Relational Process Therapy
Kareena Walter Germine, LCSW
Mt. Shasta, California, USA
Introduction
This brief discussion will be an introduction to a Relational Process Therapy Model. The discussion includes some of the basic concepts in therapy, trauma work and disaster work in Western Psychology interwoven with Whitehead’s basic philosophical tenants. The design and development of this type of therapy is to accommodate an eclectic world view and honor the use of sacred space as a vital expression. The Center for Process Studies seeks to promote the common good by means of the relational approach found in process thought. The characteristic nature of Process philosophy is to integrate the trilogy of science, philosophy and theology. Whitehead’s own background in Mathematics, Physics, Theology and Philosophy promotes modalities that use a strong backbone of physical and theoretical sciences into the mental sciences. This approach allows the development of a modern therapy that transcends historical limitations in psychology’s past but expands towards a more multicultural, inclusive, egalitarian and ecological approach. Whitehead Philosophy promotes an open system that incorporates new facts as they emerge. Today’s involvements with multiple cultures and places on our planet and beyond, offer new perspectives in psychology. The perennial process tradition holds that, development and change are more appropriate descriptors of reality than the language of static being. Process Relational Therapy promotes the aspect of ‘relational’ to expand outside the concept of one human to another with disregard for the rest of the world and its experience. The relational focus we have with ourselves and beyond the immediate world around us, promotes a better stewardship ecologically and culturally offering a richer concept of value and meaning to life itself.
Relational Process Therapy
In this brief paper I would like to discuss the integration of some of Alfred Whitehead’s Process Philosophy with Relational Process Therapy. The relational aspects of ‘becoming’ with reciprocating influences are one of the main tenants for Relational Process. One of Whitehead’s primary motives was to create a construct for a metaphysical system in which to harmonize moral and aesthetic interests for philosophical and theological institutions to be more aligned with natural sciences. The metaphysical system discussed are not final or authoritative as in classical metaphysics, but as in traditional process philosophy a hypothetical, contingent, and unfolding system. Psychology itself as a field ranges from purely academic to the pragmatic workings of the therapeutic process. Today’s therapy must incorporate the spectrum of relevant information from psychobiology/chemistry, neurological research to the applied theories of the mind. Whitehead encourages the theorist and students to understand the natural forces in the universe and how we decide to live in it. This begins an introduction to Relational Process Therapy inspired by the writings of Alfred Whitehead.
RELATIONAL PROCESS is uniquely different from other therapies. It does not deny the significance of early human relational experiences or the necessity of relationships with others. However our experiences, the relational aspects with the world around us include everything and all things. We are in a world with reciprocal experience. The relationship you have with life, existence, job, home, finances, nature, other sentient beings reflect your relationship with yourself. Beyond this is the relational experience with our mind and the rest of the world/universe/God. We are as all things are in the process of becoming. The unfolding of being is evolution. Basic ‘truisms’ that apply to both Process Philosophy, including several Whitehead quotes and Relational Process therapy are listed as follows;
Life is Dualistic both mind and material. Life is not Deterministic we do have choices and free Will. We repeat or change this time and each new time, we have another opportunity yet no experience happens exactly again. We have ‘prehension’ that is the feeling or experience that one ‘knows’ one is experiencing. Life is a pan experience that everything is experience. Also and importantly that everything experiences everything else, all experiences are relational. Sustainable Spirituality and ecology are natural evolutions of Mutuality. There is a seamless unity between the relational aspect we have with ourselves and the world around us. These experiences lead us to the concrescence and onto the next experience. This is the never ending unfolding, one experience onto the next. The ontological principal applies that an actual identity is the reason for its becoming. This ontological principal promotes and implies value of the system given it is unique. Embracing the uniqueness as value allows the feeling as sacred. Listening to the subtle self is essential. It is essential to use one’s mental faculty to deliberately choose through volition and intention. Live with intention gives life meaning, value becomes reinforced. Balance living outwardly and inwardly, this is an art requiring a certain level of mindfulness daily. The unconscious allows us to glimpse at the non-tangible levels of experience. It allows the progression of time to remain as one state. Contrast is essential to experience. All fields of study are interconnected separation is only for the sake of focus. Insight is sacred as is personal growth and awareness. Relational Process therapy incorporates theses ideas within each session, group, debriefing or intervention.
Personal growth is often involving manageable challenges of change in patterns in thought/action imposed often by the actual entity level of distress. Knowledge which adds greatness to character is knowledge so handled as to transform every phase of the immediate experience.
