What_in_Early_Upbringing_Contributes_to_Adifficult_Sense_of_Self_and_Hinders_Good_Relationship_to_Others_

Essay 1 Essay title : What in early upbringing, contributes to a difficult sense of self and hinders good relationship to others ' Give two examples of how the arts help to heal and transform such limiting experience. Contents Introduction What theory is in my Kaleidoscope ' Chapter One Mother and child relationships Attachment Theory Chapter Two Neuroscience Where is my Orange'! Chapter Three Art therapy Mabel Illustrations 1-3 Conclusion How many patterns in the kaleidoscope' Bibliography Introduction What theory is in my Kaleidoscope ' Within this essay, I will be exploring the role of mother /child relationships, and attachment theory, through the perspective or kaleidoscope of Bowlby, plus supplementary colours, patterns, and shapes added from Winnicott /Bion/ Klein/Sunderland theories. In addition, the sparkles of current neuroscience research on the brain chemistry of insecure attachment styles( Sunderland and Panksepp). In order to look at what contributes to a’ difficult sense of self …etc’, it is important to first establish what a healthy sense of self is and how that is achieved during childhood . This then provides a framework within which to look at what contributes to problems with attaching, relating to people and a limiting sense of self. My examples of how the arts can assist in healing and transforming, insecure attachment and inadequate parenting, are;- 1/ Personal experience of a group exercise Where is my orange '! 2/ Art therapy session with a client with post-natal depression. ‘Mabel’ The essay concludes with a short summary of points raised and musings on the theory and practice of art therapies. Chapter One Mother and child relationships Donald Winnicott a post Freudian, paediatrician and later a psychoanalyst contributed many ideas and theories, many of which are in use today, not only in the field of psychoanalytic therapy, but in particular art therapy. Winnicott talks of the emergence of a healthy self as dependant upon specific nurturing provisions being available within a child’s early relationship with its mother. These he has termed as ‘good enough mothering’. These early needs of the baby are according to Winnicott, a mother who is able to merge with her baby to feed, love, offer, support, and protection, with father taking care of external realities. (Winnicott 1982) Containment is primarily a term coined by Wilfred Bion,to describe the process of the way in which one person can ‘contain’ and understand another’s experience (Case, Dalley 1992).He drew upon Melanie Klein’s theory of projective identification, to conceptualize how a mother may interact with her infant. Here he was able to draw parallels between the way a mother contains and holds her child‘s projected unbearable anxieties. This containment of the child’s feelings, allows her to re-introduce them back to the child. The child is then better equipped to reintroject the angst it previously experienced, in a more bearable form. He termed the mother’s role as one of maternal container. This could also be termed ‘emotional regulation’ of the child’s anxieties. “...By her existence a mother becomes a container for the baby’s unbearable experiences including feelings which the baby cannot hold at the time”. (Segal, 1992:122) Segal further writes of the mother’s ability to name and put meaning to a painful experience. In therapy this is also known as the containing function, the holding of boundaries for the client whilst acknowledging feelings of not only aggression, sadism and cruelty, but also love, fairness and reason (Segal,1992). Thus, it is that the internal feelings experienced by the child are expressed, externally towards the mother. The external reality of an inner world. Several studies on monkeys and their mothers have been done . ( Prescott ,1970, Harlow 1963- 1968) These clearly show how disruptive an experience it is for the young monkey to be separated from its mother. And that uncontained ‘aggression and sadism’ re-emerges when the babies become mothers themselves. The new monkey mothers project and displace their cruelty and sadisms onto their own young. ‘not even in our most devious dreams could we have designed a surrogate as evil as these real monkey mothers.’ ( Harlow, Mears 1979:289) Attachment Theory ‘Many of the most intense of all human emotions arise during the formation, the maintenance, the disruption and the renewal of bonds ‘ ( Bowlby 1979 in Holmes 2005) John Bowlby, an eminent psychiatrist, developed Attachment Theory( a major theory in psychoanalysis) in response to the emotional disturbance caused by separation of a child from a mother figure in early childhood. Although he worked with Klein and Bion , he based his theories more on empirical evidence and scientific fact. He suggested that the child has an innate biological desire to create attachment figures. The mother figure is used as a ‘secure base’, which the child can leave to explore, content in the confidence that she will be there to return to ( Holmes,1994). The Strange Situation experiment designed by Ainsworth, shows what happens to one year old children who are separated from their mothers