We are parts!

 From the Rocking Chair # 209 by Frank R. Morris.

           Way back in the 1960’s when I encountered Gestalt therapists using weird therapy maneuvers I thought they were nutballs. If a client twitched his left leg during the client’s left brain rational narrative, the therapist would say “What is your left leg saying?’ I thought that nuts because I was a full believer that a given person was united with only one true narrative from a unified coherent brain. 

           BUT, as I watched, incredible freeing therapy resulted. “My leg is saying that it disagrees with me.” WHAT?! I thought. Then the Gestalt therapist would say (with my jaw dropping to the floor) “Have a dialog with your leg, back and forth.” The client would begin talking from his leg’s alternative narrative, responding with what the client thought was the real him. WTF? And, to my astonishment, amazing material, quite freeing, emerged! Old, repressed material from long ago! Something was happening and I did not know what … way back in the mid-sixties.

           So, I studied Sperry and Gazzaniga who were the leading neuroscientists studying damaged brains and, especially, the left and right lobes nestled together in our skulls. They focused on how brain lesions to the ‘fiber’ connector between the two brains (i.e. the corpus callosum) affected consciousness. Other books were heralding the modular brain, but I won't pursue them right now. Particularly, Gazzaniga illustrated from actual damaged right or left brains how actual clients sent varying messages from each brain. (Yes, at first there were mistakes made with this good modular info but, again, I will not go there now.)

           The reality, however, was quite clear. The Gestalt therapists were helping people in a very deep fashion while sheer rational therapists (like me at the time) were only peddling along the top layer and being frustrated by the tawdry results. Soooooo, to make a long story short, I laughingly say, I began to talk to legs, arms, facial tics on the left side of the face, etc! And, it worked. Here you must know that the right, more imaginative and emotional brain, sends signals to the left side of the body because each brain lobe is contra-lateral, meaning that the left rational brain sends signal to the right side of the body (including the right eye) and the right lobe signals to the left side of the body, and left eye.) Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Still, evolution has its reasons.

           Back in history,  I began to use the modular term, though, luckily, (because neuronal exchanges are far more profound) I did not isolate a module as a separate, exact piece of brain architecture. Rather, I began emphasizing that a module was not a solid fleshly IT, but was, rather, a dynamic neuronal system flow. Yep, that is difficult to understand, but is enormously helpful when you do. (Best to read this RC several times.)

           Nevertheless, my clients had no difficulty with my use of the term module. Rather, they began to understand themselves and others as having PARTS. Each of us streams different coherent story lines from different sources in our brains. To say, "I hear what part of you is saying" is a tremendous conversation ‘improver,’ I didn’t figure out until 2015 or so that the illusion of mental unity is due to evolutionary Consciousness which throws each of us a very fast curve ball. (Another story I won’t pursue at the moment.)

           Okay. Awareness of many narrative sources all masked by untrue unitary Consciousness supplies a different (and quite significant) dilemma. Given that I, Frank, have a number of modular stories all packed into one illusory package, how do I unpack them so I can, in reality, return to operating as one coherent guy? (This is very difficult and I betray the reality by summarizing this entirely too quickly.) First, I analyze the emotional spark that leads to a given narrative. Ex. If there is a neuronal ispark of scare, I tread lightly with my subsequent narrative because I may be coming out of a childhood remnant module. Second, I carry on an internal dialog between my emotional self and my rational self. Third, I beef up my rational self by sticking to something I have evidence for. Four, I listen more and talk less.

           Time’s up. Lecture is over. These Rocking Chair episodes have no Questions and Answers time unless you email me, so I must end here. Good luck in figuring out if what I have written makes any sense to you. Frank