Vladimir Baskakov - Thanatotherapy. Theoretical foundations and practical application

1. The emergence of the subject and field of “thanatotherapy” is directly related to one of the basic problems of Man and Humanity - the impossibility of establishing full (maximum complete) contact with the processes of death and dying. At the heart of this problem are the complexities of the so-called. “grounding” of feelings: the reality of death, perceived by a person as his personal finitude, completeness, lethality (“ashes”, “decay”), activates his too strong feelings. Activation of a person's feelings is the activation of his energy. In order to agree with this statement, remember how the body begins to behave at the moment when a person experiences strong feelings. The body tries to remove this energy through a kind of “work” of the body: a person begins to nervously walk around the room, clench his hands, be loudly indignant (at this moment, as the satirist aptly notes, “steam escapes through the whistle”), etc. Human, cultured and civilized ( “social”) body is not able to “ground” such an amount of energy that is associated with the experience of death (Baskakov V., 1998). The way out of this situation is logical. On the one hand, death is removed from the life of a person and Humanity, a person leaves contact with death. Death turns from reality into silulacrum (Yampolsky M., 1991, Baudrillard J., 2000). On the other hand, death turns into a monster, a taboo.

Hence the name of the field - “thanatotherapy” - very clearly indicates the main goal of such therapy - providing specific (!) assistance (therapy - care, care, treatment) in establishing and restoring the lost maximum contact with the processes of death and dying (Baskakov V., 2001 ), and thus distinguishes it, on the one hand, from thanatology - the science of death (rather philosophy), on the other hand, from palliative medicine, simply caring for the dying.

2. Thanatotherapy integrates knowledge about different types of death (total relaxation, sleep, orgasm, ending/stopping, madness, object characteristics of the body, etc.), specific methods (techniques) of working to establish contact with the listed types of death are proposed (see. the content of basic and meta-level seminars, as well as (Baskakov V., 2001).

3. The emphasis in thanatotherapy is on working with and through the client's body. We see this as the special “mission” of thanatotherapy in restoring a kind of justice in relation to the human body. Usually the human body is viewed using the language of Gestalt therapy, a kind of “background”, used for... A common phrase is “show how you control your body.” In this case, it is difficult to call the relationship between the “owner” and the “owned” as a partnership. Most systems of personal growth, using the body in the first stages, later view it as a kind of burden (the ascension triangle in classical yoga). Justice in this case is restored only at the end of life, in old age, before death. The body from the “background” clearly turns into a “figure declaring loudly about its rights - pain, insomnia, shortness of breath, etc. The person returns to the awareness and feeling of the value of the simplest physical and physiological acts. In this regard, it is appropriate to compare the child's and the elderly body - a kind of ring-shaped structure, where the ends of this broken ring are close to each other (lack of consciousness in children - insanity in the elderly, lack of feelings - primary emotions in young children and very old people, separation / overcoming own body for both).

4. In thanatotherapy, the emphasis is on the so-called. The “yin” component is total relaxation, in contrast to the “yang” component mainly used in psychotherapy (compare, for example, the difference in psychotherapy by C. Rogers). The Yang approach means that the emphasis in psychotherapy or therapy is mainly on influencing with the goal of changes in any direction. With the Yin approach, conditions are created under which the client's body meets the special characteristics of the contact established between the thanatotherapist and the client. This is where the law of contact shows itself ideally: you can give another person no more than he can take, and vice versa - another can take no more than they can give him. In this sense, the influence carried out in thanatotherapy is the result of interaction between the client and thanatotherapist. This theoretical, rather difficult to understand and largely debatable position is well understood, again, in the course of performing bodily techniques of thanatotherapy.

The presence of activity, the “Yang” principle, is well traced in traditional (especially domestic) healthcare. This can be judged, at least, by the stable linguistic expressions of a militaristic nature, which Oma abounds in (“attack of illness,” “fight against illness,” “struggle for life,” “stop the development of a tumor,” etc.). By the way, the term “health care” itself appeared in our country only after the October Revolution. Before the revolution, the current Ministry of Health was called the “Department of Public Health.” Until now, The World Health Organization is often incorrectly translated as the World Health Organization.

