The purpose of this writing, is to paint a different picture or paradigm, in regard to what problems are, how they arise, and what might be done about the entire process.
Freud and Wish Fulfillment
I remembering reading Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams. I can't rely reference it, not so much because it was over a decade ago I read it, but because Freud doesn't seem to have the best standing with today academic crowd. I often hear “Freud was wrong because...” from many people interested in psychological studies. I am not sure if it is true he was wrong. He certainly seemed to have a incredible interest in the mind and the psyche and their relation to the unconscious workings that happen when we are sleeping. It seemed to me, after reading his book, that he spent his entire lifetime meditating on these subjects. I don't think I would ever start my dialogue with “Freud was wrong because...”
The main insight I got from Freud was that we use dreams primarily for “wish fulfillment”, and more specifically, we try to solve the difficult problems from our daily lives in our dreams. Freud believed that we use memory elements, especial from the previous day, in order to use metaphorical-like stories that resolve problems and thinking patterns that we could not properly attend to in our daily living.
This process would make sense, especially if resting the body and the brain are crucial for daily survival. It seems at time we need to ponder and obsess about different problems we might face, yet sometimes we also develop an inability to let this type of thinking go. This inability to empty the mind would make resting difficult as well as any other activities NOT related to whatever problems we are obsessed about.
In order for our mind to debrief and re-centre it needs to be able to pseudo-resolve its problems in order to re-focus.
Freud's concept of wish fulfillment, that we engage in when we sleep and dream, attends to exactly that.
The mind can sort of deceive itself in believing it has attained its desired result, and then the state of perpetually trying to fulfill a desire might cease if only for a few hours of sleep.
The Problem of Problems and their Relevance to Dreams and Wish Fulfillment
We each have our daily problems. We each have been dealt a hand in life in which different limitations are created. These limitations construct the problems we need to solve, and the goals we aspire to achieve. Some of these problems happen in the physical world; some of these problems are psychological.
We spend our daily lives trying to solve these problems, the best we can, and then eventually we fall asleep and perhaps our mind races to re-solve these problems psychologically.
The process repeats.
The purpose of this writing, is to paint a different picture or paradigm, in regard to what problems are, how they arise, and what might be done about the entire process.
In order to do this, we might begin to ask, can one live without any psychological problems at all? What would this entail? What would be the effect on the brain that had no psychological strife from problems whatsoever?
Immediate Danger Versus Psychological Anxiety
Here it is helpful for people to have the distinction between two types of fear or anxiety. We can think of a poisonous snake in front of us as being an immediate or present fear versus a phobia of snakes, when no snakes are around that cause intense anxiety. The former we might call a more present or physical fear (even though the latter is felt quite physically) and that later we might call a psychological fear.
Fear and anxiety of both these kinds give us the feeling we need to do something. That something is usually to try to escape whether physically or psychologically.
We can see the dream process of wish fulfillment as a type of escape from the anxiety caused by trying to solve daily (present/physical) and psychological problems.
So we might start to ask the question, “Can one (can “I”) live without the psychological anxiety caused by unsolved problems?”
In other words, “Can I accept the imperfection of my life for what it is?” . Without trying to change it. This is what Jiddu Krishnamurti, David Bohm, and Bruce Lee refer to as “Choiceless Awareness”.
The Ending of Problems: The Implicate Relationship Between Physical Fear and Psychological Fear
We can understand the relationship between the psychical and psychological fear by ending our psychological anxiety created by a (mistaken?) belief (a religious conditioning one doesn't realize one has) that we are supposed to fix our problems. By taking that perspective, it is postulated, that the imperfection of life is denied, OR there is the implication (assumption) that life is imperfect and must be perfected by the limited human being. By the limited mind, through the vehicle of thought.
So we might begin to ask, what happens to the mind, or the brain, or the psyche, when the individual no longer subscribes to the belief that problems must be solved, or rather the individual no longer has anxiety in regard to unsolved psychological problems.
Such an individual would never worry about work undone.
And then what is the relationship to this individual in regard to work BEING done?
An individual that feels no psychological anxiety in regard to work TO BE done OR work that was supposed to have been done no longer feels strife in the DOING of work.
In this understanding, and especially the application of it, we begin free the mind from a hidden friction that unnecessarily dissipates a tremendous amount of energy.
This psychological change would also have a dramatic impact on how we view and relate to time.
The Path Forward
If we can begin to understand how different thought processes, or different ways the mind could function, might effect how we view and relate to time, then we might understand that with such dramatically different paradigms the phrase “the path forward”, having an implication of time, has two completely different meanings depending on the perspective one's psyche functions from.
There is also an intrinsic difficulty in making such a shift. Big change is difficult for the mind. Trauma is one thing that sometimes creates such change (this could be physical or psychological). Certain drugs, especially hallucinogenic sometimes create varying levels of change in this regard (if only for a short time or longer).
Bohmian Dialogue and Tabooing Our Questions
The mind wants to figure things out on its own. Like an addict that will never let you tell them what to do (but will always accept your money) the mind can only be told or taught so much before its defense mechanism kicks in.
This was part of the brilliance of Krishnamurti's “lectures”. He taught like he wasn't a teacher and he wasn't teaching anything. He posed difficult questions to any listeners mind, and he challenged you to take the question seriously.
So serious that he didn't want you to answer, even if only to yourself. “Just, wait!” He wanted you to observe your own reactions and fears as you ask yourself these questions. He wants you to be careful, because your natural instinct will be to run from the question.
He wants you to SEE the problem, NOT try to solve it.
Krishnamurti teaches that seeing the problem for what it IS, solves the problem.
Ultimately its a way of communicating, without excluding anyone, and creating a dialogue within a group. It's a group way of creating the same kind of awareness Krishnamurti alluded to.
It's a delicate way of inciting conversation, whether withing a group or within oneself, and going inward very deep into this conversation, but without causing the psyche to want to invoke “fight or flight”.
Some Interesting Questions
Can one live with the “belief” that our problems don't need to be solved? Can my mind observe my life, what IS, without trying to change it or get involved?
Of course there is a need to do THIS or THAT. Driving, one has to think about this turn or next turn etc.
That's the physical or the present moment problem.
We need to ask about the problems we are trying to solve while driving, that are not related to driving, not urgent, but just filling our mind. Anxiety cause by stress that is not actually helping to solve any problems. It's an irrational product of a mind that is not functioning optimally.
Can the mind let go of these types of problems forever?
I urge you to begin asking yourSELF these questions, without instinctively trying to answer (solve) them.
Ask yourself, “Is it possible for the mind to change the way it functions?”
"Can One Change One's Own Core Beliefs?"
And finally, “HOW can such a change be brought about?”