Thinking is Moving?: A Metaphor of Lakoff and Johnson

I like the following metaphor of Lakoff and Johnson. In my paper this quarter, I wrote a section about the power of metaphors to affect human brain and mind.

The mind is a body.

Thinking is moving.

Ideas are locations.

Reason is a force.

Rational thought is motion that is direct, deliberate, step-by-step, and in accord with the force of reason.

Being unable to think is unable to move.

A line of thought is a path.

Thinking about X is moving in the area around X.

Communicating is guiding.

Understanding is following.

Rethinking is going over the path again.

Reference

Philosophy in the Flesh : The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought

Weekly Reading: My Favorite is George Lakoff

I read and looked over the following book last week. Especially, George Lakoff inspired me a lot. His idea of human mind and language resonated with my experiences as a coach.           

1 Philosophy in the Flesh : The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought I highly recommend this book if you are interested in the relationship between our mind and language.
2 Metaphors We Live By

3 Mirroring People: The Science of Empathy and How We Connect with Others

4 Coaching with the Brain in Mind: Foundations for Practice

5 Being a Brain-Wise Therapist: A Practical Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)

6 The Quantum Brain: The Search for Freedom and the Next Generation of Man

7 Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence

8 Neurobiological and Developmental Basis for Psychotherapeutic Intervention

9 Towards An Integral Vision: Using NLP & Ken Wilber's AQAL Model to Enhance Communication

My Current Way of Being and New Way of Being

This morning, I had a coaching session with my coach through Skype. She is my Integral Coach and, at the same time, my supervisor. So, she always gives me useful feedback about my assessments and coaching program which I created for my clients, and also supports my growth. This was the second session with her, but she gave my two metaphors to describe my current and new way of being based on the first session.

My Current Way of Being: Busy Space Explore

My New Way of Being: Practical Master Body Builder

I love these metaphors. Especially, the first metaphor exactly describes current me (I don’t talk about it here). Furthermore, the second one correctly points out what I need in order to support my weakness of the CWOB and to develop more.  

So far, I’ve offered some metaphors for my clients, and I noticed the power embedded in the metaphors, but I’ve never been offered from someone else. Thus, today’s session was meaningful for me because I found many new things about Integral Coaching and in me. 

Short Essay: The Importance of My Body

I think that my body is indispensable to live in this world, and it’s like a wonderful container. If this container doesn’t work well, my mind, spirit, and soul also don’t function appropriately. Therefore, training my body is really important. To tell you the truth, I sometimes use my “mind” too much, neglecting my body. In other words, I sometimes try to know the world by using only my mind. However, I have faced several difficulties when I tried to understand this real world by means of only my mind. That is to say, I couldn’t perceive the world fully through my mind alone. Then, I noticed that I needed to use my body in order to understand me, others, and the world more comprehensively. I believe that our body knows a lot and often may understand ourselves more deeply than our mind does. In that sense, it is important for me to use and energize my body.

Furthermore, I feel that my body is being embodied in this world when I concentrate on a deep realm in my body. In other words, when I deepen a dialogue with my body, I become connected with my body strongly and feel that I’m embodied in the world. So as to feel this, I need to listen to a lot of voices in my body (sometimes I need to listen carefully to a voice because it could be very silent.) and activate my body enough.  

Pathology Model In Humanistic Psychology

Regarding the primary model of pathology in the 3^rd force, Maslow (1954) enumerates two points about major impediments to self-actualization: deprivation, conflict, and threat.         

First, Maslow (1954) points out that being deprived of, for example, love, prestige, respect, or other basic needs will have a negative effect on human psyche. And these kinds of deprivations are almost the same as threat. However, Maslow raises an alarm over this point. In the Maslow’s view, the inevitable deprivations in childhood such as sexual deprivation are regarded as a kind of frustrations, and these are not necessarily pathological. In that sense, the clear distinction between the certain deprivations which are like threat and mere deprivations is important.

