The ghost of physiological regression. Option 1

THE GHOST OF PHYSIOLOGICAL REGRESSION 
Budimir Rogovoy, Ph.D. (Orel, Russia)

    According to S.Freud, psychic regression is a return to the level of behavior characteristic for the long passed period of life and inadequate to the reality at the moment.
     Psychic regression can manifest itself by an exact or almost exact
appearance of the former behavior - that is «retrogression» in     terms of K.Lewin: v. (Lewin,1959, p.99) - or by some new behavior having important common features with the behavior of the earlier ontogenic stage («mixed» regression: a term coined by us).
 Regression was initially  considered by psychoanalysts as a negative factor. What`s more, some psychoanalysts, beginning from K.Abraham ( Abraham, 1927), believe that schizophrenia and manic-depressive psychosis are essentially regressions to the oral stage of the libidinous and ego development.
 However, it is recognized now that regression may be used also «in the service of the ego» (the formulation of E.Kris), and, according to the leading contemporary psychotherapist G.Benedetti, «...the adult and independent side of the ego becomes usually stronger and can play its part better, if the infantile side, often latent and in need of defence, finds a contact region where it can express itself.» (Benedetti, 1965, p.175)
  In connection with the general tendency of some psychoanalysts to extrapolate the psychological discoveries of S.Freud to somatic phenomena as well - a «psychosomatic monism» as termed by F.Alexander: v. (Alexander, 1951) - one can also speak of «physiological regression».
The concept of physiological regression was first introduced by J.Michaels (Michaels, 1944) and developed further by him and some other psychoanalytic investigators.
According to the hypothesis of physiological regression as formulated by its early proponents, the physiological functions of psychosomatic patients resemble the physiological responses of infancy and early childhood, which may lead to psychosomatic illness.
In an attempt to explore the positive sides of the postulated physiological regression, S.Margolin introduced the so called «anaclitic therapy», in which hospitalized psychosomatic patients were regressed and gratified by a psychotherapist under the conditions of extreme dependency and passivity.
The results of the anaclitic therapy proved to be generally unsatisfactory, after which the investigation of physiological regression dropped to a standstill and the term itself went into disuse being scarcely mentioned nowadays in textbooks on psychosomatic medicine.
What we propose is some resurrection of the old hypothesis of physiological regression and a renewed investigation of its possible therapeutic use, the failures of the anaclitic therapy being, in our opinion, no decisive obstacle in this matter.
Physiological regression may as psychic regression be retrogressive or mixed one.
There is an important kind of physiological regression connected with the transformation of psychic energy into somatic symptoms. But, in difference from the classical Freudian conversion model, the initial point here is physiological, not psychic one. We shall call this kind of physiological regression «dreambody conversion», the term «dreambody» borrowed by us from A.Mindell: v. (Mindell, 1984/2000). A possible example of the dreambody conversion:
External breathing for a neonatal child may become a psychological surrogate of the intrauterine blood supply, the loss of which - together with the loss of the prenatal «paradise» - may be a source of intensive subconscious strivings (this is a further development of the hypothesis of «birth trauma» first expounded by O.Rank and reinterpreted (insufficiently, as we believe)by S.Grof).
 If it should be so, why not try to reach some level of prenatal regression by the interference into the  natural external breathing?
Such interference is used, e.g., in various breathing exercises from Yoga to contemporary medicine. These exercises appear to be quite effective in respiratory and other disorders, and could be reinterpreted from the angle of physiological regression.
New techniques could be elaborated in these lines.
We see also many other possibilities of using physiological regression therapy of various kinds as, for example, therapeutic fasting, intravenous nutrition, physical and mental relaxation,  swimming and some sexual practices.
A certain regression to the prenatal state is weightlessness, the regressive effects of which may be estimated and therapeutically used.
In some modern ramifications of the ancient Daoist tradition one can find mentioned facts of the successful use of special methods of rejuvenation by the adepts of the Daoist secret societies: v., e.g., (Medvedev&Medvedeva, 2005, p.19-21).
Although some of these methods remain probably secret, one can find in some modern Daoist publications detailed descriptions of methods having regressive components. They include the stimulation of the so called «orgasmic streams» in the body, which may be interpreted as the renovation of the prenatal energetic streams, and can be investigated and therapeutically used with the help, inter alia, of EMG qpd other modern instrumental techniques -cf. (Rogovoy,1993).
The delay or complete prohibition of ejaculation in sexual Daoist methods may preclude the harmful dreambody conversion from the trauma of birth.
As A.Medvedev & I.Medvedeva indicate, and as we believe , the anti-aging therapy is not a brand- new invention but was engaged in thousands of years ago. Our task is only to combine this ancient half-forgotten knowledge with the theoretical concepts and practical innovations of modern science and medicine.
What is in the foreground of modern anti-aging investigations are embryonic stem cells. The very word «embryonic» may lead to regressive implications.
The use of embryonic stem cells seems to be very promising but, as we know it now, this kind of medicine has a number of shortcomings incl. a possibility to give rise to malignant tumors.
Happily it has already been proved that human organism in any age can itself produce its stem cells, without the dangers connected with the use of the stem cells from other sources.
The Russian psychotherapist and healer Andrei Levshinov enumerating the healing methods able to produce stem cells in his trainees says that all these methods create some deficiency or inconvenience for a person (Levshinov, 2007, p.12). A.Levshinov gives such examples as delays of breathing, difficult Yogic exercises and fastings.
Deficiencies can really stimulate the forming of stem cells but probably it refers not to each and every deficiency. Yogic exercises, difficult or less so, lead usually to some partial or total regression, which seems to be a regressive factor.
These and other ways of creating physiological regression can nowadays be clinically tested not only on the basis of their long-term therapeutic effects but also with an immediate measuring of the quantity of produced stem cells: v. (Gushcho, 1993).
And returning now again to our extrapolations from psychotherapy, one may presume that some analogies should exist between the conditions of success of using psychotherapeutic and physiological regression.
As refers to psychotherapeutic regression this problem was considered in some detail in our papers (Rogovoy, 1994) and (Rogovoy, 1998).
In short, the main condition seems to be some optimum combination of regressive factors and factors helping for  adaptation to the actual reality (the latter factors one may call «progressive»).
This combination must ultimately increase, not reduce, the level of adaptation to reality, although relapses, according to B.Bettelheim, seem to be inevitable and even useful in some degree .
Sensory deprivation, passivity, dependency on one and the same psychotherapist with the exclusion of all.other human contacts, free associations and re-creation of the scenes and reactions of early childhood during the interviews with the psychotherapist - all these elements of the anaclitic therapy could not but create extreme regression, without the due admixture of «progressive» elements. All this easily explains the failures of the anaclitic therapy.
The correct choice of regressive and «progressive» factors and their intensities should be based on the individual state of the patient/client at the given moment. What is correct for one person may prove wrong for another, or even for that same person at another stage of treatment.
When choosing between regressive and «progressive» agents of treatment in various intensities attention should be directed not only to the actual level of regression of a person but also to his/her potential of further regression.
Our enumeration of the possible parameters of the physiological regression therapy is only tentative and needs much study before it could take a final form.
Some of our hypotheses may appear too bold at first sight, and certainly they are yet unproved but they have an advantage of the easiness to check them up in order to support or refute them.

