Defense Mechanisms: Magical Thinking and Undoing

(This blog was originally posted on October 7, 2014)

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

            My great-grandmother used to spit three times or throw salt over her shoulder if anyone said something that could be perceived as wishing bad fortune on another person or situation. Some people say “knock wood” or literally rap their knuckles on a wood surface to prevent an unwanted event. Others wash their hands or mime this behavior as if to cleanse themselves of an event or relationship they don’t want to be associated with. Many kids still make the “cross my heart” pledge to keep a secret or what have you. (In keeping with my grandma’s fear of tempting fate, I always left off the “and hope to die” part.) Each of these behaviors is an example of a defense mechanism, undoing, whereby a person performs some kind of ritual or gesture to negate the likelihood or power of a potential consequence of a behavior or belief.

Similar to undoing, magical thinking is another form of defense mechanism that entails creating associations—usually imagined and typically based in superstition—between an event and a behavior. There is a great scene in the 1990 film, Betsy’s Wedding, in which Betsy’s dad (Alan Alda) is shooting basketball hoops as he repeats the mantra, “If I make this basket, it will be a great day.” When he doesn’t make the basket, he keeps throwing that basketball at the net until (finally) the ball goes in and he feels relieved that he might have a good day. Other examples of magical thinking include the old adages about breaking your mother’s back if you step on a crack in the pavement or being cursed with bad luck if you walk under a ladder—seven years of it if you break a mirror. Neither undoing nor magical thinking truly has the ability to shield or protect a person from whatever consequence he or she believes could occur if the behavior is not performed. However, every time the possible consequence is avoided by performing the action reinforces the person’s belief in its effectiveness, which further encourages the person to keep repeating that behavior until he or she achieves the desired result.

These and other defense mechanisms are strategies that enable a person to cope with a stressful situation in his or her life. Like other defense mechanisms, undoing and magical thinking are characterized by the following traits: 1) they are unconscious; 2) they are self-deceptive; 3) they contain elements of denial; 4) they distort reality through thoughts and action. Whenever we seem to successfully “avoid” suffering a possible consequence by performing that action, this success reinforces our belief (subconscious mental script) in the effectiveness of that ritual. This success also encourages us to repeat that behavior to avoid negative outcomes in other areas of our life.

Defense mechanisms are fabulous temporary devices that can help us achieve such security. Undoing rituals such as throwing salt over the shoulder, knocking on wood and crossing the heart are great examples of learned (and therefore known) behaviors. According to John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind, everyone is subconsciously motivated to maintain and/or restore a known physical and emotional status of comfort and security. Since the subconscious mind is motivated and even programmed to seek this comfort, we may adopt those defense-mechanism behaviors because we learned them from someone we trust who does or used to do the same thing. However, the primary role of a defense mechanism is to protect the subconscious mind from what it perceives as a threat or “pain” of having to deal with an unknown. These behaviors really only provide a temporary perception of control over the environment. Eventually, we must deal with and resolve the primary issue that has triggered the defense mechanism to achieve personal growth.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

 

When the Presenting Problem Is a Symptom

Sometimes, an issue that a client presents to the hypnotherapist during a therapy session is a symptom rather than the cause of another problem. For example, increased anxiety and various signs of physical discomfort such as light-headedness, headache or nausea may suggest that the individual is experiencing symptoms of low blood-sugar levels rather than just responding to a specific stress trigger. Low blood-sugar levels can also trigger a phobic reaction. (For more information about this relationship, see my blog titled Nutrition and the Development of Fears and Phobias.) In this case, it is important for the hypnotherapist to work with the client’s physician to create an appropriate nutrition program to control the blood-sugar level and incorporate suggestions about nutrition and healthy eating during hypnosis to reduce these symptoms.

However, it is also possible that a client’s behaviors or emotional responses/reactions are actually manifestations of his or her repressed emotions: i.e., a body syndrome. Once a licensed medical doctor has ruled out a physical etiology (cause) of the symptom, the hypnotherapist may explore the cause of the symptom in the context of body syndromes. For example, persistent pain in the client’s shoulders and upper back (Responsibility Syndrome) may provide a secondary gain of being “allowed” to avoid participating in certain activities undesirable at work or with the person’s family.

For example, Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., explained how a client’s persistent hoarse throat and fatigue was actually a symptom of her subconscious resistance toward the woman’s husband/manager’s pushing her to accomplish something. The client, a singer, also experienced symptoms of low blood-sugar that were brought on by her husband’s demands for perfection in her performances. The hypnotherapist determined that his client was subconsciously motivated to use her hoarse throat as a way to avoid having to sing when she didn’t feel like it. Consequently, Dr. Kappas approached her therapy by first addressing her behaviors (e.g., feeling tired and hoarseness). He explained how her nutrition contributed to her feeling tired and recommended ways to change her diet that would increase her energy. Next, he explored with her the various reasons why (cause) she was experiencing the hoarseness and addressed the client’s perception of her husband’s perfectionist tendencies as a source of her stress and subconscious resistance.

Once the client understood how the various sources of perceived external and internal pressure on her to perform were affecting her behavior, the hypnotherapist discussed ways of treating her symptoms. First, Dr. Kappas encouraged her and her husband to separately work with a therapist to work out some of their professional conflicts. Then he worked with the client to help her husband agree that they could change their interactions with each other and how this behavior change could be achieved. Ultimately, the woman’s symptoms would dissipate as her relationship with her spouse/manager improved, thus ameliorating her subconscious desire to avoid singing/performing because their pattern of interacting with each other became less stressful.

