Psychology Articles

On why we have dreams and the functions of dreaming

The psychology of dreams has been explained either with the psychoanalytic interpretation of dreams and the psycho-physiological process of dreaming. Thus there are two distinct schools in the psychology of dreams – one school of thought believes in the relation between REM sleep and dreaming, the role of dreams in learning and dreams as a result of random neural firings further leading to random images that may not have any significance; and the other school of thought believes that dreams occur as a result of unconscious and repressed impulses and could be explained with psychoanalytic symbolism and in turn also explain psychic phenomenon or even lead to understanding the causes of mental illnesses.

According to Freud, ‘dreams are the royal road to the unconscious’, in the sense that dreams could be analyzed in a way that will reveal the hidden impulses in the unconscious. Dreams may thus reveal who we ‘really’ are, what we ‘really’ want and how we want to attain these desires. Yet many contemporary psychologists have moved away from this ’semantic’ view of dreams that emphasize on repressed desires and ‘meanings’ of dreams, and have suggested that dreams occur simply due to random neural firings in the brain when the body is at rest and these random firings produce images in the brain. There are several stages in sleep and the REM sleep is the final stage.

Dreams are related to this REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep and we tend to have several dreams in one night although we forget almost all these images. We don’t act out these dreams because during the process of dreaming, the body undergoes temporary paralysis which is a protective or bodily defense mechanism against any external injury.

Dreams according to psychology is also a defense mechanism as all repressed desires which could have harmful effects on our psyche are released through the process of dreaming, so both physiologically and psychologically, dreams have defensive or protective functions helping in release of excessive stress, traumatic thoughts, repressed impulses as also protect the body from external injury. Dream recollection and control through the process of lucid dreaming and hypnosis as used more frequently by traditional psychotherapists are not too popular any more although these processes provide more insights into images in dreaming and how these could be evoked or elicited in psychotherapeutic sessions or could be remembered and interpreted to provide more access to the unconscious.

The physiology of REM stage of sleep may be able to provide answers as to why we dream of certain images yet this mechanism would be unable to explain exactly why these specific images occur. Some theories have suggested that certain repressed thoughts and desires or repeated occurrences could manifest in dreams through images.

Sometimes trauma or any event with significant emotional value could lead to repetitive dreams with the same images. Considering existing literature, I suggest that dreams could have five principal functions – a clinical function of explaining mental illness, a cognitive function of aiding learning, an adaptive function of restoring body mechanisms, a cathartic function of releasing traumatic or repressed feelings and a defensive function of providing a protective shield to the mind and the body. So dreams could actually be explained both from psychoanalytic and psycho-physiological perspectives. In fact we have to understand psychoanalysis and psycho-physiology and integrate findings about dreams from both these fields to reach a comprehensive understanding of dreams.

The five functions of dreams are given here and the basic thesis of a comprehensive dream theory should be based on all these five functions.

Clinical Function of Dreams – Some psychologists believe that dreams are closely related to mental illness and that many post traumatic dreams represent anxiety and prolonged or repetitive traumatic dreams could suggest initial symptoms of mental disorder or failed physiological functions in the body. In fact many mental illnesses could be traced back to certain dreams and we can even understand the roots or causes of mental illness by studying why certain dreams occur in certain people. The clinical value of dreams has been recognized in psychoanalysis although the full potential of this function has not been very clear in physiology. Further scientific research is required to understand the role of dreams in explaining, preventing or even curing mental or physical illnesses.

Dreams could highlight issues of brain disorder, brain ailments and hormonal changes in the body and could have clinical value in identifying many diseases and abnormal conditions in the body.

Cognitive Function of Dreams – Dreams are useful in learning and scientific studies have proved that dreams play a cognitive role in children who have many more dreams and increased REM sleep than adults, thus children tend to learn while dreaming and dreaming and REM sleep could also have a positive effect on learning physical skills. This might explain how dreams could also provide insights into problems as solutions and many discoveries, inventions and novel ideas emerge in dreams. Dreams show various possibilities in our thought process and through permutations and combinations provide cognitive solutions to some of our life goals. Dreams could thus be very effective learning tools, help in self understanding and realization and improve and consolidate cognitive abilities.

Adaptive Function of Dreams – Dreams help us to adapt to our surroundings and although the evolutionary advantage of dreaming is not clear or has not been studied extensively, the fact that we continue to dream and even learn and defend ourselves through dreams makes dreaming an important part of our passive and active life. The adaptive function of dreams is however physiologically advantageous as it helps restore bodily mental and physical balance. Although this remains a controversial viewpoint, the complete psychological and physiological advantages of dreaming will have to be studied from an evolutionary perspective.

Cathartic Function of Dreams – Dreams are highly cathartic. They release stress, and through symbolic representation of images, purge out our fears, our impulses and urges and help us to confront our own mental lives. Dreams are more than the ‘royal road to the unconscious’, they are basic shields for our own defense and release. The thoughts and emotions that may be too dark, traumatic, shameful or dangerous for real life are manifested in dreams and help us to confront realities. Psychoanalytically dreams represent wish fulfillment and many images in dreams like elongated objects for example, are considered symbolic of sexual organs. It is however controversial whether all dreams are a type of wish fulfillment and some dreams could simply be a release of anxiety or completely the opposite of any wish fulfillment. If you repeatedly dream of your own injury or injury of close ones, you are simply releasing your unconscious anxiety through the dreams which in turn may help you to function better and be more cautious in reality.

