Anthropoanalysis

The psychotherapeutic trend anthropoanalysis was developed in the 1990s by the Georgian psychologist, psychotherapist, and Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Givi Merabishvili. ​

 

The basic principles of anthropoanalytic psychotherapy are based on the classical psychoanalysis of Z. Freud and the psychology of set of the Georgian scientist D. Uznadze.

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According to psychoanalysis, the cause of mental disorders is considered to be the conflict between the conscious and the unconscious, as well as between morality and reality, which prevents the natural realization of sexual needs and drives. The fundamental line of this conflict runs through the opposition between archaic aggression, incest, bisexuality, and morality. The causes of disorders should be sought in early childhood, before the age of 5–6, in the course of psychosexual development, as a result of fixation at psychosexual stages. Within the psychoanalytic approach, Freud correctly identified the necessity of uncovering the cause of the disorder and bringing it into awareness, as well as the method for accomplishing this process. Through the method of regression, one descends into the unconscious, into early childhood, where the impulses determining the disorder are located.

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According to Dimitri Uznadze’s theory of set (“attitude”), “set” is a holistic state of a person, a readiness in which internal and external factors determining purposeful behavior are unconsciously integrated. Internal factors are united in the category of need, while external factors belong to the category of the situation of its satisfaction. Schematically, this can be represented as follows: need + situation → set → behavior. Together with his students, Uznadze studied the characteristics of set in both normal and pathological cases. It was emphasized that in pathological conditions, the manifestation of set occurs differently. The distinct features of the set phenomenon are also indicated in Uznadze’s propositions regarding unrealized sets and the use of objectification (awareness) to correct erroneous set-based actions. In such cases, it appears that something inhibits set-based activity.

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While in normal conditions a set is formed through the correspondence between a need and an appropriate situation, our research in the field of pathology has shown that, in such cases, a set is formed on the basis of the relationship between a child’s natural pleasure-based need and a prohibiting situation. In our view, a pathological set can be represented as follows: need (“I want”) + situation (“it is not allowed”) → pathological set → behavior (either inhibition of behavior or pathological activity). Such a set becomes a constant stressor and a source of continuous internal conflict, since whenever a need is aroused, the situation of its prohibition immediately emerges in the form of fear. The stronger the need, the stronger the fear. Not only the desired behavior is prohibited, but even thinking about it or allowing the thought of the desired act, or alternatively, pathological activity may occur.

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Thus, the cause of mental disorders is the prohibition of vital needs. This condition is determined by attaching the most unpleasant experience—fear—to the most powerful and pleasurable vital need, namely sexual drive. When discussing sexuality, we refer to its broad, Freudian understanding, in which eating, urination, defecation, and similar processes are considered sexual acts. In this way, life, sexuality, and pleasure lie on a single fundamental axis, which organically includes nourishment, digestion, cleanliness, safety, and so on. When these needs are blocked through verbal prohibition, gestures, facial expressions, or other forms of action, the child may involuntarily perceive their further realization as dangerous. This is precisely what constitutes a psychological trauma.

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When determining the root cause of diseases, unlike Z. Freud, we put forward two important principles:

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• Mental disorder is caused not by the conflict between the three basic desires and morality, but by fear based on any vital need.  

• The contradictory complex is not first created consciously and then expelled into the unconscious, but is formed unconsciously from the very beginning in the form of a set.

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A risk factor is a provoking agent that, in the appropriate situation, can cause a disease. The risk of its occurrence is expected before the age of 6. The most important risk factors in this regard are the following:

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• Restraint from eating, urinating, or defecating when prohibited by word or action;

• Causing pain while bathing;

• The birth of a younger sibling in the family;

• Seeing parents having sex;

• Threatened with castration;

• Feeling of losing a mother;

• Quarrels between parents;

• Various prohibitions and punitive measures, etc.

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There are controllable and uncontrollable risk factors: the first includes events that are prohibited by parents and caregivers. For example, a mother threatens to abandon her child. The second is caused by situational dangers. For example, a child walking down the street suddenly cannot see his mother's face and thinks he is lost; eating is combined with a loud thunderstorm or screaming.

 

In anthropoanalysis, we developed a three-planned psychoregulation system:

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1. Individual psychotherapy;

2. Group psychotherapy;

3. Child psychoprophylaxis.

 

 

The formation of pathological sets occurs before the age of six, and the task is to neutralize them during this period. Psychoprophylactic and psychohygienic measures can be successfully implemented by properly trained parents and educators.

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Anthropoanalysis treatment methodology:

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• Analytical method (awareness, analysis, regression method, return to early childhood, understanding and clarification of risk factors contributing to the formation of pathological sets, determining the family constellation, building a family portrait, etc.) 

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• Reflexion Technique — Our psychotherapeutic practice has clearly demonstrated that the primary issue is the fear of reflexion, that is, the fear of thinking, which we have termed reflexophobia. The main objective of anthropoanalytic psychotherapy is precisely its neutralization.For Socrates, reflection is the most important task of a human being. For Plato, it is the sole function of the mind. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz considered reflexion to be the directing of attention toward what occurs within us.To “reflect” means to think about one’s own mental state, through which knowledge about being and consciousness should be attained. The continuous, flow-like course of the psyche is disrupted when fear creates various kinds of barriers. The aim of this technique is to restore the free flow of thoughts.

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• Autotraining (relaxation; breathing; heat induction; gravity induction; pulsation, etc.) Autotraining is primarily focused on the body, its healing effects ranging from reducing and relieving physical tension to eliminating psychosomatic complaints.  

 

• Free Flow — For psychoregulation, it is more important to become accustomed to pleasant, intimate thoughts. From the ambivalence of a pathological set, the element of “it is not allowed” is removed, leaving only “I want” (life, pleasure, sexuality). During free flow, we observe the body and its sensations. The activation and maintenance of such thoughts are particularly difficult for patients with a pathological set, who suffer from fixations and fixed attitudes. The exercise begins with more or less pleasant thoughts and gradually progresses toward especially pleasant, intimate thoughts.

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According to anthropoanalysis, the achievement of free, enjoyable reflexion is the highest level of psychoregulation and an indicator of mental stability.