              Second, Maslow (1954) demonstrates some types of conflicts, but I’d like to choose one concept of them: “catastrophic conflict” (p. 159). It’s a well-known fact that we live with innumerable choices in daily lives, but “all the choices are equally catastrophic or threatening in their effects or else there is only one possibility and this is a catastrophic threat” (p. 159). Although this type of conflict is common in the animal world, human beings also suffer from it and it becomes a kind of pathology to prohibit self-actualization.

              According to Maslow, a certain threat in our lives becomes a factor to inhibit our psychological growth. Maslow (1954) explicates that “synonymizing ‘threat’ with ‘growth-inhibiting’ creates the difficult possibility of a situation being at this moment subjectively nonthreatening, but threatening or growth-inhibiting in the future” (p. 166). This sentence implies that a certain present event seems to be nonthreatening in that moment, but it may include a future risk of prohibiting self-actualization. With respect to this point, Maslow (1954) illustrates by an example that a child hopes for satisfaction which will please him, quiet him, reduce anxiety, etc., but which might have a possibility to inhibit his psychological growth. In terms of Maslow’s view, the above three concepts lead to pathology to restrain self-actualization.

Reference

Motivation and Personality

Where is the Third Force (Humanistic Psychology) in the Wilber's Spectrum Model?

Ken Wilber’s spectrum of consciousness model comprises the following four levels: shadow, ego, existential, and mind. To come right to the point, the third force (humanist and existential) is situated on the mind level (strictly speaking, the transpersonal force might be more close to this level). First, Wilber (1975) explains that human beings tend to identify with the universe. While human beings in the existential level are regarded as organisms which have a rational thought and those who in the ego level are deemed to have a mental picture of their total psychophysical organism and those who in the shadow level become gradually able to dis-identify with some aspects in their ego, human beings in the mind level are identical to the absolute and ultimate reality of the universe. Secondly, Wilber (1977) describes the mind level in the following: “The Level of Mind is―as we shall try to demonstrate―exactly what you are feeling right now before you feel anything else―a sensation of being one with the cosmos.” (p. 8). In other words, human being in this level tend to value feelings of here and now and attempt to connect with higher and expanded consciousness.

As well as Wilber’s remarks, the third force addresses a sense of unity, or higher realm of human consciousness. While the first force is prone to focus on the mechanistic aspects in human beings and the second force is inclined to emphasize a dark side of human beings, the third force is likely to shed light on higher realms of human psyche. Regarding this point, Maslow’s research about self-actualization people is a typical example of focusing on a bright side of human beings. Therefore, I think that the third force is categorized into the mind level in Wilber’s model in that it refers to the higher and bright side of human beings.  Reference

1 The Spectrum of Consciousness

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life

My Integral Coach recommended this book for me because most of the coaching topics were related to human interactions. In fact, this book has useful insights, and I believe that I can apply the NVC (non-violent communication) model to my coaching.

Critical periods: Is it really impossible to modify a neocortex?

One of my ardors is adult learning, and I think if the learning process strongly correlates with the degree of neuronal binding, creating a new neuronal path and enhancing the strength of neuronal connections are pivotal to accelerate the efficiency of adult learning. However, I found a new research related to my interest. That is “critical periods” in our brain. Singer (2008) describes this idea in the following: “Once the respective developmental window close, neurons stop forming new connections and existing connections can no longer be removed” (p. 101). According to the author’s explanation, especially, our neocortex which is involved in higher functions such as reasoning, thoughts, and language can’t be modified once critical period is over. I’m looking for the way to modify the neocortex though it is said impossible to modify it after critical periods.
Reference

The Educated Brain: Essays in Neuroeducation

Getting Started with Neurofeedback: Traditional psychotherapy VS Neurotherapy

I've never heard of "neurotherapy" before, so I was intrigued by this new kind of therapy and read a book about this.