Defensive Function of Dreams – This is related to the cathartic and adaptive functions of dreaming as when we release through catharsis, we also adapt to situations and this in turn provides a defense or protection for the mind and body to continue functioning without harm or hindrance. Although this concept is unpopular among many psychologists, dreams may have strong defensive functions. While we dream, the physiological changes in the body such as release of glycine, an amino acid highlight a defensive mechanism and both physical and mental irritations could be released through dreaming, providing in turn a shield for the body and mind. Dreams are thus not just the ‘royal road to the unconscious’, they are essential covers or shields to protect the mind or body against excess stress. Just like your boiling kettle has provisions to release excess steam, dreams too serve as a regulatory mechanism to release all excesses from the mind and body.

Dreams are finally mind’s excretions. The view that dreams have no evolutionary advantage and that they have no functions has been endorsed by many scientists, yet if we look deeper into the annals of psychology, the significance of dreams in explaining mental life cannot be overlooked. Only further research in physiology, imaging techniques and psychotherapy delving into the psychology of dreams would be able to tell us why we dream and whether dreams are rudimentary or regulatory.

Reflections in Psychology – Part I by Saberi Roy

http://www.lulu.com/content/5865445

The topic of healthy psychology is very much directly linked to your self-esteem, because the way that you portray your level esteem and confidence to the world is through an external reflection of your inner acceptance and worth. Your psychology determines what states these are in and has a tendency to unconsciously guide your thoughts unless you intervene and consciously control your thoughts and feelings to higher ground than they may to by default, by an accumulation of gathered emotional and physical trauma.

When you do nothing to take control and guide your psychology to find and focus on everything beautiful and wonderful in your life it will naturally hone in on every negative memory you have ever had. Human beings have a tendency to focus always on what’s wrong, how things would be better if, blame, shame, punish, self-destruct, grudge-holding, and on and on. Unless you develop your mind by working on yourself and taking care of your whole; your mind, body and spirit, you will fall into mediocrity and ignorance.

The only way to free yourself is to understand the latent power you have within you, and understand how to use it in conjunction with the universal laws to get everything you want. Whether you believe in these laws or not is irrelevant; disbelief and ignorance do not hold you exempt from these laws, and if you don’t take time to understand how to use them to your benefit, too often you will have them working against you, unconsciously. I say this with such conviction because they have been proven again and again, through my own personal experience, through the experience of countless other leaders and success stories, known and unknown through the ages, and also because science is now catching up to these theories and proving their power too. If you’re interested then the thing to research is “Quantum physics’ and ‘metaphysics’, both work harmoniously together.

So now we have the groundwork covered, large and small, I’ll focus on psychology on an everyday basis, and how it affects you. Psychological illnesses of any form all limit your self-expression and potentiality, and the majority of the time you don’t even realise it. Many psychological disruptions manifest themselves through the a physical form, some of which including:

- Insomnia
- Narcolepsy
- Anorexia
- Depression
- Irritability
- Migraines
- Bowel and colon inflammation
- Stress
- Skin disorders

These are actually the softer manifestations of psychological disruption, because any illness, most especially the more serious illnesses. The birth of these illnesses happens in your mind, when you stress, worry, hold anxiety, tension, guilt, expectancy of morbid things, etc, you create a chemical reaction in your body caused by the emotions you feel when feeling and thinking about these destructive things. This chemical reaction creates toxicity in your body, promoting mutation in your cells.

Knowing that we have a brand new body every 11 months, at the rate we replace cells and change, as our cells are replace, if we are replacing them with mutated cells, caused by the toxicity and harmful chemicals, brought about by your worrying, we create cancerous cells, and other forms of cell mutation which leads to illness. Knowing this allows us to see how we are able to heal ourselves, without medicine, even if we have created the illness. This is done by creating peace and harmony in our body, letting the chemicals and toxicity out of our body so that as our cells reproduce we are reproducing healthy cells again, so we replace the toxic cells, thereby healing ourselves. The way in which we actually do this is done by several things done on a daily basis, which I shall go into in a few minutes.

All illnesses, which are caused by our disruptive emotions, are a product of our natural reaction to what we are focusing on, feel and believe about ourselves. I can’t stress enough how all the power we is held within our minds, and what is so important for you to understand is that you, and only you, are in full control of your mind, you rule your mind, it does not rule you. You can so easily change a negative state by training yourself and growing more conscious of what you are focusing on, and your internal reactions to those things. You don’t have to be a slave to your reactions, you can actually let the things which normally vex you just ride straight over the top of you, and remain in harmony, but it comes from constant training and patience, and whether you can decide to give up the drama and surrender to peace. Whether you can decide to stop getting egotistically involved, very much to your detriment. Be an observer instead instead of a reactor, instantaneously making you a fighter.