THE PROCESS RELATIONAL THERAPY HAS A FOCUS ON CONTRAST. Contrast is the unity had by many components. Contrast or differences are noticed much more readily than similarities. Whitehead beautifully illustrates that contrast is the opposite of incompatibility (ME&S p338). Some systems become distressed with contrast. Whitehead suggests that Value is attained by generating and heightening ‘contrast’. In a higher synthesis the diversity would not be eliminated but incorporated. Preferences are often laden with re-creation to allow a modicum of control and safety. Observing natural forces we see that to sit with the contrast can mean to develop a unity with. The relationship with self and mind can utilize this concept of contrast. The more an actual entity can hold the ideas or items of its experience in contrast and it’s layers of contrast the more this elicits depth and intensity of satisfaction. This experience can broaden and assist in this process of conscious ‘becoming’. Dismissing information or discounting information in contrast as trivial, not ‘relevant’ or not select information due to ‘incompatibility’ in contrast will hinder growth and satisfaction. Becoming aware as one establishes the contrast and differences, the more closely one sees the demarcations that become gradations with indistinct borders that are constantly changing and merging. Clarity of consciousness and developing greater access to our unconscious has tremendous rewards opening an arcadia of experience. Facilitating others that wish to develop their creative forces draws the individual or entity toward the bigger truths of actualizations. Often the person is more likely then able to help all living things.
RIGHTNESS OF LIMITATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR GROWTH OF REALITY, that is unlimited possibility and abstract creativity can produce nothing. The limitation, and the basis arising from what is already actual, is both necessary and interconnected. (RM Lecture IV) Therapy starts where the client is, this also allows for rational inquiry. Approaching life and therapy holistically transcends individual culture and practices. Many mind-body techniques such as mediation and guided imagery, journaling, aerobic exercise, and yoga can be mainstreamed in psychiatric treatments. This is not new in India’s Hindu Ayurvedic traditional health care, based on the idea of balance in bodily system. The Use of diet, herbal treatment and yogic breathing are a large part of mind/body care. Most health practioner’s are aware that it takes more than a prescription or time limited therapy to treat complex disorders. Therapy is a meaning driven process. What has meaning is defined by the ‘entity’ or individual. Science based treatments and discoveries should be a natural extension to mental health care and treatment.
PERCEPTION in therapy is a monumental issue. Whiteheads ‘casual influence’ suggests this permeates ordinary perception. When we register a visual perception of say an object like a rock; the rock is more that the sight or feel of it. It has a reference to its past, it has a history and a future. Viewing life superficially clearly offers little meaning or value to experience. The perceptions of separateness or being alone are often clinical issues. The individual is not making true reference about their existence. One’s philosophy or faiths in Whitehead terms are that there is a cosmic interconnectivity with all things. This basic metaphysical statement is true in Physics today.
WHITEHEAD HOLDS THAT THERE ARE NO CLEAR DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN THE TWO PROCESSESS OF CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS. The minds unconscious is not just a wasteland of primal drives, where all our hurt and trauma can go while we have to function and work in today’s world. It is a vital and adaptive advantage to unconsciously processing billions of pieces of information sorting out what we may need to attend to. This powerful and efficient process has tremendous survival value. It allows us to move through the world automatically. Our conscious attention can then be reserved for more focused purposes. However this can also lead to the unconscious making many decisions that actually need to be given more conscious thought. An analogy can be your body is a car, the driver can be your unconscious or you’re conscious, what would you like to drive your body around; you’re conscious or unconscious?
CONSCIOUS INTENTION and LIVING DELIBERATELY become foremost when one understands that each moment builds upon the next. Our unconscious gives us creative windows to personally work on issues unique to our experience. The unconscious is not some giant cavern waiting to act out its impulses. It is the eternal collectivity of all that is experienced with all its beauty and mystery. The troubled mind ‘gets stuck’ in its perceptions and generalizes its experience. The individual’s mythology may need to be redefined in healthier terms. Whitehead is quoted as saying (but this is unsourced)”but you can catch yourself entertaining habitually certain ideas and setting others aside; and that, I think, is where our personal destinies are largely decided.”
