In the light of everyday clinical observations during psychedelic therapy and other forms of experiential self-exploration, I became increasingly aware that the explanations presented by mainstream, analytically oriented psychiatry for the majority of emotional disorders were superficial, incomplete, and unconvincing. This was particularly striking in those cases that involved extreme violence or self-destructive activity. It became quite obvious that psycho-dynamic material of a biographical nature, no matter how traumatic, cannot provide an adequate explanation for such serious and drastic psychopathological phenomena as the automutilations, bloody suicide, sadomasochism, bestial murders, or indiscriminate impulsive killing seen in individuals running amok. A history of emotional deprivation in childhood, painful teething, or even physical abuse by parents and their surrogates certainly do not impress one as adequate psychological motives for blood-curdling acts of criminal psychopathology.
Since these are acts the consequences of which have life and death relevance, the forces that underlie them must be of comparable scope. Explanations based entirely on the analysis of biographical material appear even more absurd and inadequate when applied to extremes of social psychopathology, as exemplified by the insanity of mass extermination and genocide, the apocalyptic horrors of concentration camps, the collective support given by entire nations to grandiose and megalomaniac schemes of autocratic tyrants, the sacrifice of millions in the name of naive utopian visions, or the holocaust of absurd wars and bloody revolutions. It certainly is hard to take seriously psychological theories that would try to relate mass pathology of such depth to a history of childhood spanking, or some comparable emotional and physical trauma. The instinctivistic speculations of such researchers as Robert Ardrey (1961; 1966), Desmond Morris (1967), and Konrad Lorenz (1963), suggesting that this destructive behavior is phylogenetically programmed, are of little help because the nature and scope of human aggression has no parallels in the animal kingdom.
Let us now consider some of the most important observations from in-depth experiential work, with and without psychedelic drugs, that seem emminently relevant for the problem of human aggression. In general agreement with Erich Fromm (1973), this clinical material clearly indicates the need to distinguish defensive or benign aggression, which is in the service of the survival of the individual and of the species, from malignant destructiveness and sadistic cruelty. The latter seems to be specific for humans and tends to increase rather than decrease with the advance of civilization. It is this malignant form of aggression—without any serious biological or economic reason, nonadaptive, and not programmed phylogenetically—that constitutes the real problem for humanity. In view of the powerful modern technology at its disposal, this malignant aggression has become in the last few decades a serious threat not only to the existence of the human species, but to the survival of life on this planet. According to Fromm, it is therefore important to differentiate between the aggressiveness of an instinctual nature and those forms of destructiveness that are rooted in the personality structure; the latter can be described as “nonin-stinctual, character-rooted passion.”
The observations from clinical psychotherapy with LSD and other experiential techniques have added some important new dimensions to this insight. They strongly indicate that the patterns of malignant aggression are understandable in terms of the dynamics of the unconscious, if the model of the human mind is extended to include the perinatal and transpersonal levels. This finding has some far-reaching theoretical and practical consequences. It shows malignant aggression not as a phenomenon that is fatally rooted in the hardware of the central nervous system and its rigid instinctual programs, but as a manifestation of the flexible and changeable functional matrices, or software, of the brain.
Fig. 31. Unleashing of powerful instinctual forces of an aggressive nature is quite characteristic for experiences related to the death-rebirth process. These four drawings represent various manifestations of murderous aggression in an LSD session dominated by BPM III.
Fig. 32. Aggression oriented both outward and inward is one of the most typical manifestations of BPM III. This is reflected in the above symbolic self-portrait of a psychiatric patient, drawn after a powerful perinatal LSD session. A stylized bird of prey is crushing with his right claw a helpless mouse. The left claw is transformed into a cannon turned against the predator’s own head. The antique car on top reflects a play on words (self-portrait=auto-portrait), but also the relationship of this type of aggression to reckless driving and accident-proneness.
