Psychological Problems and Their Big Deceptions - David W. Shave

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currently have, about which we, like that combat veteran in his first battle in WW2, could be fully aware. But we can become just as emotionally uncomfortable from a gradual accumulation of unconscious entity with its accompanying increased unmet basic emotional need about which we won’t be aware. We may have no awareness of any specific thing, or things, in our current reality that is causing us to now have an uncomfortable level of unconscious entity because of its origin being so much “part”-oriented, and therefore unrecognizable. We might be only aware that we are currently very emotionally uncomfortable. It’s the recently accumulated amount of repressed anger, from unrecognized frustrations of our basic emotional need that we have now, being predicate-equated with a time in our distant past, or our remembering someone else’s unfortunate past, where the basic emotional need was frustrated to a similar level. (Remembering someone else’s past may also have had a survival benefit in our evolution!) We could then have some very unpleasant thoughts and dreams, and experience uncomfortable primary feelings, like the primary feeling of “an impending personal disaster,” or “bad luck.” We may then erroneously attribute our now being so emotionally uncomfortable to that which we remember from the distant past, that either happened to us, or to someone we know.

      If we have a high enough of a level of this unconscious entity, we could have intense anxiety and recurrent terrifying memories during the day, as well as recurrent night-mares at night, all about some very emotionally traumatic event from the distant past. We might also complain of “triggers” that seem to set off those unpleasant memories. If we were to see a mental health professional, and told him or her about our anxiety, our night-mares, and our terrifying thoughts, as well as the “triggers” that seem to initiate the anxiety and the recurrent terrifying thoughts, that person might erroneously conclude that the traumatic event of the distant past is what is causing our currently being so emotionally uncomfortable. That would be analogous to someone saying that the reason that combat officer was so emotionally uncomfortable in his first experience in battle was because of his mother dying twenty years earlier, and disregarding the immensely stressful situation he was currently experiencing in battle that was currently frustrating his basic emotional need.

      If we didn’t have any traumatic event in the past, we could just as readily have night-mares or unpleasant recurrent thoughts about something else, just as terrifying, when we become emotionally uncomfortable to a severe degree. We might also experience “triggers” that seem to initiate unpleasant thoughts and “flash backs.” Our recurrent night-mares and terrifying thoughts might be of some horrendous accident we saw some time ago on the evening news. Or perhaps it might be a horror movie that we watched last month. Or it might be some tragic accident that happened to a friend of ours a year ago or longer, that we, just now, fear could happen to us because of our currently increased unmet basic emotional need and our increased unconscious entity being equated with that memory. We could also have “flash back” memories of what we saw in the movies, or heard, or read about in the past, but didn’t personally experience ourselves, that now becomes predicate-equated with the situation we currently have.

      If we’re very emotional uncomfortable in the present for any reason, or combination of reasons, that increased unmet basic emotional need of ours will provide very little of that “everything is, was, and will be, all right” feeling, and that “I feel lucky” feeling. That will occur while our increased unconscious entity will be providing a lot more of that “everything isn’t, wasn’t, and won’t be all right” feeling, with more of a worrisome feeling of an impending personal disaster, which we might fear is “just my damn luck,” from our now feeling so “unlucky,” with memories of our, or someone else’s, past bad luck coming to mind. (Again, there may have been an evolutionary benefit for this.) Those unwanted thoughts and dreams of past traumatic events, whether they have been personally experienced by us or not, aren’t the causes for our being emotionally uncomfortable now, though they may be what we might only want to talk about, as though they are. To think they are the causes of our now feeling so emotionally uncomfortable, is a big deception. They are that which has been predicate-equated with the levels of our increased unmet basic emotional need and our increased unconscious entity that we have right now. When we sufficiently lower both our unmet basic emotional need and our unconscious entity, that we have right now, which may begin with our talking about what we erroneously think are the causes of our presently being so emotionally uncomfortable to a mental health professional, who erroneously thinks the same, that which has been predicate-equated from the past, disappears. It disappears, when through our talking, we can turn that unconscious entity, which has been recently accumulated, back into subtly expressed anger to our listener and meet more of our basic emotional need. But those same unwanted memories and “triggers” can return when our unmet basic emotional need and our unconscious entity may again increase to that same level that is needed to predicate-equate the unwanted memories of the past. Because of our recurrently becoming very emotionally uncomfortable may seem always associated with a certain remembered past traumatic event, it may seem only logical for us, as well as for mental health professionals, to believe that the distantly past event is the very reason we now feel so uncomfortable. What might be a big deception is fostered when our talking to an interested listener about that past traumatic event leads to our feeling better!

      If a person had been in combat, and years later, develops night-mares and recurrent terrifying thoughts of that combat, it means this person doesn’t currently have a comfortable level of an unmet basic emotional need or a comfortable level of unconscious entity. It doesn’t mean that the cause of this person’s emotional problem is service-related. The cause of the present state of being emotionally uncomfortable may have nothing to do with past military service, and all to do with the veteran’s current situation in not meeting his basic emotional need to a comfortable level. If instead, this person had left military service without being emotionally comfortable, as many veterans have done, and not have been later able to maintain a comfortable level in meeting his basic emotional need, he may not have recovered from the psychological trauma of his past combat, or his having been a prisoner of war. This may be particularly so if he later turns to alcohol and drugs which don’t decrease his uncomfortably increased levels of his unmet basic emotional need and his unconscious entity. They produce a deceptive “masking” effect as though the basic emotional need is more fully met and the unconscious entity is greatly decreased, when they actually aren’t! When the drinking and drugging is temporarily terminated, the person has the same uncomfortable levels he had before. During the times when he is not drinking, he can lower his unmet basic emotional need and his unconscious entity by talking with others, but that unconscious process of lowering those levels is diminished, or suspended, when he begins drinking and drugging again, depending upon the extent of the drinking and drugging. This is what makes the recovery take longer. If a veteran leaves the service emotionally uncomfortable, and continues to be emotionally uncomfortable with episodes of heavy drinking, he may continue to have psychiatric symptoms, directly related to his having been so emotionally uncomfortable in his military service, and he might continue to show these symptoms for some time later. These symptoms could include recurrent unpleasant thoughts and dreams of his past combat, or prisoner-of-war, experiences. In contrast, he could have very unpleasant intrusive thoughts and night-mares none of which might be about his past combat or prisoner-of-war experiences. These symptoms too could very well be originating from a continuation of this person being emotionally uncomfortable from his military service experiences from maintaining an uncomfortably increased level of both his unmet basic emotional need and his unconscious entity.

      How emotionally comfortable people are, will be determined by how well their basic emotional need is currently being met, and the current level of their unconscious entity. Since this can’t be determined when soldiers at discharge are under the influence of alcohol, or drugs, they may appear emotionally comfortable when their unconscious entity isn’t at a comfortable level. They may not have recovered from their service-connected traumatic experiences. These people are different from soldiers, free of alcohol and drugs at discharge, and who really are emotionally comfortable. If these people later develop a state of being emotionally uncomfortable, and then develop unpleasant intrusive thoughts and nightmares of their past combat, because of unconsciously predicate-equating their present situation, with their distantly past combat situation, their emotional problem isn’t “service-connected.” It’s their unconscious predicate-equating

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