And how thinking about them in this way can open a horizon of self-acceptance and growth. In this article you will find a proposal to think freely about what ails you.
If we ask the majority of the population about the nature of psychological problems, we will find a variety of answers that, at the very least, will make us doubt and make this topic seem somewhat mysterious and dark. Even within the scientific community we find certain dissidence among experts.
The importance of an accurate understanding of what happens to us lies in a seriously pragmatic aspect: it is no longer just that we must understand something as it is, for the love of science, but that the way in which we understand it will dictate the way in which we understand it. the way we think and deal with it, which will affect both the way we relate to ourselves and the relationship and approach our therapist has with our problem. In this article we will talk about the existential nature of psychological problems and the pragmatic importance of defending it. Since, thinking about ourselves in this way will open a new horizon for growth.
The existential nature of psychological problems
We could say roughly that there are two ways of considering psychological problems: the essentialists which have dominated until today and of which some vestiges still exist, and the contextual or existentialist
The considerations essentialists Regarding psychological problems or mental illnesses, they find their origin in psychiatry, and they come to say that a mental problem or illness is due to an alteration in the brain. Having an affected area or lacking dopamine are psychiatric and essentialist explanations for what happens to us. Likewise, and more moderately, we find people who tell us that psychological problems find their cause in a defective personality. If we exchange personality for brain we are faced with similar explanations. In both cases, too, the problems or diseases are presented as fixed and immovable entities. They are diseases in a sense almost identical to that of medicine. But this is about psychology and not medicine, nor psychiatry.
In contrast, we have the considerations contextual. If the essentialist considerations are fixed, medical considerations that focus on serial defects of the organism, the contextual ones are dynamic, existential and focus on the biography of people, on the constant person-environment interaction that is life itself. Let’s understand it with an example:
Josefina is an 18-year-old girl diagnosed with anxiety and depression. Without going much further, an essentialist approach would focus on her brain or her personality, I would either administer a drug as if it were a virus, or I would point out the errors in Josefina’s personality that have led her to where she is, perhaps undertaking a type of psychotherapy capable of making Josefina feel guilty for who she is. But if we focus on the life story that is Josefina, we will find some meaning in everything that happens to her. Josefina grew up in a wealthy family in the center of Granada.
Her parents were a doctor and a lawyer who, coming from a humble working class, had sacrificed a lot to get good jobs and give their daughter a comfortable life. They always repeated everything they did for her and placed high expectations of her. If you appreciate everything we do and put in the effort, you will have a successful life. For her parents, everything was for love. They sacrificed for her, expected a lot from her, encouraged her to excel, rewarded her when she achieved it, and encouraged her when she strayed from their path. But all that glitters is not gold, and a good intention did not save the world either. Where for them there was only love, for Josefina there was conditionality and pressure.
Josefina felt constantly hanging by a thread. She only received the love of her parents when she met those standards of excellence, and she knew that at any moment she could fail. Furthermore, if she only received praise for doing well, it was logical to draw the conclusion that her parents’ love was not unconditional, that they did not love Josefina, but only loved the successful and pristine Josefina. Josefina knew what she was risking in every exam, in every occasion in which she showed herself to her world: she was risking the love of her parents and the recognition of her worth. Until now she was pulling. She was a beautiful girl, educated, with good taste and she got A’s in everything.
She experienced a lot of anxiety before exams, but each A was a balm of relief for her. Over the fundamental doubt of her worth, she was able to create a shell of excellence. She, in fact, was intelligent, successful and beautiful. Oh yes, and pretty. Television advertisements with slender women’s bodies, praise for her thin and delicate figure, harassment of other girls who did not fit into those canons… Ah, yes, being pretty and thin was also a component of success and a relief. In short, until she was just 18 years old, Josefina’s house of cards held up. But Josefina started university. The pressure increased, and the exhaustion accumulated after so many years of pressure and sacrifice finally took its toll on her. A 4 on her first exam: doubts and anxiety.
The head plagued with thoughts (“what if everything was a lie”; “what if I’m not so smart”; “I’ll disappoint everyone”), the result: lack of concentration and confidence. Second exam: a 3. Panicked, Josefina continues forcing the machine. If she does not comply, she will not be worthy of love or recognition from anyone. At least, she thinks so. She went from studying 6 to 10 hours. She sacrificed the gym and time to socialize. But the results were not coming, she was drowning in a sea of fear and anguish. To make matters worse, she didn’t make any friends and started to gain weight. Where before there was some pride and relief at being successful, now there was only guilt and disappointment. She began to lock herself at home and skip classes.
He didn’t want anyone to see what a failure he was becoming. There came a time when she only slept and watched series. The disappointment and impoverishment of her life led to deep sadness. The diagnosis is social anxiety and severe depression. Is Josefina sick? Is there really something defective in Josefina, or could any of us, under similar and extreme conditions, become sad, doubt ourselves, and truly believe that our dignity as people is found in the degree of excellence that we are capable of achieving? She left these questions to personal reflection. But a contextual psychologist would say no. He would say that here we find nothing more and nothing less than the pain and complication of a difficult life.
And now, what difference is there between thinking of Josefina as sick and thinking of Josefina as a person immersed in the drama of life, subject to certain conditions and having learned certain standards about personal worth? Easy. If Josefina thinks of herself as defective: her guilt multiplies, her self-esteem decreases, and her hope in change disappears. But if Josefina thinks of herself in the other way that we have proposed: she will not blame herself, she will understand that she has believed and lived as she has been taught, and that since all this is a matter of learning, she can unlearn and construct other beliefs that do not exist. suffocate so much. And if her discomfort is not an innate condition, but rather the direction her life was taking, in effect, she can take the helm and steer toward the change she desires. That, neither more nor less, is the crucial difference between understanding what happens to us. In one way we fold on ourselves, in the other, We open ourselves to the world and see ourselves capable of going where we want.