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

Thoughts of the Day

                Every now and then I like (and need) to take a few moments and remind myself about what is really important to me, in my life. If you follow me on my Calminsense Hypnotherapy Facebook page you may have seen some of these quotes before on this page, or will in the future. Many of these Quotes of the Day are beautiful examples and illustrations of the work I do as a hypnotherapist, so I will probably draw on them in future essays.

• Do you tend to rest on your laurels after a success? Stop in your tracks to lick your wounds after a defeat? “It matters if you just don’t give up.” – Stephen Hawking 
   
•  “The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.” – Buddha
   
• “The risk is worth taking if it is going to give you a life worth living.” – Steve Atchison
   
• “Change is mandatory for extraordinary results.” – Robert Kiyosaki
   
• “Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see life with a clearer view again.” – Alex Tan
   
• “Strive not to be a success but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein
   
• “There are friendships imprinted on our hearts that will never be diminished by time or distance.” -- Dodinsky
   
• “Life is a reflection of your choices. When you want a different result, make a different choice.” – ProjectForgive.com
   
• “Have the bravery to visit where your fears live. Because as you do, you’ll also discover the place where your truest power lies.” – Robin Sharma
   
• “Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.” – Deepak Chopra

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015

Long Live the King!

Photo courtesy of Sara Fogan

It took 37 years, but on June 6, 2015 a bay colt named American Pharoah ran 1 ½ miles in 2 minutes 26.65 seconds to storm 5½-lenghts ahead of his competitors and become the twelfth Triple Crown champion. Cheers filled the land and a new subconscious mental script was written for fans of American Thoroughbred racing, everywhere.

I was beside myself cheering and screaming with excitement as I watched him gallop past the finish-line. While I never doubted or disbelieved what I was watching (history in the making), I still couldn’t quite process the racetrack announcer’s words when he declared: “He did it! American Pharoah has won the Triple Crown!” Not just the Belmont Stakes. The Triple Crown: the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Even writing that sentence gives me goose-bumps because I had never seen a horse accomplish that before. I was too young and not yet interested in racing when Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed won their Triple Crown races, so I had no real idea what it meant to witness that kind of equine accomplishment. In fact, I didn’t really become interested in racing until 2002, right around the time that Seattle Slew died on the 25^th anniversary of his winning the Kentucky Derby and Victor Espinoza rode War Emblem for the jockey’s first (unsuccessful) bid at American racing glory.

According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind, repetition of a behavior or a thought eventually becomes a known in the subconscious mind. Every time a professional sports pundit declared that it was highly unlikely for another horse to ever win the Triple Crown, this message was reinforced in the (collective) subconscious year after year and eventually became an established known. Eventually, the idea of a horse winning all three championship races to earn the Triple Crown became uncomfortable because the mere concept of such a champion actually existing—let alone our witnessing one win it—was so unfamiliar. It became more comfortable to just wish and hope for something for such a horse to come along without that dream actually coming true, because we would have no idea how to feel or react if it did.

But then it happened. Victor Espinoza galloped American Pharoah across the finish line and I (and millions of other viewers) actually witnessed a horse win it all. I understand that anyone who had seen one of the other eleven Triple Crown winners achieve this feat had a better idea what to expect. For me, as much as I wanted to see it happen again during my lifetime, this was a subconscious unknown. I had become so used to being acutely disappointed by the results of this race that my new-found joy felt, well kind of painful. Right away, I felt prickling of emotion in my chest and behind my eyes. I could barely speak, and it wasn’t just because my throat was sore after whooping and cheering so loud. Don’t get me wrong: I was excited, relieved happy—almost deliriously so—and something else that I couldn’t identify right away. It was a kind of pain or at least discomfort that comes with experiencing something unfamiliar and unknown: winning the big one.

Last year, when California Chrome crossed the finish line in fourth place instead of first, fans of American thoroughbred horse racing were reminded again that we must wait at least one more year for a horse to win the Triple Crown. The collective hopes and dreams shared by so many people that the big chestnut colt would end at least one drought in California turned to dust. However, now that it finally happened, it seemed like comparatively few people (at least, not enough people) were talking about or celebrating American Pharoah’s accomplishment. I couldn’t help but wonder, Was that it? Thirty-seven years of waiting, and that’s it? Where was all the fanfare? Where were the extended news coverage analyses about the race? As if to prove my point, several people I spoke to yesterday didn’t have any idea what the Triple Crown was or why it was important. Even the local television news channels stopped reporting about the race after Saturday night. It was already old news. Familiar. Time to move on.

But, at the end of the day I guess that’s okay. After all, life goes on and, consistent with Dr. Kappas’s theory, the presence of a living Triple Crown winner is now a subconscious “known” in horse-racing and social experience. If nothing else, American Pharoah and his owner Ahmed Zayat, trainer Bob Baffert and jockey Victor Espinoza will be forever associated American horse-racing’s Triple Crown. As I continue to rerun the memory of Saturday’s race and trophy ceremony, I feel confident that other fans of horses and horse-racing are also feeling excited and glad that a new champion has been crowned. 

         My belief that the pundits were wrong and that another horse could—would—capture that elusive crown one day proved true. I agree that running and winning three races on three different racetracks over a five-week period is an incredibly tough and daunting challenge. But, it is a challenge that has now been accomplished times before. A superb three-year-old colt proved once again, in terms of Kappasinian hypnotherapy, that the possibility of one horse winning all three races was a reality. He reinforced this fact as a known in our subconscious minds. As American Pharoah’s triumphs recently proved, if a behavior has been done before it can be accomplished again. It just took a very special horse (and jockey, trainer and owners) to get the job done.

               

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2015