for brief periods. The children’s response to the separation and their reunion to their mother were recorded. Using the evidence the children were rated as either as ‘securely attached’, or ‘insecurely attached’. The insecurely children were then subdivided into avoidant or ambivalent patterns of insecurity ( Holmes, 1994). Dr Margo Sunderland and Deborah Kelly in their lecture ‘How people change people for better or worse’, November 2010; make the following observations about attachment styles:- Secure attachment- I have hope in a warm caring world Ambivalent attachment – (on/ off parent ) I need repeated assurance that the other will provide comfort and support. ( Needy clinging, loving in torment) Avoidant attachment-( mainly off parent) I don’t seek comfort . I do self-help. Disorganised attachment- ( frightening or frightened parent) I don’t seek comfort, I self-help / frighten others. The insecure attachment styles lead people to ‘self help’ through a variety of methods, drugs, alcohol, suicide attempts , violence to self/others. They make further reference to Bowlby’s assertion that to seek assurance in intimate relationships is normal, as is the need to attach or securely bond with others. The problems arise when the main caregiver has not provided a securely based attachment, by emotionally regulating the child’s , fear, anger, and stress. Chapter Two Neuroscience of Secure Attachment/ Insecure Attachment …’evidence based parenting advice, not just opinion based…on how to enable a child to thrive.’ (Sunderland, Kelly 2010) What does neuroscience have to say about attachment theory , secure and insecure ' To live an optimum, fulfilling life , the brain requires ‘ an optimum emotion chemical activation’ these come under the heading of opiods and oxytocins. They give a sense that all is well with the world and challenges can be overcome . In children this leads to improved Vagal tone which enables, the ability to;- Learn, use life well, concentrate, enjoy relationships, be kind to others.( Sunderland) This is achieved through successful attachment to a main caregiver, who is able to emotionally regulate the child, ( Winnicott 1982, Klein, ) which in turn leads to the development of stress regulatory systems in the frontal lobes. ( Sunderland, Kelly 2010). What happens to brain chemistry for insecurely attached children ' When children are left for prolonged or regular periods of distress, anxiety, fear/ anger, ‘the alarm systems in the brain are activated’ ( Sunderland) .The cortisol is activated in the mammalian brain This can lead to adults who become angry, anxious or depressed. They are said to be either, hyper- aroused,( a state of alarm in mind and body that can’t be switched off) or hyper- inhibited (have shut down completely the capacity to feel. Where is my orange'! A group exercise during the Sunderland , Kelly lecture. We were asked to select an orange from a random grouping, to really get to know the orange and identify it as ‘ours’. My instinctive response was to mark the orange with my thumbnail. It was mine , now no- one could take it from me! We were then asked to put the oranges back into a random grouping , which was then disrupted , so that no one could identify their orange. I did not want to give up my orange and was very distressed at the prospect. And became even more upset when it became apparent that the groupings were being disrupted. Nooo! , how was I going to find ….my orange now ' It was my orange and I wanted it back. I couldn’t find ‘my’ orange and became despondent …maybe some one else had taken my orange…… maybe someone had stolen my orange' I looked again , but became very downhearted and doubted that I would ever find my own special orange. I did not interact with others and was consumed with need for my orange. Every one else seemed to have found their oranges. Then suddenly …. I found my orange,…the joy… delight and wonder that I had my orange back!! I had given up all hope…. In my journal I wrote…’panic, fear, doubt, hopeless, pleasure and joy at finding the orange. Why is mummy an orange '’ This experiment became an intense experience and emotional realisation of my own attachment style. Even though I had an ‘intellectual understanding’ of the theories of attachment styles, this exercise gave me an emotional insight. I was very surprised by my unconscious reaction and ‘light bulb’ moment. Although I had intellectualised over my ambivalent attachment style, here I had experienced the feeling of the impact that this style had on my emotions, my mood, my interactions with self and others. It has produced a minefield of assumptions and patterns of limiting behaviour , that I can now see affect my life in many ways. A particular issue being trust of others. This small ‘orange exercise’ has enabled me to uncover stifling life patterns and with discussion and support with my therapist, self knowledge to accept, change and adapt these to enable a more fulfilling life. Chapter Three My work with ‘Mabel’ The case study I‘ve chosen to represent is one of a woman in her late twenties whom I shall refer to as ‘Mabel’. She was a patient being treated for post- natal depression, at a Mother and Baby unit, where I was a trainee art therapist. Mabel is