Transformance, Recognition Of Self By Self, And Effective Action

Abstract

People have a fundamental need for transformation. We are wired for growth and healing. And we are wired for self-righting and resuming impeded growth (Emde, 1988). We have a need for the expansion and liberation of the self, the letting down of defensive barriers, and the dismantling of the false self (Ghent, 1990; Schneider, in press). We are shaped by a deep desire to be known, seen, and recognized (Sander, 1995, 2002), as we strive to come into contact with parts of ourselves that are frozen (Eigen, 1996). Along with needing to be known authentically, we have a need to know the other (Buber, 1965; Ghent 1990), a profound and undeveloped aspect of attachment. In the process of radical change, we become more ourselves than ever before, and recognize ourselves to be so (Fosha, 2005). Even prior to the need for authentic self-expression and contact, there is the need for effective action on behalf of the self (van der Kolk, in press), which is why emotions are wired into our brains and bodies: the categorical emotions ---fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust-- play a powerful role in survival. Their full expression bestows access to broadened thought-action repertoires (Damasio, 2001; Darwin, 1872; Fosha, 2000; Frederickson & Losada, 2005). Transformational vehicles themselves, each categorical emotion is associated with a set of adaptive action tendencies evolutionarily dedicated to bringing about conditions within which the individual's optimal development can unfold. The existential need for recognition and the functional need for effective action on behalf of the self are powerful motives; they are both manifestations of transformance. Transformance is my term for the overarching motivational force, operating both in development and therapy, that strives toward maximal vitality, authenticity, and genuine contact. A felt sense of vitality and energy characterizes transformance-based emergent phenomena. Residing deeply in our brains are wired-in dispositions for transformance. Naturally occurring adaptive affective change processes, such as emotion, dyadic affect regulation, empathic recognition of the self, etc., (Fosha, 2002), are manifestations of transformance-driven processes. AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy: Fosha, 2000), the model of therapy that informs my work, seeks to facilitate therapeutic change first through creating the conditions of safety transformance forces require in order to be entrained; it then seeks to actively engage these affective change processes from the first moments of the first therapeutic encounter, and then experientially process them through to completion. Moment-to-moment accompanied by positive somatic markers, affective change processes effect state transformations and culminate in the positive affects that characterize resilience, expansive growth and flourishing (Frederickson & Losada, 2005; Loizzo, in press; Tugade & Frederickson, 2004). The positive affects are desired states: as such, they themselves become motivational forces (Ghent, 2002; Sander, 2002). Transformance is the motivational counterpart of resistance: it is driven by hope and the search for the vitalizing positive affects that accompany all adaptive affective change processes (Fosha, 2002). Resistance, on the other hand, is fueled by dread and the desire to avoid bad feelings -- be they deadening or terrifying. Resistance drives processes that eventuate in stagnation, languishing, deterioration, and immobility (Frederickson & Losada, 2005; Loizzo, in press; Russell & Fosha, in press; Tugade & Frederickson, 2004). This chapter comprises three sections. In Section 1, I will introduce some defining aspects of AEDP theory and practice, and show how transformance is foundational to both. In Section 2, I will provide a microanalysis of an initial session with a male patient with a history of trauma suffering from a current relapse of sexual addiction behavior. Work with him will illustrate the transformational spiral which, in less than 45 minutes, takes us from a frenzy of self-loathing and uncontrollability to a moving recognition of the self by the self, and to confidence in his capacity for effective action. It will also allow us to look at the phenomenology of healing. Finally, using transformance as a bridging construct that might help promote the kind of integration to which this volume is devoted, Section 3 will examine some of the resonances between AEDP and the existential-integrative (EI) model.