akin to the Stockholm syndrome, is about hope and the search for meaning in the brutal and indifferent and nightmarish universe of the torture cell.

The abuser becomes the black hole at the center of the victim's surrealistic galaxy, sucking in the sufferer's universal need for solace. The victim tries to "control" his tormentor by becoming one with him (introjecting him) and by appealing to the monster's presumably dormant humanity and empathy.

This bonding is especially strong when the torturer and the tortured form a dyad and "collaborate" in the rituals and acts of torture (for instance, when the victim is coerced into selecting the torture implements and the types of torment to be inflicted, or to choose between two evils).

The psychologist Shirley Spitz offers this powerful overview of the contradictory nature of torture in a seminar titled "The Psychology of Torture" (1989):

"Torture is an obscenity in that it joins what is most private with what is most public. Torture entails all the isolation and extreme solitude of privacy with none of the usual security embodied therein ... Torture entails at the same time all the self exposure of the utterly public with none of its possibilities for camaraderie or shared experience. (The presence of an all powerful other with whom to merge, without the security of the other's benign intentions.)

A further obscenity of torture is the inversion it makes of intimate human relationships. The interrogation is a form of social encounter in which the normal rules of communicating, of relating, of intimacy are manipulated. Dependency needs are elicited by the interrogator, but not so they may be met as in close relationships, but to weaken and confuse. Independence that is offered in return for 'betrayal' is a lie. Silence is intentionally misinterpreted either as confirmation of information or as guilt for 'complicity'.

Torture combines complete humiliating exposure with utter devastating isolation. The final products and outcome of torture are a scarred and often shattered victim and an empty display of the fiction of power."

Obsessed by endless ruminations, demented by pain and a continuum of sleeplessness - the victim regresses, shedding all but the most primitive defense mechanisms: splitting, narcissism, dissociation, projective identification, introjection, and cognitive dissonance. The victim constructs an alternative world, often suffering from depersonalization and derealization, hallucinations, ideas of reference, delusions, and psychotic episodes.

Sometimes the victim comes to crave pain - very much as self-mutilators do - because it is a proof and a reminder of his individuated existence otherwise blurred by the incessant torture. Pain shields the sufferer from disintegration and capitulation. It preserves the veracity of his unthinkable and unspeakable experiences.

This dual process of the victim's alienation and addiction to anguish complements the perpetrator's view of his quarry as "inhuman", or "subhuman". The torturer assumes the position of the sole authority, the exclusive fount of meaning and interpretation, the source of both evil and good.

Torture is about reprogramming the victim to succumb to an alternative exegesis of the world, proffered by the abuser. It is an act of deep, indelible, traumatic indoctrination. The abused also swallows whole and assimilates the torturer's negative view of him and often, as a result, is rendered suicidal, self-destructive, or self-defeating.

Thus, torture has no cut-off date. The sounds, the voices, the smells, the sensations reverberate long after the episode has ended - both in nightmares and in waking moments. The victim's ability to trust other people - i.e., to assume that their motives are at least rational, if not necessarily benign - has been irrevocably undermined. Social institutions are perceived as precariously poised on the verge of an ominous, Kafkaesque mutation. Nothing is either safe, or credible anymore.

Victims typically react by undulating between emotional numbing and increased arousal: insomnia, irritability, restlessness, and attention deficits. Recollections of the traumatic events intrude in the form of dreams, night terrors, flashbacks, and distressing associations.

The tortured develop compulsive rituals to fend off obsessive thoughts. Other psychological sequelae reported include cognitive impairment, reduced capacity to learn, memory disorders, sexual dysfunction, social withdrawal, inability to maintain long-term relationships, or even mere intimacy, phobias, ideas of reference and superstitions, delusions, hallucinations, psychotic microepisodes, and emotional flatness.

Depression and anxiety are very common. These are forms and manifestations of self-directed aggression. The sufferer rages at his own victimhood and resulting multiple dysfunction. He feels shamed by his new disabilities and responsible, or even guilty, somehow, for his predicament and the dire consequences borne by his nearest and dearest. His sense of self-worth and self-esteem are crippled.

In a nutshell, torture victims suffer from a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Their strong feelings of anxiety, guilt, and shame are also typical of victims of childhood abuse, domestic violence, and rape. They feel anxious because the perpetrator's behavior is seemingly arbitrary and unpredictable - or mechanically and inhumanly regular.

They feel guilty and disgraced because, to restore a semblance of order to their shattered world and a modicum of dominion over their chaotic life, they need to transform themselves into the cause of their own degradation and the accomplices of their tormentors.

The CIA, in its "Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual - 1983" (reprinted in the April 1997 issue of Harper's Magazine), summed up the theory of coercion thus:

"The purpose of all coercive techniques is to induce psychological regression in the subject by bringing a superior outside force to bear on his will to resist. Regression is basically a loss of autonomy, a reversion to an earlier behavioral level. As the subject regresses, his learned personality traits fall away in reverse chronological order. He begins to lose the capacity to carry out the highest creative activities, to deal with complex situations, or to cope with stressful interpersonal relationships or repeated frustrations."

Inevitably, in the aftermath of torture, its victims feel helpless and powerless. This loss of control over one's life and body is manifested physically in impotence, attention deficits, and insomnia. This is often exacerbated by the disbelief many torture victims encounter, especially if they are unable to produce scars, or other "objective" proof of their ordeal. Language cannot communicate such an intensely private experience as pain.

Spitz makes the following observation:

"Pain is also unsharable in that it is resistant to language ... All our interior states of consciousness: emotional, perceptual, cognitive and somatic can be described as having an object in the external world ... This affirms our capacity to move beyond the boundaries of our body into the external, sharable world. This is the space in which we interact and communicate with our environment. But when we explore the interior state of physical pain we find that there is no object 'out there' - no external, referential content. Pain is not of, or for, anything. Pain is. And it draws us away from the space of interaction, the sharable world, inwards. It draws us into the boundaries of our body."

Bystanders resent the tortured because they make them feel guilty and ashamed for having done nothing to prevent the atrocity. The victims threaten their sense of security and their much-needed belief in predictability, justice, and rule of law. The victims, on their part, do not believe that it is possible to effectively communicate to "outsiders" what they have been through. The torture chambers are "another galaxy". This is how Auschwitz was described by the author K. Zetnik in his testimony in the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem in 1961.

Kenneth Pope in "Torture", a chapter he wrote for the "Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender", quotes Harvard psychiatrist Judith Herman:

"It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering."

But, more often, continued attempts to repress fearful memories result in psychosomatic illnesses (conversion). The victim wishes to forget the torture, to avoid re-experiencing the often life threatening abuse and to shield his human environment from the horrors. In conjunction with the victim's pervasive distrust, this is frequently interpreted as hypervigilance, or even paranoia. It seems that the victims can't win. Torture is forever.

Hypnosis: A Brief History

Evidence of hypnotic-like phenomena appears in many ancient cultures. The writer of Genesis seems familiar with the anaesthetic power of hypnosis when he reports that God put Adam "into a deep sleep" to take his rib to form Eve. Other ancient records suggest hypnosis was used by the oracle at Delphi and in rites in ancient Egypt (Hughes and Rothovius, 1996). The modern history of hypnosis begins in the late 1700s, when a French physician, Anton Mesmer, revived an interest in hypnosis.

1734-1815 Franz Anton Mesmer was born in Vienna. Mesmer is considered the father of hypnosis by many. He is remembered for the term "mesmerism" which described a process of inducing trance through a series of passes he made with his hands and/or magnets over people. He worked with a person’s animal magnetism (psychic and electromagnetic energies). The medical community eventually discredited him despite his considerable success treating a variety of ailments. His successes offended the medical establishment of the time, who arranged for an official French government investigating committee. This committee included Benjamin Franklin, then the American ambassador to France, and Joseph Guillotine, a French physician who introduced a never-fail device for physically separating the mind from the rest of the body.