the eldest of five siblings and comes from a family background of violence, an alcoholic mother, depression, and suicidal tendencies, which she describes as ‘dysfunctional’. The social history and biography notes from her hospital admission show that she and her siblings were on the child at risk protection register from an early age until they were teenagers. Her pregnancy was extremely difficult and fearful for her. The labour was emotionally traumatic because of the fear of a stillborn baby due to gestational diabetes. Throughout my time spent with Mabel, the recurrent themes were ones of,’ not belonging ‘, these translated into home and friends. Many of her questions centred on, who am I, what am I, what is a good mother' How can I be a good mother' These questions were asked throughout our time together. Illustration 1 This image invoked in Mabel, her feelings of being constrained and restricted ‘straight jacket’, with its implications of insanity whilst her head was full of confusion and chaos. This image has been re-visited several times in our sessions together. Moreover, has proved a springboard for discussions on mothering, Mabel’s upbringing in a violent alcoholic family, her role within the family unit. Finally her worst unspoken fear, of voicing her ambivalence to her child, of not wanting to spend time with her child. The dreadful panic, of wanting to abandon and neglect her child, giving rise to the horror that she may be capable of replicating the family history of abuse and neglect to her own child. Parallels can be drawn here to Mabel having an diorganised attachment disorder. Illustration 2 The image that clearly illustrates her dilemma and questioning occurred during our sixth art therapy session(see illustration 3). The image of a distressed mermaid, fish, crab woman appeared on paper that had been painted in blobs and lines of watercolour paint the previous week. Mabel worked over the top of the initial image with more watercolour. In answer to my prompt , of tell me about your image, Mabel stated” what am I'” and answered with, “I’m half fish ,half woman, a dead body with fish nibbling at me.” My process notes show that the transference and emotions from the image, centred on the themes of anger, bewilderment, lack of understanding, not trusting. Clearly ,the mermaid has a fixed false smile hiding her real emotions, and is in a situation she finds disturbing, which is usually how Mabel would present herself at the beginning of sessions. In Supervision, I talked of my own concerns over her suicidal tendencies and my concerns over her struggling with identity issues. My Supervisor pointed out the death of Mabel the single person and her struggle to give up parts of herself to become a mother. She feels she has to give up whom she is to be eliminated forever, in order to be the perfect mother. However, the overriding unacknowledged guilt is that she does not want to. I decided that for the following session to read Mabel a fairy tale, that dealt with loss of self, or parts of self and the retrieval , based on Clarissa Estes interpretation of the tale the Sealskin, Soul skin also known as Selkie Bride. Illustration 3 The image from the 8th session following the fairy tale shows the struggle between her adult self and childhood self and her difficulty in integrating those parts of self. The merging or overlaying of the frightened child over the mother, lost and frightened on her own at sea, without support. Winnicott (1982) states that the baby has a need for a mother, who is able to tolerate the merging with her child in order to love, feed and protect the child. In those individuals who have not had such a mother, this merging causes many problems. The re-remembering and feeling of emotions connected to past trauma from childhood has a devastating effect on the new mother. Elaine Frost in her description of her experience of post- natal therapy and subsequent Art therapy support within a mother and Baby unit, writes, I came to understand the depth of the effect my mother and her situation had had on me in my earliest years and that it was directly linked to my symptoms after the delivery of my own children. (Frost 1995:21) Price (2000) makes the point that pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing, cause extreme exhaustion and physical trauma. It is the interaction of these two things, which create a complex reaction and change in the woman’s psyche. It is precisely this change that allows for her inner boundaries to be breeched. This breeching allows a merging of the inner and outer world. This helps the mother to re-remember what it is to be a child and then to respond to her own baby’s needs. In the case of insecurely attached mothers this becomes almost intolerable to re- remember the pain, loss and isolation from their own mother. And to then have to try to parent their own child. ( Clearly shown in Mabels image of child projected over mother lost at sea in a boat illustration 3) In Frost’s case, this led her back to her early childhood feelings and sense of ‘loss’ of her mother to her siblings . By the time she was three and a half she had four siblings. The ensuing chaotic family life intensified her feelings of loss and withdrawal of her