Ironic Process Theory And Paradoxical Intention. You're not as weird as you think.

Have you ever had a totally absurd thought or idea that goes completely against your morals? I know I have and it so happens that all of us do and in fact it is a completely normal phenomena.

"I Thought...Shall I murder My Wife?"
Listening to a friend who almost had a tear in his eye when speaking of his dismay and guilt about when upon finding that his wife had acquired some inheritance money it had crossed his mind to murder her, well I just had to laugh.

He was subject to an intrusive thought which represented the last thing he would ever wish to do to his wife and in his attempt to push the thought away he actually made it more prominent in his mind, psychology calls this "ironic process theory"

Ironic Process Theory
Ironic processing is when the attempt to suppress a thought actually brings it more intensely into the conscious, in fact the harder we try to suppress a thought the more powerfully it will haunt us.

The classic example is the "white bear experiment" by the social psychologist Daniel Wegner who developed ironic process theory and the experiment off of the back of a quote he read in Fyodor Dostoevsky's book "Winter Notes on Summer Impressions" in which he wrote "Try to pose for yourself this task: not to think of a polar bear, and you will see that the cursed thing will come to mind every minute."

The observation can pretty much be summed up with the old adage of "what we resist, persists" and ironic processing can show up in various situations, but let us use the example of nervousness, the harder we try not to be nervous the more intensely nerves manifest.

Now we also have another phenomena noted by a physician named Dr Viktor Frankl which is called paradoxical intention,and this can seemingly be the cure for the ironic process.

Paradoxical Intention
Paradoxical intention is generally associated more with the automatic nerve response and how if instead of suppressing what appears to be an involuntary nervous response to a situation such as blushing or nervousness we actually attempt to increase its symptoms and in doing so they subside.

This also fits the bill for the adage of "what we resist, persists"

What We Resist Persists
what we resist persists does not mean we should not refrain from acting on impulse, you can't just slap your best friend in the face in the name of non-resistance (I had to learn this the hard way)

Acting on such an urge would actually be a resistance to the emotional drive behind it by projecting it out into the "material world" in an attempt to escape the underlying emotion and satiate the compulsion and thus suppressing things further.

It's fair to say that the ironic thought process in and of itself is not at all problematic. If you see the image of a white bear in your mind when trying hard not to see the image of a white bear then that "is what it is" but as soon as an emotional response appears perhaps in frustration at continuing to see a white bear, then we have a "problem"

What's The Problem?
We are most likely experiencing two elements in conjunction to the image in the mind, there will certainly be the addition of a sensation arising in the body and probably some mental dialogue such as "I cant stop seeing this stupid bear" "this bear is really starting to do my head in now, why can't it just leave my mind alone" or something along those lines, and while these sentences in and of themselves again have no intrinsic value they fuel the bodily sensation and thus keep the "feeling" of frustration alive.

The fact is that any thought that is not charged by a felt sensation in the body has no power over us at all, and the emotional charge of the energy in the body is also void of any "meaning" when it has no overlay in the form of thought, it appears as a pure non-conceptual energy.

Our entire emotional state at any one time can be broken down into three elements, mental dialogue, mental imagery, and bodily sensation. It is the sensation of energy in the body that gives power to the thought making the thought appear to be a reality.

visual representation of energies in the body corresponding to emotions felt (shame looks like spiderman)

Imagine If You Will
Imagine if you will, with your eyes closed, that you are holding one of your hands out in front of you, actually hold one of your hands out in front of you if it helps, and as you are looking at this image of your hand bring your awareness into the space of your body, and without any thoughts about it just be aware of your feelings and how it feels to be you, you may notice the image of your hand fades and that is fine, just spend a few moments or as long as you like, resting awareness fully and gently into the pure feeling of your body.

Looking at the image of your hand may have had a fairly neutral bodily energy attached to it, if the hand faded and you were left with the pure awareness of your body then that felt how ever it felt for you.

Now you can repeat this in exactly the same way except this time imagine as you hold out your hand in front of you that somebody you know is standing facing you and holding your hand, allow the image to be there as you bring awareness fully into the energy felt in the body and allow the pure felt emotion to be there without thought, the image may fade and that is ok, lower your hand if you wish and just rest awareness fully and gently into the energy of the body.

Notice any changes to the energies of the body, notice that without thought or imagination no one is resposible for them, this is your emotional body, these energies are a product of you.

You can repeat this as many times as you like imagining whoever you choose.

If you imagine someone you have had a disagreement with then that is great, allow the image to be there and bring your awareness fully and gently into your own body fully allowing the pure emotion without trying to do anything about it, only allowing it fully, if a thought arises then allow it but keep awareness fully and gently in the space of your body, whatever you feel don't try to change it, but do feel it, feel right into it, for as long as it lasts, welcome the raw energy, allow it to stay, and notice as it gently dissolves in the light of awareness.

"Don't think, feel"

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