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Notes -
Something interesting is that Sarno’s treatment is not merely “let out anger/stress”. It is specifically to delegitimize a “physical origin” of the pain, and to believe that the body is pretending to be in pain in order to prevent you from thinking about psychological/emotional concerns which are in turn solved chiefly by the emotion of anger. Some quotes from when I read his book years ago:
“ In other words, I suggest to patients that when they find themselves being aware of the pain, they must consciously and forcefully shift their attention to something psychological, like something they are worried about, a chronic family or financial problem, a recurrent source of irritation, anything in the psychological realm, for that sends a message to the brain that they’re no longer deceived by the pain. When that message reaches the depths of the mind, the subconscious, the pain ceases.”
“Another useful strategy sounds silly at first but has great merit. Patients are encouraged to talk to their brains. So many patients reported having done this on their own with good results that I now routinely suggest it, despite lingering feelings of foolishness. What one is doing is consciously taking charge instead of feeling the helpless, intimidated victim, which is so common in people with this syndrome. The person is asserting himself, telling the brain that he is not going to put up with this state of affairs—and it works. Patients report that they can actually abort an episode of pain by doing this. The woman whose case was described here did just that and experienced an immediate cessation of pain. It’s a very useful strategy”
We must say to ourselves, “It’s all right to be the way we are: illogical, unconsciously enraged, like a child having a temper tantrum. That’s part of being human and it is universal.”
I have enunciated three principles of treatment: repudiate the physical, acknowledge and accept the psychological.”
I tell my patients that they must consciously think about repressed rage and the reasons for it whenever they are aware of the pain. This is in contradiction to what the brain is trying to do. This effort is a counterattack, an attempt to undo the brain’s strategy. It is essential to focus on unpleasant, threatening thoughts and feelings to deny the pain its purpose—to divert your attention from those feelings.
I’m interested in why it works. I think it has to be one or a combination of these: (1) the pain is due to a social stress which the human mind may instinctively process as physical, and assertive anger directed toward this pain fixes it because anger is a high status dominant emotion; (2) an ultra-negative association is being made involving the pain, making one’s mind flee from pain signaling, so perhaps the pain victim inadvertently reinforced pain sensitivity by associating it with the relief of some even more painful and intense stressor; (3) it is simply a matter of sensitizing the person to something other than their physical pain but which uses roughly the same pathway such as general life stressors.
How about something completely different? Anger -> Adrenaline. Adrenaline has anti-inflamatory and immuno-modulating effects. So I guess our good doc here is "right for the wrong thing". Maybe we should give patients a few rounds in the boxing ring. You know, for "health" reasons.
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It's interesting how this is almost the opposite of mental health therapies that use body scanning, or focusing on the body to try to resolve mental issues.
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