THE MIND IS MORE THAN THE PHYSICAL BRAIN ITSELF. This concludes that non-locality of mind and the sense of self/soul has no distinct location. For some like M. Germine’s One Mind Model suggests that the universes of knowledge are collectively present. That history builds upon itself and is known yet not destine. The field of Psychology/ Therapy today needs to address the rapidly changing world that is cross-cultural that can be applied to individual work, community and disaster work (both natural and war disasters) for civilians and emergency personal. Though this sound expansive actually all things though unique have similar needs. As the Sciences of the mind/body advance so must to the mental therapies. Whitehead Philosophy promotes the interconnectedness of all things. We are more than our some parts just as we are more than our history or products of our past. This concept makes Relational Process Therapy very different than some of psychology’s roots. The trend in determinism I argue is not scientific. Where information comes (from genetic encoding to a thought) from is yet to be established and one theory at this point is no better than another. Possibilities must be acknowledged or the subjective experience is denying reality. Process Philosophers agree that everything exerts some power to affect or be affected. Everything is inter-connected.
PROCESS PHILOSPHY and the term cosmic agnosticism, spiritual based practice etc. are designed to be inclusive with all faiths .The best science and philosophy is from sustained dialogue. Many reject the use of the word God. This is confusing and causes much reaction to those that accept religious doctrines without question. For Science, questioning everything without preconceived ideas is the foundation of the profession. This has helped humanity pull itself out of the dark ages. However if not careful can create its very own dogma. The word “God” is heavily laden. It is often a response to extremism, where harm is justified, including wars under the flag of the word “God”. People can be shamed or tormented with poisonous pedagogies in systems where people are ‘forced to believe’ causing resentments and delays in the person’s spiritual growth. We know that Spiritualism or defining what is sacred is a very personal path that cannot be forced. Helping establish Authenticity and restore value are initial steps in treatment. Trauma work treats many emotionally scarred individuals that are beyond angry. This feeling of ‘trauma rage’ can induce psychosis and is often directed toward their view of “God”, for ‘letting bad things happen to good people’. Revenge is often projected and experienced collectively even in the form of terrorism. The behavior swings the continuum of self harm to harm of others, in the home, community, schools or to the projected enemy. Developmentally we find that the progression of intellect, emotional, social and spiritual can be at different stages at different times. Trauma can prompt a delay or promote a crises/growth. The miracle of self and consciousness of life’s mysteries rely on the nature of self to experience gratitude, desire to learn and understand and think outside the changing tide of emotion without over detachment. Belief’s heavily affecting the experience creating the subjective view of one’s reality of self. John Cobb Jr. often associated with Whitehead’s theological writing’s concluded in The Journal for Process Studies (Fall-Winter 2007) that ; “It is not clear that the sharp separation of philosophy and religion has been healthy in the West. One interpretation of the now popular idea of being “spiritual” but not “religious” is that it is a revulsion against this dualism. Perhaps Whitehead can help the West move toward greater integration of thought.” In India and China it is not possible to separate religious thought and philosophy.
One’s life story often is rewritten depending on our personal growth process. The more we move towards acceptance and seek healthy satisfaction, life simply shifts without great effort. Science itself falls into question by Whitehead regarding being objective. “Every scientific memoir in its record of the ‘facts’ are shot through and through with interpretation.” The great debate of subjectivity/objectivity continues. We continue to reframe our life and rewrite our life each moment
WHITEHEAD’S “ GENERAL POSITION OF THE PHILOSPHY OF ORGANISM SEEMS TO APPROXIMATE MORE TO SOME STRIANS OF INDIAN AND CHINESE THOUGHT, than western Asiatic, or European thought. One side makes process ultimate; the other side makes fact ultimate”. The notion of judging someone’s relationship with God, Spirit, or what is held sacred from Science to Religion speaks of bigotry. Martin Buber in “I and Thou” remarked “But he too, who abhors the name, and believes himself to be godless, gives his whole being to addressing the Thou of his life, as a Thou cannot be limited by another, he addresses God”. I wonder if it matters what one believes in, other than the nature of WHAT a person believes respecting the whole. An Example is the drive to seek and live in inspiration and truth; the scientist with a deep passion to pursue truth, the artist to paint from the depth of their heart, the musician that plays what is heard in the heart. The expression of God and Sprit comes in many forms. Judgment collapses the opportunity and imprisons them. Once again contrast is how we grow and find satisfaction. What we have in common is more important than any differences. The individual process of developing sacred space promotes respect for all things. Whitehead speaks of “experiential openness”. The response to trauma for all living things is often a certain level of rigidity from fear and anxiety. The system becomes closed in efforts to survive or boundary less in effort to adapt. When events become safe the entity may or may not be able to ‘bounce back’ to a prior level of functioning. If the trauma or chaos is severe enough or chronic, the entity may not have developed a strong enough baseline and remains in chaos. Or over identify with the traumatic experience and claim victimhood as identity permanently. Therapy is to promote resiliency and the development of finding value, developing healthy character and establishing their personal meaning in life. In a sense therapy re-establishes ‘experiential openness’. A sense of ‘ease’ is often felt.