Depression is not an illness, it is a state of mind, and it will certainly not be cured by drugs; the problem comes from your focus, physiology and emotion, so drug will just mask the problem by putting you into a dumbed down state meaning that you ultimately lose your personal power and rely on those happy pills, which produce a false chemical reaction in your body- chemical which are not meant to be in your body! Depression is caused by a mixture of what you focus on, believe, how you speak, and most especially hold yourself. You’ll find it very difficult to stay depressed when you stand up tall and straight with your chest out, look up, take the frown away and put a smile on long enough until it feels genuine. Through my own personal experience curing myself of anorexia, low self esteem and depression successfully, these methods are rarely the easiest thing to do; it requires gargantuan effort, patience, strength and perseverance. Sometime you will just feel like you can’t do it and need to give in, but I promise you from my heart that this is not just replicated copy from a book, everything I ever write about is from my own personal experience, because I know it to be true through actual facts, what it requires is discipline and a passion for self-mastery. If you have no desire to heal yourself then you won’t.

Without a burning desire to get something done then you have no motive, and nothing ever gets done without a motive. I use depression here as the main example but the method is universal for all illnesses, for instance I had a particularly violent period of suffering with Irritable Bowel syndrome when I was 18, and it manifested because I was overworking at university and not giving myself enough enough physical and mental slack, but also because I knew that it ‘ran in my family’, I just excepted I couldn’t anything about it because it was hereditary so I couldn’t do anything about it. B.S! Once I understood how we control our outcomes, I healed myself and I have never suffered with it since, up to this point making it well over 4 years.

I used depression as an example because I want to portray the immense power of the mind and your own influence over yourself. Depression is the effect, not of the particular circumstances, which you believe to have caused your depression, but your reaction to these events or circumstances. So the way to solve this is to shift your perspective and change the way you view this situation.

Some ways to immediately counter-act your feelings are as follows:

- Stand up tall, straight, confident, and proud. Put a smile and light expression on your face, no it’s not easy and it feels disingenuous, but just do it! When you do it long enough, by surrounding yourself with and listen to the best things for you to soak up in this delicate state, you will soon start changing things.
- Breathe deeply and fully. Breathe slowly and calmly, get full oxygen into your body, brain and blood cells; breathe deeply until your head goes tingly, and then do it some more, you’ll put yourself into a natural state of ecstasy, it’s beautiful.
- Exercise gives you such a natural high and aglow because it creates the endorphin hormone in your body, which is the ‘happy’ hormone! It will give you a clearer mind, much more physical energy, physical fitness, a deeper feeling of well-being, reflection and objectivity. But above all things, there’s nothing like really moving your body and feeling great in your body to rid yourself of negativity. By staying still and not moving all the time you trap in all this bad energy, but by being physical and moving just shakes it out your body by force. This doesn’t mean just a gentle stroll, that doesn’t count, you’ve got to get energetic and get your heart pumping, get sweating and get your heart rate up. If you don’t normally exercise this can seem daunting and put you off immediately, but it’s just a habit to form; break yourself in gently and build up to it, because after a week or two of consistent exercise you will be addicted to how great it makes you feel and you won’t be able to do without it! Some exercise forms include:

* Walking
* Running/ jogging
* Gym sessions
* Swimming
* Yoga
* Pilates
* Taking up a sport
* Cycling
* Surfing
* Weight lifting

Whatever it is that speaks and appeals to you. This will immediately lighten your heavy load that you carry on your shoulders and blast that black cloud hanging over your head into oblivion. Repeat, repeat, repeat and you will create a habit of feeling great, and the negativity or illness will just dissipate without you even noticing.

Relaxation and inner peace through meditation. Having the ability to relax and gain inner peace through meditation will bring you peace of mind, increased relaxation, happiness, calm and the ability to deal with everyday stresses much more capably and calmly. This new inner calm allows increased productivity because you are quietening the noise in your mind, which causes illnesses, mental clogs, lethargy and distraction. These are the tools to use, are being used, and always have been used to create connection, peace, wisdom, spirituality, success, wealth, enlightenment, healing, creativity and increased happiness.

It’s about training your state of mind and controlling it, not letting it control you by default. Peace and motivation are all states which must be worked on and exercised everyday, if you don’t you will end up in a negative deficit. It takes more work to be happy, it’s too easy to be negative, so happiness, then, is a choice.

Continue onto part two for the rest of the article.

I’m a professional internet marketing consultant, success coach, author and self esteem speaker, and I’m passionately committed to helping people find their hearts desire and achieve massive success in their business. For free training videos, free downloadable eBooks and tips, advice and marketing info you can visit my blog at http://www.katiepantonpro.com.

Who’s in control of the choices that you make? Is it you? Science says not a chance! What do you really control anyway, the volume on your radio, the temperature of your car. What else?

The brain has specific cortical circuits that when triggered are associated with sensations that arise in the course of wanting to initiate and then carry out a voluntary action. Once these circuits are connected and their molecular and synaptic signatures identified, they constitute the neuronal correlates of consciousness for intention and action.

