The ghost of physiological regression. Option 2

THE GHOST OF PHYSIOLOGICAL REGRESSION

Budimir Rogovoy, Ph.D. (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 (partial or modified regression).
Regression was primarily 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 also used “in the service of the ego” (the formulation of E.Kris), and, according to the leading modern 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 defense, finds a contact region where it can express itself”( Benedetti, 1965, p. 175).
It follows that regression may be “benign” or “malignant” dependent on its serving or not serving “progression” (the term used in contrast to “regression”, to refer to more ability of adaptation in and positively transcending the present reality). The terms “benign” and “malignant” regression were first introduced by M.Balint (Balint, 1965).
In connection with the general tendency of some psychoanalysts to extrapolate the psychological discoveries of S.Freud to somatic phenomena as well – “psychosomatic monism” as termed by F.Alexander: v.(Alexander, 1951) – one can speak also of “physiological regression”.
The concept of physiological regression was first introduced by J.Michaels (Michaels, 1944) and tentatively re-introduced by S.Margolin (“for want of a better term”) (Margolin, 1958).
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.
In an attempt to explore the positive sides of the postulated physiological regression H.Azima with collaborators (Azima&Warnes, 1963) and, independently, S.Margolin introduced the so called “anaclitic therapy”. In the therapy of S.Margolin 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 far from brilliant, which, in our opinion, could be explained by the excess regression in this therapy. Sensory deprivation, passivity, dependence on one and the same psychotherapist with the exclusion of all the other human contacts, free associations and imaginary 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.
Meanwhile, our studies of the curative factors in some successful dynamic psychotherapies have convinced us that for reliable success some optimum combination of regressive and progressive factors is needed and the regression itself should generally be partial and modified; v. (Rogovoy, 1994), (Rogovoy. Regressive Exacerbations in the psychotherapy of Bruno Bettelheim).
  After the appearance of the insufficiencies in the anaclitic therapy the investigations 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 to return to the old hypothesis of physiological regression and to renew investigations of its possible therapeutic benefits, on the basis of the new approach outlined in the present paper.
Following is a brief discussion of some possibilities of such investigations.
First about breathing.
External breathing for a neonatal child may become a psychic surrogate of the intrauterine blood supply, the loss of which –together with the general loss of the prenatal “paradise’ – may be a source of intensive subconscious strivings. (This is a further development of the hypothesis of “birth trauma” put forward by O.Rank (Rank, 1929).)
How could therapeutic breathing become helpful in this matter?
What strikes one when attending to this problem is that various proponents of therapeutic breathing recommend methods seemingly incompatible with one another.
Such an eminent expert in this field as S.Grof says that “deep transformations of consciousness could be reached by hyperventilation and by prolonged delay of breathing -  these extremes in its rhythm – as well as by their alternations’ (Grof, 2003, ch.5, p. 233).
How could this confusion be straighten out?
First, let us not forget that conscious attention to and, still more, conscious regulation of formerly involuntary physiological activities is in itself an important progressive factor, which can directly hinder excessive regressive energization.
Secondly, our organism functions dialectically, with contrary forces balancing one another. Therefore in some situations one may for a time go in the direction opposite to one`s final aims.
In  psychology it has been vividly shown by the Ericsonian psychotherapy. With respect to breathing, hyperventilation leading to the excess reduction of the level of CO2 may have finally the same effect as the delays of breathing.
The level of regression is no doubt different when one breathes “quickly and deeply” as in holotrophic breathing or slowly with delays as in Nadi Shodhana, which is sometimes considered to be the most powerful of the Yogic exercises.
  These contrary directions might both be helpful, on the condition of the proper combination of regressive and progressive factors. But, in our opinion, the Yogic slowing of breathing could finally, although only after very prolonged practice, lead to deeper regression with more fruitful results.
Modern medical technologies, possibly with artificial oxygenation in extreme cases, could become a viable alternative to more traditional  breathing exercises.
The second direction of physiological regression we should like to focus on is Cantionica – the set of exercises to improve bodily funсtioning elaborated by the modern Swiss researcher Benita Cantieni.
B.Cantieni proposes, inter alia,some minimal “pullings” and “counterpullings” (e.g., simultaneous minimal movements of the lips forward and the ears backwards), which finally lead to minimal “stretching” (in our example with smoothing some face wrinkles). Imaginary breathing through some parts of the body is also recommended.
These exercises usually permit to get positive , sometimes miraculous, results in relatively short time.
B.Cantieni proposes some explanations of these effects on the basis of her findings in “new” or “living” anatomy.