Furthermore, this finding puts malignant aggression in the context of the death-rebirth process and thus connects it with the striving for transcendence and with the mystical quest. If faced internally and worked through in a safe, structured, and socially sanctioned framework, experiences of malignant aggression and self-destructiveness can become an important instrument in the process of spiritual transformation. From this point of view, much of the senseless violence, oriented toward both self and others, and both individual and collective, appears to be the result of misunderstood and warped spiritual drives. In many instances, in a therapeutic framework and with the use of appropriate techniques, these energies can be redirected to their spiritual goals. It is useful at this point to focus more specifically on the sources of malignant aggression and its clinical and social manifestations.
In general agreement with psychoanalytic concepts, much aggression appears to be related to traumatic material from childhood and other biographical factors. It is usually connected with the reliving of memories that involved interference with the satisfaction of the basic needs or security of the child and the ensuing sense of frustration. Conflicts around the achievement of pleasure in various libidinal zones, emotional deprivation and rejection by parents or their surrogates, and gross physical abuse are the most typical examples of such situations. The involvement of the oral and anal zones seems to be particularly relevant from this point of view. If the psychotherapeutic process uses techniques with rather limited power to penetrate the unconscious, such as face-to-face discussions or Freudian free associations, all the aggression may appear to be connected with biographical material, and the client, as well as the therapist, never reaches a deeper level of understanding of the processes involved. However, with the use of psychedelics or some powerful experiential techniques, an entirely different image begins to emerge quite early in therapy.
Initially, the individual may experience aggression in connection with various biographical events from childhood, but the intensity of the destructive impulses attached to these events seems excessive and out of proportion to the nature and relevance of the situations involved. In some instances, various seemingly psychological traumas may be found to derive their emotional power from physical traumas in the person’s life to which they are thematically related. However, even this mechanism cannot itself provide a full and satisfactory explanation. As the process of experiential self-exploration deepens, it becomes obvious that the secret of the enormity of the emotions and sensations involved lies in the underlying perinatal level and in meaningful thematic connections between the biographical material involved and specific facets of the birth trauma, which is the true source of these aggressive impulses.
Thus an extreme oral aggression with murderous feelings and vicious tendencies to bite experienced in relation to some unsatisfactory aspect of nursing is suddenly identified as being also the rage of a baby who is desperately fighting for life and breath in the clutch of the birth canal. Emotions and sensations that were originally attributed to the trauma of circumcision and related castration fears are recognized as belonging to the frightening separation from the mother when the umbilical cord was cut at birth. A combination of violent aggressive impulses, anal spasms, and fears of biological material that seemed related to severe toilet training is reinterpreted as reaction to the life-and-death struggle during the final stage of the birth process. And similarly, rage associated with suffocation that, on the biographical level seemed to be a metaphorically somatized reaction to the coercive, restricting, and “choking” influence of a domineering mother is exper-ientially linked to the literally confining and strangling maternal organism during the time of biological delivery.
Once it becomes clear that only a small portion of the murderous aggressive impulses belongs to the traumatic situations from childhood and that their deeper source is the trauma of birth, the magnitude, intensity, and malignant nature of the violent impulses begins to make sense. The vital threat to the organism involved in the birth process, extreme physical and emotional stress, excruciating pain, and fear of suffocation make this situation a plausible source of malignant aggression. It is understandable that the reactivation of the unconscious record of an event in which survival was seriously threatened by another biological organism could result in aggressive impulses that would endanger the life of the individual or others.
Phenomena that are obscure and puzzling so long as we try to see them as being only biographically determined, such as automutilation, bloody suicide, sadistic murder or genocide, certainly make more sense when we realize that their experiential source is a process of comparable scope and relevance. The fact that all the Freudian erogenous zones are deeply engaged in the birth process provides a natural bridge to later traumas during the various stages of libidinal development. Difficult and painful experiences involving the oral, anal, urethral, and phallic areas and functions are thus not only traumatic in their own right, but also through their close thematic association with specific perinatal elements. As a result of this connection, they provide experiential channels through which different aspects of perinatal dynamics can, under certain circumstances, influence conscious processes. Childhood experiences, therefore, are not the actual primary sources of malignant aggression. They only contribute to the existing abysmal repository of perinatal aggression, weaken the defenses that normally prevent it from emerging into consciousness, and color specifically its manifestations in the individual’s life.