It works both ways. Your thinking impacts your physiology and your physiology impacts your thinking and both orient what actions you take. The question still remains however, are you in control of how you think, feel and act?

Benjamin Libet, 1980s psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, stated;

“A few hundred milliseconds before a person thought he or she decided to press a button, brain areas related to movement were already active. The unconscious brain calls the shots, making free will an illusory afterthought!”

The research indicates that human behavior is wired in for survival, all of it! Consider the following; What do you see?

(Black spots up close, image of a dog when you pull away. Send an email and I’ll send this image to you.)

The reality of the above observation is black patches. However, the human brain is genetically coded to recognize a pattern. This pattern is a dog. This dates back to evolutionary days of survival of the fittest. It favored survival to be able to instantly recognize danger and to initiate an avoidance response long before you were conscious of the threat.

Our brain was selected for pattern recognition and action long before conscious thought occurred. This also required less brain energy. Human evolution has always favored conservation of energy. Here are some examples of both conservation of energy and pattern recognition.

What is 12 divided by ½? Most of the population will conserve energy, recognize a pattern and answer 6. That is incorrect. It is 24.

Here’s another example.

Frank is looking at Mary but Mary is looking at Bill. Frank is married Bill is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?

a) Yes
b) No
c) Can not be determined.

Most of the population, 80%, answers c) Can not be determined. That is not correct. The answer is a) Yes. This is called a cognitive miser. The individual recognizes a pattern and jumps to a conclusion. It is low in computational power but it is fast. It doesn’t interfere with other ongoing cognitive functions. It’s easy, conserves energy and initiates survival action. What you gain in speed you lose in computational accuracy. Humans are cognitive misers because our basic tendency is to default to the processing mechanisms that require less computational effort even if they are less accurate. We need to act first and figure it out later because 5 million years ago that meant survival.

The fact that the problem does not reveal whether Mary is married or not suggest to people that they don’t have enough information and they make the easiest inference c) without thinking through the possibilities.

What controlled this choice? It was a genetically programmed, pattern recognition that saved time and created action, for survival!

Every choice that we make is govern by the essential law of human performance. We are coded to avoid the highest level of perceived pain. We are avoidance machines. We recognize patterns and react then analyze. We are preprogrammed genetic machines!

Although we can not change our genetic coding and neurological wired patterns of predisposed behavior, we can purposefully direct it with behavioral contracting.

Make a commitment and then place a painful consequence for non performance. Make a penalty that will be enforced if you don’t accomplish the commitment. You are already wired to avoid pain, to see patterns of opportunity for the avoidance of your highest level of perceived pain. You will “see” opportunities to avoid the penalty that would never be available to you had you not participated with a behavioral contract.

Make a commitment, put a consequence for non performance on the task, have someone else hold you accountable and watch how creatively you can avoid the pain and do the activity!

High Performance Training, Inc.
Bob Davies, M.Ed. Psychology, B.S. Health, MCC Master Certified Coach
20992 Ashley Lane, Lake Forest, CA 92630-5865
949-830-9192 fax 949-830-9492 Email: Info@bobdavies.com
Website: http://www.Bobdavies.com On-Line coaching http://www.bobdaviescoaching.com

Bob Davies, named in the top 100 greatest minds of personal development world-wide by Excellence Magazine.

The act of roleplaying is one which goes far beyond games of dungeons and dragons, or the more modern online video game incarnations. It is something that everyone engaged in as a child. It is the act of make believe, of pretending that you are somebody else, and imagining that character and that world, imposing its presence on the reality of the world around you.

This is done naturally by children, who play at being princesses, or soldiers, or doctors, or even just mommies and daddies caring for their dolls. It is an act which has many purposes for a developing mind, and which can actually be beneficial even to an adult.

First, the act of using ones imagination is inherently creative. It stretches your mind, opening you up to the reality of possibilities you may not even know existed. This allows you to think in a speculative manner, to see things from a perspective which is beyond your own. This will help you not just in creative acts, but in every day life situations, where you have to find solutions to problems by seeing a scenario from all different sides.

Roleplaying, especially with others, also helps you to practice social situations, and to become acquainted with ideas about how to interact with different types of people. The act of roleplaying is safe, its all make believe, and there are practically no consequences for making a social or communicative mistake. That means that this act is like a sandbox, it is a testing ground allowing you to try out different scenarios before you have to actually engage them in the real world.

Finally, roleplaying is a way to escape. It allows a person to be who they truly are, rather than maintaining the façade that they have to carry around with them on a daily basis. This may seem contrary to the nature of the act, since roleplaying is when you stop acting like yourself and pretend to be someone else. However, in the real world, where people judge you based on your personality, most people censor themselves, hiding their hidden desires and protecting their egos from the stings and criticisms of others.

In a roleplaying situation, it is possible to indulge the inner quirks and oddities that make up the true reality of your personality. While you might be pretending to be a big business tycoon, the greed and ruthlessness which you act out is a part of your personality, one which is not acceptable to display in the real world. But in a fantasy setting it doesn’t matter, as long as you are safe and not harming anyone in reality, roleplaying allows you to act out even your most undesirable character traits.

