How a person reveals himself in extreme situations. Human behavior in extreme and emergency situations

Ticket 1. Question 1. Psychology of extreme situations and conditions as a psychological discipline and the reasons for its occurrence.

Psychology of extreme situations - This is one of the areas of applied psychology. It explores problems associated with assessing, predicting and optimizing human mental states and behavior in stressful situations. The complication of modern production caused by the scientific and technological revolution, the constantly increasing pace and rhythm of our life, the constant saturation of it with various information, the increase in production and non-production contacts between people, various types of natural and man-made accidents and catastrophes, and an unstable socio-economic situation in the country often give rise to people have mental tension. The extreme form of its manifestation is stress. Situations and factors leading to its occurrence are called extreme.

When using the concept “extreme” we are not talking about normal, ordinary conditions of activity, but about circumstances significantly different from them. Extreme conditions can be created not only by maximization (overload, overexposure), but also by minimization (underload: lack of information, communication, movements, etc.) of existing factors. Therefore, the effect on a person’s activity and condition in both cases can be the same.

Workers in many professions operate under extreme conditions; pilots, astronauts, firefighters when extinguishing a fire, military personnel when performing combat missions, law enforcement officers during special operations, etc. These professions initially involve working in extreme conditions. However, representatives of many other professions also work in such conditions: drivers, workers in “hot” shops, fishermen, steeplejacks, dispatchers on various types of transport, specialists whose work involves high-voltage currents and explosives, representatives of many operator professions, etc. Moreover the number of such professions and the people employed in them is steadily increasing.

In extreme conditions, a person’s usual mode of work and rest is often disrupted. In severe extreme situations, mental and other overloads reach limits, followed by overwork, nervous exhaustion, disruption of activity, affective reactions, psychogenia (pathological conditions). Extreme situations are dangerous to the life, health, and well-being of people. Extreme situations are increasingly occurring in normal work activities, resulting in so-called occupational stress.

Stress is a concept used to refer to a wide range of human conditions and actions that arise as a response to a variety of extreme influences (stressors). Stressors are usually divided into physiological (pain, hunger, thirst, excessive physical activity, high or low temperature, etc.) and psychological (factors that act through their signaling value, such as danger, threat, deception, resentment, information overload and etc.).

Regardless of the type of stressor, psychologists study the effects they cause at the physiological, psychological and behavioral levels. Usually these consequences are negative. Emotional shifts occur, the motivational sphere is deformed, the course of perception and thinking processes changes, motor and speech behavior is disrupted. A particularly strong disorganizing effect on human activity is produced by emotional stress that has reached the level of affect in one form or another (impulsive, inhibitory or generalizing). The power of affect is such that they are capable of inhibiting any other mental processes. Moreover, affects impose on a person certain stereotypical methods of “emergency exit” from an extreme situation, corresponding to the form of manifestation of affect. However, such methods, formed over millions of years of biological evolution of the species “Homo sapiens” (flight, numbness, uncontrolled aggression), justify themselves only in typical biological conditions, but not in social ones!

Extreme situations in our lives are inevitable, so psychologists in many countries have recently been intensively studying the characteristics of human behavior and the patterns of their activities in extreme conditions. This allows us to draw practical conclusions regarding the training of such people and the organization of their activities.

All this led to the creation of a new scientific direction, which was given the following names by different authors, depending on specific circumstances: psychology of activity in extreme conditions, psychology of work in special conditions, extreme psychology.

Extreme Psychology - a branch of psychological science that studies the general psychological patterns of human life and activity in changed (unusual) conditions of existence: during aviation and space flights, scuba diving, staying in hard-to-reach areas of the globe (Arctic, Antarctic, highlands, desert), underground and etc.

Extreme psychology arose at the end of the 20th century, synthesizing specific research in the field of aviation, space, marine and polar psychology.

The object of study is a person whose professional activity takes place in special (complicated, unusual) and extreme conditions of his environment.

The subject of study of the discipline is the psychological patterns of human activity, mental processes, states and personality traits in their relationship with objects and means of activity, with the physical and social environment.

Research in the field of extreme psychology is aimed at improving psychological selection and psychological training for working in unusual living conditions, as well as developing measures to protect against the traumatic effects of psychogenic factors.

Ticket 1. Question 2. Psychological consequences of terrorist attacks.

The problem of terrorism is an acute problem of our time, because... terrorism poses an extreme danger to all humanity. In a peaceful life, people are focused on sociocultural development and strive for peace with each other. Terrorist acts interrupt the usual rhythm of people's lives and cause massive casualties, entail the destruction of material and spiritual values ​​that sometimes cannot be restored, sow hostility between states, provoke wars, mistrust and hatred between social and national groups, which sometimes cannot be overcome during the life of the whole generations.

Terrorist act - special kind emergency event. One of the main goals of a terrorist act is to spread terror and fear among as many people as possible. Events in recent years show that this goal is most often achieved. It became obvious that one of the most acute problems The modern world means living under the constant threat of a terrorist attack: it can happen at any time and in any place. Chronic feelings of insecurity lead to poor mental and physical health. The possibility of a terrorist attack, along with human exposure to a number of toxic, biological substances and radiation exposure, can be classified as “invisible stress” factors.

terrorist act, Firstly , is characterized by the fact that it has an extreme, sudden, life-threatening nature, breaking almost all the basic illusions of a person. Most often, this entails disorientation of a person to one degree or another, both in psychological and social space.

Second characteristic feature This type of event lies in its violence, in the fact that it occurred due to the “evil intent of certain people.”

Under psychological consequences of terrorism the negative impact on a person’s emotional and mental health should be understood. Victims of a terrorist attack are primarily susceptible to this type of consequences.

Victim terrorist attack - a person (or group of persons) who has directly suffered an attack on their fundamental rights by another person (or group of persons) acting consciously.

The psychology of victims of terror consists of five main components. They can be arranged chronologically.

This is fear, replaced by horror, causing either apathy or panic, which can give way to aggression.

Men and women behave differently as victims of terror. Certain behavioral differences are associated with the level of education, the development of intelligence and the level of well-being of a person (the less he has to lose, the greater the tendency to chaotic, unproductive protest). Some time after a terrorist attack, its victims and witnesses retain psychopathological symptoms - primarily in the form of delayed fear, as well as various kinds of phobias and regular nightmares. It should be noted that 40% of terrorist victims have deteriorating mental health. Psychological assistance is required by 20% of rescuers. Also, the consequences of terrorism differ in that several years may pass before the victim realizes that he has mental trauma as a consequence of a terrorist act and seeks help.

Classification of consequences experienced by victims of terrorism :

Uniqueness of the experience: there are few situations in life in which a person experiences the same thing;

The thought of being a pawn in a game beyond their control, beyond their understanding is terrifying.

The victim feels humiliated and worthless;

Sometimes a dependence is established between the victim and the terrorist, and the victim sees his protector in the terrorist (“Stockholm Syndrome”). For the victim, such a connection serves a protective function, alleviating feelings of fear and helplessness. However, after the incident, this addiction can turn into a source of guilt, which can undermine all attempts at treatment;

The situation includes an element of complete surprise, which cannot but cause a strong feeling of helplessness and anxiety.

The consequences of traumatic stress in victims of terrorism are of a different nature and manifest themselves in different ways.

Psychological - decreased self-esteem, level of social adaptation and frustration tolerance; the most characteristic mental state that develops under the influence of traumatic situations, including after a terrorist attack, is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Increase in the number of terrorist attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation in Lately is associated both with an increase in the number of victims directly affected and with an increase in the number of people indirectly related to this, i.e. who witnessed what happened thanks to the media. Developing psychological disorders as a consequence of experiencing the growing threat of terrorism in recent times can acquire the character of a mental epidemic. Along with the “Vietnamese”, “Afghan” and “Chechen” syndromes identified and recognized by psychologists, psychotherapists and doctors, the totality of psychological consequences from the perception of the threat of a terrorist act can be combined into the “threat of a terrorist act” syndrome.