1795-1860 James Braid, an English physician, originally opposed to mesmerism (as it had become known) who subsequently became interested. Hypnosis was developing. He said that cures were not due to animal magnetism however, they were due to suggestion. He developed the eye fixation technique (also known as Braidism) of inducing relaxation and called it hypnosis (after Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep) as he thought the phenomena of hypnosis was a form of sleep. Later, realising his error, he tried to change the name to monoeidism (meaning influence of a single idea)however, the original name of hypnosis stuck.

1825-1893 Jean Marie Charcot a French neurologist,disagreed with the Nancy School of Hypnotism and contended that hypnosis was simply a manifestation of hysteria. There was bitter rivalry between Charcot and the Nancy group (Liebault and Bernheim). He revived Mesmer’s theory of Animal Magnetism and identified the three stages of trance; lethargy, catalepsy and somnambulism.

1845-1947 Pierre Janet was a French neurologist and psychologist who was initially opposed to the use of hypnosis until he discovered its relaxing effects and promotion of healing. Janet was one of the few people who continued to show an interest in hypnosis during the psychoanalytical rage.

1849-1936 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov - Russian psychologist who actually was more focused on the study of the digestive process. He is known primarily for his development of the concept of the conditioned reflex (or Stimulus Response Theory). In his classic experiment, he trained hungry dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell, which was previously associated with the sight of food. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1904 for his work on digestive secretions. Though he had nothing to do with hypnosis, his Stimulus Response Theory is a cornerstone in linking and anchoring behaviours, particularly in NLP.

1857-1926 Emile Coue, a physician who formulated the Laws of Suggestion used in modern hypnosis. He is also known for encouraging his patients to say to themselves 20-30 times a night before going to sleep; "Everyday in every way, I am getting better and better." He also discovered that delivering positive suggestions when prescribing medication proved to be a more effective cure than prescribing medications alone. He eventually abandoned the concept of hypnosis in favour of just using suggestion, feeling hypnosis and the hypnotic state impaired the efficiency of the suggestion.

Coue’s Laws of Suggestion

The Law of Concentrated Attention

" Whenever attention is concentrated on an idea over and over again, it spontaneously tends to realise itself"

The Law of Reverse Action

"The harder one tries to do something, the less chance one has of success"

The Law of Dominant Effect

"A stronger emotion tends to replace a weaker one"

1856-1939 Sigmund Freud travelled to Nancy and studied with Liebault and Bernheim, and then did additional study with Charcot. Freud did not incorporate hypnosis in his therapeutic work however because he felt he could not hypnotise patients to a sufficient depth, felt that the cures were temporary, and that hynosis stripped patients of their defences. Freud was considered a poor hypnotist given his paternal manner. However, his clients often went into trance and he often, unknowingly, performed non-verbal inductions when he would place his hand on his patient’s head to signify the Doctor dominant, patient submissive roles. Because of his early dismissal of hypnosis in favour of psychoanalysis, hypnosis was almost totally ignored.

1875-1961 Carl Jung, a student and colleague of Freud’s, rejected Freud’s psychoanalytical approach and developed his own interests. He developed the concept of the collective unconscious and archetypes. Though he did not actively use hypnosis, he encouraged his patients to use active imagination to change old memories, some consider this to be hypnosis. He often used the concept of the inner guide, in the healing work. He believed that the inner mind could be accessed through tools like the I Ching and astrology. He was rejected by the conservative medical community as a mystic. However, many of his ideas and theories are actively embraced by healers and those in hypnosis-related fields to this day.

Short Story: The Next Level of Humanity

“Hey Mac, have you ever been thinking of someone and then-bang! - The telephone rings and it’s them on the phone?”

“Pinkus, why are you always asking me stupid inane questions that have absolutely no relevance whatsoever to the job at hand?”

Mac smiled and laughed loudly. It was the kind of laugh that could boil the water in your fishbowl. He rolled back from his desk slowly in his ergonomic computer chair, and then whipped a super-quick 360-degree wheelie stopping with perfect precision, his eyes staring directly at mine with a look of pure mischievous intent.

“You know Pinkus, I often wonder if you’re actually a human at all. The planet Kleptar 12 definitely seems like a much more probable location from which your form popcorned out and graced our universe with your presence. I’m serious man, answer the question!”

Pushing back from my desk in the cubicle I tried to remember Mac’s stupid question. Had I ever been thinking of someone and then the phone rang, that person calling on the line?

“Of course I have, it happens once in a while. Why do you ask? You got one of your deep-space theories that the reason for this coincidence is actually a sign that humans were spawned by giant mushroom people in another galaxy, or is it a hidden conspiracy where mutants on Pluto are controlling our minds with ectoplasm injected into our chewing gum?”

Mac didn’t seem perturbed by my comments, obviously he was getting quite used to them. A very serious look covered his face; this was a rare event in itself as Mac never looked serious. Normally a smile was permanently imprinted on his mouth, a chilly reminder that maybe I wasn’t as happy as I could be in this life. His face often appeared in my dreams, sometimes whispering sacred proverbs, other times just a giant head chasing me through a tunnel that stretched for eternity. Of course I never spoke of these dreams to him, I didn’t want him to know that he had any effect on me, if he knew it’d be like letting a bee loose in a field of wildflowers. I’d never get him to shut up.

“Have you ever heard of the concept of a collective consciousness Pinkie old boy?” he asked in an unusually intimately sounding voice.

“Yeah of course I have. I’m a computer programmer like you man; it’s called the Internet. Everyone with access to it has a means to obtaining as much knowledge as they like from anyone and anywhere in the world. What, do you think I’m a complete moron or something?”

Mac’s eyes lit up, they gave the impression a tiger was about to pounce on a helpless antelope. In this particular case Pinkus Brewster was the antelope. It was at this moment the Beatles’s famous song lyric “I am a walrus.” popped into my head. I really could have handled being a walrus at that moment. It would have made it a slightly bit more comfortable.

“Collective consciousness is a concept I didn’t create Pinkus me lad. It’s the idea that a species can obtain knowledge mentally from others in the species without even searching for it. Have you ever heard the story of the bird that back in 1927 in England that was documented to have figured out how to rip the lid off a milk bottle and then eat the cream on top?”

“No. What happened?”

“ Just after this event, birds of the same species all over Europe were also recorded as suddenly having gained the new skill. There was no way the information could have been passed by personal instruction, the knowledge had spread out geographically over a large area that the small birds couldn’t have traveled in such a small period of time.”

“So Mac, why do you feel this is so important to be telling me that I’m not getting any work done?”

“It’s like the telephone call Pinkus. Humans are more connected than we are aware of. You know who’s on the line beforehand because we’re all linked to a field of energy that all of our species uses to learn and grow. Have you ever heard of an invention that appears at the same time historically but in two completely different parts of the world where the inventors had no contact with each other whatsoever?”

A stupefied look now covered my face. I know this because I’ve got a computer monitor mirror staring right back at me. Why is this crackpot telling me this bull winkle? As if reading my mind with his ‘collective consciousness’ Mac gave it to me straight.

“The big breakthrough is about to come Pinko. You’re right about the Internet, but you’re not seeing the whole picture. Now that a whole lot of us humans are hooked into this new technology it means we are hearing each other’s thoughts and ideas more easily subconsciously. The feelings you have are being transmitted through your blog’s words as well as the plain information. The Internet is the means for a psychic revolution! It’s going to take humanity to the next level of evolution.”

I sat quietly and thought to myself, “Psycho revolution more like it! This guy sure is making me feel strange. Uh, oh! -Did I just say he was making me feel strange? Already this collective consciousness idea is playing with my brain.” A weird feeling of calm overcame me. Maybe other humans have gotten used to the idea and now they’re sending me the knowledge to relax and take it all in easy and slow. I looked over at Mac. He was looking deep into his computer screen as if it was a set of enchanting eyes and kept whispering to himself over and over:`

“I am you, you are me. Together that makes we.”