5. An excess of the Yin component is traditionally considered as a kind of collapse, coma (cf., the title of the article by D. Boadella “Between catharsis and coma”). Compliance and passivity in most cases (in politics, economics, medicine, etc.) also have a negative connotation. In thanatotherapy, the main strategy of therapy is aimed at moving towards the center of the yin component, towards the source of yang activity located in it, which ultimately leads to balancing the yin-yang component, balancing carried out by the body itself.

This powerful and concentrated source of yang activity is surrounded by an “ocean” of yin serenity and peace. In this kind of “golden section”, the combination of the processes of “activation” and “grounding” is the key to the safety of the manifestation of this activity. Activity does not lead to the so-called. "response".

It's more like what happens in a dream. A “asleep”, relaxed and thus “grounded” body creates the conditions for the appearance of dreams. Sleep and dreams are the activity of the unconscious, a manifestation of the suppressed, a kind of “reaction”; but in combination with a “grounded” body, surrounded by the Yin silence of the body, such activity is as safe as possible for both the body and the person. Hence the healing power of dreams. Hence: “the morning is wiser than the evening.” A good illustration of this unique “logic” of safety in combining yang activity in the center of a yin component can be the famous painting of the primitivist artist Henry Rousseau.

Similar processes (arising from logic, first recorded in Chinese thinking - “the maximization of one of the polarities leads to the emergence of a polarity of the opposite quality”) also occur in the center of the Yang component. This is well described by John Lilly; this is illustrated by the very image and the title of his books - “Center of the cyclone”, “Paired cyclone”. Actually, the mechanism of response (“catharsis”) is built on the process of maximizing the yang component, which (maximization - see diagram Fig. 1) necessarily leads to the appearance of the yin component (liberation, liberation, calming). This is a common way in culture and society to “fight” insomnia, when the TV turns on and all attention is directed to the screen, or when you pick up an uninteresting book and read it until it falls out of your hands. (especially Western) followed the yang path - that is, along the path of a high pace of life, the power of impressions, etc. A strong feeling in Western culture is always conveyed through intensity (in cinema - torn clothes and a bitten ear). The usual pause (an unexpected stop of transport, premature arrival somewhere, etc.) is often perceived by them as a waste of time, a loss. In the East, this is the same full-fledged act of life, maximally filled with this life. However, gradually (but very slowly) in Western culture the attitude towards the Yin component is changing: techniques of meditation, relaxation, and Chinese motor systems have become popular, “balancing the high pace of the surrounding life” (Eliseev V., Baskakov V., 1990).

Rice. 1. Yin-Yang Relationship Diagram

It is significant that recently there have been publications assessing the state of coma as a necessary (for the body itself) process of restoring the vital functions of the body (Links N... 2001). In this case, resuscitation, activating (in this sense, yang) procedures can in some cases be regarded as inadequate to the situation in which the body itself is located (see below. - inadequacy of the use of “sanitation” techniques at the “termination” stage, see Nabokov “About Gogol” (Nabokov V., 1993).

6. In thanatotherapy, as a means of establishing (or restoring lost) contact with the processes of death and dying, modeling (as opposed to imitation) of death is used, moreover, of its rare type - the so-called. proper death. This model is based on a model of total relaxation. The body of a person dying a proper death is characterized by a number of specific parameters. His feelings are calm, he is sometimes even joyful (see excerpt below). His body relaxes as much as possible; breathing becomes shallow and slow; hands open, turn around and lay palms up; the soles of the feet open and the legs themselves disintegrate; the lower jaw falls off; the eyes open slightly (do you see a newborn baby lying in this description?).

This is how the Russian historian Mirolyubov describes such a death (Mirolyubov Yu., 1996):