A survey of Russians on the anniversary of the events at the Dubrovka theater center in Moscow confirmed that the fear of terrorist attacks does not leave the population: 30% are “very afraid”, and another 48% are “somewhat afraid” that they or their loved ones may be victims terrorists. Only 28% to one degree or another hope that the Russian authorities will be able to protect the population from new terrorist attacks, 64% do not hope so.

To the question: “WHAT ROLE DID THE MEDIA PLAY IN THIS SITUATION?” 47% of Russians responded that the media “informed people, helped them understand the situation,” 20% said they “willy-nilly interfered with the intelligence services and helped terrorists,” and 17% said that the media “confused people and aroused unnecessary passions.”

Constant coverage of disasters, tragic and criminal events creates a general negative background of uncertainty and anxiety, which is the basis for neurotic and stress disorders. In addition, excessive fixation on negative information in the media creates a certain psychological condition, which consists in a feeling of loss of control over circumstances that are significant for one’s own life, which again is the reason for the development of maladjustment. The positive role of the media, in addition to its main task - timely, accurate and objective information about current events - is informing about the possibilities of obtaining medical and psychological help in extreme situations.

Ticket 2. Question 1. Extreme situations.Examples of classifications of problematic, crisis, emergency and traumatic situations.

Situation – a real set of objective-subjective circumstances of a person (group, community), characteristic of his life at some point in time. The structure of the situation includes: situational components (what surrounds the person), personal components (what the person in the situation is like), active (behavioral) components (what the person did, what he is doing, what he intends to do and what the person achieves) .

Extreme situation - a sudden situation that threatens or is subjectively perceived by a person as threatening life, health, personal integrity, and well-being.

Extreme situation - this is a situation in a certain territory that has arisen as a result of an accident, a dangerous natural phenomenon, a catastrophe, a natural or other disaster that may result in human casualties, damage to human health or environment, significant material losses and disruption of people's living conditions.

An extreme situation has the following characteristics:

1) suddenness of the onset, 2) a sharp departure from the norm of habitual actions and states; 3) the saturation of the developing situation with contradictions that require prompt resolution; 4) progressive changes in the state of the situation, conditions of activity, elements, connections and relationships, 5) increasing complexity of ongoing processes, 6) transition of the situation into a phase of instability, reaching limits, criticality; 7) the generation of dangers and threats by changes (disruption of activities, death, destruction of systems); increasing tension for the subjects of an extreme situation (in terms of its comprehension, decision-making, response), etc.

Types of extreme situations:

1) objectively extreme situations (difficulties and dangers in them come from external environment, appear before a person objectively);

2) potentially extreme situations (danger is expressed as a hidden threat);

3) personally provoked extreme situations (the danger is generated by the person himself, his intentional or erroneous choice, behavior);

4) imaginary extreme situations (not dangerous, threatening situations).

Extreme conditions - these are conditions in which a threat to a person’s life, his health or property arises from external objects due to an unplanned (unexpected) change in their condition, leading to the appearance and action of maladaptive factors.

Conditions that place increased demands on a working person are called special (extreme) operating conditions (for example, work in unique conditions associated with danger to life; high “cost” (responsibility) of decisions made; processing large volumes and flows of information (i.e. n. information overload); lack of time to perform required actions; complicated work environment factors)

General signs of an extreme situation:

1. The presence of insurmountable difficulties, awareness of a threat or an insurmountable obstacle to the realization of any specific goals.

2. A state of mental tension and various human reactions to the extremity of the environment, overcoming which is of great importance for him.

3. A significant change in the usual (usual, sometimes even tense or difficult) situation, parameters of activity or behavior, i.e. going beyond the “usual”.

Thus, one of the main signs of an extreme situation is insurmountable obstacles to implementation, which can be considered as an immediate threat to the implementation of a set goal or planned action.

In an extreme situation, a person is confronted by the environment. Extreme situations are associated with noticeably and dramatically changing conditions in which activities take place. There is a danger of failure to complete a task or a threat to the safety of equipment, equipment, or human life.

Extreme situations represent the extreme manifestation of difficult situations and require maximum mental and physical strength person to get out of them.

Human behavior in extreme situations

A person’s life is a series of all kinds of situations, many of which, due to their repetition and similarity, become familiar. Human behavior is brought to the point of automatism, so the consumption of psychophysical and physical forces in such situations is minimized. Extreme situations require a person to mobilize mental and physical resources. A person in an extreme situation receives information about its various elements:

ABOUT external conditions;

About your internal states;

About the results of your own actions.

This information is processed through cognitive and emotional processes. The results of this processing influence the behavior of the individual in an extreme situation.

Threat signals lead to an increase in human activity. And if this activity does not bring the expected improvement in the situation, the person is overwhelmed by negative emotions different strengths. The role of emotions in an extreme situation is different.

Emotions can act as an indicator of extremity and as an assessment of the situation, and as a factor leading to a change in behavior in the situation. And at the same time, it is necessary to remember that emotional experiences are one of the important factors of human behavior in an extreme situation.

As a rule, an extreme situation is generated by objective reasons, but its extremeness is largely determined by subjective components. So:

There may not be an objective threat, but a person or group of people mistakenly perceives the current situation as extreme. Most often this happens due to unpreparedness or a distorted perception of the surrounding reality;

There may be real objective threat factors, but a person does not know about their existence and is not aware of the extreme situation that has arisen;

A person may realize the extremity of the situation, but evaluate it as insignificant, which in itself is a tragic mistake that can lead to unpredictable consequences;

Finding himself in an extreme situation and not finding a way out of the current situation, having lost faith in the possibility of its resolution, he escapes from reality by activating psychological defense mechanisms;

The situation may be objectively extreme, but having knowledge and experience allows you to overcome it without significant mobilization of your resources.

Thus, a person reacts to an extreme situation depending on how he perceives it and evaluates its significance.

There is another specific human reaction to an extreme situation - mental tension. This mental condition a person in an extreme situation, with the help of which a person, as it were, prepares for the transition from one psychophysical state to another, adequate to the current situation.

Forms of tension.

Perceptual (occurs when there are difficulties in perception);

Intellectual (when a person finds it difficult to solve a problem);

Emotional (when emotions arise that disorganize behavior and activity);

Strong-willed (when a person cannot control himself);

Motivational (related to the struggle of motives, different points of view)

Problem situation - this is an intellectual difficulty of a person that arises in the case when he does not know how to explain the emerging phenomenon, fact, process of reality, cannot achieve the goal by the method of action known to him. This encourages a person to search new way explanation or method of action. A problematic situation is a pattern of productive, cognitive creative activity. It encourages the beginning of thinking, active, mental activity that occurs in the process of posing and solving a problem.

A cognitive need arises in a person when he cannot achieve a goal using the methods of action and knowledge known to him. Thus, the psychological structure of a problem situation includes the following three components: an unknown achieved value or method of action, a cognitive need that motivates a person to intellectual activity, and a person’s intellectual capabilities, including his creative abilities and past experience.

Crisis situation (from the Greek krisis - decision, turning point, outcome) - a situation that requires a person to significantly change his ideas about the world and himself in a short period of time. These changes can be both positive and negative.

Among the events that can lead to a crisis are the death of a loved one, serious illness, separation from parents, family, friends, change in appearance, change in social situation, marriage, sudden changes social status, etc. Theoretically, life events qualify as leading to a crisis if they “create a potential or actual threat to the satisfaction of fundamental needs...” and at the same time present the individual with a problem “from which he cannot escape and which he cannot solve in a timely manner.” a short time and in the usual way."