The connection between malignant aggression and perinatal dynamics finds important support in certain rather common observations from psychedelic therapy. If the pharmacological effect of LSD wears off at a time when the subject is under the dynamic influence of BPM III and the experience does not reach the point of resolution by shifting to BPM IV, a highly characteristic clinical picture tends to develop. It involves extreme physical and emotional tension of a generalized nature, accompanied by sensations of great pressure in various parts of the body, as well as localized discomfort in some of the erogenous zones. The specific pattern of this condition in terms of the relative involvement of different anatomical regions and physiological functions varies greatly from one situation to another.
This condition is associated with an overwhelming upsurge of aggressive impulses into consciousness; it frequently requires an extreme effort to maintain control and prevent violent acting out. The individuals involved describe themselves as “time-bombs” ready to explode any minute. This destructive energy is oriented both inward and outward; elemental self-destructive impulses and aggression oriented toward persons and objects in the environment can coexist, or alternate in rather rapid sequences. If these volcanic forces were allowed to manifest themselves or override the individual’s defenses, suicide and homicide would be equally plausible outcomes. Although both destructive and self-destructive tendencies are always present, in some instances one or the other direction can be clearly dominant.
These observations indicate a clear psychogenic link between violence, murder, self-destructive behavior, and bloody suicide, on the one hand, and the dynamics of the third perinatal matrix, on the other. They are also highly relevant for the understanding of various situations in which the individual kills indiscriminately and then directly or indirectly commits suicide. The phenomenon of running amok—a culture-bound syndrome occurring in Malaysia— is an extreme example. Even a cursory analysis of the lives of mass murderers, such as the Boston Strangler, the Texas gunman White, or Charles Manson, reveals that their dreams and fantasies, as well as their everyday lives, abound in themes directly related to BPM III.
A sociocultural example of behavior reflecting psychologically the dynamics of BPM III is the kamikaze warrior; he causes massive destruction and killing and in the process he dies himself. At the same time, this act is viewed in a broader spiritual framework as a sacrifice for a higher cause and for the Emperor, who is the personification of the divine. A mitigated form of activation of the third perinatal matrix will result in a state of irritability, anger, and a strong tendency to provoke conflicts, attract the aggression of others, and invite self-punishing situations.
Similar observations also shed new light on various self-destructive behaviors that result in physical automutilation; as in the above examples, the key is again the dynamics of BPM III. When individuals experience in their sessions intense painful sensations that form an intrinsic part of the death-rebirth struggle, they frequently feel a strong need for externally induced suffering that would involve sensations congruent with their experience. Thus, a person who has an excruciating pain in the neck or the small of the back might demand painful massage in those places. Similarly, feelings of suffocation can result in a craving for, or attempts at, strangulation. In the extreme, individuals who experience excruciating pains in various parts of their bodies may believe that they need to be cut by a knife or stabbed by a sharp object to achieve relief from their unbearable suffering. During some psychedelic sessions of this kind, the sitters actually have to prevent subjects from hurting themselves by assuming dangerous positions that could damage their necks, hitting their heads against the wall, scratching their faces, or poking their eyes.
Deeper analysis reveals that these phenomena, which on the surface suggest gross psychopathology, are motivated by an attempt at self-healing. When an individual experiences intense pain or strong negative emotion without an adequate external stimulus, this is an indication that traumatic material is emerging from the unconscious. In the context of this underlying gestalt, the same unpleasant emotion or physical sensation is represented with an intensity which surpasses that consciously experienced by the subject. When the nature and intensity of the conscious experience exactly matches that of the unconscious gestalt, the problem has been resolved and healing occurs.
Fig. 33. Drawings reflecting deep regression to prenatal existence and to biological birth. First picture depicts the tranquillity of intrauterine existence by equating it with the atmosphere in the interior of a pyramid. The second picture reveals a profound insight into the connection between the suffering of the child during birth and Christ’s agony on the cross by portraying a crucified fetus.
