Anthropoanalysis

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

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

According to psychoanalysis, the cause of mental disorders was considered to be the contradiction between the conscious and the unconscious, morality and reality, which is why natural sexual needs and desires cannot be realized. However, the general line of contradiction runs through the confrontation between aggression, incest, bisexuality and morality, which originate from the archaic. The cause of disorders should be sought at the age of 5-6, in the wake of psychosexual development, as a result of fixation on psychosexual stages. In the psychoanalytic approach, Freud correctly determined the necessity of finding the cause of the disease and understanding it, as well as the way to implement this process. The regression method allows one to enter the unconscious, in early childhood, where the impulses that determine the disease are located.

According to D. Uznadze's theory of set, "set" is a person's overall state, readiness, when there is an unconscious connection of internal and external factors determining appropriate behavior. Internal factors are combined in the category of a need, and external - in the category of a situation of its satisfaction. Schematically, this situation can be depicted as follows: need + situation -> set -> behavior. Uznadze, together with his students, studied the features of set, both in cases of norm and pathology. It was emphasized that set manifests itself differently in pathology. D. Uznadze's provisions on the use of objectification (awareness) to correct unrealized sets and erroneous mood actions also indicate a different feature of the set phenomenon. In such cases, it turns out that something is hindering set activity.

If in the normal case the set is created by the coincidence of the need and the corresponding situation, our research in the field of pathology has confirmed that in this case the set is formed on the basis of the relationship between the natural need of the child based on pleasure and its prohibiting situation. In our opinion, the pathological set looks like this: need (I want) + situation (I can’t) -> pathological set -> behavior (prohibition of behavior or pathological activity). Such set is a constant stressor, a source of continuous internal conflicts, since when the need is aroused, a situation of its prohibition in the form of fear instantly arises. The stronger the need, the stronger the fear. Not only the desired behavior is prohibited, but also thinking about it and assuming the desired, or pathological activity takes place.

Therefore, the cause of mental disorders is the prohibition of vital needs. This situation is determined by the imposition of the most unpleasant feeling, fear, on the strongest and most pleasant vital need, sexual desire. When discussing sexuality, we have in mind its broad, Freudian understanding, when eating, urinating, defecating and everything related to it are considered a sexual act. Thus, life, sex and pleasure are on one main axis, in which nutrition, digestion, cleanliness, safety, etc. are organically involved. When these needs are blocked by verbal prohibition, gesture, mimicry or other actions, the child sometimes involuntarily considers their further implementation to be dangerous. This is precisely mental trauma.

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

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

2) A contradictory complex is not first created consciously and then banished to the unconscious, but rather is formed unconsciously from the very beginning in the form of a set.

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:

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

2) Inflicting pain during bathing;

3) The birth of a younger sibling in the family;

4) Seeing parents having sex;

5) Threatening castration;

6) The feeling of losing one's mother;

7) Quarrels between parents;

8) Various prohibitions and punitive measures, etc.

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 have developed a structured model of psychoregulation:

1. Individual psychotherapy;

2. Group psychotherapy;

3. Psychoprophylaxis for children. The formation of pathological set 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.

Anthropoanalysis treatment methodology:

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

2. Reflexion technique - our psychotherapeutic practice has clearly shown that the most important thing is the fear of reflexion, or thinking, which we have called reflexophobia. The main task of anthropoanalytic psychotherapy is precisely its neutralization. For Socrates, reflexion is the most important task of a person. For Plato, it is the only function of the mind. Leibniz believed that reflexion is the directing of attention to what is happening within us. "Reflexion" means thinking about one's own mental state, through which we should gain knowledge about being and consciousness. The flowing flow of the psyche is disrupted when fear creates various kinds of barriers. The goal of the technique is to restore the free flow of thoughts.

3. 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.

4. Free Flow - for psychoregulation, it is more important to accustom ourselves to pleasant, intimate thoughts. The ambivalence of a pathological set is removed by “I can’t” and “I want” remains (life, pleasure, sex). During free flow, we observe the body, sensations. Activation and maintenance of such thoughts are especially difficult for patients with pathological set who suffer from fixations, fixed set. The exercise begins with more or less pleasant thoughts and moves towards especially pleasant, intimate thoughts.

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