While writing my new book entitled,” 101 Unconventional Interventions in Group Psychotherapy”, it occurred to me that there is a similarity between the laws of physics and the dynamics of unconscious process. If you’re interested, read on.
Believe it or not, the laws of interpersonal change are similar in structure to the rules of change in the physical world. To understand this process of interpersonal growth, it is important to take into account Newton’s laws of motion as well as the rules governing unconscious motivation. At first blush, this may seem contradictory. It’s not. What role do the laws of physics play in human relationships? Here’s my answer.
Sir Isaac Newton’s First and Third Laws of Motion appear to apply as much to laws of human emotion as they do to physical motion. To begin with the Third Law states: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Personal growth is never linear; it is always uneven:–One step forward two steps back. There is a continuous emotional, at times, behavioral backlash when we make changes in our life. That is why when the leader establishes the group contract {which is : “say how you feel toward the other members and why you feel that way”}, he or she knows full well members will default on it. The leader expects the default because, as The First Law states: “An object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force”. This is called inertia and it aptly describes the human tendency to maintain the status quo, even if it isn’t working. In group psychotherapy parlance, this adherence to the status quo is known as resistance, a concept derived from physics.
We all repel change as much as we embrace it. Group members tend to resist change even if they consciously say that they want it. This is in part to due to the reality that change is always stressful, even if it’s for the best. Major change in a person’s life usually occurs only when the status quo is felt to be intolerable. Generally a person must feel like their back is against the wall, and even then change doesn’t come easily. In order for the group treatment to work, the analytic group therapist must understand this reality from both an intellectual and an emotional vantage point. It calls for great humility and patience on the part of the leader, because he or she must understand this dynamic and respect the laws of emotional change and its slow course of development over time. Toward that end, an understanding of Freud’s theory of the unconscious is an essential ingredient in this formula. Amazingly, it actually dovetails Newton’s Laws. I’ll explain the connection in a future blog entry.