4 successive stages of crisis: 1) primary increase in tension, stimulating habitual ways of solving problems; 2) further increase in tension in conditions when these methods are ineffective; 3) an even greater increase in tension, requiring the mobilization of external and internal sources; 4) if everything turns out to be in vain, the fourth stage begins, characterized by increased anxiety and depression, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, and personality disorganization. A crisis can end at any stage if the danger disappears or a solution is discovered.

Emergency (Emergency) is a situation in a certain territory that has developed as a result of an accident, a dangerous natural phenomenon, a catastrophe, a natural or other disaster that may result in human casualties, damage to human health or the environment, significant material losses and disruption of people’s living conditions

People, being in extreme conditions of an emergency situation, experience psycho-traumatic factors. There is a disturbance in mental activity in the form of reactive (psychogenic) states.

Classification emergency situations:

according to the pace of development

Each type of emergency situation has its own speed of danger spread, which is an important component of the intensity of the emergency event and characterizes the degree of suddenness of the impact of damaging factors. From this point of view, such events can be divided into: sudden (explosions, transport accidents, earthquakes, etc.); rapid (fires, release of gaseous highly toxic substances, hydrodynamic accidents with the formation of breakthrough waves, mudflows, etc.), moderate (release of radioactive substances, accidents on utility systems, volcanic eruptions, floods, etc.); smooth (accidents at wastewater treatment plants, droughts, epidemics, environmental deviations, etc.). Smooth (slow) emergency situations can last many months and years, for example, the consequences of anthropogenic activities in the Aral Sea area.

by scale of distribution

When classifying emergency situations by scale of distribution, one should take into account not only the size of the territory affected by the emergency, but also its possible indirect consequences. These include severe disruptions of organizational, economic, social and other significant connections operating over considerable distances. In addition, the severity of the consequences is taken into account, which even with a small area of ​​emergency can be enormous and tragic.

Local (private) - do not extend territorially and organizationally beyond the boundaries of the workplace or site, a small section of road, estate or apartment. Local emergencies include emergencies that result in no more than 10 people being injured, or the living conditions of no more than 100 people being disrupted, or material damage amounting to no more than 1 thousand minimum wages.

If the consequences of an emergency are limited to the territory of a production or other facility (i.e., do not go beyond the sanitary protection zone) and can be eliminated by its forces and resources, then these emergencies are called facility-based.

Emergencies , the spread of the consequences of which is limited to the boundaries of a settlement, city (district), region, territory, republic and is eliminated by their forces and means, are called local. Local include emergency situations that resulted in more than 10, but not more than 50, people being injured, or the living conditions of more than 100, but not more than 300 people, being disrupted, or material damage amounting to more than 1 thousand, but not more than 5 thousand minimum wages labor.

Regional emergencies - such emergencies that extend to the territory of several regions (territories, republics) or economic region. To eliminate the consequences of such emergencies, the combined efforts of these territories, as well as the participation of federal forces, are necessary. Regional emergencies include emergencies in which from 50 to 500 people were injured, or the living conditions of 500 to 1000 people were disrupted, or material damage amounted to from 0.5 to 5 million minimum wages.

National (federal) emergencies cover vast territories of the country, but do not go beyond its borders. The forces, means and resources of the entire state are involved here. They often resort to foreign assistance. National emergencies include emergencies in which more than 500 people were injured, or the living conditions of more than 1,000 people were disrupted, or material damage amounted to more than 5 million minimum wages.

Global (cross-border) emergencies go beyond the country and spread to other states. Their consequences are eliminated through the efforts and means of both the affected states and the international community.

by duration of action:

may be short-term or protracted. All emergencies that result in environmental pollution are protracted;

the nature:

intentional (intentional) and unintentional (unintentional). The former include most national, social and military conflicts, terrorist attacks and others. Natural disasters, by the nature of their origin, are unintentional; this group also includes the majority of man-made accidents and catastrophes.

By source of origin:

– emergencies of a man-made nature; – emergencies of natural origin; – Emergencies of a biological and social nature.

It is advisable to initially divide the entire set of possible emergency situations into conflict and non-conflict situations. Conflict types include military clashes, economic crises, extremist political struggle, social explosions, national and religious conflicts, terrorism. Non-conflict emergencies, in turn, can be classified (systematized) according to a significant number of characteristics that describe phenomena from various aspects of their nature and properties.

Psychotraumatic situation - this is a long-term situation in which many negative impacts accumulate, each of which in itself is not so significant. But when there are a lot of them and they act for a long time, their effect seems to be summed up, and a disease arises.

Psychotraumatic stress - special shape general stress reaction caused by psychologically traumatic life events for the individual. This is stress of increased intensity, accompanied by mental trauma.

Not every event can cause traumatic stress. Mental trauma is possible in cases where:

The event that occurred is conscious;

The experience disrupts the usual way of life, goes beyond ordinary human experience and causes distress in any person.

Psychotraumatic events change the self-image, value system, concept of the world around us, and change established ideas about ways of existing in the world. These events can be sudden, shocking, or have a long-lasting, hard-to-bear impact, and also combine both of these properties at the same time.

One of the consequences of traumatic stress is mental trauma.

There are different classifications of mental trauma and the situations that cause them. G.K. Ushakov (1987) proposed a classification of mental trauma in terms of their intensity. He identified the following types of psychotrauma:

Massive (catastrophic), sudden, acute, unexpected, stunning, one-dimensional: a) highly relevant for the individual; b) not relevant to the individual;

Situational acute (subacute), unexpected, multifaceted involving the individual, associated with the loss of social prestige, with damage to self-affirmation;

Prolonged situational, leading to a conscious need for persistent mental overstrain (depleting): a) caused by the very content of the situation; b) caused by an excessive level of aspirations of the individual in the absence of objective opportunities to achieve a goal in the normal rhythm of activity.

V.A. Guryev (1996) divides psychotraumas according to the strength of their impact on the individual, highlighting the following grounds.

Super strong, sharp, sudden: a) presence at death; b) murder; c) rape.

Subjective, super-strong, acute (super-significant for the individual): a) death of close relatives (mother, father); b) unexpected departure from the family of a beloved parent (for children);

3. Sharp, strong, super strong, following one after another. For example: the death of a parent, the departure of a spouse, adultery, criminal prosecution of a child.

4. Psychogenic traumas underlying post-traumatic stress disorders, which are distinguished by a certain originality. This is a stressful event (short-term or long-term) of an extremely threatening or catastrophic nature, which can cause a state of distress in almost any person (natural disasters, war, accidents, being a victim of torture).

5. Defined as key experiences in relation to any personality characteristics (anxious, suspicious, hysterical, sensitive, etc.).

6. Combined with deprivation (emotional or sensory). Deprivation (English deprivation - deprivation, loss) - insufficiency of satisfying any human needs.

7. Chronic mental trauma (dysfunctional family, closed institutions, army conditions).

8. Combination of acute and chronic psychogenic injuries.

EAT. Cherepanova classified psychotraumatic situations according to the degree of increase in symptoms of pathological grief and the development of post-traumatic stress disorder syndrome:

1. Expected loss for which a person is prepared;

2. Sudden expected loss;

3. Information about unexpected loss: a) sudden death, illness; b) accident, catastrophe, war; c) murder, suicide.

4. Presence at an unexpected loss: a) sudden death, illness; b) murder, suicide.

5. Unexpected loss in situations where a person injured in an accident, disaster or war survives.

The nature of mental trauma and the level of stress of a traumatic situation depend on the strength of the traumatic impact.

Psychotraumatic effects on Yu.A. Alexandrovsky - impact caused by weakening of the activity or integrity of the individual barrier of mental adaptation. If the individual barrier to mental adaptation is weakened, a decrease in its level leads to psychogenic disorders.