WHITEHEAD quotes William James “Either your experience is of no content. Of no change, or it is of perceptible amount of change or content. (PR p.68) To paraphrase William James, “SOUL IS A SUCCESSION OF FIELDS OF CONCIOUSNESS” Life has given us the value of soul making. Relational Process Therapy acknowledges and strives to help individuals define in life affirming ways, to promote living more consciously, becoming more aware of the internal and external world and defining value. In Jason Brown’s, “Process and the Authentic Life”, character is defined as the source of the conscious contents of our mind, but not their cause. The relation of character to action is that of potential to actual, not cause and effect. The action individuates through a qualitative sequence that is constrained by the elimination of maladaptive possibilities. Character does not cause or produce a behavior, no more than a root of a flower causes the petal, but it is ingredient as an anticipatory phase in a dynamic structure. An action is a sign of character, not its product, as a thought is not the output of a thinker but a kind of signature of his feelings and intelligence.” What is held of value has an interactive quality to it. The subject/object segments interchange contributing to a more aesthetic experience. Value is clearly defined as an interactive as a process.
In the helping professions we assist others with many beliefs about themselves and the world. People often want to know why they think and feel certain ways and inherently know it is not a direct formula of cause and effect. Understanding the science of mind also helps facilitate awareness. When we sense we can have a positive influence over ourselves and the world around us we are more apt to be engaged and have greater conscious intention. We know that stress and disconnection are states of mind. We help teach coping to our children at an early age however they must find their own healthy methods that fit them best as they mature. One can learn to have more ‘play’ with their mental experience, at any point in their development. It is always better to start to practice with less intense feelings and work your way ‘up’. For example when you’re paying attention to the richness of the moment that is right-minded awareness. When you are preoccupied with the past and future that are not in the moment (like anxieties and non-immediate fears) that is your left hemisphere (I am speaking very simplistic). The image of pushing, pulling (gently) and pausing between hemispheres are types of metaphorical (and neurological) tools to shift thought patterns. Sorting out irrational to rational thoughts is particularly popular at this time. Emotional distance with some level of detachment as well as mindfulness are often employed along with good postures and breathing. Relational processing offers an eclectic therapy that is aware of the need for deeper levels of consciousness that are sustainable (as opposed to recreational).
ISOLATIONISM NO LONGER WORKS FOR SURVIVAL. At some point in time humanity will need to transcend their view of simply connecting to only a small group of people. The sense of family must expand. We are no longer bound (blessed or cursed) by who we are biologically related to. Humanity now includes everything. The Hindu and Buddhist metaphor hold that the self is but a drop of water and that we will return to the ocean united to all, that the concept of separateness or individuality is an illusion. Whitehead contends that individuality and interconnectedness should be considered. Having lived in the West and in East I can honestly say I truly enjoy both philosophies, and though it would seem to hold a paradoxical confusion I find it does not. The Scientist and Healer must understand some level of theory of mind if one is going to use the concept ‘reality’. The degree of Subjectivity must be considered. Given the perceiver influences the viewed reality. Someone with a thought or mood disorder is clearly going to view an event differently than someone that is relatively stable. Likewise with just two individuals reality will be at least slightly different. Their own unique history and senses will influence their perception. Whitehead Philosophy has introduced a language that applies across fields of study. This language also expands from the scientific language to the philosophical/metaphysical realm of imagination. The dance between the rapidly changing world and our environment strongly support the idea that humanity needs to become more conscious and self aware, more responsible, more adaptable, better stewardship, more tolerant of other peoples and species.
WHITEHEADS PROCESS PHILOSPHY incorporates basic laws of self organizing as operative everywhere. Selection, chance and design are involved. Relational Process Therapy promotes greater consciousness with the relationship within self and the development of greater consciousness outward to relational aspect with all things. Contrast, chaos, disorganization/organization are continual mental processes. The concrescence process is completed when all uncertainties are dispelled. A single actual entity is capable of giving a certain direction to an organism. On a conscious level neoteny may be extended to the level of thinking and experiencing as one matures into a higher Self. When the mind reaches some sort of homeostasis or clarity there is a natural drive to understand life on a deeper level of experience. This promotes a sense of Self and being aware of ‘the process of becoming’ teaches a more conscious Self and allows the development of the practice of self witnessing or self awareness. Growth is enhanced by having another witness and understand the insight. We see this with many religions, rituals, healer events and simple insightful conversations. This is not the same as dissociation as in a traumatic response to trauma or sub threshold variations of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) this is more akin to the Buddhist practice of mindfulness of observing one’s own thoughts and consciously redirecting the ones that needs to be. This self witnessing can help people get some control back in their life and not be driven by their moods or conscious/reactions/defenses etc. The therapist often becomes the witness/teacher who synergizes the experience, then to be bridged onto Self practice and care.