Traditional psychotherapy has mainly two intervention tools: talk and medication. Of course, talk therapy has been an effective modality even now, but the result tends to be subjective. Furthermore, medication can’t exclude a possibility of side effects though it changes our brain activity directly. Against this backdrop, neurotherapy has drawn attention as a new type of psychotherapy. Neurotherapy has a unique modality, neurofeedback. In a word, the characteristic of neurofeedback is that it “is similar to a comprehensive exercise program because it strengthens neural pathways while increasing mental endurance and flexibility” (Demos, 2005, p. 5). As mentioned above, the traditional psychotherapy has faced a challenge to reveal the effect explicitly, and, in fact, this is one of the limitations in the traditional psychotherapy. However, I think that neurotherapy will play a key role to connect the subjective assessments with the objective effects by using the neurofeedback system.     

Money Ball

Today, I went to see a movie "money ball." Interestingly, nobody except for me was in a theater...

An effort to analyze the players’ performance mathematically and statistically (UR approach), to trade players appropriately (LR approach), and to strengthen a shared sense of unity and solidarity in the team (LL approach) were key to success? Integral approach...

Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief

Book memo

The author demonstrates the relationship between mystical experience and brain activities. Of course, the result is interesting to me, but I think that the mystical experience which enables us to be part of everything is the ultimate state of mystical experience. From Wilber’s perspectives, that kind of the mystical experience could be categorized into “nondual” state. However, there is a variety of states of consciousness up to the nondual state: gross, subtle, causal, and witnessing state. So, I’m curious about how our brain states changes in accordance with the alteration of the consciousness states.

Furthermore, the author elucidates the relationship between mystical experiences and human brain in terms of neurobiology. Also, the author explains: “Humans, in fact, are natural mystics blessed with an inborn genius for effortless self-transcendence.” However, why do we have such an intrinsic characteristic? Is the process toward self-transcendence a manifestation of human evolution?

Weekly Reading

I read the following books this week. I noticed these books were related to psychoanalysis or neuroscience (brain science).

The Difference between the Autobiographical Self and Middle Unconscious?

The most famous psychosynthesist, Robert Assagioli articulated that our unconscious realm was comprised of three parts: higher, middle, and lower unconscious. I suppose that the function of the middle unconscious is the same as that of the autobiographical self which is proposed by Damasio Antonio. So, what’s the difference is there between both of them? Regarding the middle unconscious, Assagioli (1965) explained: “This is formed of psychological elements similar to those of our waking consciousness and easily accessible to it. In this inner region our various experiences are assimilated” (p. 17). In other words, we can easily access the realm and retrieve our memory stored in it. 

On the other hand, Damasio (1999) explains about the autobiographical self that we can accumulate new knowledge or experiences as a “something-to-be-known” in this consciousness, and he defines such memory in the following way: “Sets of memories which describe identity and person can be reactivated as a neural pattern and made explicit as images whenever needed” (p. 174). For me, the function of both the autobiographical self and middle unconscious seems the same.

Reference
1The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness
2Psychosynthesis: A Collection of Basic Writings

The Residue of Music in Our Brain

When I read T.S. Eliot’s words “you are the music while the music lasts.”, I recalled mysterious phenomenon happened in my brain. The peculiar phenomenon is here; why can we recall the sound of music perfectly? For example, please imagine the voice of Celine Dion or a certain track of her. What can you hear? I believe that you can recall and hear exactly the same sound of voice or music of her in your mind. But how do we do that? What’s happening in our brain while we are recollecting it? I can’t help but believe that the Plato’s concept “eidos” exists in our reality or in our brain. So, I can enjoy my favorite music in my brain without an iPod.

