Human Nature
The Art of Care
[Lawrence has just extinguished a match between his thumb and forefinger. William Potter surreptitiously attempts the same]
William Potter: Ooh! It damn well 'urts!
T.E. Lawrence: Certainly it hurts.
Officer: What's the trick then?
T.E. Lawrence: The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts. (Lawrence of Arabia 1962)Publication bibliography
Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
"As hard as it is to feel pain, it is much harder to feel nothing"
- The Blacklist, S7:E3
Youtube
(Emotional) Numbness
For simplicity I use "numbness" for emotional numbness in many places.
Synonyms
Alexithymia
Wikipedia
As medical term
Good source for etymology and first use in literature
“… relative constriction in emotional functioning, poverty of fantasy life, and inability to find appropriate words to describe their emotions.” (Sifneos 1973)
Sifneos, P. E. (1973): The prevalence of 'alexithymic' characteristics in psychosomatic patients. In Psychotherapy and psychosomatics 22 (2), pp. 255–262. DOI: 10.1159/000286529.
“… the conclusion is reached that patients with these characteristics may not be good candidates for dynamic psychotherapy.” (Sifneos 1973)
Sifneos, P. E. (1973): The prevalence of 'alexithymic' characteristics in psychosomatic patients. In Psychotherapy and psychosomatics 22 (2), pp. 255–262. DOI: 10.1159/000286529.
I think this is a tragic conclusion. Those patients need it the most - but of course you have to start slowly. The stabilization phase might be long and a bit tedious for the therapist - but it is worth it.
Emotional Stabilization / Challenges
Associated with / A feature of certain pathologies, like:
Eating disorders
Anorexia nervosa
Bulimia
... others
People with the condition:
"alexithymic"
"alexithymiac"
Emotionlessness
being emotionless
Impassiveness
being impassive
Emotional Numbness is a state of reduced or absent emotional response to a stimulus or thought that is reasonably likely to trigger an emotional response (in most people).
wip
I am comparing here in this definition to "most people", which is somewhat ambiguous.
There are situations where defense mechanisms
... a state of reduced empathy.
/ ... loss of empathy [see. Causes]
Features
reduced Empathy!
this is why I prefer "numbness" over Alexithymia
... is a symptom
... not a condition
... not a personality trait
Numbing
the process to become (emotionally) numb
2 kinds of emotional numbing/numbness
acquired
most frequent
usually as a result of ...
as a result of a natural defense mechanism
Something has been too painful - that leads to shunning of that emotion
Examples
Posttraumatic emotional numbness in a child - Example from "The Colony" Scene Netflix Series
Debunking common myths about emotions
Jacob Blake paralysed by shooting, his father says: "I'm not sorry. I'm angry. And I'm tired. I haven't cried one time. I stopped crying years ago. I am numb. ..."
inherited
structural features of the brain cause numbness (e.g. in sociopaths)
... a phenomenon similar
Hypotheses:
dissociation
frequent!
cognitive-behavioral mechanisms:
not minding the pain, repetitively, systematically
i.e. not giving it importance/meaning
thereby decreasing attention towards it
Research
Alexithymia / Causes
Behavioral mechanisms
Avoidance
Pain and numbness both make me suspicious. Numb is the scar resulting from pain. Not as functional. - not morals as a guide
when individuals are numbing, they are always experiencing something that causes pain in their emotional structure
if many individuals are affected, this can be attributed to a fundamental conflict of that causal experience with "human nature"
need to separate Human Nature from Emotional Structure here
I call emotional numbness a hidden consequence of trauma because people just say well this is who I am now it doesn't really count as a symptom
- the moment something died inside of you - a part of yourself died
... has the most fundamental impact on how individuals experience their lives.
It shapes our sense of meaning - which is, in the end, our essence.
Life is what you feel.
... and when you are numb, you feel less.
Meaning
It impacts ...
... all our relationships
... maturing and personal development
...
I believe it is often not given the importance it deserves.
... is inversely/negatively correlated with empathy.
Empathy
... can be general or specific/isolated
a person can be numb towards one or more specific situations or emotions
like having "blind spots" on your empathy-map
... is reversible
if it was acquired
in most cases
provided an effective approach
partially or completely
more difficult to reverse the earlier in life it was acquired
usually, takes a lot of effort and time
Always a result of stabilization and processing
Emotional Stabilization
Emotional Processing
EC has the potential to reverse numbing