One Way of Understanding How Psychotherapy Works--Achieving Higher Levels of Integration in Our Neural Processing

One of the basic concepts in the book that I have already referred to--the Neuroscience of Psychotherapy--is that therapy helps people to achieve a higher level of neural integration.  What does that mean exactly?  Well imagine a house with several computers in it, and each computer is linked by a single line to one central router.  Actually, that is not too different from what most of us have.  Now, imagine in the future that each computer is linked directly to every other computer, and every router is linked directly to every other router.  A new level of  functionality could be be achieved by that integration.

The theory is that many people lack neural integration because of a variety of factors, mostly environmental.  These could include neglect of the individual by their parents when they were growing up.  They could include defense mechanisms such as repression, denial, reaction formation, and so on.  When we have a feeling (such as anger or lust) and our response is "that's not me!" then we are preventing integration.  (A different response might be "Wow, some part of me feels that!?")  Integration can be vertical (neocortex down to limbic system) and lateral (right to left brain, etc.)  The technicalities are not important here.  What is important is that in psychotherapy, people have the opportunity to grow new dendritic branches to make more connections.  This in turn increases their level of self awareness of the problem and increases their flexibility in problem solving.

Imagine the following.  You are in a bad part of town.  It is dark.  You want to get to the freeway, but you keep hitting "dead end" and "detour" signs.  Now imagine a totally different scenario--no matter which way you go, the streets lead to more streets, and all of them give you routes to the freeway.  This can be seen as the role of therapy, opening up new routes to flexible action through the growth of dendritic branching and the increased integration of the brain.  This helps to overcome old defense mechanisms and can lead to totally new ways of behaving.

The idea that our brains can continue to change and grow is an exciting one.  It means that we don't have to be stuck with the attitudes of our childhood.  We don't have to continue in old, well-trodden, but self-defeating ways.  It is the goal, and the job, of a good therapist to help make that happen.  Sometimes we succeed, and sometimes we don't, but that it is the goal.  And when it happens--it's exciting!