mothers love or ability to parent her. This sits with the theory of ambivalent attachment disorder. Once Frost had her mothers ‘good enough parenting’, but it gradually decreased as more siblings were born. Cairns notes that within her Mothers’ Art Therapy Group in a short-term psychiatric setting, the mothers were able to compare and contrast their experiences, through artwork in a way that could not have occurred through verbal means alone. McNiff ( 1992 ) comments: ‘…poetic speech,stories,body movements,dramatic enacments,sounds and other expressions…’ as being equally valid forms of communication in art therapy ,as well as art works formed in an art therapy session. It seems that through the arts Mabel was able to access and find words for feelings. In a safe, supported therapeutic environment she was able to explore, and acknowledge , her own painful relationship with her mother. Thus helping her to understand her own disorganised attachment style of behaviour towards her own child. Conclusion How many patterns in the kaleidoscope' “Art therapy therefore involves using images to facilitate the unfolding and understanding of psychic processes. It is not so much a matter of art making the unconscious, conscious…as of providing a setting in which healing can occur and connections with previously repressed, split off lost aspects of the self can be re- established.” (Case & Dalley 1992,55) In concluding, it can be seen that there are many theories and hypothesis that inform the practice of healing and transforming in , creative arts therapies. Within the constraints of this essay there has not been the opportunity to fully discuss all of the psychodynamic theories that have impacted arts therapies, particularly Klein’s projective identification and object relations and Winnicott, transitional object, potential space, creativity and play and Jung’s active imagination and archetypes. Or to discuss the use of other creative modes of expression , poetry, clay work, music ,movement, drama, and puppetry. However, from the example given(Mabel ), allowing a safe therapeutic space for an individual to express their inner fears and difficulties, through the arts, can help to heal and transform limiting early childhood experiences. In hind sight , having more access to knowledge on the neuroscience of attachment disorders , would have enabled me to more fully support Mabel, in her quest for self knowledge, and abilitiy to change her behaviour towards her child. It seems that attachment disorders play a pivotal role in the factors that cause some women to succumb to severe post -natal depression. My own experience with the orange was profound and life changing for the information it gave me, about my thought processes and interaction with others. Christine Wood in her article ‘the beginnings and endings of art therapy relationships’, talks of the need to acknowledge that therapeutic human relationships are diverse, complicated and full of issues that are not necessarily resolved by increasing our theoretical knowledge. She suggests that the solution is to find theoretical accounts that are adequate to the complications of human relationship and to find a way of elevating theory to the level of practice. As an Integrated Arts student in my first year of training , I find it a challenge to sit with the ‘not knowing’ while I study the many theories available in this area of study and am intrigued by the notion of raising theory to the level of practice. Moreover, to add my own patterns and lenses of perceptions to the kaleidoscope of interpretations/theories of ‘therapeutic human relationships’. Bibliography Axline,V, M. (1990) Dibs in Search of Self, London, Penguin Books Ltd. Cairns , M. (1995) ‘A Mothers Art therapy group in a short term Psychiatric setting ‘, in Grunbaum, H. ( ed) Mentally ill mothers and their children, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Case, C. Dally, T. (1992) the handbook of Art Therapy, New York: Routledge Chodorow, N. (1979) The Reproduction of Mothering. Psychoanalysis and the sociology of gender, Berkley , University of California Press. Dalley, A. (1982) Inventing Motherhood, the consequences of an ideal, New York , Schoken Books. Estes ,C, A. (1992) Women who run with the Wolves, London, Ebury Press. Holmes , J. (2005) John Bowlby and Attachment Theory, New York : Routledge. McNiff, S. (1992) Art as Medicine, Creating a therapy of the imagination, Boston, Shambala. Price, J .(2000) Motherhood what it does to your mind, London , Pandora Press. Segal, J. (1992) Melanie Klein, London, Sage Publications. Slegelman, E, Y. (1990) Metaphor and meaning in Psychotherapy, New York, The Guildford Press. Winnicott, D. W. (1982) Playing and Reality, London, Routledge. Journals Frost, E. (1995) ’Motherhood can be maddening’ Open Mind Journal, vol. 75, June, pp. 20-21. Maclagan, D. (2005) ‘Re-imagining art therapy’ International Journal of Art Therapy, vol. 10, June, pp.25. Wood, C. (1990) The Triangular Relationship (1) ‘The Beginnings and Endings in Art therapy Relationships’ Inscape, Winter. Lectures Dr Margo Sunderland (2010) ‘How People change people for better or Worse ‘, I.A.T.E. Dr M. Sunderland, G. Blench (2010) ‘What it means to be a Human Being,’ I.A.T.E.