Reference

The Wisdom and Limitation of The Psychoanalytical Force

             From my perspective as an Integral practitioner, the most important gift of the 2^nd force is to cultivate my understanding of the dark side in human psyche. Now, I engage in a coaching activity, and in fact, I met some clients who have psychological problems in their ego structure. (To be exact, all of us including me may have a certain psychological problem in our ego structure.) Hence, psychoanalytical theory and practice are beneficial for my coaching activity to address clients’ deep psychological issues.

              However, likewise any other psychological forces, the 2^nd force includes an inherent limitation. The main limitation is that the 2^nd force only sheds light on the dark side in human psyche and is apt to neglect or ignore the brilliant side in human psyche which is focused by humanistic and transpersonal psychology.

             As I mentioned above, the 2^nd force has estimable wisdom in that it elucidates a human shadow realm. By virtue of the theory and practice, we are able to integrate our dark side and transform it into positive one. Generally speaking, some spiritual people tend to ignore our dark side but only focus on bright side in human psyche. As a result, they seem to fail to attain a true transformation or self-actualization. I suppose that practicing in an effort to accomplish a self-transformation or self-actualization is preposterous, but both spiritual practice and shadow work would be helpful to enhance the quality of my life. 

Our Sub-Personalities???

Each of us has a lot of different selves within us according to the relationships with others for example a manager who works in a company, a mother who cherishes her children, and a student who study in a university; the list goes on. Put simply, we live our life playing a multiple roles every day. Regarding the characteristic of our sub-personalities, they are not unusual but normal. Also, Firman & Gila (2002) illustrate our sub-personalities in the following way: “Clearly, subpersonality formation seems a natural and healthy structuralization process of the human personality, a gift of the middle unconscious, the subsystems that make up the larger system of the personality as a whole” (p. 73). 

However, our sub-personalities sometimes become dysfunctional, and our wounded sub-personalities show up. When they come up within us, recognition-acceptance-inclusion-synthesis process (Firman & Gila, 2002) would be helpful to make our dysfunctional or wounded sub-personalities healthy and synthesize them in an appropriate way. (See the reference book in detail.)

Reference

Psychosynthesis: A Psychology of the Spirit (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology)

Integral Life Practice: Dream Journaling

Just after I wake up every morning, I keep a dream journaling. So, I’d like to introduce the effect of the dreamwork. Firstly, our dream has a not only biological effect but also psychological one. In other words, a dream functions as an indispensable role to maintain our biological conditions at a healthy level and an alternative pathway to meet the needs of our id (Frager & Fadiman, 2002). Furthermore, if we keep a dream journaling, we may notice a certain dream pattern to represent our unsatisfied desires repressed under unconsciousness. In that sense, keeping a dream journaling is helpful for both biological and psychological health.

                 Though just writing a dream on a notebook is effective, dialogue and interpretations based on the dream would be more effective. In fact, I sometimes practice “3-2-1 shadow process” based on my dream. (For details, see in Wilber, Patten, Leonard, & Morelli, 2008.)  

Reference:

1 Personality and Personal Growth (6th Edition)
2Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening

Countertransference in a Therapy or Coaching

              As mentioned before, transference is the emotional involvement from a client to a therapist, on the contrary, countertransference is the emotional involvement from a therapist to a client. Regarding countertransference, Freud explained that countertransference “would break through the therapist’s professionalism and produce an inappropriate response” (Kahn, 2002, p.198). In other words, Freud regarded countertransference as a hindrance factor to be removed in a therapy session. However, it is not easy for a therapist to notice and exclude countertransference. In fact, after Freud proposed this concept, countertransference had been considered as an inevitable and ceaseless phenomenon. Nowadays, countertransference has been seen as inevitable and even useful because all empathy which has a positive impact on a therapy begins with it (Kahn, 2002), although Freud recognized that countertransference distorted the therapist’s perspective or a client relationship.

This phenomenon can occur in not only a therapy session but also in a coaching session. Therapeutic theories and practices are often helpful for a coaching because a therapy usually overlaps coaching through both of them are fundamentally different. That's why I read many books about a psychotherapy.