PROPOSITIONAL ATTITUDES (e.g. beliefs and desires) DEVELOP VIOLITION (will) TO DEVELOP INTENTIONALITY (aboutness) OF BECOMING (the Self). In trauma and disaster work often psycho education about the mind body connection is essential when teaching the methods of reseting one’s chemistry. For the sake of brevity an example for longer term or chronic/cumulative trauma the entire limbic system may need assistance. It may be under or overactive. Learning to self adjusts and deal with the toxic nature of the adrenal system would be an important therapeutic tool, such as hydration and stretching and though awareness and redirection etc. Just as in recent single event trauma there will be the sequel of mind/body typical reactions. Teaching how to deal with night terrors, flashbacks and hyper vigilance and avoidance are important. Safety and Trust are not just physical issues but psychological foundational issues. SOME MAY NOT BE ABLE TO INTERNALIZE THIS AT LEAST NOT CONSISTENTLY. Giving up or changing a habituated mindset like ‘I am not safe or I am not loved’ can be very tenacious. An adage in therapy is the deeper the pain the more indirect the approach and also you cannot replace something until you have something better to put in its place seems to hold true. Often healthy emotions are often just not as intense. So replacing a river of fire like trauma rage with a spring of hope and love can be a challenge, though tasteful humor makes some amazing inroads to intense experiences. No emotion is final. Trying to make sense of a world that inflicts harm onto itself is difficult to fathom. Add addictions to any problem and it becomes center stage. It is to’ being stuck’, endless cycles of emotional response without really processing. We can however take responsibility for ourselves given we have little control over others. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi: Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, and your values become your destiny.
SERENDIPITY AND SYNCHRONICITY are two phenomena that have strong use for trauma work. Our relational process with event leads us to grapple with cause and effect and that living things personalize the experience (as a survival response). Though Science as a field of study may recoil from this, these two phenomena’s have contributed toward and discoveries and giant leaps in many fields. Though our work involves trying to explain the way life operates sometimes the explanation simply is not just linear as in cause and effect. Philosophy helps science shake hands with ancient wisdom. There are practices that can reset this ‘clock’ of patterned physiological responses. Early trauma therapies like ‘Logo’ therapy discussed the resiliency of human nature and how the notion of Spirituality and Purpose keeps many people alive and helping others despite all odds. Bad things happen to good people and some things simply happen and there is no reason a human can find. In essence it is not personal. Many times we do not cause horrific events, they just random sometimes happen say for example a Natural Disaster that gave no warning. When we feel we are the center of the universe we think things happen ‘at us’ and that ‘God’ let it happen. Transcending the ‘personal illusion’ we can move into acceptance and moving forward as opposed to being stuck with the ‘why me?’ It can be quite healing and rewarding for the person to start today with taking a bit more responsibility with their life, their thoughts their feelings of the world. Your intention has to drive you to make life sacred and meaningful. Value does not come find you. If you let ones culture tell you what has value you will find yourself empty because you didn’t find it yourself. This is not unlike beliefs; someone handing you a sacred text is probable not going to wake you to ‘the experience’ you must want and seek it. As with most things timing is everything.
Albert Einstein is quoted saying that “THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND PROFOUND EMOTION WE CAN EXPERIENCE IS THE SENSATION OF THE MYSTICAL. IT IS THE POWER OF ALL TRUE SCIENCE”. Most can agree there is a need for developing a space of which they can become calm, peaceful, and healthy for all things. Medical Science supports this. Throughout history the outward expression of sacred is through its art, architecture, music, rituals, mosques, churches, shrines, external archetypes, symbols and representations of our unconscious self, landscape both contrived and nature itself (God’s expression of sacred space). Nature possesses the gentle power to bring out the wonder and sense of awe in all of us. Theses representations of sprit and sacredness are often held with pride and interest for all cultures. It acts as cohesion for peoples who may or may not perceive much in common. A home, a room a corner spots a place of worship or burial or birth, a place of ritual, healing learning or a place of experiencing higher states of conscious. Specific colors, sights, sounds, scents, lights, candles etc. are examples of externalized ways of prompting sacred space. Around the world holy places offer similar yet unique experience. Sacred Places offer the externalization of ‘moving inward ‘, ‘moving upward’ then ‘moving outward’, this reciprocating process offers reflection. In René Dubos’s “A God Within” (1972) discusses nature as an ECOLOGICAL SPIRTUALITY (pps.172-173) the image and story of Francis of Assisi’s love and contemplative reverence for all things. Humanity’s has great need to be creative and relate to nature with all senses at least as much as common sense, And with the heart as much as knowledge.