Roleplaying is an act of imagination which is engaged in by almost everyone. This is usually done as a child, but some people continue to engage in such speculative imaginings even into adult hood. It provides people with a safe place to act out their inner personality, to develop social skills, and to understand themselves in a deeper and more meaningful way.

This article was written by Jim Slate on behalf of http://www.RolePages.com – An online roleplaying social network designed to foster creativity, and experiment with the creation of interactive multimedia fictional stories. Our members include an eclectic array of aliens, vampires, psychics, demons, detectives, super heroes, and just about anyone that you can imagine.

I flew the other night, that’s right, I flew!! I was with some people in New York City, that I really didn’t know all that well, and they were all getting on my nerves. So lifted my body up and flew above a palm tree and decided to go to Central Park. It was dark and I could not see that well, but it was cool for a while. I could feel the breeze as I was soaring in the air, but once I knew I was dreaming I woke up!! Man, it felt so real. I have been having a lot of dreams like that over the years, where I knew that I was dreaming and I seemed to be able to control the dream (for the most part). That was the first time I flew and in the excitement I woke up!! I am the Master of my dreams and don’t know why. So I started asking other people if they could do this and they looked at me like I was crazy. Then I started reading about astral projections and lucid dreaming.

Try to concentrate on the lucidity of your dreams. You should be able to maneuver around. It is your own mind that you are inside, after all. You may be able to guide the dream, practice makes perfect. I have done this hundreds of times, but I dream vividly (without any drugs and alcohol,thank you) and can often shape my dreams. One thing that you can do is try to visualize a picturesque landscape before you sleep, picture your self there doing whatever it is you wish to do, and it should come to you in time. Happy dreaming, it’s a beautiful place.

If you could control your dreams, what would you do? Grow wings and fly, talk to God, travel to ancient Rome, score the game winning goal (I have done that one), or talk to Patrick Swayze? Instead, we dream of showing up naked at work or falling or getting lost. But there’s one type that offers the promise of control; It’s lucid dreaming. I have been studying for the last 4 or 5 years or so and here are some tips. Lucid dreaming, like anything else, takes practice. I’ve done it plenty of times since 2005. All you have to do is realize that you are in a dream and not wake up (that second step is hardest)and then start controlling things. Enjoy the adventures. I will be back, with more tips for you, later.

http://secretsecretsociety.wordpress.com
http://www.roseannstreasures1.com

You and I live in a fast paced and highly complex world. So much information, so many choices… so little time. How do people make sense of it all?

If we were to process everything that crossed our path and analyze it thoroughly we wouldn’t have time to do much else. Somehow and someway we need to make judgments and decisions using a more selective process. And, according to social scientists, that is exactly what we do.

Consider this example from Robert B. Cialdini, PhD for a moment.

A jewelry store owner buys a new jewelry collection from a local artist. It’s the height of tourist season, but none of the new pieces sell. As a result, she does what most of us would do. She lowers the price considerably in hopes that it will entice customers to buy. No one does.

One day, before she goes out of town, she leaves a note for her head saleswoman. The note asks the woman to make everything in the display case, “price x 1/2″. She simply wants to get rid of these pieces and cut her losses. However, the employee misreads the “1/2″ as a “2″ and ends up doubling the price of the pieces. When the owner returns, she is stunned to find that the entire collection sells out at twice the original price!

This outcome speaks directly to the “information overload” phenomenon we all endure on a daily basis. How do we adjust for this overload? We form pre-programmed tapes to help us make quicker decisions. We create shortcuts to help us along the way. We develop rules of thumb. In the case of the jewelry store, tourists use a standard principle – a stereotype – to help with their purchasing decision. “Expensive = Good”.

We can see this phenomenon in a wide variety of interactions. Here are a few of my own personal examples.

Just today I went with my son to see his new first grade class. Last year he had a fantastic teacher. She was caring, outgoing and loved to teach. Why did I pick these three traits above everything else? Probably because I don’t have enough experience to truly know what might be the best educational experience for my son. But I do know he had an enjoyable Kindergarten year and I also know he learned a tremendous amount. Since his Kindergarten teacher possessed the three traits above I now use that as my frame of reference. Unfortunately, his new teacher did not show these same traits. She seemed preoccupied and cold when we introduced ourselves. As a result, I spent the rest of my time in the classroom concerned about what my son was getting into, and wondering if this teacher was qualified to teach first grade.

Is this right? In all honesty, I know it’s a mistake. And yet, it remains in the back of my mind no matter how much I try to fight it. In my world, it matters.

I once went to see a doctor trying to get help for something that was causing me considerable physical pain. As I sat there telling him my symptoms and my concerns, he yawned. It was the end of the day and I’m sure he had seen a lot of patients prior to my appointment. And I’ve certainly yawned before when talking to someone. But in my mind, at that moment, it was over. I spent the rest of the appointment waiting to simply get out of his office so I could find another doctor. Someone more caring? More competent? I’ll never know.