Reference

Basic Freud: Psychoanalytic Thought for the 21st Century

Mind, Brain, and Education: New Paradigm in the Education World?

In the education world, the research movement of integrating our mind, brain, and education (MBE) has received increasing attention nowadays. Educators and neuroscientists are now working together to understand how learning and the brain are related, and how this interconnectedness will better inform our educational policies and school systems.

This recent academic movement represents an integral or holistic perspective, because the research of our mind and brain had been investigated separately in the past. Many scientists and educators came to recognize the importance of seeking to understand the connections between our thinking (UL), brain (UR), and learning processes (UR). This academic trend stands for a kind of holistic movement in the education world in that educators and scientists begin to notice the importance of integrating various different academic fields such as cognitive science, neuroscience, developmental psychology, pedagogy, etc.

Furthermore, this academic movement has a positive impact on an education culture (LL), policy (LR), and curriculum (LR). In fact, a new finding in the field of neuroscience is incorporated into an education policy and curriculum to provide children with a better learning environment. 

          The above academic collaboration between mind, brain, and education is really fascinating for me. I believe mind, brain, and education program will be the key in the future to support children’s psychological growth (UL), enhance learning effect (UR), create a positive school culture (LL), and build an educational policy and practice. If educators and scientists come to consider not only quadrants but also other elements for instance levels, states, types, and lines in Integral Theory, this movement will be more integral. In that sense, current mind, body, and education endeavor might be still holistic rather than integral.

Transference in Coaching Session

I think that not only a therapist but also a coach should pay attention to "transference" between a client and coach in a session, so I capsulized the concept below.

             This psychological phenomenon between a client and therapist is one of the key concepts in a therapeutic setting. Freud categorized this concept into the following three ideas.

1 The positive transference, in which the patient’s feelings for the therapist are primarily affection and trust.

2 The negative transference, consisting primarily of hostility and suspicion.

3 The un-neutralized erotic transference, in which the patient experiences insistent desire for sexual intimacy with the analyst. (Kahn, 2002, pp.184-185)

About the positive transference, Freud regarded it as an unobjectionable phenomenon and insisted that it enabled a therapist to provide a client with a sense of trust or safety which built a preferable relationship between the client and therapist. On the other hand, Freud raised an alert over the negative transference. He argued that a therapist must intervene in and remove it if the transference comes up in the session. Otherwise the therapy session will not work for a client. Likewise the negative transference, Freud warned that the erotic transference had a negative impact on the therapy session. Although it is sometimes recognized as a kind of the positive transference, Freud explained that “if those feelings persisted in spite of the analyst’s best effort to convert them to analyzable material, there was nothing to do but refer the patient to another therapist” (Kahn, 2002, p.186). Thus, a therapist should have a competency to discern the type of transference. 

Reference

Basic Freud: Psychoanalytic Thought for the 21st Century

Primary Model of Pathology in Psychoanalytical Force

              Regarding the primary model of pathology in 2^nd force, I’d like to describe the Freudian view of pathology in the following.

              As for the key concept of a Freudian view of pathology, Munroe (1955) explicates that “the idea of the symptom as an adaptive mechanism has become a commonplace and that its cure is always envisaged as handling of the underlying (typically unconscious) dynamics rather than the symptom itself” (p. 280). In other words, Freudians regard a symptom of our mental illness as a kind of an adjustment mechanism to protect our “self” from the external world. Moreover, the characteristic of a Freudian view about treatment of pathology is that they often don’t focus on the symptom itself but our unconscious realm.