The Relational Process therapy supports the Ecological Perspective. Sacred spaces need to be ecologically viable and culturally desirable. The Reverence for nature creates stewardship and responsibility that brings forth nobility in humans. Setting Nature as a place to conquer however defeats the purpose. The phrase “genius loci” and ‘sprit of place’ symbolize the forces or structures generally hidden beneath the surface of things that express the uniqueness of each place. This subjective/objective experience may be internalized. Internal sacred space is a neurological and biochemical event not just a conscious or unconscious event (thought dream, memory of some form, prehension, intuition, altered states etc.)The more practice the more readily we can ‘cue’ our mind/body to return the internalized sacred state of calm. Often the sense of time is altered. We can notice our thoughts as they become conscious and we can ‘listen to our emotions or ‘internal drama’ without assigning value to this. The mind benefits from the sense of inviolability (freedom from injury or dishonor) that is uniquely experiential. The more externalized a culture becomes often it is at the expense of the internalization of the culture that gives peace. Traditions and rituals are shared experience with the collective. In therapy helping the individual define what gives them peace and hope from the days stress and to become ‘friends with their mind’ becomes a goal. The more one is able to become more familiar with their mind the more one can enjoy life and also help others without being bogged down by ‘over internalizing’. The outward sacred space provides ‘potential’ this allows the transmuted physical feeling of the actual occasion. Symbols are a reference and a language for the unconscious as well. Whitehead’s ‘eternal objects’ are primordial potentials allowing possible behavior never actualized, and that there are universal collective archetypes that can become present as ideas and images, Jung took this further by developing the concept that dreams and myths are natural extensions of this.
THE ACTUAL ENTITY OF A THOUGHT OR A TRUTH IS BUT AN INSTANT. Whitehead indicates that personal identity is a matter of repeating some unchanging pattern throughout life. This active and mindful process of becoming and self- creation is out of the elements of also perishing it’s unique past. Rumi, the Persian poet and mystic states that the ‘alchemy of a changing life is the only truth’; we see this will all aspects of experience. Just as mind/matter are not separate nor is Self/Sprit. The ‘concrescence’ is a process of any given actual entity and this process is the growing together of many into the unity of a one. This generates ‘satisfaction’ of the entity this is complete and ‘perishes’. This necessary process becomes a ‘datum’ for fresh instances of concrescence. Concrescence goes through several phases. The first phase is the conformal feeling (objective content into subjective feeling). This allows the past to be integrated into the present. The notion of this process does suggest some sort of genetic successiveness and or the ‘earlier’ and ‘later’ stages of an occasion yet co-existing speculates metaphysical or quantum or biochemical processes. The aesthesis in therapy is the assistance of ‘actual entity’ to ‘concrescence’. The conformal feelings are the means by which the datum (which is still potentiality) becomes individualized. This individualization is a complex unity of realization.
CONSCIOUSNESS PRESUPPOSES EXPERIENCE AND NOT EXPERIENCE CONSCIOUSNESS” (PRp. 83) CONFORMAL FEELINGS REITERATE, REPRODUCE, COMPARE AND CONTRAST. There is creative selectivity under the guidance of the subjective aim. In Relational Process Therapy the client or person is assisted in making conscious as much as possible what the subjective aim is and how it can be adapted to a healthier one. The sorting through novelty of ideas, the making or twisting a new idea or concept to replace an old schema or dogma that is less useful. The affirmation of the negative contrast can lead to what Whitehead calls the ‘crown of experience’, only occasionally attained, not its necessity base (P.R. 408).
In summary Whitehead’s Process Philosophy is rich in concepts that are directly applicable to Relational Process Therapy. Within theses principle are discussions and exercises that I have been using in therapy for people with severe pathology to healthy individuals that have normal responses to abnormal event with individuals and groups.