‘Pit your conscious will against your unconscious’ -John Sarno

From: John Sarno, The Mind Body Prescription

“When the pain is severe, it is difficult to concentrate on feelings, but you must regard the process as a contest in which your conscious will is pitted against the unconscious…”

Sarno says you don’t necessarily have to figure out what is causing you unconscious rage—only acknowledge that you have it.

The battle takes place when you are in pain — you tell your TMS brain— “I know! I know! I have rage!” And that tells your TMS brain that it’s not succeeding. It’s not getting you to focus on pain instead of your “dangerous” emotional issues. This kills its purpose, and it gives up.

(I still wish this worked for me. Maybe I haven’t done it long enough?) I get more relief from meditation and soothing thinking that reduces anxiety.

But I did wage a battle and win recently, however, while in pain, by yelling at my TMS brain and telling it I’m in charge.

 

In my view, that statement is true but would be false without the word “necessarily.”

In the The Mindbody Prescription, at page xvii, Sarno wrote about having had recurrent migraine headaches: “Someone suggested that repressed anger might be the basis for them. I sat down and tried to figure out what anger I might be repressing. I failed to find an answer, but for the first time in my life I did not get a headache.” This is an undeniable example of Sarno not having to figure out what was causing his unconscious rage; it was enough for him to acknowledge he had it.

Later, on page 112 of The Mindbody Prescription, Sarno retold the same story: “I suffered from migraines for about six years. A colleague told me of a medical paper he had read suggesting that migraine headache was the result of repressed anger. . . . When the next premonitory ‘lights’ began, I sat down and thought about what anger I might be repressing. Years later it is clear to me what I was repressing, but at the time I had no idea. However, to my astonishment, the headache never came. Nor have I ever had another migraine headache, though I have continued to have the ‘dancing lights’ to this day. The ‘lights’ tell me that I am repressing anger, and sometimes I have to think very hard to figure out the reason for the anger." I surmise that when the ‘lights’ came, Sarno routinely sat down and tried to figure out specifically what he was angry about, and persisted even if that and sometimes required thinking very hard.

Seven years before The Mindbody Prescription, Sarno discussed his tendency to repress anger in Healing Back Pain. He wrote at page 45: “I have learned that heartburn means that I’m angry about something and don’t know it. So I think about what might be causing the condition, and when I come up with the answer the heartburn disappears. It is remarkable how well buried the anger usually is. . . . Sometimes it is something that is so loaded emotionally, I don’t come up with the answer for a long time.” This implies to me that when Sarno had heartburn, he routinely tried to figure out specifically what anger he was repressing. The fact that it sometimes took him “a long time” to figure out what angered him suggests that his just knowing he was repressing anger, but not knowing specifically what he was angry about, was ineffective to stop his heartburn.

My view on this is reinforced by a story he told years later in his final book, The Divided Mind at pages 125-26. He went on a long trip with his wife and began to suffer gastroesophageal reflux (aka heartburn). He wrote: “She and I both recognized this to be psychosomatic, and we tried to figure out what was making me unconsciously angry." He listed the possibilities they considered: He no longer liked to travel because of the inconvenience and discomfort. He found some of the places they visited disagreeable. He would rather be at home working on a book. The trip was too long. But, reported Sarno, "We obviously didn’t hit on the right answer because my symptoms continued unabated for the entire trip.” Clearly, Sarno's just knowing he was repressing anger about something--but not knowing specifically what--was insufficient to stop his gastrointestinal symptoms.

Sarno did not "hit on the right answer" until after he and his wife got home: “I had promised the long trip to my wife, who loves to travel. I was being a good guy. I was unconsciously furious for having to do something I really didn’t want to do. My psyche wouldn’t permit me to be consciously furious at my wife, and neither would my reasonable self--so to be absolutely sure the rage remained unconscious, the brain dished up the severe gastrointestinal symptoms. The rage, of course, was the reaction of that unconscious child-primitive--selfish, narcissistic, and totally unconcerned with the needs and desires of anyone else. Not very flattering.” During the trip, Sarno knew he was unconsciously angry about something. Just acknowledging that--but not figuring out specifically what he was angry about--was insufficient to stop the symptoms.

Having said the foregoing, I will confess that I no longer personally subscribe to everything that I quoted above from Sarno. I think the core of what he wrote is mostly correct, but not for the Freudian reasons he advanced. I think this because of what I have learned (inspired by Schubiner) about the new thing in brain science and pain science called predictive processing. I won’t go into predictive processing here for two reasons. First, that would take way too long to explain for it to be suitable for this tmi.wiki website, and it would bore nearly every reader. Second, given the zeitgeist of this website, it would be a waste of my time and yours because it would be so heretical that you would believe I am an idiot.

 

@Duggit,
I always love your thorough and educational posts! That is an interesting collection of Sarno’s own experiences with TMS. I can appreciate that it was hard work for him to uncover the mysteries behind his anger.

You also have me curious about predictive processing.

 

More fodder for an overthinking mind...

 

This is a basic piece about it, which contains a short video (the guy in the video is an enlightened British Chartered Physiotherapist who takes a special interest in helping those in chronic pain)...

https://www.thepainhabit.com/blog/imagining-moving (Pain With Imagining Moving? — The Pain Habit)

And this is more than interesting (to me, anyway)... Despite being a hell of a lot better than I was, I still have wide-spread muscle pain; virtually all of the muscles in my body are tender and hurt to the touch to varying degrees. When I purely imagine someone massaging my muscles I get goosebumps and tingly nerve sensations in my muscles big time (that I don't generally experience when my muscles are touched in every day life). I believe that this is due to predictive processing.

 

Wow, this is really interesting. The other day I had zero pain while lying in bed. I was in such a good mood that I started imagining going places that stress me out right now. About 5 minutes later, I was in total pain. My body predicted that it would be dishing out the pain if I tried to leave the house.

 

This was my theory as well after reading "how emotions are made", a book about predictive interpretations about emotions and how the brain processes them. I imagined this predictive interpretation would also happen for pain.

So cool to hear someone else talk about it, because it was only a guess and a working theory until now.
I'll really dig into that blog, thanks @BloodMoon

I'm an over-thinker so I get that this can be a trap, but for me it works like a charm because I find relieve in understanding this thing, and being able to talk myself through what is happening.

 

More on predictive processing for those who are interested https://hinessight.blogs.com/church...ur-brain-with-predictive-processing-tips.html

 

Nicole Sachs tells back then she would still feel pain during mornings and call Sarno, to what he'd reply something like "don't worry, your brain's still expecting the pain, as are you, and that's the reason you're feeling it". Isn't it like predictive processing?