“And suddenly there was a noise in the hall: “Father, our great-grandfather is dying. We need to take communion!” The father gets up and immediately, without saying a word, despite the mother’s entreaties, goes into the yard and leaves. Duty comes first! We who remain complain, but soon forget. And within an hour dad was home again. “The most ancient grandfather!” - says: “I enter the hut, and he is already lying on the bench, a pillow stuffed with straw under his head, in a clean shirt, with a lit candle in his hand, so bright and joyful. “Forgive me,” he says, “for getting ready to die on such a day!” The Lord is calling!” “Rejoice, servant of God,” I say: on this day to present yourself before Christ is a great honor!” - “Even though I’m happy, I feel sorry for my relatives. It's Christmas time. I’m ruining their joy.” - “Don’t think about it.” He gave him unction, confessed, gave him communion, and he said: “Sit, father, for another minute, read me the funeral service.” I was reading, and suddenly I saw that my grandfather had fallen asleep. And then the candle fell out of his hands. It turns out he died." In this simple description of the death of old people of that time - all of Holy Rus'! A man simply lived, worked, fulfilled God’s Commandments, gave birth to children, raised them, got married, saw grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, and finally died. A simple life and an equally beautiful, simple death, without pretentiousness, without fuss. This is how everyone who had a clear conscience died. Like real first Christians, in a white shirt, with a candle in hand! And how many people are there in the world who die with curses on their lips... And here - purity, spiritual simplicity, tranquility. We remember how grandfather Minai was dying in Antonovka: he came home and said to his wife: “Well, woman, put some water on the stove, I need to wash myself, it’s said to be clean.” She did. Grandfather washed his face, combed his hair, trimmed his beard, straightened his mustache, and said: “Wait a minute, do we have a candle?” - “What do you need a candle for?” - she asked in fear. - “And you, woman, don’t judge: give me a candle!” She gave him a candle. - “Do we have some incense?” - asked Minai. - “Yes” Gave him incense. Grandfather lit a censer, a clay pot, and said: “Go to your father, call him to us. It is necessary to confess, to commune.” - “Yes, what are you, grandfather, planning to die?” - she cried. - “And you, woman, don’t argue! Go as told. Work hard for me. I worked for you too.” She went to the priest. They came together, and the grandfather was already lying down on the bench, holding a candle in his hand: “Hurry, father, otherwise his soul will leave!” The priest confessed him, gave him communion, and then a woman stood in tears next to her grandfather: “Who are you leaving me with now?” “And against the Lord God and the Mother of God,” he answers, “Don’t cry.” Everyone has to die one day." Then, when the priest left, he asked to adjust the pillow, asked for a drink, then groaned once and dropped the candle to the ground. The woman began to scream. Grandfather didn’t hear anything anymore. His soul flew away to the Supreme God.

Our Russian people are amazing! No people in the world die so simply, so spiritually. Each of the old men had clean socks with white heels and tips, clean underwear, a suit, shoes, as needed, stored “for death.” No one dared to wear these things, nor wash them, nor iron them; they were just as they were bought, and they lay in the chest. They dressed the deceased in them after washing. But these two grandfathers, whom we described above, had the moral strength to wash themselves, get ready, lie down and die. After all, how many people are there who, at the mere thought of death, turn pale, tremble, grab the priest, but here simply, clearly, without noise or shouting, a person is preparing for the Other World.”

A fundamentally important characteristic that distinguishes the body of a client undergoing thanatotherapy from all other means of relaxation is that the limbs and body of a person become cold (compare, in autogenic training: “my hand is heavy”, “my hand is warm”). It is not clear where heat can come from in a relaxed body driven by autogenic training instructions. After all, relaxation is a Yin component, characterized exclusively by cold. Hence the difficulty of getting into the center of total relaxation (Yin component) using other technologies: it is impossible to go through the so-called. “cold zone” (fear of death) and it is impossible to feel like an object (object). Thanatotherapy, which is a special technology (a sum of principles, techniques, exercises), allows you to do this.

7. The basic principle on which the techniques are based and the characteristic of the work is a kind of “bodily homeopathy”, which, in relation to the thanatotherapeutic process, is formulated as follows: “minimal in strength and amplitude effects lead to maximum but powerful feelings and experiences.” The feelings manifested in this case do not (cannot lead!) to a reaction due to the fact that the source of this yang activity is surrounded by an “ocean” of the yin component (see above).

8. Only in this case (a combination of a special type of contact “thanatotherapist-client”; a special mode of performing techniques - “bodily homeopathy”; reliance on the Yin approach, when the session begins with “total grounding”), a special result is achieved in a thanatotherapeutic session: the body releases exactly as much energy (the moment of the so-called “activation”), which is immediately absorbed by the body itself (the moment of the so-called “absorption”) (for more information about the “activation” / “absorption” motor fields, see D. Boadella, 2002 ). The body, thus, acts as a kind of guarantor of safety and regulator of the balance of processes of activation and absorption of energy. These are “programs” of the body itself, the work of which depends only on the conditions that contribute to their launch.