This leads me to my main marketing point and message…what are your potential clients judging you on? The fact is, we’re constantly looking for clues and telling ourselves stories based on limited information. Maybe it shouldn’t matter, but it does. Pay attention to the subtle and smaller details of your work, and understand that, right or wrong, they will make a difference.

David Diana is a Licensed Professional Counselor and the Director of Sales and Marketing for a private behavioral healthcare organization in Charleston, South Carolina. He is an experienced therapist and business consultant who has worked for many organizations in both the public and private sector to include IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers, HayGroup, AVON Cosmetics, U.S. Customs, and the IRS.

He recently published his first book titled, “Generating Wealth in the Mental Health Profession: Sales Principles and Strategies to Launch and Grow Your Career.” Please visit him at http://www.davidpdiana.com for more information about the book along with additional tools and resources designed to help give mental health professionals a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Over the past few months I’ve heard from a large group of people all asking a similar question, “How do I cope with a slow down in my practice?” When a dip occurs, most of us simply try harder. We decide to do more of what we’ve done in the past. More phone calls, more networking, more advertisements.

I struggle with this problem on a daily basis. My company, like everyone else, experiences peaks and valleys along the way. And what do I do when the treatment center I work for hits a valley? I find myself going back to bread and butter tactics. I look for ways to sell more to the people I already know.

Over the years I’ve come to the realization that this approach is not the best way to produce positive change. In the past I would struggle to find ways in which our existing networks could help grow the business. Fortunately for me, this approach is only part of the solution.

Great marketing efforts rarely focus solely on the “bread and butter” or the “tried and true”. Marketing experts don’t spend inordinate amounts of time figuring out ways to make their existing business structure produce slightly better results. They aren’t out there trying to squeeze out a few additional patients by going to the well more often than in the past.

Transformative marketing campaigns focus time and effort on crafting new services, products and stories that aren’t reliant on the same old target markets. They also look for ways to dramatically improve what is already being offered, and they do this by being open to new ideas and new ways of thinking about the problem.

Maybe it’s time to think about a new target audience altogether. Or perhaps it’s important for you to stop and take a moment to do an honest review of what you are offering and how you go to market. Is it the right service? How can it be improved? What would make it different – better?

When you open yourself up to these kinds of possibilities you’ll know when you hit it right because your service offerings will speak to people in different ways. It’s at that point that you will no longer be defined and restricted by the old way of doing business.

When my business goes in the tank I pay attention to my existing markets to see what may be missing and what trends may be occurring. But then I quickly go beyond that line of thinking.

Instead of racking my brains trying to squeeze out small improvements within my existing environment I try to spend more time and effort finding new and transformative opportunities.

David Diana is a Licensed Professional Counselor and the Director of Sales and Marketing for a private behavioral healthcare organization in Charleston, South Carolina. He is an experienced therapist and business consultant who has worked for many organizations in both the public and private sector to include IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers, HayGroup, AVON Cosmetics, U.S. Customs, and the IRS.

He recently published his first book titled, “Generating Wealth in the Mental Health Profession: Sales Principles and Strategies to Launch and Grow Your Career”. Please visit him at http://www.davidpdiana.com for more information about the book along with additional tools and resources designed to help give mental health professionals a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

On the perception and process of death and the progression of death fear to death feeling

The concept of death is more intriguing than the concept of life and even if we do know what happens in life, we don’t seem to know anything that happens in death. The mysteriousness of death makes it a very interesting topic for psychology and like many other subject areas, this topic has not got enough attention from psychologists.

Freud dealt with this extensively and there has been some very basic research on death. Finally we have to realize that psychology is still a developing and new subject and there are many unexplored areas, including the psychology of death. Although Freud and psychoanalysis has given an extensive death psychology, we have to look at other dimensions and try to associate the philosophy of death with the psychological aspects of dying to reach a comprehensive understanding of the process.

Yes, death is a process, it is the otherness of life and it is not just the beginning and the end of all life forms but also a perception and also a state of existence according to some philosophies. Robert Kastenbaum’s book, ‘The Psychology of Death’ provides an analysis of many major questions and answers about the process of death. But then there are many unanswered questions as well.

Death is very important to us because it is a definite fact of life, we will all die and everyone else around us will also die. This is one fact of life that we can’t deny, we can’t overcome and can’t prevent or stop, it is something that will definitely happen. Yet it is also the most indefinite and strange phenomenon as we can never know when or how we will die and ‘what death really is’. This definiteness and indefiniteness makes it very interesting to psychologists and death can have many dimensions and is characterized by two distinct features – the perception of death and the process of death.

This perception develops in childhood when we try to understand what death is when we see people dying. Children perceive death with more curiosity than fear and see it as something fundamentally different and external as when people around them die, it is characterized by lack of movement, coldness and lifelessness of the material body, cessation of senses and loss or absence of all life. Thus initially we are all motivated by curiosity to know what death is and perception of death as it happens in others is the first step towards understanding it. As we grow up this perception translates to fear about the process of death. When we die we lose not just life but all social attachments and the fear of loneliness finally makes us afraid of it. So death fear is a fear of becoming lonely, of changing from life to lifelessness and of uncertainty.