The Oedipus complex is one of the well-known pathological symptoms in Freudian views related to our unconsciousness. To explain the overview of this symptom, the Oedipus complex is that “all boys experience the unconscious wish to get rid of father and replace him as mother’s lover, and that all girls carry the unconscious wish to eliminate mother and replace her as father’s lover” (Kahn, 2002, p. 57). In this example, Freudians don’t pay attention to the superficial phenomenon (all boys and girls tend to have the desire to obliterate the existence of their father or mother.) but attempt to elucidate the mechanism by shedding light on our repressed unconsciousness. Although Freudians are likely to reduce our pathology into the issue of only our repressed unconsciousness, it is highly estimable for them to clarify the relationship between some pathologies and human unconscious realm.

Reference

1Basic Freud: Psychoanalytic Thought for the 21st Century

2Schools of psychoanalytic thought;: An exposition, critique, and attempt at integration

Psychoanalysis and Post Freudian in Wilber's Spectrum of Consciousness

             Ken Wilber’s spectrum of consciousness model comprises the following four levels: shadow, ego, existential, and mind. To come right to the point, the second force (psychoanalysis and post Freudian) is situated on the ego and shadow level. The first, Wilber (1975) explains that human beings tend to identify with his or her ego. While human beings in the existential level are regarded as organism which has a rational thought, human beings in the ego level are deemed to have a mental picture of his or her total psychophysical organism. The second, Wilber (1975) describes the shadow level in the following: “Under certain circumstances, man can alienate various aspects of his own psyche, dis-identify with them, and thus narrow his sphere of identity to only parts of the ego, which we may refer to as the persona” (p. 110). As mentioned above, human beings in the ego level are likely to identify with his or her whole ego. On the other hand, human beings in the shadow level become gradually able to dis-identify with some aspects in his or her ego.

As well as Wilber’s remarks, psychoanalysis addresses human ego and shadow realm. In psychoanalysis, human ego is defined as “the part of the psyche in contact with external reality” (Frager & Fadiman, 2002, p. 24), and human shadow is described as “an archetypal form that serves as the focus for material that has been repressed from consciousness” (p. 69). I think that the second force is categorized into the ego and shadow level in Wilber’s model in that both of them refer to the same aspects of human beings such as ego and shadow.  

Reference

1 The Spectrum of Consciousness  

2 Personality and Personal Growth (6th Edition)

Quantum Holism

As for the concept of “quantum holism,” I think that the main characteristic of this concept is interdependence. While a mechanistic view which insists that all natural events are like machines or artifacts tends to neglect interdependence, quantum holism pays attention to reciprocal influences in reality. When we think about social issues such as international conflicts, environmental issues, or global economic crisis, the above worldview like mechanism will not give any beneficial clues to these global issues, because in that paradigm, these issues are recognized as isolated ones in countries and never thought as comprehensive issues in the world. As we know, our world is becoming more and more interconnected, so the first step toward a solution of such global issues might be to understand that our world is not separated but closely connected with each other.  

Quantum Society: Nonlocality

Memo: Nonlocality: “The concept of the interconnectedness of all things leads to the last and perhaps the most bizarre tenet of quantum physics” (Zohar & Marshall, 1994, p. 48). This concept challenges the phenomena such as healing from a distance and shared dreams, which can’t be expounded fully in terms of materialistic views. Though this idea of nonlocality is often lionized by New Age people, in fact, thousands of well-controlled researches show the existence of these kinds of phenomena, so we might acknowledge a part of the wisdom of nonlocality which has been regarded as an unscientific concept.
The following book which I don't read yet is also fascinating for me..."Quantum Psychology..." I heard this word in the class.

Radical Nature: Quantum Theory VS Determinism

One of the key concepts in quantum theory is “noncausal.” This term means that quantum events are not causal and intrinsically unpredictable (De Quincey, 2002). This concept refutes the idea of determinism which insists that every event is a cause-and-effect relationship. Of course, this deterministic idea made a numerous contribution to the modern psychics, but it includes an inherent limitation. For instance, the deterministic view couldn’t elucidate the logical connection between one event and another in a certain random event (e.g., weather). Although quantum theory also can’t illuminate the mechanism of a certain random event, it has a value in that it forces us to investigate the view of traditional paradigms (materialism, determinism, etc.).