9. The area of thanatotherapy is an area located between peculiar navigational “gates” or, using mythological language, between Scylla (sleep, coma, deep trance) and Charybdis (“reaction”, catharsis). In both the first and second cases, the connection between the thanatotherapist and the client is broken. This is the danger of these places - it is not clear where the client's process is heading. Contact lost. But, at the same time, this is the exact qualification of the thanatotherapeutic process: if the client falls asleep, or if he, not paying attention to the thanatotherapist, goes into reaction, this is definitely not thanatotherapy. In this case, you can use the entire range of techniques from other types of psychotherapies (intensify control, open breathing, etc.). In some ways, the thanatotherapeutic process can resemble the “flights” of a shaman with a guarantee of return and an inextricable connection between the shaman and the patient.

10. In thanatotherapy, the dying process is considered as a process consisting of two stages: a kind of “sluggish” and “active dying”, respectively - “sanitation” and “termination”. When providing assistance to a dying person, it is important to navigate these stages and choose techniques and means that are adequate to the stage itself. For the “sanitation” stage - sanitizing techniques, for “termination” - terminating techniques. Inadequate application of techniques is not help; it leads to violence against a person and undermines his resource. Often a dying person asks not to undergo sanitizing procedures, as, for example, in the following passage:

“You read with horror how absurdly and cruelly the doctors treated Gogol’s pitiful, powerless body, even though he prayed for only one thing: to be left alone. With a complete lack of understanding of the symptoms of the disease and clearly anticipating Charcot's methods, Dr. Auvert immersed the patient in a warm bath, there they poured cold water on his head, after which they put him to bed, sticking half a dozen fat leeches to his nose. The patient moaned, cried, resisted helplessly as his withered body (one could feel his spine through his stomach) was dragged into a deep wooden tub; he was trembling, lying naked in bed, and asked that the leeches be removed - they were hanging from his nose and getting into his mouth. Take it down, pick it up! - he moaned, frantically trying to brush them away, so that the hefty assistant of the corpulent Over had to hold his hands" (Nabokov V... 1993),

Returning to medicine, we note that many factors (the medical model of the disease; the Hippocratic Oath, which obliges us to save “to the last”; doctors’ own problems) do not allow doctors to change their stereotype of attitude towards help and the idea of “rehabilitation”/“termination” processes.

11. The peculiarity of the use of individual thanatotherapy techniques (such as “lowering the lower jaw”, different methods of “grounding” to different parts of the body; in some cases, the use of four basic thanatotherapy techniques) is that they themselves “adjust” the stages of dying, and in this sense, they are always adequate to these stages (“rehabilitation” and “termination”). If the dying person is at the stage of “rehabilitation”, he, with their help, recovers; if he is at the “termination” stage, he dies. In the latter case, his death is correct and easy. And this is real help.

12. At the basis of all human problems and diseases, thanatotherapy considers four basic problems (Baskakov V., 1998) and the corresponding parts of the body (a kind of “problem anatomy”): control/supercontrol from consciousness (head), feelings/contacts (hands, chest), strong feelings/sexual relations (groin area), supports (legs). Corporality in thanatotherapy is considered both as an opposition/interaction between the “social” and “biological” body, and as represented at the level of five physical bodies: individual and a number of group ones (family, organization, state, civilization) (Baskakov V., 1998). The main nature of working with four basic problems in thanatotherapy is somewhat reminiscent of a kind of “bodily optics”: with filigree bodily work they change the orientation of peculiar “mirrors” inside the body (another name is body tuning, body tuning). The body is completely “grounded”, and control retreats and lets go of feelings. Feelings (the energy of feelings) trigger the mechanism of absorption (“absorbing”) energy. Absorption promotes further “grounding,” etc. Habitual patterns, blocks and defenses become unnecessary and lose their meaning and meaning.