Panic Attacks: Effective Ways to Cope

Jill is a 21 y/o college student who used to do well until about a few months ago when she started to experience “weird” attacks almost daily. She described her experience as “horrible.” When she has the attack, she feels that she’s about to die or develop a stroke.

One day while she was in a mall, she suddenly developed an “overwhelming” sensation all over her body. She was sweaty and tremulous and felt that her heart was pumping so fast. Within a few seconds, she also suffered from chest pain and shortness of breath. This episode lasted for about 10 minutes but she felt that this was her worst ten minutes of her life.

Overwhelmed by her experience, she has stayed away from malls and has avoided being in a crowd of people. Because of the frequency of the attacks, Jill can’t anymore function normally. She is afraid to leave the house and go to work.

Jill’s experience is typical of someone with Panic Disorder. A person with panic disorder develops anxiety attacks associated with the thought that he or she would die or develop a stroke or heart attack. Physical changes such as fast heart beat, shortness of breath, fainting episodes, sweating and tremulousness are some of the accompanying symptoms.

A typical episode usually comes “out of the blue” and not precipitated by any triggers. It can therefore happen any time and anywhere. An attack can last for a few to several minutes.

One episode can make a person feel scared of having another one. In fact, a lot of people feel distressed anticipating the occurrence of another attack. So most individuals prefer to stay at home and isolate themselves from friends, co-workers, and even relatives. Eventually they become incapacitated.

If you’re like Jill, is there any treatment that can help?

Yes, there is. Individuals with this condition are successfully treated with an antidepressant such as the serotonin-reuptake inhibitors. Usually, the dose should be started low, for instance 10 mg/day of citalopram. After a few weeks, the dose should be gradually increased depending upon the person’s clinical status.

Cognitive behavior therapy is likewise very effective. This type of “talk psychotherapy” helps the individual to restructure his or her thinking. Negative cognition associated with the illness should be addressed in therapy because it creates more harm than good. Relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises should also help.

During treatment, patience is very important because it takes a while before any intervention helps. However, don’t despair. After a few weeks, the medication should start working and should give you a feeling of comfort.

What’s the role of benzodiazepines (e.g. lorazepam or clonazepam) in the treatment of panic disorder? This type of drug can provide acute relief but should be used only on a short-term basis because of its addiction potential. For long-term treatment, antidepressants and psychotherapy are still preferable

What Causes Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The most recent models that attempt to describe what is happening in the brains of people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder suggest that several areas of the brain may be affected by the disorder. They include the frontal lobes, the inhibitory mechanisms of the cortex, the limbic system, and the reticular activating system. Each of these areas of the brain is associated with various neurological functions.

There are several areas of the brain potentially impacted, and there are several possible "types" of ADHD. Daniel Amen, a medical doctor using SPECT scans as identified six different types of ADHD, each with its own set of problems, and each different from the other "types." In our practice we used five different "types" of ADHD, identifying each "type" with a character from the Winnie the Pooh stories (Pooh is inattentive, Tigger is hyperactive, Eeyore is depressive, and so on).

The frontal lobes help us to pay attention to tasks, focus concentration, make good decisions, plan ahead, learn and remember what we have learned, and behave appropriately for the situation. The inhibitory mechanisms of the cortex keep us from being hyperactive, from saying things out of turn, and from getting mad at inappropriate times, for examples. They help us to "inhibit" our behaviors. It has been said that 70% of the brain is there to inhibit the other 30%.

When the inhibitory mechanisms of the brain aren't working as hard as they ought to, then we can see results of what are sometimes called "dis-inhibition disorders" which allow for impulsive behaviors, quick temper, poor decision making, hyperactivity, and so on.

The limbic system is the base of our emotions and our highly vigilant look-out tower. If over-activated, a person might have wide mood swings, or quick temper outbursts. He might also be "over-aroused," quick to startle, touching everything around him, hyper-vigilant. A normally functioning limbic system would provide for normal emotional changes, normal levels of energy, normal sleep routines, and normal levels of coping with stress. A dysfunctional limbic system results in problems with those areas.

The Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder might affect one, two, or all three of these areas, resulting in several different "styles" or "profiles" of children (and adults) with ADD ADHD.

Learn more about the impact of ADHD on children and teens, treatment options for ADHD, and much more at the ADHD Information Library.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is Not Related to I.Q

It's important to know that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Intelligence, as measured by I.Q., are two different things.

Some parents are convinced that if their child has ADD it means that they are retarded. On the other hand, other parents say, "I've heard that ADD kids are really very, very bright. I think my child must have ADD," as if they wanted to wear a button that said, "My child is smarter than your child because he has ADD." Both of these points of view are unfortunate, and are based on bad information.

Intelligence falls into a Bell Curve, even for those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Some Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids are below average I.Q., and some are even retarded. Other ADD ADHD kids are above average I.Q., and some are even quite brilliant. But the awful truth for a parent to hear is that MOST children (about 2 out of 3) are AVERAGE I.Q. That's why they call it "average." And most Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids have average I.Q. as well.

Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder just have a very tough time in the classroom setting. We tend to see lower academic achievement than we would predict based on the child's I.Q. If they are really smart and they ought to be A students, we are disappointed when they're getting C's instead. If they ought to be B students, they're getting D's instead. Their school performance is disappointing, but it may not be due to a lack of intelligence.

Anti-Social Behaviors and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Anti-social behaviors are common with ADHD individuals. About 60% of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder kids are also oppositional or defiant. Some are even getting in trouble with the law.

Impulsive-Hyperactive ADHD kids are the most likely to get into trouble than are the Inattentive ADHD kids, as they tend to crave the stimulation of anti-social behaviors, and impulsively "act-out". Because they are impulsive, they don't plan their crimes well, and are usually easily caught.

Teens untreated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder average two arrests by the age of 18. About 20% of teens untreated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder will be arrested for a felony, versus only about 3% of teens without ADHD.

As many as 50% of all men in prisons have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and were untreated as children or teens for ADHD. It is also estimated that as many as 50% of all teenagers in juvenile facilities have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder but were untreated for ADHD.

Teenagers with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - Impulsive Type ADHD - have 400% more traffic accidents and traffic tickets related to speeding, than teens without ADD ADHD.

Twice as many teens with ADHD will run away from home than teens without ADHD. About 16% of teens run away from home at some point, versus 32% of teens untreated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Arson is often associated with Attention Deficit Disorder, as teens with untreated Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are three times more likely to be arrested for arson than those without ADHD: 16% vs. 5%.

Teenagers untreated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are ten times more likely to get pregnant, or cause a pregnancy, than those without ADHD.

Teenagers untreated for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder are 400% more likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease than teens without ADHD: 16% to 4%.

Around the house, the inattentive kids tend to be non-compliant due to not being motivated enough to remember the things he was asked to do

Why Does It Seem That There Are More Children With ADHD Than Ever Before

Even though the percentage of people with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is likely the same as in the past, there are three likely reasons why it seems that "there is more ADHD" than ever before:

First, we become more aware of problems like this as parents than we were as a children. We have grown up now and we are more concerned about these issues since we have our own children.

Second, the news and entertainment media have talked about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder a lot more than in the past, raising our awareness levels.

Third, a recent study by the National Institute of Drug Abuse reported that 5.5% of women REPORTED using illicit drugs while they were pregnant; 18.8% REPORTED using alcohol, and 20.4% REPORTED using tobacco while pregnant. Children who were Drug Exposed in utero, or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome children, have many of the same problems as children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and are often misdiagnosed by physicians as being ADHD.

In our rural area of California it is estimated that 10% of all children born in our county were exposed to drugs or alcohol by their mothers during pregnancy.