Ticket 2. Question 2. Psychological characteristics of the debriefing method.

Debriefing, psychological debriefing - psychological conversation with a person who has experienced an extreme situation or psychological trauma. The purpose of debriefing is to reduce the psychological damage caused to the victim by explaining to the person what happened to him and listening to his point of view.

The term “psychological debriefing” refers to a crisis intervention designed to alleviate and prevent the resulting mental trauma stress reaction in normal people who are in an extremely stressful situation. The goal is to prevent the development of persistent consequences of emotional trauma by creating opportunities for conscious assessment at the cognitive level and emotional processing of the traumatic event.

Debriefings carried out after terrorist attacks, as well as in places natural Disasters and disasters are part of a first aid program and help victims survive situations of intense fear, trauma, extreme discomfort, property damage or loss of friends and loved ones. The purpose of the psychological interview is to reduce the likelihood of post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological problems by providing an opportunity to talk, “rejecting memories by verbalizing them.”

Methods and structure for crisis debriefing vary depending on the nature and scale of the tragedy. For example, in places of terrorist attacks, catastrophes and natural disasters, multi-level debriefing is used, in which psychologists and rescuers working directly at the scene of the event subsequently receive psychological help from their colleagues at the “second level”, etc. In another example, debriefing released prisoners of war with signs of Stockholm syndrome will be different from debriefing hostages of a political terrorist attack with the same signs of Stockholm syndrome.

Debriefing is most effective if it is carried out before the administration of tranquilizers and before the victims are given the opportunity to sleep (that is, on the first day), if there are opportunities for this and a sufficient number of qualified specialists capable of conducting debriefing. In cases where debriefing is postponed for one reason or another, consolidation of memory traces occurs, accompanied by a number of psychopathological phenomena. However, this does not reduce the independent importance of methodologically sound debriefing at subsequent stages. One specialist can competently conduct no more than 5-6 (maximum 10) individual debriefings per day, which determines the calculation of the forces and means of psychological emergency response services.

Debriefing is one of the most common forms of group prevention of professional stress among extreme specialists. I would like to note that in many departments of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations there are intuitively found forms that resemble debriefing. This is the practice of “debriefing”. To most effectively minimize the undesirable psychological consequences of occupational stress, strict adherence to the debriefing procedure is necessary.

The debriefing process usually consists of three main parts: “ventilation” of feelings in the group and assessment of stress by the leader; a detailed discussion of changes in perception, behavior, well-being during the work process, then psychological support; providing information and mobilizing resources, and planning further work.

Traditionally, the debriefing is conducted by a psychologist; in some cases, the leader can be an authoritative and trained psychologist.

Debriefing as a method of psychological intervention is gradually becoming a routine procedure in many countries, although its effectiveness has not yet been proven. In fact, there is much evidence that such psychological surveys are not only ineffective, but also harmful. In March 2007, the American journal Perspectives on Psychological Science added crisis debriefing to the list of procedures that can cause harm to victims.

Optimal debriefing start time – no later than 48 hours from the moment of the emergency. It should also be noted that debriefing is a preventive method and its purpose is to minimize possible symptoms of stress disorders or PTSD. The optimal group composition is no more than 15 people.

Debrief structure:

The concept of an extreme situation and general signs of an extreme situation

Extreme situation- this is a situation that goes beyond the “usual”, requiring a person to increased concentration physical and (or) emotional effort, with possible negative consequences for a person’s life, in other words, this is a situation in which a person is uncomfortable (a situation unusual for him).

Signs of an emergency

1. The presence of insurmountable difficulties, awareness of a threat or an insurmountable obstacle to the realization of any specific goals.

2. A state of mental tension and various human reactions to the extremity of the environment, overcoming which is of great importance for him.

3. A significant change in the usual (usual, sometimes even tense or difficult) situation, parameters of activity or behavior, i.e. going beyond the “usual”.

Thus, one of the main signs of an extreme situation is insurmountable obstacles to implementation, which can be considered as an immediate threat to the implementation of a set goal or planned action.

In an extreme situation confronts a person environment, and therefore should be considered in accordance with the situation, which is characterized by a violation of the correspondence between the requirements of activity and professional opportunities person.

Extreme situations are associated with noticeably and dramatically changing conditions in which activities take place. There is a danger of failure to complete a task or a threat to the safety of equipment, equipment, or human life.

Extreme situations represent the extreme manifestation of difficult situations and require maximum strain on a person’s mental and physical strength to overcome them.

Human behavior in extreme situations

A person’s life is a series of all kinds of situations, many of which, due to their repetition and similarity, become familiar. Human behavior is brought to the point of automatism, so the consumption of psychophysical and physical forces in such situations is minimized. Extreme situations are a different matter. They require a person to mobilize mental and physical resources. A person in an extreme situation receives information about its various elements:

About external conditions;

About your internal states;

About the results of your own actions.

Processing of this information is carried out through cognitive and emotional processes. The results of this processing influence the behavior of the individual in an extreme situation. Threat signals lead to an increase in human activity. And if this activity does not bring the expected improvement in the situation, the person is overwhelmed by negative emotions of varying strength. The role of emotions in an extreme situation is different. Emotions can also act as an indicator extremity both as an assessment of the situation and as a factor leading to a change in behavior in the situation. And at the same time, it must be remembered that emotional experiences represent one of the important factors of human behavior in extreme situations.

As a rule, an extreme situation is generated by objective reasons, but its extremeness is largely determined by subjective components. So:

There may not be an objective threat, but a person or group of people mistakenly perceives the current situation as extreme. Most often this happens due to lack of preparation or distorted perception surrounding reality; However, there may also be real objective factors threats, but the person does not know about their existence and does not realize the emergency situation that has arisen;
- a person can realize the extremity of the situation, but evaluate it as insignificant, which in itself is already tragic mistake, which can lead to unpredictable consequences;

Finding himself in an extreme situation and not finding a way out of the current situation, having lost faith in the possibility of its resolution, he escapes from reality by activating psychological defense mechanisms;

The situation may be objectively extreme, but having knowledge and experience allows you to overcome it without significant mobilization of your resources.

Thus, a person reacts to an extreme situation depending on how he perceives it and evaluates its significance. There is another specific human reaction to an extreme situation - mental tension. This is the mental state of a person in an extreme situation, with the help of which a person, as it were, prepares for the transition from one psychophysical state to another, adequate to the current situation.
Forms of tension.

Determined that behavioral reactions of a person in extreme conditions, their temporal characteristics, and in general the psychophysiological capabilities of people are extremely variable values, depending on the characteristics of the nervous system, life experience, professional knowledge, skills, motivation, style of activity.

At present, it is almost impossible to derive an integral form of human behavior in a tense situation. However, there is growing evidence that psychological factors... individual qualities, a person’s abilities, his skills, readiness, attitudes, general and special training, his character and temperament - in a complex situation are not summed up arithmetically, but form a certain complex, which is ultimately realized in either correct or erroneous action.

IN general view An extreme situation is a set of obligations and conditions that have a strong psychological impact on a person.

Behavior style in extreme situations

Behavior in a state of passion.

Affect is characterized by a high degree of emotional experience, which leads to the mobilization of a person’s physical and psychological resources. In practice, there are quite often cases when physically weak people, in a state of strong emotional agitation, commit actions that they could not perform in a calm environment. For example, they apply a large number of fatal damage or knock down an oak door with one blow. Another manifestation of affect is partial loss of memory, which does not characterize every affective reaction. In some cases, the subject does not remember the events preceding the affect and the events that occurred during the latter.

Affect is accompanied by excitement of all mental activity. As a result, the person experiences a decrease in control over his behavior. This circumstance leads to the fact that committing a crime in a state of passion entails specific legal consequences.

The Criminal Code does not say anything about the fact that a person in a state of passion has limited ability to realize the nature of his actions or control them. This is not necessary, since strong emotional disturbance is characterized by a limitation of consciousness and will. It is the “narrowing” of the latter that allows us to say that the state of passion has a certain legal significance. “From the position of criminal law, such emotional states of the accused can be recognized as legally significant, which significantly limited his volitional, purposeful behavior.”

Affect has a significant impact on mental activity person, disorganizing it and affecting the highest mental functions. Thinking loses flexibility, quality decreases thought processes, which makes a person aware only of the immediate goals of his actions, and not the final ones. Attention is entirely concentrated on the source of irritation. That is, due to strong emotional stress, a person’s ability to choose a model of behavior is limited. Because of this it happens a sharp decline control over actions, which leads to a violation of the expediency, purposefulness and sequence of actions.

A sudden, strong emotional disturbance is preceded by one of the following situations described in the law.

Violence, bullying, grave insult, other illegal or immoral actions (inaction) of the victim. Here, the state of affect is formed under the influence of a one-time and very significant event for the perpetrator. For example: a spouse who suddenly returns from a business trip discovers with his own eyes the fact of adultery.

A long-term psychotraumatic situation arising in connection with the systematic illegal or immoral behavior of the victim. An affective reaction is formed as a result of a long-term “accumulation” of negative emotions, which leads to emotional stress. For the emergence of affect in this case, another fact of illegal or immoral behavior is sufficient.

According to the law, affect arises in connection with certain actions or inactions of the victim. But in practice there are cases when a sudden strong emotional disturbance causes illegal or immoral behavior of several people. Moreover, for the development of an affective reaction, a combination of actions (inaction) of two or more persons is necessary, that is, the behavior of one of them, in isolation from the behavior of the other, might not be the reason for the emergence of affect.

Behavior under stress

Stress - emotional condition, which suddenly arises in a person under the influence of an extreme situation associated with a danger to life or an activity requiring great stress. Stress, like affect, is the same strong and short-term emotional experience. Therefore, some psychologists consider stress as a type of affect. But this is far from true, since they have their own distinctive features. Stress, first of all, occurs only in the presence of an extreme situation, while affect can arise for any reason. The second difference is that affect disorganizes the psyche and behavior, while stress not only disorganizes, but also mobilizes protective forces organizations to overcome extreme situations.

Stress can have both positive and bad influence to the individual. Stress plays a positive role by performing a mobilization function, negative role- harmfully affecting the nervous system, causing mental disorders and various types of diseases of the body.

Stressful conditions affect people's behavior in different ways. Some, under the influence of stress, show complete helplessness and are unable to withstand the effects of stress, others, on the contrary, are stress-resistant individuals and perform best in moments of danger and in activities that require the exertion of all forces.

Behavior in a state of frustration

A special place in the consideration of stress is occupied by a psychological state that arises as a result of a real or imaginary obstacle that prevents the achievement of a goal, called frustration.

Defensive reactions to frustration are associated with the appearance of aggressiveness or avoidance of a difficult situation (transferring actions to an imaginary plan), and it is also possible to reduce the complexity of behavior. Frustration can lead to a number of characterological changes associated with self-doubt or fixation of rigid forms of behavior.

The mechanism of frustration is quite simple: first a stressful situation arises, leading to overstrain of the nervous system, and then this tension is “discharged” into one or another of the most vulnerable systems.

There are positive and negative reactions to frustration.

Level of anxiety in extreme situations

Anxiety is an emotional experience in which a person experiences discomfort from an uncertain outlook.

The evolutionary significance of anxiety lies in the mobilization of the body in extreme situations. A certain level of anxiety is necessary for normal human functioning and productivity.

Normal anxiety helps you adapt to various situations. It increases under conditions of high subjective significance of choice, external threat and lack of information and time.

Pathological anxiety, although it can be provoked by external circumstances, is due to internal psychological and physiological reasons. It is disproportionate to the real threat or is not related to it, and most importantly, it is not adequate to the significance of the situation and sharply reduces productivity and adaptive capabilities. Clinical manifestations of pathological anxiety are varied and can be paroxysmal or permanent, manifesting both mental and, even predominantly, somatic symptoms.

Most often, anxiety is viewed as negative state associated with stress. The state of anxiety can vary in intensity and change over time as a function of the level of stress to which an individual is exposed, but the experience of anxiety is common to any person in adequate situations.

The reasons that cause anxiety and influence changes in its level are diverse and can lie in all spheres of human life. Conventionally, they are divided into subjective and objective reasons. Subjective reasons include informational reasons associated with incorrect ideas about the outcome of the upcoming event, leading to an overestimation of the subjective significance of the outcome of the upcoming event. Among the objective reasons, alarming, highlight extreme conditions that place increased demands on the human psyche and are associated with the uncertainty of the outcome of the situation.

Post-stress anxiety develops after extreme, usually unexpected situations - fires, floods, participation in hostilities, rape, child abduction. Restlessness, irritability, headache, increased quadrigeminal reflex (reaction to a sudden stimulus), sleep disorders and nightmares, including pictures of the situation experienced, feelings of loneliness and mistrust, a feeling of inferiority, avoidance of communication and any activities that may remind of the events that occurred. If this entire complex develops after a certain latent period after an extreme situation and leads to significant impairments in life, then a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder is made. Post-stress anxiety is less likely to develop if a person actively acts during an extreme situation.

extreme situation behavior

Academician N. BEKHTEREVA.

The seditious ideas presented in this
article - they are seditious,
but there are no others yet and,
maybe it won't.
But... Anything can happen.
N. P. Bekhtereva

Bekhtereva Natalya Petrovna - full member (academician) Russian Academy Sci.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev (1857-1927) - an outstanding Russian psychiatrist, morphologist and physiologist.

Error detector.

Test "Detection of semantic and grammatical features speech." Histograms of impulse activity of neurons in certain zones (Brodmann fields) of the human brain during the test.

Features of ultra-slow physiological processes that in the human brain are associated with the formation of emotional reactions and states in a patient with parkinsonism.

The twentieth century turned out to be a century of mutually enriching inventions and discoveries in the most different areas. Modern man has gone from a primer to the Internet, but nevertheless cannot cope with organizing a balanced world. Its “biological” in many parts of the world, and sometimes globally, triumphs over the mind and is realized by aggression, so beneficial in small doses, as an activator of brain capabilities, so destructive in large doses. Century scientific and technological progress and the bloody age... It seems to me that the key to the transition from the bloody age to the era (age?) of prosperity is hidden under several mechanical protections and shells, on the surface and in the depths of the human brain...

The 20th century contributed a lot of valuable information to the fundamental knowledge about the human brain. Some of this knowledge has already found application in medicine, but is used relatively little in education and training. Man as an individual already enjoys the achievements basic sciences about the brain. A person as a member of society still has little “profit” both for himself and for society, which is largely due to the conservatism of social foundations and the difficulty of forming a common language between sociology and neurophysiology. Here we mean the translation of achievements in the study of the patterns of brain function from the language of neurophysiology into a form acceptable for education and training.

Let’s try to figure out whether we are “on the path” to the mystical wisdom of “Shambhala” ( Dreamland sages in Tibet. - Note ed.), if we are, then where? The only reliable path to the necessary and sufficient wisdom in interpersonal, personal-social and inter-societal relationships, the rational and real path to “Shambhala” lies through further knowledge of the laws of brain function. Humanity is paving the way to this knowledge through the joint efforts of neurophysiology and neuropsychology, strengthened by today's and tomorrow's technological solutions.

The twentieth century inherited and developed data and ideas about the basic mechanisms of the brain (Sechenov, Pavlov), including the human brain (Bekhterev). A comprehensive method for studying the human brain and technological progress in medicine in the twentieth century brought the most significant achievements in understanding the principles and mechanisms of the human brain. The forms of organization of brain support for human intellectual activity, the reliability of the functioning of his brain, the mechanism of stable states (health and disease) are formulated, the presence of error detection in the brain is shown, its cortical and subcortical links are described, and various mechanisms of the brain’s own protection are discovered. The significance of these discoveries for understanding the capabilities and limitations of healthy and diseased brains cannot be overestimated.

The capabilities of the brain are being intensively studied and will continue to be studied; the task of opening (or closing?) the brain code of thought processes is on the threshold. The human brain is prepared in advance for anything, it seems to live not in our century, but in the future, ahead of itself.

What do we know today about those conditions, those principles on the basis of which not only the capabilities, but also the superpowers of the human brain are realized? And what are his defense mechanisms, overprotection, and perhaps prohibitions?

Once - and in the super-accelerating race of time, perhaps a long time ago - more than thirty years ago, stimulating one of the subcortical nuclei, my colleague Vladimir Mikhailovich Smirnov saw how the patient literally before our eyes became twice as “smarter”: more than two times His memory abilities have increased. Let's put it this way: before stimulating this very specific point of the brain (I know, but I won't say which!) the patient remembered 7 + 2 (that is, within the normal range) words. And immediately after stimulation - 15 or more. The iron rule: “for each given patient, only what is indicated for him.” We did not know then how to “put the genie back in the bottle,” and did not flirt with him, but actively pushed him to return - in the interests of the patient. And this was an artificially induced superpower of the human brain!

We have known about the superpowers of the brain for a long time. These are, first of all, the innate properties of the brain, which determine the presence in human society of those who are able to find the maximum of correct decisions in conditions of a shortage of information introduced into consciousness. Edge Cases. People of this kind are valued by society as having talents and even geniuses! A striking example superpowers of the brain are various creations of geniuses, the so-called high-speed calculation, almost instantaneous vision of events whole life in extreme situations and much more. It is known that it is possible for individuals to learn a variety of living and dead languages, although usually 3-4 foreign languages ​​are almost the limit, and 2-3 is the optimal and sufficient number. In life, not only talent, but also the so-called ordinary person from time to time states of insight arise, and sometimes as a result of these insights a lot of gold is added to the treasury of human knowledge.

In the observation of V. M. Smirnov, a kind of opposite event is given in comparison with those mentioned below, however, perhaps it also contains an answer to the question to the brain that has not yet been formulated here: what and how provides superpowers? The answer is both expected and simple: in providing intellectual superpowers vital role The activation of certain, and probably many, brain structures plays a role. Simple, expected, but incomplete. The stimulation was short, the phenomenon “didn’t get stuck.” We were all so afraid of the possible cost of the brain for the superpowers that were so suddenly revealed. After all, they were not revealed here in real conditions insight, but semi-controlled, instrumentally.

Thus, superpowers are initial (talent, genius) and can, under certain conditions of an optimal emotional regime, manifest themselves in the form of insight with a change in the time regime (speed) and in extreme situations, also, apparently, with a change in the time regime. And, what is most important in our knowledge about superpowers, they can be formed through special training, as well as in the case of setting a super-task.

Life has confronted me with a group of people who, under the leadership of V. M. Bronnikov, are learning a lot, in particular to see with their eyes closed. “Bronnikov’s boys” have received and are demonstrating their superpowers, acquired as a result of systematic long-term training, carefully revealing their abilities for alternative (direct) vision. During an objective study, it was possible to show that in the electroencephalogram (EEG) such learning manifests conditionally pathological mechanisms that work beyond the norm. “Conditionally pathological”, apparently, in the conditions of their own, special brain defense mechanisms.

The quantitative accumulation of data about the capabilities and prohibitions of the brain, about the dual unity - at least many, if not all of its mechanisms - is now on the verge of turning into quality - on the verge of obtaining the possibility of purposefully forming a conscious person. However, the transition from knowledge of the laws of nature to their rational use is not always quick, not always easy, but always thorny.

And yet, if you think about the alternatives - life in anticipation of pressing the button of a nuclear suitcase, an environmental disaster, global terrorism, you understand that, no matter how difficult this path is, it is the best: the path of forming a conscious person and, as a consequence, society and communities of conscious people. And it is possible to form a conscious person only on the basis of knowledge of the principles and mechanisms of the brain, its capabilities and superpowers, defense mechanisms and limits, as well as an understanding of the dual unity of these mechanisms.

So, what are these two-pronged mechanisms of the brain, two faces of Janus, what is this about? we're talking about? Superpowers and illness, protection, as a reasonable prohibition, and illness, and much, much more.

Ideally, an example of superpowers is long-lived geniuses who can accept right decisions with a minimum of information introduced into consciousness and not burning out due to the presence of adequate self-protection. But how often does a genius seem to “devour” himself, as if he is “searching” for the end. What is this? Lack of the brain’s own protection both “inside” the provision of one function and in interaction various functions? Or maybe it, this protection, can be formed and strengthened - especially from childhood, by recognizing the makings of intellectual superpowers in a capable child?

For many decades and even centuries, learning practically important knowledge took place through education (consolidating moral values ​​in memory) and memory training. The riddle of memory is still not solved, despite Nobel Prizes in medecine. And the meaning early formation The “moral” basis of memory (although it is not called that) was very large for society; for the overwhelming majority, first children and then adults, the commandments turned in the brain into a hardened matrix - a fence that did not allow them to be violated, practically determining human behavior and painfully punishing the offender. The pangs of conscience (if it has formed!), the tragedy of repentance - all this, activated through error detectors, revived in the brain of the offender, together with the “terrible punishments” promised already in early childhood for breaking the commandments, in society as a whole worked stronger than judicial penalties. In real life today, many things, including “terrible punishments”, pangs of conscience, etc., to put it mildly, have been transformed, and even in the past they did not stop everyone. Disregarding the prohibitions of the memory matrix, laid down in past generations and not laid down now, a person steps towards freedom of both spirit and crime.

In the case mentioned above, memory worked primarily as a mechanism of inhibition or, if you like, as a mechanism of “local neurosis.” But if they didn’t know anything about the memory matrix in the brain, and they didn’t call it that, then memory itself, as the main mechanism that allows us to survive in health and illness, was still treated much more carefully in the old version of training than now.

From early childhood, memory forms matrices where automatisms further operate. Thus, it frees up our brain to process and use the huge information flow. modern world, maintaining a stable state of health. But memory itself needs help, and it is especially important to help its most fragile mechanism - reading - in advance. And earlier this, apparently, was carried out with a large amount of memorization and especially difficult-to-learn prose of dead languages. Memory, having “pushed” and “pushed” everything stereotypical into automatic mode, frees everything again and again, opening up to us the enormous possibilities of the brain. The reliability of these enormous capabilities is determined by many factors, and the most important of them are daily constant training of the brain with any and every factor of novelty (indicative reflex!), the multi-link nature of brain systems, the presence of these systems in providing non-stereotypical activity not only hard, that is, permanent links, but also flexible links (variables) and much more. In the process of creating conditions for the realization of the capabilities and superpowers of the brain, the same mechanisms - and above all the basic mechanism - memory - build a palisade of protection and, in particular, protection of a person from himself, the biological in him, his negative aspirations, as well as from various emergency situations in life situations.

This is the restrictive role of the memory matrix in behavior (“thou shalt not kill”...). This is also its selective mechanism of restrictions, a mechanism for identifying errors.

What kind of error protection, restriction, prohibition mechanism is this - an error detector? We do not know whether nature gives this mechanism to a person from birth. But most likely not. The human brain develops by processing the flow (influx!) of information, adapting to the environment through trial and error. At the same time, in the learning brain, along with zones that ensure activity through activation, zones are formed that react selectively or predominantly to deviations from a favorable, “correct under given conditions” reaction to an error. These zones, judging by the subjective reaction (type of anxiety), are associated with the attributes of emotional activation entering consciousness. On human language- although error detectors are apparently not only human mechanism- it sounds like this: “something... somewhere... is wrong, something... somewhere is not right...”.

Until now, we have talked (including about the most important discovery of V. M. Smirnov) about the capabilities and physiological basis of superpowers. How can one create superpowers under normal conditions and is this always possible and, what is very important, permissible?

Now there is no answer to the question “is it always”? However, it is possible to evoke superpowers much more often than what happens in everyday life.

It has already been said that the brain of a genius is capable of statistically correctly solving problems with a minimum of information introduced into consciousness. This is like an ideal combination of an intuitive and logical mindset.

We see the manifestation of the brain of a genius in the super-tasks he solves - be it the “Sistine Madonna”, “Eugene Onegin” or the discovery of heterojunctions. Ease of decision-making occurs with the help of optimal activation mechanisms, mainly, apparently, of an emotional nature. They are also responsible for the joy of creativity, especially if the process is combined with the brain’s own optimal protection... And this optimal protection consists primarily of the balance of brain changes during emotions (physiologically expressed - in the spatial multidirectionality of the development of ultra-slow physiological processes in the brain different sign) and optimal slow-wave nighttime “cleansing” of the brain (you must “not throw out the baby with the bathwater” and not leave too much “garbage”)...

And yet, although memory is the basic mechanism for providing capabilities and superpowers, neither talent, nor, especially, genius can be reduced to it alone. Just remember the book by the Russian scientist-psychologist A. R. Luria “The Great Memory of a Little Man”...

Superpowers of “ordinary” people, unlike geniuses, manifest themselves - if they manifest themselves - when it is necessary to solve super-tasks. In this case, the brain is able, in the interests of optimizing its work, to use conditionally pathological mechanisms, in particular hyperactivation, naturally, with sufficient protection that prevents the powerful assistant from turning into an epileptic discharge. Life can set a super task, but it can be solved either independently or with the help of teachers, and there are solutions in this life when you can pay for the result and high price. Please do not confuse this with the infamous "the ends justify the means."

As we know from the history of religion, Jesus Christ gave sight to a blind believer, presumably by touching him. Until very recently, in attempts not to explain where it was, but at least to understand the possibility of this possibility, it was necessary to invoke the concept of so-called mental blindness - a rare hysterical state when “everything is in order, but a person does not see,” but can see the light under strong emotional stress. shaking

But now, at the very end of my life, I am sitting with Larisa at the large “meeting” table. I'm wearing a bright red wool mohair poncho, a gift from my son. "Larissa, what color are my clothes?" - “Red,” Larisa calmly answers and begins to doubt my stunned silence, “or maybe blue?” - I have a dark blue dress under the poncho. “Yes,” Larisa says further, “I still can’t always clearly determine the color and shape, I still need to practice.” Behind us are several months of very intense work by Larisa and her teachers - Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Bronnikov, his employee, doctor Lyubov Yuryevna, and from time to time - Bronnikov's beautiful daughter, 22-year-old Natasha. She can do this too... They all taught Larisa to see. I was present at almost every vision training session for the completely blind Larisa, who lost her eyes at the age of eight - and now she is 26! The blind girl adapted to life and, of course, primarily thanks to her incredibly caring father. And because she probably tried very hard, because evil fate seemed to leave her no choice.

When she was told about the opportunity to see after special education according to the method of V.M. Bronnikov, neither she nor we imagined the difficulty and laboriousness of the teaching as a payment for the desired result.

How pretty Larisa is now! How she straightened up, cheered up, how she believes in a new future for her... Even scary! After all, she has not yet reached that amazing ability to see without the help of her eyes, which Bronnikov’s “older” students demonstrate to us. But she has already learned a lot, and this needs a special story.

People usually do not believe stories about what already exists in reality. Journalists make films, show them, tell stories. It seems (or maybe it really is) that nothing is hidden. And all the same - the overwhelming majority are cautious: “I don’t know what, but something is the trick here” or “They are peeking through the blindfold” - a blind black blindfold.

And after the amazing film about the possibilities of Bronnikov’s technique, I thought not so much about science, scientific miracle, so much about Larisa - Larisa as an unfortunate, tragically robbed girl, Larisa as a person who, in her great misfortune, has nothing to peek at - no eyes at all.

Larisa - what is called hard case for training. What deprived her of her sight is from the arsenal of the most terrible “horror stories”. Hence her changing psychological mood. Along with new possibilities, probably, a terrible picture of the crime comes to life in her brain, a new awareness of its tragic consequences, long years trial and error in adapting to a changed world. But the girl’s dream did not die over these many years. “I always believed that I would see,” Larisa whispers. We examined her, Larisa, and them, “Bronnikov’s boys” (Bronnikov’s son, patients at different stages of education) using so-called objective research methods.

The electroencephalogram (EEG) and biocurrents of Larisa’s brain differ sharply from the usual EEG picture of a healthy adult. A frequent rhythm, normally barely visible (the so-called beta rhythm), is present in the girl in all leads, in all points of the brain. This is traditionally believed to reflect the predominance of excitatory processes. Well, of course, Larisa’s life is difficult and requires stress. But the alpha rhythm, a slower rhythm healthy people At first, Larisa had very little associated with the visual channel. But Larisa’s EEG as a whole is not for the weak nerves of a specialist. If you didn’t know whose EEG it was, you could think about a serious brain disease - epilepsy. Larisa’s encephalogram is full of so-called epileptiform activity. However, what we see here once again emphasizes the often forgotten (golden!) rule of clinical physiology: “The EEG conclusion is one thing, but a medical diagnosis, the diagnosis of a disease, is necessarily made with its clinical manifestations.” Well, of course, plus an EEG to clarify the form of the disease. Epileptiform activity, especially the type of sharp waves and groups of sharp waves, is also a rhythm of excitation. Usually in a diseased brain. There are many of these waves in Larisa’s EEG, and occasionally an almost “local seizure” is visible, not even spreading to neighboring areas of the brain, the EEG is the “equivalent” of a seizure.

Larisa's brain is activated. And, apparently, in addition to those that we know about, we need to look for and discover new mechanisms that firmly protected Larisa’s brain for many years from the spread of pathological excitation, which alone is the main cause of the development of the disease - epilepsy. (With obligatory insufficiency of protective mechanisms or as a result of this insufficiency, of course.)

An objective study of brain biopotentials can be assessed differently. You can write: dominance of the beta rhythm and single and group sharp waves. Not scary? Yes, and in addition - the truth. It can be said differently: widespread and local epileptiform activity. Scary? Yes, and in addition, it leads somewhere away from the truth about Larisa’s brain. The absence of any manifestations of epilepsy in Larisa’s medical biography does not provide grounds for an inappropriate diagnosis of the disease. Including the many EEGs that were recorded from Larisa during the process of learning vision using the Bronnikov method. I believe that in this case it is legitimate to talk about the use of Larisa’s brain in the conditions of her life’s super task not only of ordinary excitatory processes, but also of hyperexcitation. In the EEG this is reflected by the already described combination of widespread beta activity and single and group acute (conditionally epileptiform) waves. The connection between what was observed in the EEG and real state Larisa was very clearly visible: the EEG was clearly dynamic, and its dynamics were dependent both on the initial EEG background and on the training sessions.

We also had ultra-slow processes, their various relationships and so-called evoked potentials in our stock of research methods. Analysis of infraslow potentials also emphasized the high dynamism, depth, and intensity of physiological changes in Larisa’s brain.

The widespread use of evoked potentials usually provides fairly reliable information about the brain inputs of signals through the sensory channels. Now, apparently, it is already possible to study Larisa’s reaction to some light signals - a reaction to bright light has already appeared in the EEG, but several months ago it seemed to us more appropriate (reliable) to obtain this kind of information from a person with good natural vision and fully trained alternative (direct) vision.

The most “advanced” student and son of teacher V.M. Bronnikov, Volodya Bronnikov, was presented with visual images (animals, furniture on the monitor) with open eyes and eyes covered with a thick, thick black bandage. The number of presentations of these signals was sufficient for statistically reliable detection of local evoked responses (evoked potential). The evoked response to visual signals presented with the eyes open showed rather trivial results: the evoked response was recorded in the posterior parts of the hemispheres. The first attempts to register evoked potentials to similar (the same) visual signals with the eyes tightly closed failed - the analysis was hampered by a huge number of artifacts, usually observed when the eyelids tremble or the eyeballs move. To eliminate these artifacts, an additional bandage was applied to Volodya’s eyes, but this time it fit tightly to the eyelids. (This is from the practice of clinical physiology.) Artifacts have disappeared. But alternative vision, vision without the participation of the eyes, also disappeared (for a while)! After a couple of days, Volodya again restored alternative vision, giving correct verbal answers with his eyes closed twice. His EEG changed in both the first and this case. However, when Volodya’s eyes were literally “bricked up” with our additional bandage, visual evoked potentials were not recorded. And Volodya continued to give correct answers to signals and correctly identified the presented objects! The EEG gave the impression that the signal entered the brain directly, changing its general state. But the entry of the signal into the brain - evoked potentials - after the restoration of alternative vision ceased to be registered. One could imagine... - as always, an explanation can be found. But this is what sharply narrowed the possibilities of “simply” explaining the disappearance of evoked potentials with eyes closed.

The fact is that after Volodya mastered alternative vision, let’s say, in complicated conditions - a regular bandage plus weak pressure on the eyeballs - evoked potentials ceased to be recorded even when examined with open eyes. According to objective methods, which we are accustomed to trust more than subjective ones, Volodya Bronnikov also seemed to use an alternative vision in conditions when it was possible to use the usual one... This statement is serious. It needs checking and rechecking. Besides Volodya, there are others who are already well trained in alternative vision. Finally, Larisa is already ripe for such research. But if this phenomenon is confirmed, we will have to think about an alternative (which channels?) transmission visual information or about the direct entry of information into the human brain, bypassing the senses. Is it possible? The brain is fenced off from the outside world by several membranes; it is well protected from mechanical damage. However, through all these membranes we record what is happening in the brain, and the losses in signal amplitude when passing through these membranes are surprisingly small - in relation to direct recording from the brain, the signal decreases in amplitude by no more than two to three times (if it decreases at all !).

So what are we talking about here, what do the observed facts lead us to?

Physicist S. Davitaya proposed to evaluate the formation of alternative vision as a phenomenon direct vision. We are thus talking about the possibility of direct information entering the brain, bypassing the senses.

The possibility of direct activation of brain cells by environmental factors and, in particular, electromagnetic waves in the process of therapeutic electromagnetic stimulation is easily proven by the developing effect. It can apparently be assumed that under the conditions of the super task - the formation of alternative vision - the result is actually achieved due to direct vision, direct activation of brain cells by environmental factors. However, this is now nothing more than a fragile hypothesis. Or maybe the electrical waves of the brain themselves can “search” external world? Like "radars"? Or maybe there is another explanation for all this? Need to think! And study!

What kind of protective mechanism should play a leading role in Larisa’s brain’s ability to use both normal and conditionally pathological types of activity? Many years ago, while specifically studying the epileptic brain, I came to the conclusion that not only local slow activity, reflecting changes in brain tissue, also has protective function(as the famous English physiologist Gray Walter showed in 1953). The function of suppressing epileptogenesis is inherent in physiological processes manifested by high-voltage slow activity of the paroxysmal type. The assumption was tested: a locally sinusoidal current was applied to the area of ​​epileptogenesis, modulating these slow waves - it clearly suppressed epileptiform activity!

In epilepsy, we see this defense is no longer active enough; it is “no longer sufficient” to suppress epileptogenesis. And further, intensifying, this most important physiological defense of ours becomes a pathological phenomenon itself, turning off consciousness for an ever longer period. In every possible way to protect Larisa from unnecessary overload, we have not yet recorded her EEG sleep. This is mainly interesting to us, although it is not dangerous for Larisa - and may even be useful. According to Larisa's EEG and by analogy with that huge international experience studies of epileptiform activity and epilepsy, Larisa works on the formation of vision (direct vision) through various activation mechanisms, balanced by her own physiological defense. However, it would be wrong to completely neglect the fact that in Larisa’s EEG there is a lot of single and group acute, including high-voltage, activity - here it is, as it were, “on the verge” of the physiological; and the fact that in her EEG, recorded while awake, high-voltage paroxysmal slow activity is occasionally detected - the dual mechanism of the brain, its reliable protection, is also already “on the verge” of becoming a pathological manifestation. Let me remind you here for those who are not familiar with this area of ​​our work: the appearance of sudden high-voltage slow waves in the EEG in the waking state reflects the transition of the physiological process of protection into a pathological phenomenon! In this particular case, however, it appears to still be fulfilling its essential physiological role, since there are no clinical manifestations of epilepsy.

The ability to control oneself is regarded primarily as a manifestation of adaptation. Physiologically realization of emotions" little blood"(without the spread of pathological excitation) is carried out with a balance of ultra-slow processes - those that in the brain are associated with the development of emotions, and those that in the same brain limit their spread (super-slow physiological processes of a different sign). This form of protection, like the one described above , may also have its own pathological face - when strengthened, the defense prevents the development of emotions, up to the appearance of conditions defined as emotional dullness. Is the defense considered by the EEG not only a defense, but also a prohibition to a certain extent? to a certain extent- Yes. And first of all in relation to pathology or conditional pathology, in this case - conditional epileptogenic activity. Even here it is possible, however, with some stretching, to talk about the duality of physiological defense. Protection “from” and prohibition “on” the development of emotion is much more specific in the second defense mechanism.

As we move from a physiological process to a pathological one, its prohibitive function becomes more and more pronounced.

Both of the defense mechanisms presented here, unlike the one formed by memory, have physiological correlates, which makes them “tame” for study. Information about them is given here in connection with the conversation about Larisa, but not everything is the result of direct research; the “inhibitory” role of the error detector is not manifested in its physiological correlates, although they exist. The inhibitory properties of the error detector manifest themselves in the subjective, emotional, and then often in the behavioral and motor components. However, a potential duality of the error detection phenomenon also exists. The error detector is normally our defense, but when hyperfunctioning it causes pathological manifestations such as neurosis and obsessive states; from fear, which protects us from the often very sensitive consequences of our mistakes, to neurosis, when the detector does not “suggest” (reminds, hints!), but demands, dominates and, in extreme form, removes a person from social life.

In contrast to what was said above, everything known about memory - the most important, basic mechanism that determines the stable state of both health and illness, which largely supports the behavior of the majority of members of society within the framework of moral values, the moral “code of laws” - turns out to be the result of analysis only manifestations of human activity. As I wrote at the beginning, we - for now, at least - see only the results of the invisible work of memory; direct physiological correlates of this the most important mechanism the workings of the brain are unknown.

The mechanisms of brain function must continue to be intensively studied. In my opinion, the currently known physiological laws, including those given here, should already have a place in the teaching of human studies or, more simply, the subject: “know yourself.”