Comments about "Mental Health Through Will - Training", by Abraham Low

Hi everyone,

Plum posted a link in another thread about a book. See bellow the link to the free PDF. The book is "Mental Health Through Will - Training", written by Abraham Low.

I didn't hear about this book until recently (a few days ago). I understand that this is a well known book for veteran TMS members here. I wanted to open this thread and post citations from the book.

You all can comment about the ideas from the book. And ask questions. Maybe veteran TMS members could answer the questions and so on.

I just read the first 2 chapters about 50 pages but found them very very useful. In my opinion this is the best book for TMS-ers.

Link to the book:

https://www.bookyards.com/en/book/details/17328/Mental-Health-Through-WillTraning (Mental Health Through Will-Traning by A Low Abraham - Free PDF books - Bookyards)

Citation from the book, the end of Chapter II:

...You see here why our patients, prior to being trained in Recovery techniques, struggle against acquiring insight. They don't like it. They don't like insight because it deprives them of the excitement, drama and vitality of soul stirring and heart warming fights. Fights provide the stir of action that is so sorely missing in the fears, confusion and helplessness that characterize the lives of our patients.

Fights give them the sense of living that has fled from the boredom of their daily existence. They offer the opportunity to display vigor, strength, decision, eagerness, determination, all of them elements which are painfully lacking in a drab routine of hopelessness and paralysis of will. Our patients want agitation and stimulation, not equilibrium and peace. They want exhilarating theories, not balancing realities. They crave the use of force, not the adjustment of sensations, feelings and impulses. If you tell them that their unbridled tempers will upset health and disturb peace their verbal or mental reply is: "I shall rather disturb peace and lose health than give up temper."

It is the crowning glory of Recovery that it was able to reverse this formula and to make patients adopt the principle that temper must be eliminated because it is the sworn enemy of peace and health. This radical change in attitude was beautifully demonstrated by Tillie in an encounter which she had with the same neighbor several months later when, challenged to a fight, she "smiled and refused to get into an argument." She "was sore but the after-effect lasted just a short time." Behavior was finally guided by the realities of peace and health, not by sentimental cravings for excitement and intellectual considerations for fictitious theories.

 

This excerpt really speaks to the concept of emotional addiction and the addictive nature of "negative" emotions. The person becomes addicted to this inner drama in a sense, as a distraction and a defense mechanism. You see this with eating disorders and all sorts of other obsessions. In order to overcome this, a person needs to reconnect with their inner desires and passions and purpose. No one can tell you what that is or how to do it. This is the "how" part of the equation that is sometimes demanded by the "helpless" sufferer. They don't want to take ownership , so instead they project the question onto others or debate endlessly about why it doesn't apply to them, or they search for ways to poke holes and find contradictions in something that doesn't even exist. They create 'drama" in that sense and persuasively suck others into their vortex. I'm pretty sure this is a Buddhist concept as well.

 

Yes! And the last sentence spoke to me, as a conclusion. Peace and health, peace guided by a quiet mind...in my case. As I understand it. Instead of always intellectualizing and reading about so so many theories and methods how to heal, how not to obsess about it, why this, why that, etc.

I'm going to increase my time for daily meditations - this for the mind and soul. To tame the mind. And I'll increase the time for work outs - this for the body. To burn the energy of the animal (the body).

 

Agreed! Random theories and striving to be right never equate to inner peace. Each person has to find their own inner truth. All the external stuff is noise. Our society places too much value over externals (money, degrees, status, winning etc.) over inner peace and contentment (meaning, connection, love, joy etc..)

 

Inner peace and contentment are so much more important...

 

I have come to believe that the perceived goal of Recovery changes as time goes by. There is no question that in the beginning the neurolinguistic reprogramming is essential because it replaces fearful or “temperamental” language with hopeful thoughts and actions. This step is critical because of how limiting life has become for most who suffer from nervous prostration. But I have come to view it from years down the road as having a single goal: the removal of self-limiting thoughts, beliefs and behaviors from the lives of its members. I am a very different person emotionally from the one who limped in to a meeting for the first time 15 years ago. I strongly advocate joining this group because its sole purpose is to get people back to full living at little to no cost.

Going it alone can sometimes feel as though your mind is in a washing machine with only 4-5 troubling thoughts spinning in and out of consciousness. In Recovery meetings these are treated with a welcoming and relaxed attitude, the specter is removed, and suddenly the thoughts and beliefs that we label as bad are seen as ordinary and “just a thought, not a fact.” Reading stories of successful recovery is powerful but does not compare to being buoyed and encouraged along the way, step-by-step, by others whose lows are lower than yours, whose sufferings make yours seem trivial, and whose dedication to overcome mental barriers is inspiring. I do wish all of you well.

 

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what do you mean by joining this group? Are you just referring to this website or is there something else?

 

https://recoveryinternational.org/ (Home - Recovery International)
Dr. Abraham Low, whose wisdom is quoted in this thread, began this organization in the 1930s. There are local groups all over the US and in several other countries. They help treat each other with common sense and common language using Dr. Low’s books and audio recordings as guidance. I briefly joined my local chapter, then worked with the lady who coordinated it, to recover. I have written extensively on the tmshelp forum under the same pseudonym

 

Great, thank you. I’m actually reading a book by Robert Courtade base on Dr. Low’s principals.

 

The book is here:

https://www.amazon.com/Self-help-Fear-Anger-Abridged-Recovery/dp/1530882095/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 (Amazon.com)

 

Sometimes we indeed resist gaining insight into our mental health struggles because it takes away the excitement and drama that comes with fighting against them.

 

A much more comprehensive and organized presentation of Dr. Low's principles is "Peace of Body, Peace of Mind," by Rose Van Sickle.

 

Thanks for telling us about this! I'm seriously considering giving it a try. Years ago, I went to A.A. and thought the group therapy aspect of it was quite powerful. This looks like it would provide that, as well as some useful tools for processing emotions in a healthy way.

 

Sometimes we indeed resist gaining insight into our mental health struggles because it takes away the excitement and drama that comes with fighting against them. But as the book suggests, it's important to focus on peace and health instead of constantly seeking out excitement and stimulation. It's a radical change in attitude, but one that can lead to real improvements in our mental health. I also checked out the link you provided for restore-mentalhealth.com, and it looks like a great resource for anyone looking to improve their mental health. Thanks again for sharing, and I hope others will find value in the book as well.

 

Sam,

I got the book you recommended, the one by Rose Van Sickle. I'm writing this to thank you very much for mentioning it. Dr. Low's book is good but I couldn't read it, I have it but it was too complicated, I didn't have the patience for all the stories etc. All the books that I read regarding TMS until now, all of them were useless. They didn't really help me. At all. I already knew about what the authors wrote. It was nothing new to me.

But this book, Rose's book, is very special. It gives me hope, real hope. I only read 40 pages of it and there are another 200 or so more. Great book!

All the best! Thanks again.

 

Sita, I'm pleased that you're finding Rose Van Sickle's book helpful. It's an excellent exposition of Dr. Low's work. Low's Recovery principles dovetail very nicely with Dr. Sarno's teachings of TMS.