There are no known "safe levels" of drug, alcohol, or tobacco use while pregnant. The use of drugs or alcohol are especially dangerous to the developing baby and can often cause neurological problems. When these children enter school, they often display problems with attention, impulse control, temper, learning, and behavior. They are often misdiagnosed as having a genetically based Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

How Big of a Problem is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - "ADD" or "ADHD" - affects between five to ten percent (5% - 10%) of all children in the United States, and three to six percent (3% - 6%) of adults. About 35% of all children referred to mental health clinics are referred for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, making it one of the most prevalent of all childhood psychiatric disorders.

The 5% number is a solid, conservative number supported by a lot of research. Even at 5% each classroom in America will have one or two (2) ADHD kids in the class. So it is a very real, and very significant problem across America.

When only Parent Rating Scales are used in a research project, the numbers will range from a low of seven percent (7%) of school-aged children to a high of twenty-three percent (23%) of children.

You may see published estimates stating that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder may effect as many as 20% to 30% of children in America, but these numbers are not really supported by research data, and are probably inflated for the purpose of trying to sell something.

However, we should note that Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Head Injuries, or other Specific Learning Disabilities, are often mistaken for ADD ADHD, which can inflate the numbers reported. As many as 10% of children are now being born with FAS or are drug exposed babies.

What Is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a medical condition. It is caused by genetic factors that result in certain neurological differences. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder comes in various forms, and there are five or six different types of ADHD.

In the DSM-IV Diagnostic manual, each of these forms, or "types" of ADHD falls under the diagnostic category of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The main category is then subdivided into ADHD Inattentive Type, or ADHD Impulsive-Hyperactive Type, or ADHD Combined Type. In the recent past, the terms attention deficit disorder "with" or "without" hyperactivity were also commonly used. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder comes in various forms, and truly, no two ADD or ADHD kids are exactly alike.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder might affect one, two, or several areas of the brain, resulting in several different "styles" or "profiles" of children (and adults) with ADD ADHD.

These different profiles impact performance in these four areas:

First, problems with Attention.

Second, problems with a lack of Impulse Control.

Third, problems with Over-activity or motor restlessness,

Fourth, a problem which is not yet an "official" problem found in the diagnostic manuals, but ought to be: being easily Bored.

A few other important characteristics of this disorder are:

1) That it is SEEN IN MOST SITUATIONS, not just at school, or just in the home. When the problem is seen only at home, we then would wonder if perhaps the child is depressed, or if the child is just being non-compliant with the parents;

2) That the problems are apparent BEFORE the AGE OF SEVEN (7). Since Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is thought to be a neurologically based disorder, we would expect that, outside of acquiring its symptoms from a head injury, the individual with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder would have been born with the disorder. Even though the disorder might not become much of a problem until the second or third grade when the school work becomes more demanding, one would expect that at least some of the symptoms were noted before the age of seven.

Intro to Being an ADHD Parent

In my fifteen years of private practice working with children with ADHD, one of the common concerns that I observed by parents was the fear that they had done something, or failed to do something, that caused their child's ADHD. I guess it is normal to blame yourself when your child is having problems.

However, it is important for parents to know that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is not the result of "bad parenting" or obnoxious, willful defiance on the part of the child. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a medical condition, caused by genetic factors that result in certain neurological differences.

Yes, a child may be willfully defiant whether he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or not. But defiance, rebelliousness, and selfishness are usually "moral" issues, not neurological issues. Make no excuses for "immoral," "selfish," or "destructive" behaviors, whether from individuals with ADD ADHD or not. Parents need to step up and correct these behavior problems whether a child has ADHD or not.

It may also be true that the parents may need further training. We are constantly amazed at how many young parents today grew up in homes where their parents were gone all day. We now see "grown up latch key kids" trying to parent as best as they can, but without having had the benefit of growing up with good parental role models. This is a problem in any family, but especially when there is a child in the home who is inattentive, impulsive, and possibly hyperactive.

Parents should consider becoming a part of a parenting class offered by a local therapist, or a local church. These classes can be a good investment of your time. More information about Attention Deficit Disorder is available at the ADHD Information Library.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: Neurologically Based

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurologically based disorder.

This position has become controversial as many would like to dismiss the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder altogether saying that there is no evidence of neurological differences, or that there are no medical tests to diagnose ADD ADHD, or that the diagnostic criteria is too broad. But the fact of the matter is that there are measurable neurological differences, and there are several good tests available to physicians and psychologists, available to diagnose the disorder.

For now we will simply report that there is a tremendous amount of research to support the statement that, indeed, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a neurologically based condition. Much of this information is available at the ADHD Information Library for parents to read over.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, often called ADD or ADHD, is a diagnostic label that we give to children and adults who have significant problems in four main areas of their lives:

Inattention -- people with ADHD are often easily distracted, and have trouble focusing on a task that is only moderately interesting.

Impulsivity -- about 50% of those with ADHD are impulsive, they do or say things without thinking about the consequences first.

Hyperactivity -- about 50% of those with ADHD are hyperactive. This means that they have excessive motor activity that is not directed toward any goal.

Boredom -- people with ADHD are easily bored with mundane activities, like cleaning rooms or doing homework. Tasks must be exciting to capture attention.

The Whole is the Illusion

The whole is the sum of its parts. But the whole is the illusion as it can never be seen.

A baseball team such as the New York Yankees is made up of players. You can see the players individually and you may see the players altogether assembled for a picture, but the New York Yankees doesn't exist as a physical body-it is an illusion. The New York Yankees is not a physical thing, it is an abstract idea of players gathered together to form a baseball team.

A family is made up of members-grand parents, parents, children, cousins, etc, etc.. The individual members can be seen, you can talk to them, interact with them, but the family itself is an illusion. The family is a collection or sum of its parts. "Family" is just a name for the collective members-it is a thought manifested into physical reality. The members are real, but the family is not. You cannot see the one called "family," you can only imagine it.

God (the Creator) is made up of its members. Its individualized peaces. In our awareness, it is you and I, our planet, and all things in and out of this universe. God does not exist as an anthropomorphic being. God is the illusion and it is his parts which are real. One cannot see God, but one can see any number of his parts. We are God manifested in individualized pieces. When you look at any of the pieces you are seeing God.

So when we are talking of God, we are talking about an abstract collection of his parts. We are talking about you. You are God and you are a piece of God. You have all the attributes and characteristics of the one you imagine as God. God does not exist as a body, but as a collection of bodies.

If you look close enough at your own body you would see you mostly do not exist. You are made up of mostly space (nothing)-the space between the atoms of your body in fact. Science will tell you if you take away all the space between all the atoms in the universe, matter would comprise the space on the head of a needle.

So to challenge your mind even further, you are the sum of your parts, and you do not exist, only your parts do. You only exist as a concept of what a human would look like. You are the manifestation of a consciousness you cannot see, but only imagine. You are imagined by your parents, your siblings, your friends and strangers. Each of them experiences you differently. Each of them is imagining you as something you do not know yourself to be. You are a concept of a consciousness you are not aware of consciously. Therefore you only exist when someone is imagining you-when you become part of their awareness or consciousness.

The only real thing that exists is consciousness. We are all part of a greater consciousness and therefore the individuality of our own consciousness is an illusion-it does not exist. And because consciousness is a collection of its own individualized pieces of consciousness-consciousness does not exist.

The only thing that really exists is nothing-nothing exists

Abuse Victims Widely Misdiagnosed

Some authorities say that up to 60 percent of psychiatric patients, both in-patient and out-patient, report childhood histories of physical or sexual abuse or both. This estimate excludes emotional abuse and neglect. My experience confirms that very many patients are suffering from PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) as a direct result of childhood maltreatment. But they do not know what their real problem is.

Psychologists and psychiatrists know what to expect in the way of symptoms with war veterans: PTSD. We know as fact that the experiences of war can produce in even the strongest individual the constellation of symptoms that therapists should recognize as trauma. But for some reason, we have only begun to make this same connection with people whose lives have been a “war.”

One woman, who spent nearly 20 years in therapy, first with an educational counselor, then three psychiatrists, plus a family therapist, found herself with suicidal feelings right up to the time she entered our group for domestic abuse. One psychiatrist, an analyst, spent two years asking her, “What do you think?” Another psychiatrist gave her open prescriptions for highly addictive drugs, and the third psychiatrist wanted to use electroconvulsive therapy, probably the worst possible treatment for trauma survivors. The family therapist ordered her to draw a family geneology chart.

None of the above professionals seemed determined to find the cause of her suffering; they just had their favorite ways of treating symptoms. Her real problem had been nightly incest at the hands of her biological father, the rejection by her mother as a result, and constant debasing comments by both parents and both sisters all of her life. Not even her head-banging, a dead giveaway for sexual abuse, was noticed.

Another woman was in treatment for thirty years for depression and a “borderline personality disorder,” ten of these years with the same psychiatrist. When the decade had passed, he remarked, “I really don’t think I can help you.” Never was her sadistically violent tormentor, her husband, ever seen or even asked about. She in no way had a borderline personality disorder, but she was indeed suffering from PTSD as a result of life-long abuse.

None of her therapists had been interested in causality. A disinterest in root cause is, in my opinion, the greatest weakness in the mental-health professions. We have clung so closely to the medical model that emotional disturbances of most any kind have historically been seen as free-standing, as though they had arisen from an infection, from a vacuum, or from nowhere. How this mentality has survived is a mystery, when in any other science the principle of cause and effect rules.

Put another way, for every action there is a reaction. Molest, torture, humiliate, or neglect a child severely enough, and PTSD or similar symptoms will be the reaction. For this reason, the treatment of domestic abuse is the treatment of child abuse, and both are the treatment of trauma

Dream Telepathy Researcher Fights Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston Inside a Sleeper's Mind

Dreams are a doorway to invisible realms that reveal our hidden psychic and shamanic abilities. Consider this classic story of dream research. On the night of March 12, 1964, the renowned psychologist Calvin Hall was monitoring EEG output at Duke University's Institute for Dream Research. In a nearby room, Robert Van De Castle was the research subject being monitored while sound asleep.

Dr. Hall was understandably skeptical about "paranormal dream activity" as are most psychologists even today. To find out for himself--and probably with the intent of disproving that the contents of his mind could in any way influence the dreams of someone in another location--he performed a remarkable experiment.

When the EEG monitor indicated to Dr Hall that Van De Castle was in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, associated with dreaming, Hall focused his attention on remembering the (Feb 25th, 1964) boxing match between Cassius Clay--now Muhammad Ali-- and Sonny Liston.

In addition to imagining the fight, Calvin Hall dramatized the experience by throwing a few punches in the air himself--at a very safe distance from the actual fight, and from the dreamer. Who would expect that such an activity could be perceived by a person sleeping in another room? Imagine Hall's shock when he awoke Van De Castle after the REM phase and asked if he had any dream material and his answer included these details:

"There was a boxing match going on. There were two young lightweight boxers who were fighting and one of them was doing much better than the other. It seemed his opponent became vanquished and then another lightweight contender got into the ring with him. The new contender now started to give a pretty savage beating to the other boxer... I remember standing up and throwing a few punches in the air myself because I was so involved with the action in the ring." (Our Dreaming Mind, Van De Castle, 1994)

It is noteworthy that the boxing scene interrupted a dream about unrelated material. As if a television channel had been changed, the boxing scene was inserted as noises that we hear in sleep sometimes are; the original dream then resumed. But what was inserted here was not something like a train whistle (the external sound most likely to work its way into your dreams).

These intrusions were thoughts occurring in another person's mind--who was not even in the same room! This "private" mental activity was "overheard" and inserted into Van De Castle's dream. This is how attuned we are in sleep and how capable of mind to mind (M2M) communication humans are.

It is amusing that the fighters were dreamed as lightweights when they surely were not... but in the endless humor of dreams, this detail might be a result of the fight being filtered through a scientific researcher's psyche. While Hall may have been a "heavyweight" in dream research, he would have been a real lightweight in that fight!

The dreamer is identified with observing the fight just as Hall was but the dreamer experienced Hall's standing up and throwing punches as if it were his own action. He lived out the physical actions as dream experiences while viewing the mental images as an observer. This is a complex, stereophonic mind-to-mind transmission. How often, you might wonder, are our dreams, which we presume are inwardly originating, actually transmitted by the actions and/or thoughts of another?

Calvin Hall attempted to send telepathic messages to Van De Castle on 17 different occasions: "He concluded that some representation of the intended target material was detectable on thirteen of those occasions, for a success rate of 76%" (Our Dreaming Mind, 1994). If this was an attempt to disprove mental telepathy in dreams it was a pretty stunning failure! Hall repeated these successes with five other dream subjects and later published "Experiments on Telepathically Influenced Dreams."

Dreams not only carry meaning and guidance from within, and from other human beings, they reveal to us the fuller capacities of mind with which we are all endowed

Self-Disclosure: Underpinnings and Applications

Are you a very important person? Sure you are. The reason for this answer is the same to almost everyone in this planet: we like talking about ourselves, we enjoy being listened, we praise our achievements, and we are very much into introspection. Although we are ultimately social beings, most humans are both consciously and subconsciously determined to improve themselves, and to derive meaning to their existence. In this context, we are faced with the everyday challenge of balancing our own needs for fulfilment and recognition with the need to co-relate with others, to promote altruism and to help the people in need. This paradox takes the central stage in the counselling profession – understanding it provides the foundation to apply this article’s key concept: self-disclosure.

Human Behaviour and Effective Counselling

It is undeniable that many people are more interested in themselves than things around the world. People like to talk about themselves (thus listening is such an important part in interpersonal communication), to listen to topics which have relevance to their lives, to participate in groups which could derive benefit for them, and to be part of a system which values them. It is that basic need for belonging that drives people to behave that way.

We also strongly defend our opinions and perspectives. We like to make sure that once we believe in something, we are able to reasonably explain the reason, and possibly prove to the other person that we are correct in our assumptions. Think about it: who likes to be incorrect? So when we talk about ourselves or about issues which are pertinent to our lives, we like to explain each aspect of that topic and by doing so, validate our opinion or experience. Self-denial occurs when we give up that right in order to focus the attention to someone else’s problem, issue or situation. The capacity for self-denial is one of the most important characteristics of a good counsellor.

Curiosity, comfort with conversation, empathy and understanding play a major role in creating a safe environment which allows a client’s emotional expression. Emotional insightfulness, introspection, tolerance of intimacy and comfort with power are characteristics which help the counsellor maintain a clear perspective of the situation and at the same time, not prejudice the relationship by being judgemental or condescending. Energy, flexibility and self-awareness facilitate the counsellor’s drive and focus in the relationship’s objectives and outcomes.

The Word: Self-Disclosure

We’ve briefly discussed some of the underpinnings of human behaviour and the characteristics which define an effective counsellor. The importance of understanding such concepts is that in many occasions, self-disclosure requires counsellors to act in a paradoxical manner – that is, communicate a common message in a tailored way, with a different objective, and an external focus. Self-disclosure can be a challenging technique because it defies our natural ‘self-centred’ dialogue.

Self-Disclosure is defined as “a conscious, intentional technique in which clinicians share information about their lives outside the counseling relationship” (Simone, McCarthy, & Skay, 1998, p.174). The role of this process is to “facilitate client disclosure through modeling and the establishment of trust” (the dyadic effect; Jourard, 1968). In other words, the counsellor discloses information about him/herself in order to establish a connection with the client, thus creating rapport, trust and improving interpersonal communication.

Self-disclosure is a useful strategy used by the majority of counsellors, regardless of theoretical orientation. In many instances this process is almost a requirement to obtain valuable information from a client in order to help them see through a situation. It is often perceived as an ethical and valuable technique.

A Two-Edged Sword

Self-disclosure can be as helpful as it can be damaging if not properly conducted. Why? Primarily because the act of self-disclosure exposes the counsellor and it could undermine the balance of power in the relationship with a client. If the client sees vulnerability in the counsellor, the trust could fall apart. At the same time, this vulnerability could improve the relationship between the two entities by creating more intimacy as the client ‘sees’ the counsellor in the ‘same level’ of him or her. Therefore, the outcomes of using self-disclosure as a strategy to build trust and rapport will depend on the counsellor’s actions and how those actions will reflect from the client’s perspective (based on the client’s personality variables). It is important for counselling professionals to observe these issues and adjust their approach accordingly.

The benefits or advantages or self-disclosure include: helping the client to not feel alone, decreasing client anxiety, improving the client’s awareness to different viewpoints, increasing counsellor genuineness (and are not free of problems), and so forth. Some disadvantages of applying self-disclosure include: moving focus from the client, taking too much counselling time (and thus reducing client disclosure), creating role confusion (who is helping who?), possibly trivialising the client’s issue by implying everyone goes through it, and interfering with transference.

Guidelines for Use of Self-Disclosure

According to Gladding (2006) there are some guidelines which can help counsellors to effectively implement self-disclosure strategies. Such guidelines are basically communication skills which can be used to avoid common pitfalls of this process, such as losing rapport or focus in the situation.

Primarily, the counsellor should be direct, brief, focused and relevant. This will ensure that the self-disclosure process does not lead to time wastage and loss of focus in the client’s situation. Self-disclosure should also not be used frequently (more self-disclosure is not necessarily better) and should not add to the client’s problems and negative outcomes in a situation.

In essence, the purpose of self-disclosure should be clear to both counsellor and client and the process should only be used after considering other options, envisaging that there is a risk of miscommunication and an effect on the balance of power. But as stated before: if used in an effective manner, self-disclosure can be a useful strategy and a common process in the counselling setting.

Case Study: A Briefing of the Technique

A young man wishes to move out of his family home and seeks a counsellor for help. The young man is very distressed by the possible change and the effect that it could have in his parents and his own life. In the counselling setting, he briefly describes his motives for moving out; however, he attests that he does not want to cause emotional strife to his parents. In that context, he asks the counsellor to help him come up with a way to tell his parents without hurting them. A solution to that situation would relieve the young man from his personal anxiety.

The counsellor and the client explored all available options and at the end of the counselling session, the young man is still very emotionally affected by his decision and its possible outcomes. At that point, self-disclosure was used as a strategy to help the client move into a positive frame of reference. The counsellor disclosed that her son left the family only last year, and even though it was a very emotional situation for the family, they understood his decision and moved forward. Nowadays they regularly meet and have a very positive relationship. At the end of the counselling relationship, the client felt comfortable with the knowledge that a similar situation had ended with a positive outcome, and was able to move forward with his decision without distress.

This example showed the effective use of self-disclosure and how this technique can be beneficial to clients. It was observable that in that scenario, the following benefits were achieved: helping the client to not feel alone, decreasing client anxiety and increasing counsellor genuineness.

What is The Collective Unconscious

The idea of the collective unconscious was originally proposed by the psychologist Carl Jung to explain psychological traits shared by all people. He theorized that the collective unconscious appears as recognizable patterns and symbols that occur in science, art, religion, dreams and mythology.

The collective unconscious refers to the part of our unconscious which is common to all human beings. It contains archetypes, which are forms or symbols that are commonly manifested by people in all cultures and at all times along the scale of human evolution. Archetypes are said to exist prior to experience, and in this sense they are instinctual. Images of the sun found in ancient architecture, modern art, pottery and other media offer just one example of an archetype. The sun image holds the same meaning today as it did fourteen thousand years ago, it represents life, growth and renewal, regardless of cultural differences or time, the archetype remains stable in it’s meaning to human existence.

Less mystical proponents of the Jungian model hold that the collective unconscious can be adequately explained as arising in each individual from shared instinct, common experience, and shared culture. The natural process of generalization in the human mind combines these common traits and experiences into a mostly identical pattern of the unconscious.

Jung’s archetypes referred to the spiritual forms which are the pre-existent prototypes of the things within the material universe. Interpreting this idea psychologically, Jung stated that these archetypes were the conceptual matrixes or patterns behind all our religious and mythological concepts, and indeed, our thinking processes in general.

Everyone has their own personal unconscious, their own personal identity. The collective unconscious in contrast is universal. It cannot be built up like one's personal memory; rather, it predates the individual. It is the repository of all religious, spiritual, and mythological symbols and experiences.

Jeffry R. Palmer is the well known author of several books dealing with the subjects of metaphysics, paranormal phenomena and psychic development. His articles and columns have been featured in several popular international magazines. His accurate and detailed psychic predictions, including Hurricane Katrina and the Indonesian tsunami have captured the attention of an international audience.

These psychic readings are kept in strict confidence, cover all aspects of life, are extremely accurate and detailed and are very simple to purchase. Mr. Palmer even offers a 100% money back guarantee to clients if they aren't completely satisfied with their readings

Why Diet Companies Will Go Out of Business - And Why They Should

For good reason, we've been lobbying hard against dieting of all kinds for over 6 years, and now finally health departments around the world are saying that dieting just doesn't work! Even healthy diets don't work and the figures totally back the evidence that he very act of dieting both lowers metabolic processing, and increases food cravings. No wonder that three years after going on a diet, over 95% have put that weight back on or are even heavier!

Despite an absolute over supply of diets of all kinds, people are getting fatter, and our kids in particular are getting fatter, and sicker, and in some cases will be outlived by their grieving parents, all because of overweight and inactivity! The financial cost to society, and the dreadful agony of illnesses like cancer that are directly caused by overweight, are in the $billions. Maybe the saddest thing of all is that every year we lose thousands of young women who literally die from dieting.

So not only does dieting not work, it's dangerous, and we can no longer afford to tolerate a culture of dieting. We can no longer avoid to tolerate diets or diet companies! If all diets were made illegal from today, at the very least we'd stop people from ruining their metabolic rates!

The following are a list of health problems caused by dieting, all of which are thoroughly backed by worldwide consensus research:

1. Diets have been linked with fatal eating disorders, particularly amongst children, and particularly amongst children of mothers who have dieted.

2. Weight loss dieting can cause health problems and can even lead to gall bladder disease and emergency surgery if the decrease is too rapid.

3. Dieting has been linked with lowered libido. Diets can wreck a wonderful sex life and a great relationship!

4. Diets usually cost money, money that could have been spent on lovely new clothes or family treats. If diets worked, this would be a wise investment, but the problem is, the weight loss effects are merely temporary and the damage done by dieting persists!

5. Diets often don’t provide correct nutrition, leading to problems with concentration and memory and also decreased well-being, lowered immune system and more illness.

6. Food deprivation causes food cravings that become so intense that sooner or later everyone busts out of their diet! At this point the myth of willpower is shown to be the awful lie that it truly is.

So why diet? It doesn’t work. It causes problems. And there’s a much better way!

What is this better way? Certainly we now know that healthy weight loss does not involve any special eating regime or exercise regime. Instead the best weight loss programs will ensure that a thorough study is made of how the person behaves and the lifestyle choices they make when they are NOT trying to lose weight. This is the realistic baseline that we're starting from.

Often we find that if the person is fairly active and not overeating too severely, that it is something very small that is nevertheless making a very big difference in weight. It could be that they're eating or drinking something on a regular basis that they had no idea contained so many empty calories. The café latté is a perfect example, as some of these can add up to as much as half one's daily calorie needs! One of these each day could easily add 0.5 kg per week in excess weight. Many people are surprised to learn that it only takes an excess of just 250 calories a day for most people to accumulate an extra 11 kilos of fat every year!

Or it could be that the person has reduced their physical activity level by giving up some sport or activity that they enjoyed and need to give themselves permission, even as adults, to get out there and play and engage with life again. This should not on any account be confused with an exercise regime. This really is about PLAYING and genuine pleasure is the key.

So this is why we should focus on healthy weight loss practices only, and really look at what choices people are making, and why they are making them, before we even begin to construct a plan, not by imposing it on someone, but by working together as a team to build an informed, customised, workable and permanent solution.

Finally, the compulsive and addictive components of weight loss have been so poorly understood that they've been ignored totally, leaving the poor overweight person out of control with cravings. Until now there has not really been a satisfactory answer to cravings, but by using modern deconditioning methods, people can now learn to literally switch off these cravings, quickly and permanently. I hope after reading this article that you would never again consider dieting, and instead look at the real reasons for your weight issues, and real solutions for healthy weight loss! Thank you for reading.

Medical Missions: Are We Really Making A Difference

Medical missions are being conducted all over the world at any given time. These medical missions are often realized by a small group of volunteer people willing to put away time and money to bring hope to isolated and poor populations.

The medical mission's team is usually composed of doctors, dentists, nurses, chiropractors, helpers and translators among others. Many medical missions are organized by a particular religious denomination but often are opened to anyone willing to help, regardless of their own religious beliefs. The common denominator to all medical missions is that they are regrouping people eager to help, give and share to their best capacities.

A small pharmacy of fortune is composed and basic medications are handed out upon prescriptions by the staff to the people who need it. Often on those busy medical missions, medications ran out and the team needs to reserve the precious antibiotics for the patients who require it most.

Many of the villagers coming to those medical missions have to walk considerable distances (sometimes walking in the mountains for more than a day) in order to have a chance to consult with a member of the team. Sometimes, in very fortunate missions, reading glasses are provided to those who need it most. Hence, when people are donating their old glasses in containers in malls they can be assured that they are making a huge difference in another person's life.

Upon working during the medical missions, the hours are long and the task can be demanding. Hence, a doctor can easily sees over 200 patients in consultation on a very busy day. Medical missions are more focused on solving acute problems. A lot of prevention and education need to be done in order to improve the general health status of the people living in third world countries.

Medical missions are welcomed by the local authorities and government who accept this outside help. Often, the local villagers will help in all they can to make the medical mission a success by offering their time and food to the missionaries.

One can argue that such punctual medical assistance is limited and cannot cure all the problems the needy people have. Although it is true that such help has burdens, the general comments missionaries get from villagers is that they are making a huge difference in their lives.

The most frequent medical conditions encountered during a medical mission are: malnutrition and parasites for children and diabetes, hypertension, parasites and infections in adults.

More important than bringing pills and creams to the needy people during those missions, the volunteers have the satisfaction of bringing them hope.

More permanent and considerable help is highly needed to continue the work started during those punctual and limited medical missions

Narrative Therapy: Concepts and Applications

“A narrative or story is anything told or recounted; more narrowly, something told or recounted in the form of a causally-linked set of events; account; tale, the telling of a happening or connected series of happenings, whether true or fictitious” (Denning, 2006).

Your life is a narrative, counted and recounted from many different perspectives, and by diverse people. There are settings, themes, characters and plots – just like in any movie, book, historical account or legendary fable.

In this article we review the approach of Narrative Therapy and how it can be effectively used by counsellors to assist individuals improve their lives.

Fundamentals of Narrative Therapy

The Narrative Therapy is an approach to counselling that centres people as the experts in their own lives. This therapy intends to view problems as separate entities to people, assuming that the individual’s set of skills, experience and mindset will assist him/her reduce the influence of problems throughout life. This therapeutic approach intends to place the individual in both the protagonist and author roles: switching the view from a narrow perspective to a systemic and more flexible stance.

Systemic and flexible stance? Yes. The aim is to help clients realise what forces are influencing their lives and to focus on the positive aspects of the ‘play’. In many events of our lives, we tend to focus on particular things and ignore others. Analysing our lives as a play, or a system, helps us understand the different forces and roles that are influencing our behaviour. This in turn gives us flexibility to invoke the necessary changes for improvement.

“The products of our narrative schemes are ubiquitous in our lives: they fill our cultural and social environment. We create narrative descriptions for ourselves and for others about our own past actions, and we develop storied accounts that give sense to the behavior of others. We also use the narrative scheme to inform our decisions by constructing imaginative “what if” scenarios. On the receiving end, we are constantly confronted with stories during our conversations and encounters with the written and visual media. We are told fairy tales as children, and read and discuss stories at school.” (Polkinghorne, 1988)

Merging a familiar set of events (one’s life) to a familiar structure (a narrative story) is a useful strategy. The emotional, cognitive and spiritual perspectives of a person are usually combined in order to derive meaning to an event. In many instances, one or two perspectives will prevail over the other(s), and this will depend upon the particular scenario and the individual’s personality traits. As an example, we can compare the perspective of two people who have different levels of emotional intelligence. According to Coleman (1998) “intellectual and emotional intelligence express the activity of different parts of the brain. The intellect is based solely on the workings of the neocortex, the more recently evolved layers at the top of the brain. The emotional centers are lower in the brain, in the more ancient subcortex.” Thus, individuals that are more ‘emotionally intelligent’ will draw different conclusions, and behave differently in certain situations.

This is only an example of possible disparities in perception and decision-making. It is the protagonist responding to the setting, the characters, the theme and plot.

Techniques and Objectives

“The techniques that narrative therapists use have to do with the telling of the story. They may examine the story and look for other ways to tell it differently or to understand it in other ways. In doing so, they find it helpful to put the problem outside of the individual, thus externalizing it. They look for unique outcomes: positive events that are in contrast to a problem-saturated story.” (Sharf, 2004)

Externalising the Problem

In Narrative Therapy the problem becomes the antagonist of the story. Certain behaviours are based on particular ‘unhealthy’ or ‘undesired’ characteristics – such as lack of patience, aggressiveness, etc. Thus, they are approached as not a part of the client but as an opposing force which needs to be ‘defeated’. An example would be a child that has a very bad temperament and tends to be aggressive to other kids at school and his parents. The child might feel guilty for his temperament and blame it on himself (“I don’t know… it is the way I am…”). The counsellor will work with him towards isolating that undesired trait (aggressiveness) and placing it as an external trait – not a characteristic of the individual.

This strategy helps clients re-construct their own stories in a way which will reduce the incidence of the problem in order to eliminate negative outcomes and reinforce personal development and achievement. The protagonist becomes the author and re-writes the story constructively.

Unique Outcomes

If a story is full of problems and negative events, the counsellor will attempt to identify the exceptional positive outcomes. When exploring unique positive outcomes in the story, the counsellor will assist the client in redeveloping the narrative with a focus on those unique outcomes. This assists the client in empowering him/herself by creating a notion that those unique outcomes can prevail over the problems. Think about this analogy: you are a novel writer. You were given a novel to review and publish the way you prefer. You have read it and found it generally poor, but there were some interesting ideas which you liked. You selected these ideas, and re-write the novel around them. You can make a flawed story become a bestseller.

Alternative Narratives

The focus of Narrative Therapy is to explore the strengths and positive aspects of an individual through his or her narrative. Therefore, the main objective of this therapeutic approach is to improve the person’s perspective internally (reflective) and externally (towards the world and others). Alternative narratives are a simple way to relate to this concept. This technique works in combination with unique outcomes. How? The individual will reconstruct a personal story using unique outcomes, therefore, focusing on the positive aspects of a previous story in order to achieve a desired outcome. This process is based on the premise that any person can continually and actively re-author their own life.

