A rose by any other name.
I've written on many occasions about the big 4 emotions that TMS falls under (driven by): anger, frustration, resentment, and sorrow (grief). I also wrote in GPD that there have been over 600 emotions identified.
I had this conversation with Dr. Z last year. We can call it what we like, but there are truly only two types of
emotions: it is either a good one or a bad one. Anger is simply the catch-all emotion because we can more readily identify it's essence in our daily life. It's also the emotion that frightens us most because anger controls us. Carl Jung characterized the shadow as an essence of "positively demonic dynamism”..and as a "raging monster" within all of us. He also stated to never push a quiet person, a nice person, too hard, because of their anger. They're nice because they have no control over their anger, it controls them, so they avoid it.
But I would submit that I can walk you backward from emotions like grief and show you that it generates anger, and rage. Dr. Sarno also proved that people who came to see him whose spouse had recently died were actually angry at that person for dying and leaving them. He had great success once he was able to make them understand that although they grieved, they were also unconsciously angry at their loved one for dying, and they healed with this new knowledge. Grief co-exists with the reaction of anger although they may not be weighted the same at the same time.
Therefore, in essence, you can call any emotion anything you like, but run it through its evolutionary iterations and declensions and you will see that everything will come back to a primal reaction, and that happens to be what we often refer to as anger--which is the social reaction to the first primal reaction: fear.
So using the word anger is simpler, and catch-all; much easier to say "anger" than to type out all the emotions every time you talk about TMS. But it's also the definitive word because of what Alan said above, they're "not mutually exclusive."And that's because you will find anger woven in the threads of all negative emotion. Who knows, it may have been the first emotion in reaction to fear? ...as a survival response. When the amygdala is removed from primates they lose their anger response, and along with it their sex drive. So anger is most primal and a good word to use, and everyone knows angry makeup sex is the best kind of sex.
The larger question is why does the word "anger" matter? Remember, that healing is not about getting better. It's about un-blocking everything you put up to resist healing, With TMS, you're already ok, healthy, and your body is strong. So the only thing preventing healing is your resistance. I see it every single day. People questioning this and that, "why is this...or I don't believe that..." This is resistance, but it's ok. It's a means by which sufferers slowly integrate and accept TMS, and ultimately heal. They feel the need to question the minutia of TMS as a means of slower acceptance. In my opinion, it's because of those "highly unstable" animals Dr. Sarno wrote of. Slow change is natural.
We change our beliefs slowly because we fear change, and so people challenge the components of TMS within the slower integration of the knowledge. This is ok, it's normal, and I said in GPD, that it could be more psychologically safer for the individual to change slower. But also beware, that too much challenging of those things that have been proven to be true is a sign of great resistance. "What you resist, persists." CG Jung.
Challenging is resisting, but it's also a method by which we accept and integrate things that we deem to be true.
Walk the line of balance, and with each step begin to let go of all the barriers you've placed on your own healing. Free yourself with belief that you will heal, and you will eventually heal. And that belief ....may just have to come from accepting that what has been working in many people is already true.
Steve
