Posted by Racer on February 29, 2004, at 21:39:58
In reply to Body Memories, posted by EscherDementian on February 29, 2004, at 19:14:16
This is analogous to body memory, I think, rather than directly related to what you're describing. I used to teach horseback riding, and one of the things I used to teach students was to FEEL what was happening. You do use your mind in learning to ride, but the hardest and most essential part is to let go of your mind and FEEL what is actually happening. Let your body learn how to do it. Specifically, I told them that they had to FEEL it before they could UNDERSTAND it.
I think that's linked to what you're describing. Let's see if it makes sense this way: rather than thinking that these are necessarily PREverbal, how about thinking of them as SUBverbal and see if that makes it clearer to you? Some things are just processed in your animal brain, rather than in your sapient mind.
I'm a big disbeliever in diagnoses, tending to stand pretty firmly on my mountaintop, surrounded by water, proclaiming "It's not raining here!" I resisted listening to a friend who suggested that this was PTSD for a long time, despite pretty convincing evidence to the contrary -- largely because I tend to focus so much on the solution, even if I don't fully understand the problem. That said, same friend finally send me an article called The Limits Of Talk, by someone called Bessel van der Kolk. The article talks about shell shock victims from WWI, and something about it hit me like a ton of bricks. (The old Mule Training joke: "first you hit him over the head with a 2x4, to get his attention...") I don't know where to find it, but you could google it and see if it helps you?
If it does help, with riding, many times your body learns something positive that your mind never does. I can think of a lot of things that I can do, but only if I let my body do them for me. As soon as I think about what I'm doing, I can't do it anymore. Same for me with language. (Although, use it or lose it style, I'm basically monolingual these days... {{sigh}}) I could speak or read in another language, but I couldn't translate very well for someone else, because the nuances of certain words was too completely intuitive for me to express in English.
In the meantime, best wishes to you, and take good care. I hope these ramblings helped somewhat.
poster:Racer
thread:318813
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040225/msgs/318834.html