They say that in Russia before the revolution, experienced mothers removed inhibitions from their overgrown sons in the following way: they took them for one “session” to a brothel (at that time - sanogenic institutions). These highly professional body-oriented “priestesses of love” in one session were able to open access to an ocean of specific energy, in the face of which all teenage complexes disappeared.

In another case, a talented French archaeologist discovered an underground temple in the jungles of South America. The temple was guarded, but the knowledge of the archaeologist convinced the guards that it was safe and possible for him to visit this place. Having walked the entire winding underground path with his guides and seen the beauty of the central temple site, the archaeologist asked the guards if he could photograph it. For this, he had everything at hand - a camera with a flash. "Yes! - said the guards. “But only in natural light.” It’s time for someone else to get confused! But talent is talent in everything! This archaeologist went to the nearest village and bought ordinary mirrors there. He arranged and adjusted them in such a way in the winding course of the temple that when the sun was at its zenith, its rays, having traveled the entire path, reflected in the mirrors, filled the interior of the temple hall with light. It was not difficult for the archaeologist to take such desired photographs.

13. Finally, an important component of thanatotherapy is the spiritual component. This reality manifests itself through the questions: “What am I?”, “What do I identify with?” Is it only with the body?

The initiating component of the thanatotherapeutic process is the introduction (Latin initiato, Italian initiare, English initiate - mean to introduce, involve, be involved) of the thanatotherapist working with the client to the reality of life/death. Death - what is it? What is she to me? If Death is an enemy, a rival? Then this is a definite loss. In this case, should you accept it, fall on your face, or meet it with dignity? If Death is a friend, helper, adviser? What is it? If Death is a woman, as, for example, in the Russian tradition (among the Germans it is he - der Tod)? Then - an alchemical “wedding”?

About involvement, initiation - the popular American TV series "Emergency" today, where the height of professionalism is rather the "disembodiment" of doctors - a mixture of everyday and professional. While engaged in a complex operation, they often discuss their everyday troubles.

The case described by an Italian journalist is a completely different matter. During the construction of the Milan Cathedral, a journalist stopped a worker carrying sand in a wheelbarrow by asking him what he was doing. This worker carried sand to that worker, who mixed this sand with cement and passed this mixture on to that worker, who, adding water, prepared a solution from it in order to transfer it to the worker who raised this solution to the top of the Cathedral under construction in order to it was received by the worker who used this mortar to lay bricks in the wall of the Cathedral. So, to the journalist’s question, an ordinary sand transporter answered: “I’m building a Cathedral!” In this sense, he was initiated, involved in what was happening, involved in the great goal of architecture.

Seeing the word "in the list of proposed psychotherapeutic methods" thanatotherapy", I recall Greek mythology, according to which Thanatos- This greek god of death. And in our world there is something for death taboo. We usually don’t talk about this over a cup of coffee or in our home kitchen at dinner; we usually don’t discuss this topic with our children. And throughout life, the balance of human existence in our body is disrupted: mind - feelings - bodily sensations. The mind dominates, while feelings are frozen and blocked in the body. A person controls himself, his feelings, but at a certain moment, when the strength of feelings reaches its excess, a person loses control, " explodes"But this might not have happened - and the internal state could have been stable if a person had been able to fully express his emotions through physical relaxation.

Vladimir Baskakov proposed his own method of effective relaxation - thanatotherapy, or cure by death. The therapy is based on total relaxation model. Thanatotherapy is the author’s method, which includes techniques for establishing or restoring human contact with various types of death and dying. As a basic principle, the author of the method identifies " minimal impact strength and amplitude"leading" to the maximum strength of feelings and experiences". Thanatotherapy is one of the most interesting methods body-oriented psychotherapy, which studies the connection of human consciousness with different types of dying.

The thanatotherapy method allows you to solve psychological problems, heal the soul and mind of a person by bringing his energy balance back to normal. The author of the method emphasizes that thanatotherapy does not imitate death, but only models it through symbolic representation.

Only at the moment of experiencing strong feelings, when a person ceases to control his consciousness, is he able to let go of bodily impulses. The results of using thanatotherapy in the treatment of infertility And miscarriage.

When it comes death? When a person completely loses control over the body. And a person is afraid to die, because in this case the body will cease to belong to him. Helping to relax the body, and therefore the psyche, the thanatotherapist simulates the death of a person. And death no longer frightens, does not cause painful experiences; can be emotional" die"and be born again.

