- To Change Your Mind - Details Matter
Deeper Recovery: Time, Beyond Labels
Deep Recovery: Beyond Labels
March 5, 2007ADD/ADHD Innovations in Treatment
March 17, 2007
Werner Heisenberg Wikipedia
Codependency: Has limited Useful Applications
Let's go a bit deeper. I've been around the recovery crowd so long, I get a bit tense about labels. The reason is simple, but complex:
Labels [almost always] do not honor the concept of *applied time.* Time brings in the larger concept of *function* [over time] and tracks change and direction.
Recovery, most therapy, and most spiritual practice takes us into the big picture, beyond this moment, beyond being locked only to this perception, this ‘now' thing. Deep Recovery keeps us from becoming locked in this time and place, frozen, arrested in our view of ourselves and others.
Fundamentalism is essentially a reductionistic labeling process. Think: functional brain imaging as process, not labeling. Recovery, function, deals with the complexity of life, with multiple variables, and change over time. Dry drunks are in “recovery,” but frozen in labels, and not recovering in life.
Labels, like codependency, freeze time. “Only, always, and never” are all time-bound concepts. They miss the picture painted by Nobel Laureate Werner Heisenberg in 1927:
Uncertainty Principles
Werner taught us deep fundamentals of science through particle physics. One of his most interesting concepts, the Uncertainty Principle, still works in everyday life today. He helped us appreciate that precise measurement of even the smallest particles occur in the context of a grid of time [oversimplified – but stay with me here]. Heisenberg's point simplified: an electron exists in a field, not in a specific place, because electron position is relevant to time. *Relativity* is not time bound. And with time in millionths of a second, electron location is different moment to moment. And so are we. From skin, to bones, to brain.
Fixed concepts, fixed thinking, keep us frozen. Buzz words limit our vision. Time-bound concepts keep us time-bound. Such is the Insanity of Labels discussed by my old buddy Alfred Korzybski.
“Codependency,” as Lyle Lachmuth pointed out in a previous post whilst commenting on “bipolar,” is a term that might be helpful to beginners as they start to think more deeply about matters. The seduction: the problem then becomes codependency. Whatever that word is. Look at the book “Codependent No More.” -Was a book of frozen labels with no recovery practice, no function, no action, no growth.
That ‘No More' book was one of the reasons I wrote Deep Recovery in 1992. Diagnostic labels work for the newbies and the homogenizers. They do work on the front end of understanding. But reductionisitic, time-bound words demonstrate little long term application in real life. They don't endure the test of time.
Real life occurs in a context of time. Labels are momentary. The DSM 4 is already outdated with SPECT imaging and brain visualization. It was a great dream. The DSM 4 is helpful, yes, because we are all beginners in this brain science thing.
Any comments are welcome! What do you think?
cp
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3 Comments
Personally, the DSM IV OVER labels, over reduces things.
Maybe the Innu needs 21 words for snow. . . but do we really need that fine a breakdown of ‘mental illness’?
For example, does it really make a difference if I’m Bipolar I or Bipolar II? Actually, I’m a Bipolar II and damn proud of it!! ;-)Or, is is more useful to know that I have challenges with mood regulation?
Sorry to rant. But, I don’t feel like excessively fine distinctions in labelling do much good.
Lyle, who is a Bipolar II, Canadian, twin, Caucasion, heterosexual male, of German, Irish and Norwegian descent (so know you KNOW me)
Thanks so much Patsi-
Especially appreciate comments from colleagues in the field, and even more so those with your serious writing skills.
For those who don’t know Patsi, pop over to her site and you will see how accomplished she is with her writing/coaching practice.
Excellent post, Chuck. I appreciate your clear explanations all the time. I am a long time student of recovery, always learning and the whole labeling thing irks me, because it is so limiting, both for ourselves and for the way we experience other people. Yes, that can be useful up to a point. After that, it closes down the mind and we miss the amazing variations in the people landscape. The electrons in time is a useful metaphor, as we constantly are in motion and bouncing off other electrons in our lives. Thanks for the insights.