Emotion-Image Therapy. Analysis and Implementation - Nikolay Linde

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for improvement. Everybody seeks to have good feelings, positive emotions which make the basis for adequate reactions, clear thinking, ability to be creative. In soviet culture this optimal emotional state is Called happiness, in Hinduism – Samadhi, in Buddhism – enlightening [purity in spirit], in Christian tradition it is divine grace. Happiness is the feeling of absolute psychological freedom which can be defined as the feeling of limitless opportunities. In this state a person gets so much energy that he feels as if he were overfilled with it and, because of that, with good feelings. Whatever he does, it is easy and not tiring. The surrounding reality is perceived as comfortable and safe, other people don’t arouse the feeling of threat, he thinks about them with warm and friendly feelings. This is how a person in love feels, when he knows that he is loved too, and then love and joy overfill him.

      Happiness is a man’s natural state. He can get to this state when all the obstacles to feeling happy are removed. These obstacles are numerous negative emotions, taboos and tensions. Taboos and tensions in their turn can be fixed as chronic emotions, and a part of them can be positive. The paradox is that to be happy it is necessary just to get back to you true self, to stop suppressing and distorting your nature.

      3. The way you feel is also an emotion

      People care a lot about how they feel, but they don’t consider it to be an emotion, they consider it to be the consequence of the state of their health. But even when feeling well or feeling bad is the result of good health or illness, a person feels it as any other emotion. This emotion actually expresses or reflects good or bad state of the body, and it can cause some changes in the body, for example, the secretion of adrenalin or other hormones. It is the so called autonomous nervous system that runs the whole inner “chemistry’ of the body. It is not subjected to conscious management, but is by emotions that it is governed by. If a person chronically has certain emotional states, the impact of these emotions can lead to some psychosomatic disease.

      It is true, all emotions are in fact felt physically, bodily. In what other way can we know about our feelings? They are not flying in the air, after all… That is why the word “emotion’ has two meanings: one is emotion such as love or joy and the other – the state of our body such as cheerfulness, wholeness, liveliness vigor etc. What we call how a person feels in terms of his health is bodily feeling. “How are you feeling?” – we ask someone meaning how he himself feels the state of his health. “Well”, he complains, “my heart aches a little.” Pain – is also an emotion, suffering – is emotion, happiness – is emotion. In NLP it is called kinesthetic representation of reality that is representation connected with the body. For us emotion is the subjective expression of the state of a person and his body as one whole, in its unity, and not just information. These are both the reactions of the body, inner changes in the body and also feelings which occur in the inner world.

      4. Emotion as energy

      Emotion is a motive pushing a person to some action. It is a kind of “gasoline” or “electric power” getting to some parts of the body to stimulate some activity. The emotion of fear makes the body shrink or run away and stop any contact with the frightening situation. The emotion of anger stimulates the repulse to the aggressor and even to attack the object putting obstacles on the way to some aims. In this sense emotions are the embodiment of inner energy which expresses itself in various forms and fulfils different functions. In fact, no action can be made unless it is motivated by emotion. A need, a motive are scientific notions, but in actual behavior they are felt as emotions which push to action. We can say, for example, that sexual attraction is determined by the need to continue your family, but this need is felt as love and sexual desire. This feeling makes a person look for a suitable match and then find means to gain his or her sympathy etc.

      Negative emotions also have a very important function in regulating a person’s behavior. They restrict possible was of behavior which, as a rule, are dangerous, harmful or socially unacceptable. Trying to avoid such feelings as shame, guilt, fear or anger at oneself, the person doesn’t make actions which can arouse such feelings. But once they arise such feelings have a destructive effect on a person’s health and psyche. But sometimes a person can have such chronic feelings not because he did something that deserves punishment but for no reason at all. These and similar emotions may be destructive for the person himself and for the people surrounding him.

      5. How people deal with emotions

      Let’s remember that emotion is energy directed at performing some action. If there are no emotions there will be no actions which is exactly what happens to a person who suffers from apathy. However, if there are no emotions it means that they are fixed somewhere where there is no hope that they will be realized. Apathetic person ousted all his emotions because he was disillusioned about reaching his main goal, and without achieving it all other things of no importance to him.

      If some emotions are not desirable are in a way dangerous for a person, he starts to resist them. For instance, he controls them, ousts them, suppresses, freezes, sublimates, projects, isolates etc. People worked out many ways to deal with emotions but essentially they are the same, in the sense that what you can mainly achieve by them is not a solution of the problem but escaping from it, not their remaking [treatment] but their withdrawal from consciousness. However, realization of these emotions in actions which may be dangerous is avoided. Though this final point is not so evident, as in some cases these emotions break out indirectly. Anger, for instance, may be directed not at the one who caused it, but at a different person. Besides, suppressed and ousted emotions sometimes distort psychic activity itself and lead to inadequate behavior.

      The main characteristic feature of EIT is just that it offers quite different ways of working with emotions, primarily with chronic negative emotional sates as it is chronic negative states that lead to psychic and psychosomatic distortions. The treatment is made on the basis images of emotional states, which make it possible to remake the very emotion and resolve the problem. But images are not the aim in itself. They are only a means of affecting emotional states. An emotion is a kind of energy, so negative, destructive energy can be transformed into positive, creative form. In another case, negative energy can be simply “let go, then it disappears and positive energy comes to its place. In this case, much energy which was spent on controlling “bad” energy is saved. Opposing forces can be reconciled and joined… More details will follow.

      6. Emotion as the basis of choosing a decision

      To understand the logic of EIT it is necessary to keep in mind that emotions are not just the immediate energy source for actions but the basis for a particular form of behavior and thinking too. Emotional states constitute the basis of behavioral reactions, thoughts and feelings. Every emotional state determines the selections of actions and circumstances which a person faces. Being in a certain state people don’t notice any delightful events around them, in another state they don’t notice difficulties, in a third they invariably find some reasons for fear and worries and in fourth – find some pretext to enjoy oneself and so on.

      Every emotional state makes it possible to pull to the fore some forms of behavior which are potentially possible but cannot be elicited if a person is in a different state. In other words, earlier existing emotional states determine a possible choice of actions and thoughts which can be realized by a person proceeding from these states. Thus, if a person is in the state of fear, this state will not let appear the reaction of joyful laughter or thoughts about your successes. Anger lets attack, behave aggressively. Joy lets laugh and have fun, socialize in a friendly way. Sadness lets complain, cry, avoid socializing, pity oneself and so on. It is difficult to imagine a situation when a person in anger would express joyful and kind reactions. Such behavior would be insincere, and everybody will see it, even if he manages to successfully imitate another state. But in case a positive emotional state comes the needed reactions will come by themselves, without any additional instruction. Though sometimes additional instruction is necessary.

      One of the

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