But she writes also:
“We know a lot about how our “new anatomy” or “living anatomy” works, we often don`t know why and we don`t pretend to know”. (Cantieni, 2013)
In our opinion, the exercises of Cantienica could be interpreted as some means of partial regression to the level of the fetus, its growth accompanied with some minimal pullings and stretchings and possibly with some streams of energy and matter through its body.
These explanations, if they should be correct, could permit to make more precise recommendations for clients, with regulating the combinations of regressive and progressive factors, and possibly to widen the sphere of application of Cantienica.
The fetus develops under the conditions of the so called “amniotic imitation of weightlessness”.
These conditions could be approached by some artificial change of the effects of gravitation, most simply by doing exercises alternatively in standing, sitting or lying positions or, more elaboratively, in water or even in space flights.
Such modifications could possibly become useful for patients with advanced age, serious or acute illnesses, or to counteract the harmful effects of weightlessness in space flights.
Let us pass now to the third direction of the possibilities to use the concept of physiological regression.
We mean namely the views of the philosophical anthropologist A.Gehlen regarding the “excess of drives” in man, which excess is presumably an important feature of the adult state in difference from the prenatal one.
“Plasticity, the ability to deviate and reconstruct, to integrate human drives and needs, and also this same excess of drives” (Gehlen, 1988, p.198), the ability to “interweave the absent and the present’ (ibidem, p.192) may lead, on the one hand, to pathology and, on the other hand, to positive therapeutic changes. This seems to be fully applicable to the case of physiological regression.
Possibly it would become necessary to change our attitudes to the economic concepts of S.Freud once again. “The fallacious use of quantitative concepts in dynamic psychology” (Kubie, 1947) may not be so fallacious as it seems.
The problem of the philogenetic and ontogenetic roots of the excess of drives must regretfully remain beyond the scope of the present paper.
A good example of the psychotherapeutic control of the excess of drives is  an immediate improvement of speech in some people with schizophrenia after their passing to free associations, without any psychoanalytic interpretations (Muchnick, Semke &Semke, 2001).
One may suppose that the movements of eyes could be excessively energized as a possessive compensation of the loss of the prenatal “paradise”.
If it were so, then the benefits of the Yogic exercise called “tratak” or “trataka”, which is connected with the full stopping of eye movements, could be explained as the result of physiological regression, which gets rid of this drive excess and uses it for positive aims. According to Swami Satyananda Saraswati, who was one of the most prominent modern Yoga teachers and, in our opinion, deserves complete trust, the benefits of trataka if correctly done may include clairvoyance and knowledge of the future.
But Swami Satyananda warns that trataka if done improperly can also be very harmful. “Trataka opens up a storehouse of energy” (Satyananda, 1963), and this energy can easily deflect into aggressive and self-aggressive channels. As the result, “often such persons have nervous breakdowns or even go mad” (ibidem).
The pivotal question why the excess of drives is closely connected with aggressiveness (the feature so characteristic for mankind and in our days presenting a direct threat to its very existence) cannot be discussed in the frame of the present paper.
The resolution of this issue would undoubtedly have much importance for the problem of physiological regression as well. But even before such a resolution some psychotherapeutic precautions could be taken to avoid the dangers connected with the practice of trataka and to increase its effectiveness.
Such a fine physiological exercise as trataka is possibly in need of some fine psychological maneuvers against aggression on the mental level.
Let us cite an example of such mental maneuvers.
The famous psychoanalyst Alfred Adler gave the following advice to his depressive patients:
“Try to think every day how you can make something pleasant to somebody” (Adler, 1997).
Please draw your attention: this is an injunction to think, not to act. The external action may or may not follow, dependent on circumstances.
Other examples of this kind and some theoretical substantiation are given in our paper “Altruistic Autopsychotherapy and Psychic Autocorrection: Helping Oneself by Helping Others”.
And now, finishing our short paper, we should like to underline that practical work in physiological regression must go hand in hand with the elaboration of many vital and intricate theoretical problems.
LITERATURE               
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Rogovoy, B. (1994) Gratification and Activity in Schizophrenia. Some Curative Factors in Two Dynamic Psychotherapies. In: Dynamische Psychiatrie, Muenchen, Germany, 27 Jg,#146-147, S. 206-219. (In English with the German abstract)
Rogovoy, B. Altruistic Autopsychotherapy and Psychic Autocorrection: Helping Oneself by Helping Others. (Manuscript)
Rogovoy, B. Regressive Exacerbations in the Psychotherapy of Bruno Bettelheim.(Manuscript)
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