Thus the perception of death seems to be closely related to the perception of fear and although Freud would say that death instinct is only another manifestation of aggressive instincts and that we all have even an urge to die, the death fear is peculiarly complementary to the urge for death. In other words, we are all afraid of dying and at the same time even have an urge to die. Knowing that all life leads to death, the need to overcome this fear and embrace the reality of dying is the greatest challenge that we face in our lifetime. With human development, this perception is guided by both a fear and the urge so Freud’s death instinct is characterized by fear and an inner emotional challenge to overcome the death fear resulting in almost an urge as in the death instinct.

Psychology will have to differentiate between the perception of death and the process of death and more research will have to be undertaken on the experience itself and ‘what it feels like to be dying’.

This is possible with accounts of near death experiences, effects of brain death and coma and study of some physiological functions that are similar to the experience of dying. This provides an understanding of the ‘process of death’ and the psychological nuances associated with this process. On the other hand the perception of death is about using all the senses to understand the ‘otherness’ of death as it is usually perceived as a change from one self to the other self, from a living being to a lifeless corpse and sensing our own change to a cold lifeless body along with the uncertainty of entering a dark and unknown process called death evokes a natural sense of fear along with the perception of death.

This perception is about using our senses to understand death around us and understand ‘what death is’ from an external perspective. Understanding the process of death itself from a first person internal perspective would in turn mean going beyond the senses to find other ways of experiencing death.

Perception of death could be understood from a developmental perspective and death is seen as a construct in psychology and this death perception seems to vary in childhood, in adolescence and in old age. Traditionally psychologists have associated the perception of death with the reactions of shock, denial, anger, bargaining, grief and acceptance. The shock of learning about death goes into denying that death is real along with anger and then we try to provide justifications while finally accepting the process and this is true irrespective of whether the death is our own impending fate or that of others.

Perception the death of others and foreseeing our own death in the future put us through a period of grief and depression. It is important to provide a child with a realistic appraisal as the child grows up with a certain understanding of dying and this understanding will have to develop a healthy attitude towards death to prevent later complications with death perception that could lead to instances of suicide, murder or mental illness following death of close relatives.

Thus the development of perception of death that begins in childhood when children experience what death is when people around them die, continues through to adolescence and even old age as the way we perceive death tend to change as our own perspectives on life change. As a child, we perceive death as a loss or strangeness when we touch a cold lifeless body and sense it as fundamentally different from a warm living body but the perception becomes more realistic as we grow to the stages of adolescence and adulthood and see our close ones die. Yet this instills a fear that could be overcome with a healthy perception of dying. With unhealthy attitudes towards death such as when it is perceived as an escape from reality or a state of endless suffering, adolescent perception of death is adversely affected so the death instinct may result in suicide (death in self) or enjoying death in others as in murder.

During old age, the impending reality of dying leads to distress and anxiety and when this is accompanied by unrealistic perceptions (death as loneliness or punishment), even serious problems of mental illness and depression could result. The perception of death thus goes through a transition from perceiving the death of others to realizing the death of self. I would consider this as a perceptual change with age in the understanding of death from ‘death of others’ to ‘death of self’ and thus a transition from ‘death fear’ to ‘death feeling’.

Apart from further studies on the perception of death (that evolves to death fear) and the process of death (that evolves to death feeling) the emotions that go into understanding death such as fear, anxiety, uncertainty will have to be studied by psychology in this context. The change in perception of death from childhood through adolescence and old age and how this change relates to attitudes towards life in general are some of the topics that can be studied within this context.

Reflections in Psychology – Part I – by Saberi Roy (2009)
http://www.lulu.com/content/5865445

Developmental Psychology describes an individual’s development process starting from the day of his conception to through to his death. It takes into account of all the factors that contribute towards building up of a human being. There are many factors that contribute towards building a person and these factors have been studied in order to understand “what makes us tick?”

When a child is conceived, his parents pass him on the genetic material. This genetic inheritance is a first step in the contribution towards our development of any kind. Obviously the genetic inheritance is all by chance but other factors that are not controlled by chance yet affect heavily towards psychological development of an individual are the environmental factors. How an individual psychic develops due to the environmental factors plays an important part in understanding the reasons for that individual committing to crime. Since this development starts from conception, therefore all the events during pregnancy will also play an important role in developing our psychological state. It has been found that factors such as mother’s mental state during pregnancy and her smoking and drinking habits effects heavily towards producing a child that is more likely to commit a crime. Other factors such as exposure to neurotoxin after birth, hypersensitivity, and male gender also predispose the individual to become a deviant and commit crime. Also if the parents are from a poor background, large family size or are divorced, this would also put the individual at a risk of likely to commit crime. This is understandable as parents contribute heavily towards development of a child. Therefore if the child is lacking in parental force or attention, he is lacking in his development. This could cause flaws in his personality, which in effect could make him weak and when presented with an opportunity to commit crime will not be able to resist. On other hand a child from stable background that had a complete and fair attention of his family and was given love and care. Punished when did something wrong, and awarded when performed well, that child will grow up to respect values and morals because they have been shown to him throughout his developmental years which will make him strong in character and would not commit crime if ever presented with the opportunity.