LITERATURE
l/Abraham,K.(1927) Selected Papers. (London: Hogarth Press)
2/Alexander,F.(1951) Psychosomatic Medicine, its Pijnciples and Applications. (N.Y.: Konald)
3/Benedetti,G.(1965) Le probleme de la Regression Psychotique dans la Psychotherapie Individuelle. In: Psychotherapie de la Schizophrenie (Basel -N.Y.) (In French)
4/Gushcho,Yu.(1993) Introduction to the Encyclopedia of Health and Longevity. (Moscow) (In Russian)
5/Lewin,K.(1959) Psychologie Dynamique. Les Relations Humaines. (Paris: P.U.F.) (A French translation)
6/Levshinov,A.(2007) Teach Your Organism to Create its Stem Cells. (Sankt-Petersburg: Prime- Evroznak) (In Russian)
7/Medvedev,A.&Medvedeva,I.(2005) Sex and Longevity. (Moscow:AST) (In Russian)
8/Michaels,J.J.(1944) A Psychiatric Adventure in Comparative Pathophysiology of the Infant and Adult. In: J. Nerv. Ment. Dis., v.100, p.49ff.
9/Mindell,A.(l984/2000) Working with the Dreaming Body. (London: Penguin -Arkana; Portland,  Lao Tse Press)
10/Rogovoy,B.(1993) EMG Biofeedback Mini-tension Training: an Unexplored Possibility. (Manuscript)
1 l/Rogovoy,B.(1994) Gratification and Activity in Schizophrenia. Some Curative Factors in Two Dynamic Psychotherapies. In:.Dynamische Psychiatrie, Muenchen, Germany, 27Jg, #146-147, S.206-219. (In English with a German abstract)
12/Rogovoy,B.(1998) Regressive Exacerbations in the Psychotherapy of Bruno Bettelheim. (Manuscript)
               
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