Thus, the insight that it is important to experience more of the same discomfort to reach resolution is essentially accurate. However, for this to happen, the experiential pattern must be completed internally, not acted out. It is essential that the subject relive the original situation in a complex way and with full conscious insight; experiencing a modified replica of it, without experiential access to the level of the unconscious to which it belongs, perpetuates the problem rather than solving it. The major mistake of those individuals who tend to mutilate themselves is confusion of the inner process with the elements of external reality. It is quite similar to the error of an individual involved in reliving a painful birth process who seeks an open window, seeing it as an escape route from the clutch of the birth canal. The above examples clearly indicate the absolute indispensability of an experienced sitter who can create a safe environment and prevent possible serious accidents based on inadequate reality testing by the client.
When a session dominated by BPM III is poorly resolved, various degrees of self-mutilating tendencies can persist in everday life for indefinite periods of time. A condition of this kind can be indistinguishable from a tendency to automutilation that one sees in naturally occurring psychopathological conditions. When this occurs, it is essential to continue the uncovering work with the use of various experiential techniques to reach the resolution. If that is insufficient, another psychedelic session should be planned as soon as possible. In some instances, various degrees of self-mutilation do not reflect the existence of a specific feeling in the unconscious, but are motivated by lack of feeling. In this case the individual may attempt to pinch, stab, cut, or burn himself or herself in order to overcome a sense of physical and emotional anesthesia and to experience some feelings. In the last analysis, even this problem typically reflects the existence of powerful forces operating in the unconscious. Lack of feeling frequently means not a lack of sensitivity, but a clash of conflicting forces that cancel each other out. Dynamic conflict of this kind quite commonly has perinatal roots.
We have already discussed in the preceding section certain psychopathological phenomena that involve aggression in combination with sexuality and scatology as characteristic manifestations of BPM III. For sadomasochism, rapes, sexual murders, and necrophilia, the participation of the sexual and scatological elements is so essential that it seemed preferrable to treat them in the context of sexuality rather than aggression.
The relevance of the new insights from deep experiential psychotherapy for the understanding of malignant aggression becomes even more obvious when we move from individual psycho-pathology into the realm of mass psychology and social pathology. The new insights into the psychology of wars, bloody revolutions, totalitarian systems, concentration camps, and genocide are of such fundamental theoretical and practical relevance that they will be examined separately in chapter 8, which deals with human culture.
Although for all practical purposes the most important repositories of aggressive impulses are the negative perinatal matrices, many transpersonal experiences can function as additional sources of destructive energy. Thus, large amounts of hostility are typically associated with reliving the memories of various embryonic crises, particularly attempted abortions. In some instances, a strong charge of negative emotions can be attached to a traumatic or frustrating ancestral, racial, or collective memory. A large variety of rather specific forms of aggression accompanies authentic identification with different animal forms; these can involve the roles of fighting enemies and rivals of the same species, or of animal, avian, reptilian, and other predators, hunting smaller victims for food.
Another important source of aggressive feelings is the reliving of traumatic memories from previous incarnations. It is important to relive the events involved, including the emotions and physical sensations, in order to free oneself from the bondage of anger and other negative affects and reach the ability to forgive and be forgiven. Mythology abounds in themes involving aggression and violence; many of the archetypal sequences stage horrific demons and wrathful deities, the fierce combats of gods, heroes, and legendary creatures, as well as scenes of destruction of incredible dimensions. Much destructive energy is also tied to transpersonal scenes of inorganic processes, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, ocean storms, the destruction of celestial bodies, and black holes.
The transpersonal realms thus represent a rich repository of negative energies of various kinds and degrees. Like the biographical and perinatal sources, they are of great significance for the understanding of psychopathology and for psychotherapy. In actual clinical work, the transpersonal roots of aggression sometimes represent the deepest layer of a multilevel arrangement that also involves biographical and perinatal components; at other times the specific transpersonal forms immediately underlie the emotional or psychosomatic symptoms. In either case, the clinical problems with this dynamic structure cannot be solved unless and until the individual allows himself or herself to experience the transpersonal gestalts involved.