A New Model?

Last time I wrote about how I can imagine that the way I do psychotherapy could change.  New insights, new technologies, or convincing  new evidence could, I hope, lead me towards a new way of doing things.  I'd like to think that I'm flexible enough to change.

Yes, I do believe that interpersonal interaction, especially between humans, is very powerful, and is one of the most basic components of our psychological existence.  But, that doesn't mean that the process can't be helped along.

There is a group of neuro-biologists on the west coast of the USA, the most prominent of them is a Dr. Christof Koch.  Working with Dr Fried, who treats epileptic patients, they implanted electrodes in their brains in order to help treat their seizures.  Slowly, they have been able to find  some exact spots in a brain that hold a specific thought.  And working with some talented computer programmers, they have found a way to have people's thoughts control which image appears on a screen just by thinking about what that image is.  For example, they had a woman who thought about Josh Brolin and about Marilyn Monroe.  They had electrodes placed on spots in her brain that represented their memories of each of those people.  When she thought about Josh, his picture would appear.  If she then began to think about Marilyn, Josh would fade and Marilyn would appear.

I feel that the implications of this technology for my work are tremendous.  What if a person harbors very ambivalent thoughts about themselves, or something they did, or someone they are close to.  If they could learn how to make one of those thoughts (and the feeling that goes with it)  become more dominant, they could have much better control of their lives and emotions.  The change process could go so much more quickly if someone was able to get immediate feedback, such as seeing a picture of what they want to see become clearer and clearer, the more they thought the good thoughts.

What about people who suffer with obsessive thoughts: is there a spot in their brain where these thoughts originate?  Could we tap into it and help them to learn to think about it less, while thinking about something else more?

Done correctly, this could become the opposite of brain washing, which is when someone else has a strong influence over what you think or believe.  People could be able to think and feel what they want, and learn to do so much more quickly than happens when they just talk about it.  I could see up there on the screen, how well they were doing.  How strong the thoughts and ideas are; how persistent is the idea we want to repress.

Of course, this implies a very reductionist philosophy, one that favors the stance that the brain controls the mind, more than the mind is controlling the brain.

But that raises the question of who (what?) controls the brain that controls the mind, if it is the person who is doing all the thinking for both the brain and the mind.

(I used to talk about this to my son.  He would leave the room screaming.)

But if we can change what we think and feel more easily, just by thinking about it.  That's what all this therapy stuff is about isn't it?

And what if there was an App for that?