Farrington 1991 has given several factors, which relate the psychological development to risk of becoming delinquent. He has mentioned factors, such as Poor parent-child communication, lack of guilt in the child, maternal depression, poverty/low socio-economic status, maltreatment, television violence, early onset of other disruptive behaviour, poor academic achievement amongst many other. In conclusion, how we develop throughout our life, plays a vital role in us becoming a deviant and likely to commit a crime. Therefore in order to deal with crime and eradication of it, it is important to deal with these factors and to minimise the exposure to the risk factors will cause a normal development of an individual and less crime committed

What is De-individuation?

De-individuation theory describes a state of an individual’s mind which by nature is a good human being but when in a group situation, will react completely different to his usual good-natured self and act in a way, which is not acceptable under normal circumstances. This person will lose his self-identity in a large group and will act on behalf of the group rather than himself. His reaction will reflect the reaction of collective behaviour of the group, which could be completely different from his individual behaviour. Therefore this person has said to lose his self-identity and has become accustomed to de-individuation.

The example would be how people behave in a crowd situation. In a match crowd for example, which consists of many respectable individuals, but when overtaken by the emotions of the game and collective mood of the crowd will tend to misbehave and this will give rise to the hooligans. These mindless hooligans may be very soft natured human being in their normal lives but within a match crowd lose their self-identity and become irrational and irresponsible and just represents the crowd’s mood only. They seem to be overtaken by the anonymity and excitement of the crowd, which cause them to stop evaluating their own behaviour.

This theory was developed to explain the violence and irrationality of the crowd. How does a group of seemingly normal individuals become an unruly mob? All this makes the crowd fickle and explosive, and prone to anti-normative and disinherited behavior

http://www.manchesterscience.co.uk

For many years before Aaron Beck developed his Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Freud’s concept of psychodynamics held sway. It’s based on a person’s re-actions to his or her environment and their genetic make-up.

Beck tired of this long held view, and in 1967 in his paper, ‘Depression. Causes and Treatment,’ first came to describe his theory of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

At about the same time, another eminent psychiatrist, Dr. Albert Ellis was working with his Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. In the year 2000, both great men met for the first time, and decided that both their approaches were similar in many ways. Naturally enough, they then went on to point out the many differences that they saw in each other’s work!

At the 110th. Convention of the American Psychological Association at Chicago, held on August 22nd. to the 25th. 2002, the great minds met again and delved far more deeply, yet always good naturedly, into their individual approaches. To discuss their arguments in any detail would require a book-length report, so suffice to say that we’ll stick to Beck because in my own personal view, he does tend to make more sense.

This is in no way to criticize Dr. Ellis. Apart from anything else, he knows a great deal more than I do! However, I relate better to Beck and understand from whence he comes.

He writes of what he calls the Negative Cognitive Triad. 1. I’m inadequate. 2. Everything I try turns into failure or defeat. 3. What’s the point of trying again? The future’s hopeless.

The theory behind Cognitive Behavior is that it’s learned as a child, or at least by adolescence. Children who live with a dysfunctional family are most liable to acquire this method of depressive thought. Also, those who are continually being ‘put down’ come to look upon their actions as sub-standard and any future efforts as pointless.

I read one report that stated how depressed people think differently to those who aren’t depressed. That’s a bit like saying that a car runs better on tyres which are properly inflated than it does on tyres which are flat! I’m sure the statement wasn’t meant to be read in this way. More likely, those who have depressed tendencies think differently to those who don’t.

The whole idea that Dr. Beck espouses is that those who do think of themselves as inferior must be taught to change their thinking. This makes eminently good sense to me. Simply giving a person a pill that will lift the symptoms of depression is fine, but that person must keep on taking a pill a day. How much better it is if they’re taught to turn their thinking around, so that instead of believing the worst of themselves, at least they come to consider that they’re as good as anyone else.

Beck states that if your thoughts are negative in nature, then you’re setting yourself up for clinical depression. It’s like two men losing their jobs from the same company. Both have seen the cutbacks going on, the fact that the firm’s been losing money and that people have been leaving.

Mr. ‘A’ finally receives his pink slip and isn’t very surprised. He’s taken all the warning signs into consideration. Mr. ‘B’, however, is convinced that it’s his fault he’s no longer employed. Obviously, he thinks to himself, I’ve done something wrong.

Mr. ‘A’ goes straight out the following day to look for another job, while Mr. ‘B’ tends to sit at home because he can’t see any point. Even if he does find another job, he’ll only mess it up as he’s sure he did the last one.

I’m in no doubt that Dr. Beck’s theory of turning someone’s thinking around is by far the best treatment for full blown depression. If it’s caught in the early stages, of course, then so very much the better

Mike Bond discussing depression again, this time through the lens of Dr. Beck, the father of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. This, he feels, is by far the best treatment. Go to Mike’s site and read about his own experiences with depression and other conditions

http://www.panattack.com