My Integral Coaching for Whom?

While engaging in Integral Coaching, I just came to think: “For whom do I provide this coaching?” Needless to say, I do it for my clients. That’s right, but my coaching offers tremendous benefits for my growth and development as a human being (I don’t like the word “benefit,” but I can’t find a more appropriate word…perhaps, welfare, well-being…I don’t know.). It is true that I “give” something to my clients as a coach, but at the same time, I obviously “take” or “learn” something important from my wonderful clients.

My coaching is full of agony and joy. In each coaching session, epitome of our life manifest in that moment. I suppose so. I live my life, but I sometimes seem to live others’ life…For whom does my coaching exist in this real world? For me? For my clients? For the universe?

“The Developing Mind”: The Locus of Our Emotion in Our Brain

In this book, the author articulates our emotions like this: “[E]motion is at the core of internal and interpersonal processes that create our subjective experience of the self” (p. 155). To tell you the truth, I have one coaching client right now, who wants to control emotions, so I’ve kept my antenna fully spread out toward “human emotions (trigger, process, mechanism, types of emotions, etc.).” 

This is my assumption, but there seems to be two types of emotions within us: The first is personal emotions, and the second is interpersonal emotions. The former emotions are for example joy, sadness, happiness, and so on. These emotions can be happened without others. On the other hand, the latter emotions are for instance anger, empathy, jealousy, love, and so forth. Generally speaking, these emotions arise from the relationship with others (in a word, these emotions are like psychological projections). Then I came up with the following questions. “Do both types of emotions happen in the same process in our brain? Do they activate the same parts in our brain? Why do we have different types of emotions?; some of them are not toward others, but some of them are toward others.” I’m still searching and thinking about this topic.   

Reference

The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience

Philosophy in the Flesh [The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought]: Our Body and Conceptual Systems

This book is really insightful, but I had some questions in this book. Below is one of my questions about the author's explanation between our body and conceptual systems.

I found an interesting sentence in this book: “Because our conceptual systems grow out of our bodies, meaning is grounded in and through our bodies” (p. 111). In this book, the author emphasizes the importance of the “body” in our conceptual systems. Regarding this point, the author articulates how our body works for our conceptual systems in the following way. 

Our rational mind (reason) arises from the commonalities of our bodies and brains and the environments we live in. This implies that reason doesn’t transcend our body. Of course, this is a part of his explanations, but if the author’s above explanation is true, our conceptual systems seem to be emanated from our body, and the meaning is embedded in our bodies at first glance. However, I don’t still make sense of the commonalities of these three factors: body, brain, and environment. What are the commonalities between them? Also, the author tries to explain our subjective experience (mind or reason) from objective things (body, brain, and environment), but I suppose this approach seems a categorical mistake between UL and UR quadrant.

The Darts We Throw Ourselves: Reaction Mechanism

In this chapter, the author explains that an inevitable physical or mental discomfort (e.g. when you hit your foot on the corner of a door, you feel a pain and unpleasant.) is the “first dart.” In addition to the first dart, we always add some reactions to the first dart. These reactions are called “second darts.” In my experience, I sometimes added negative emotions or feelings to the first dart, but I think that I can manage the second dart comparatively well. However, I know there are a lot of people who respond negatively to the first dart. So, I was thinking what I could offer a good solution or advice to them: “If my client suffers from the negative second dart, how can I help him or her?” The solution with which I came up is to change his or her response or interpretation to the first dart. I think this is the popular way in terms of cognitive or behavioral therapy, but I suppose that it is a little bit a “quick-fix” solution. In my view, unless we change the response-generating mechanism, we continue to suffer from the second darts forever. I have still some questions about this mechanism. Why do we tend to add suffering to the first dart? Where does the second dart come from in our brain? How do we prevent the second dart from showing up?

Reference

Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom