Expression V Experiencing

[jambonsambo]

Hi John,

I just read a recently published book by Holocaust Survivor , best selling author and Psychologist Edith Eger. " The Gift 12 lessons to save your life".

In a chapter called there is no forgiveness without rage she writes the following

" Scream and pound your fists into a pillow, Go to the beach and yell into the wind, Grab a giant stick smash and beat the ground.

" The opposite of depression is expression"

"When a patient comes to see me looking rigid and masked I say " I feel like screaming today shall we scream?" "

This is just one source that I could quote here but I could easily find many others. I personally have come across Therapists who have encouraged me to beat pillows, punch mattresses and physically express my anger. This seems to run against the philosophy of Emotional Clearing.

So it seems to me that there is a schizm in the healing professions when it comes to this point. The Expression movement which encourages cathartic release and the Experiencing movement which encourages inward experience of negative energies over physical acting out.

Do you think expression in a safe therapeutic container still has some value or is it misguided?

[John Ruskan]

The beating matresses with a tennis racket started with Bioenergetics in the seventies. At the time, this may have represented a freeing up of energies, but I believe is still a misconception. If therapists are clinging to this philosophy today, to me they have not advanced. As I explain in my books, expression is not the ultimate answer to repression, although like other avenues, it may provide some temporary relief. Maybe the EC philosophy actually is cutting-edge for many professionals.