By creating alternative perspectives on a narrative (or event within the narrative) the counsellor is able to assist the client in bringing about a new narrative which will help combat the ‘problems’. This is similar to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as it aims to create a positive perspective of an event.

Boundaries of Narrative Therapy

Despite being a widely used approach, particularly when combined with other therapeutic approaches, Narrative Therapy has certain boundaries or limitations. In many occasions, diverse clients may expect the therapist to act as the expert, instead of having to ‘conduct’ the conversation themselves. For this reason, Narrative Therapy can be challenging when the individual is not articulate. Lack of confidence, intellectual capacity and other issues could also undermine the expression of the individual through a narrative.

Another common boundary of Narrative Therapy is the lack of recipe, agenda or formula. This approach is grounded in a philosophical framework, and sometimes can become a particularly subjective or widely interpretative process.

The Leading Role

The most important aspect of Narrative Therapy is to empower the client. Placing the client as an expert, and understanding his/her story instead of attempting to predict it, indicates the therapist’s mindset. The idea is to emphasise the therapeutic relationship, in particular the therapist’s attitudes. This standpoint encompasses many of the important aspects of good interpersonal communication, such as: demonstration of care, interest, respectful curiosity, openness, empathy, and fascination.

Once this collaborative relationship has been established, the counsellor and the client can move forward and work on how to improve the outcomes of the narrative:

“Once upon a time… there was an optimistic, content and productive person…”

Latent Homosexuality: Paranoid Delusions Rage and Anxiety

The discussion on latent homosexuality found its way into the public arena when the July 26 edition of MSNBC hyped Ann Coulter's interview with host Donny Deutsch, which she said of former President Bill Clinton exhibts "some sort of latent homosexuality." When Coulter was asked by the host if she was indeed calling Clinton a "latent homosexual," Coulter replied, "Yeah." "The level of rampant promiscuity by Clinton does show some level of latent homosexuality." In support of her assessment, of Clinton, Coulter mentioned "passages" she had memorized from the Starr Report resulting from the investigation into the Monica Lewinsky controversy.

Latent homosexuality is an erotic tendency toward members of the same sex which is not consciously experienced or expressed in overt action. The term was originally proposed by Sigmund Freud. According to Freud, "latent" or "unconscious" homosexuality which derived from failure of the defense of repression and and sublimation permit or threaten emergence into consciousness of homosexual impulses, which give rise to conflict manifested in the appearance of symptoms. These symptoms include fear of being homosexual, dreams with manifest and "latent" homosexual content, conscious homosexual fantasies and impulses, homosexual panic, disturbance in heterosexual functioning, and passive-submissive responses to other males.

The Freudian position on latent homosexuality is summarized in this quotation by Karl Abraham: "In normal individuals the homosexual component of the sexual instinct undergoes sublimation. Between men, feelings of unity and friendship become divested of all sexuality. The man of normal feeling is repelled by any physical contact implying tenderness with another of his own sex. ...Alcohol suspends these feelings. When they are drinking, men will fall upon one another's necks and kiss each other ... when sober, the same men will term such conduct effeminate. ... The homosexual components which have been repressed and sublimated by the influences of education become unmistakably evident under the influence of alcohol."

In keeping with this train of thoughts, it is not unusual for individuals who exhibit characteristics of latent homosexuality often find themselves drawn to ultra-masculine professions, such as policeman and fireman; to name a few. Many professional sports also serve as a magnet for latent homosexuals, especially the more violent and aggressive sports. The two sports boxing and wresting latent homosexuality is quite evident. And where many of the features involved in the act of intercourse between two lovers are present in the ring. For example, in both boxing and wrestling the participant hug, embrace, stroke the opponent's sweaty and scantly-covered body like any couple engaged in sexual activities. Many psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists postulate the theory that both the boxer and the wrestler experience profound rage and guilt for their exhibitionist conduct, and for giving in to their homosexual desires. Therefore, each participant is highly-motivated to punish each other, sometime ending in death, for gratifying the unconscious homosexual desire to embrace and make love to another man.

However, the term, latent homosexuality, as commonly used in clinical practice assumes psychological characteristics. It is important to stress that the term is not used in reference to overt homosexual who attempts to suppress his homosexuality and tries to lead a heterosexual life, it applies only to heterosexuals. Many writers and some researchers have questioned the validity of latent homosexuality on both theoretical and clinical grounds. Others have expressed the opinions that latent homosexuality has been a convenient psychopathological "catch-all" category in which many types pathology are assigned, often, with little or no relationship to homosexuality.

Many who questioned the term "latent homosexuality" were indeed skeptical of the "latency" concept. In an effort to put this concern to rest a group of scientific researchers headed by Irving Bieber published their conclusion in 1963 titled; Homosexuality. A Psychoanalytic Study: By Irving Bieber, et al. This study was very broad and extensive. Bieber and his associated proved beyond doubts that the "latency" concept was an appropriate criteria by which latent homosexuality is usually diagnosed.

However, more than four decades after the Bieber's study was published skeptism about the vilidity of latent homosexuality is generating lively discussions in the public arena. The gladiators at the Freudian gate should know that help is on the way. A modern day version of Bieber and associates in the form of three psychologist: H. E. Adams, L. W. Wright, Jr., and B. A. Lohr, who conducted an experiment to test Freud's hypothesis. The conclusion was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology 105 (1996), under the title, "Is Homophobia Associates with Homosexual Arousal?" The finding of this study concluded that those who exhabited the most hostile and negative attitudes towards homosexuals demonstrated the hightest level of sexual arousal when exposed to homosexual pornography. In others words, their homophobia was a "reaction formation" designed to protect them from their own internal homosexual desires.

Paranoid Delusions Since the publication of Freud's analysis of the Schreber case in 1911 psychotherapists and psychoanalysts have accepted the theory that there is a strong connection between latent homosexuality and paranoid delusions. Freud provided a skillful exposition of the theory that paranoid delusions represent various means in which the paranoid individual denies his latent homosexual desires. Freud theory had been confirmed repeatedly in many clinical studies of every researcher who worked with paranoid clients. An intense homosexual conflict is always present in the male paranoiac and is clearly obvious in the individual's history and clinical material in the early stage of the illness.

Homophobia

Hostility and discrimination against homosexual individuals are well-documented facts. Too often these negative attitudes end in verbal and physical acts of violence against homosexual individuals. In fact, upward of 90% of homosexual men and lesbians report being the subject of verbal abuse and threats, and better than one-third are survivors of violent attacks related to their homosexuality. These attitudes and behaviors toward homosexuals are labeled homophobia. Homophobia is defined as terror of being in close quarters with homosexual men and women, and an irrational fear, hatred, and intolerance by heterosexual individuals of homosexual men and lesbians.

Psychoanalysts use the concept of repressed or latent homosexuality to explain the emotional malaise and irrational attitudes exhibited by individuals who feel guilty about their erotic interests and struggle to deny and repress homosexual impulses. In fact, when these individuals are placed in a situation that threatens to excite their own unwanted homosexual thoughts, they may overreact with panic, anger, or even murderous rage. To better understand this rage I direct the reader to what happened on Jenny Jones show. On March 06, 1995, Scott Amedure (who's openly gay) appeared with Jonathan Schmitz on Jenny Jones talk show. Amedure revealed that he had a secret affection for Schmitz. Schmitz was not flattered, rather, he felt embarrassed and humiliated; off camera Schmitz expressed anger and rage. Three days after the show Schmitz purchased a shotgun. He drove to Amedure's trailer and shot him twice through the heart, killing him.

It is commonly agreed among most researchers that anxiety about homosexuality typically does not occur in individuals who are same-sex oriented, but usually involves individuals who are ostensibly heterosexual and have difficulty coming to term with their homosexual feelings and impulses