The Institute for BioFunctional Psychology
Detoxification, Neurotransmitter Balancing, Nutritional Restoration and Stress Reduction to Prepare Your BRAIN for the PsychoSpiritual Journey
The simplest definition of the cause of suffering is attachment. That attachment can be to drugs and alcohol, to possessions and objects, to relationships or life situations such as one’s employment or vocation, or to one’s self-image. Any event which threatens to detach an individual from their attachments, tends to provoke fear in those who are unaware of their feelings which stems from a future image of existing without the object of attachment. Likewise, any event which threatens to detach an individual from their attachments can also provoke anger and persistent resentments towards people or situations from the past who had threatened one’s attachments. Thus when one suffers by allowing oneself to be governed by the fight (anger) or flight (fear) response, a survival mechanism which we inherited from our primitive ancestry, or conversely an inability to live in the NOW via activation of our most recent and highly evolved brain structures, is the main cause of suffering.
Suffering from traumatic, injurious or physical pain to the body might not seem to conform to this definition. However, attachment to one’s body in the sense that “one believes that who they are is their body,” is considered to be one of the deepest forms of attachment. At an early age we assume that our body is who we are as we separate ourselves from others and situations around us. However, a consistent theme promoted by various religions and spiritual practices is the position that one’s true self or spiritual body is something more and longer-lasting than the physical body. The spirit is not actually the physical vehicle that we inhabit for a lifetime. The body is impermanent and will ultimately age, become diseased and die, but the spirit continues on. Of course theory is merely an intellectual distraction until put to the test, and the ability to detach from physical pain and disability when the physical body is threatened is the true test of detachment from the body. History is replete with numerous examples of “highly evolved” spiritual beings who were tortured and killed, from those who were hung on crosses to those who were burned at the stake, and who appeared to remain detached from their physical body enough to not get caught up with anger or fear, to remain in the NOW, and be relatively free of suffering despite the apparent tragic circumstances at hand, and to remain in a state of compassion and love.
In the western world, one of the best-known and popular philosophies to address attachment as the cause of suffering, comes from 12-step programs and philosophy. Extreme attachment to psychotropic chemicals such as alcohol, illicit drugs and prescription medication is one of the most vivid examples of how attachment causes suffering. Alcoholics Anonymous advises those in recovery to live more in the NOW or “one day at a time,” and to “let go of,” “surrender,” and “turn over” fear and resentments to a “Power greater than ourselves” whatever that power is for AA members. Codependents Anonymous and Alanon members are advised to “detach with love,” and surrender their fear and resentments towards the alcoholic of dysfunctional person in their life.
For instance, a practical example of detachment is the wife who arrives home and finds her spouse (again) passed out and drunk and lying on the floor in their vomit and urine. Does she react with her primitive “fight or flight” response and kick him in anger (fight), or out of fear for his well-being (flight) drag him up to the shower, clean him up, dress him and put him to bed? No, she would be advised in Alanon to “detach with love,” to use her frontal lobes (see section on brain neuroimagery)and empathetically put a blanket on him and turn him on his side so that he will not suffer hypothermia or aspirate his vomit, and then go to bed and not have another thought about him until the next morning. To kick him and fracture some ribs or to go to extreme rescuing measures to compensate for his condition would be “enabling,” because he would either use her anger as an excuse to justify his drinking and drugging (“drink at her”) or would not face the consequences of drinking and drugging that would follow from awakening in the morning with a hangover and lying in the vomit and urine.
While detachment frees us from suffering, experiencing the process of detachment can feel painful when one’s ego, a illusory construct of one’s past and future, is surrendered. Life changes will nevertheless force the issue, especially if disease, disability or a life threatening circumstances occur. But even less momentous changes, like a couple experiencing empty nest syndrome (kids go off to college or leave the house) or an individual who faces retirement, can bring us to the threshold of detachment. In both of these life hurdles, one must learn to detach from one’s self-image, the caregiver or the busy professional, or suffer. The choices are always simple and direct, and psychotherapists and pastoral counselors of all faiths are available to offer assistance in the transition of “Letting go, letting God” or simply “letting go” without the help of a deity. Spirituality has nothing really to do with organized religion, however religion, for all its history of violence, superstition and persecution, has undoubtedly helped countless individuals through the detachment process and the letting go of suffering.
Attachment theory, a well-known field of study in psychology, should not be confused with this discussion about attachment as a cause of suffering or of detachment as release from suffering. Attachment theory is concerned with the bond that develops between child and caretaker and the consequences this has for the child’s emerging self-concept and developing view of the social world. This is certainly one very critical aspect, because “healthy attachments” and good self-esteem better prepare individuals for the detachment and the ending of suffering to come later. Attachment theory has little to say about spirituality as discussed in this context.
However, many prominent fields of psychology are directly relevant to this issue of attachment, detachment and suffering. Humanistic psychology, “the third force in psychology,” is a “here- and now- focused” branch of psychology that emerged in the 1950s in reaction to psychoanalysis (based on the past) and behaviorism (based on the future). Psychoanalysis is fundamentally predicated on the saying “as the twig is bent, so the tree will lean.” A psychoanalyst will encourage patients to examines one’s historical issues to find insights and solutions into current problems or neuroses. Modern behaviorism rests on the theory of operant conditioning, which relies on the use of consequences (the future) to modify and form behaviors. A behavioral psychotherapist will help individuals to define the future consequences of certain behaviors and then to choose the consequences which are preferable. Humanistic psychologies, such as Rogerian psychotherapy, REBT, Logotherapy, Gestalt Therapy, Transpersonal psychology and others, rely more on phenomenology, the direct examination of here and now phenomenon of experience. While psychoanalysis offers insights in how we came to be from our past, and behavioral therapy assists us in choosing goal directed behaviors in our future, Humanistic psychologies address the actual cause of suffering, owning and taking responsibility for one’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors and attachments in the NOW. Mindfulness, a distinct faculty of consciousness associated with activation of frontal lobe structures in the brain (see section: Brain Scans and the NOW), is increasingly coming to be eclectically melded with these various psychotherapies (see Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapies - MBCT).