With the help of such exercises you can get rid of emotional and muscular tension. Working with the lower jaw in thanatotherapy is very interesting - if you take a good breath into the chest, the head will automatically go up and the jaw will go down. A relaxed lower jaw is a necessary condition for relaxation of the whole body. That is, to survive physically, you just need to be able to relax.

And such a thanatotherapy scenario is also possible. A man comes to a therapist. What worries him?

"I don't want to live at all. Depression".

The therapist invites him to try to die, since nothing in this life pleases him, he doesn’t want anything, and his only desire is to end this life.

Death acts as an activator of strong feelings. A man is taken to a field and offered to try to die. He agrees. A real coffin is rolled out of the car. Actually, it's all for real. He lies down in it. The coffin is closed. They hang him on a tree and say that they will come for him in 20 hours. Everyone is leaving. A man lies in a coffin.

He lay there for an hour, lay there for two, had already rested, as they say, changed his mind, even took a nap, if such a thing is possible in a coffin. The coffin is rocking, night is approaching. It is becoming increasingly difficult to breathe, although natural ventilation is present. A person cannot turn around, stand up, or sit down, his legs and arms become numb, he is overcome by horror and his only desire changes its direction - to live!

When a person says, " I want to die", "I don't want to live"he can imagine something from the area" don't live", but he has no experience of living through death. Therefore, you can talk about death, you can complain about life, say that everything is wrong, or you can try to die in artificially created conditions.

What was the reaction of the person whom they came for twenty hours later?

As soon as the lid of the coffin was opened, he jumped out of the man’s coffin with the words: “ I love life... I love my wife... I have a wonderful job... There are still so many things I want to do... There are still so many places that I have not been to... Take me home soon"The man realized the value of life.

It is worth noting that in medicine there is a separate section "thanatology", which studies the state of the body in the final stage of the pathological process, the dynamics and mechanisms of dying, as well as the causes of death and manifestations of the gradual cessation of the body’s vital functions. This teaching gave rise to such a direction in psychotherapy as thanatotherapy.

The thanatotherapy method gives a powerful dynamic effect. Having experienced a simulated dying experience, a person begins to appreciate life as such.

School-workshop of personal development

School of thanatotherapy and body psychotherapy

Remember death

One day a dervish boarded a ship to go on a sea voyage. Seeing him on board the ship, other passengers began to take turns approaching him for parting words. He said the same thing to all of them and seemed to be simply repeating one of those phrases that every dervish makes from time to time the object of his attention. He said: “Remember death until you know what death is.”

Almost none of the travelers paid much attention to this advice.

Soon a fierce storm broke out. The sailors, and with them all the passengers, fell to their knees, praying to God for salvation. They groaned in horror, considering themselves dead, and in a frenzy awaited help from above.

All this time, the dervish sat calmly, thoughtfully fingering his rosary and not reacting at all to what was happening around him. Finally the waves subsided, the sea and sky calmed down. Having come to their senses, the passengers remembered how serene the dervish was amid the general horror.

Didn't you realize during the storm that only the fragile planks of the ship separated you from death? - asked one of them.

“Oh yes, of course,” replied the dervish, “I knew that anything could happen at sea.” But even on land, I often thought that in ordinary life, among the most everyday events, something even less durable separates us from death.

Leader and presenter:

Vladimir Baskakov (Moscow)

Thanatotherapy is a special approach to bodily psychotherapy. Thanatotherapy, as a specific method of influencing a wide range of human problems, is intended for use in a variety of cases:

for any fears, and above all - fear of death and fear of the difficulties of life
for sleep disorders
to achieve maximum relaxation
in working with the dying
when providing assistance to the family of a dying person
when providing assistance to victims in emergency situations
during pregnancy (establishing more complete contact with the biological body and new life in this body - the child)
in the complex treatment of infertility and miscarriage
for difficulties in sexual relationships
in the complex treatment of sexual disorders
for some mental illnesses and psychopathy
for neuroses
as a rehabilitation of crisis conditions
during the rehabilitation period for any internal diseases and after operations on internal organs and the musculoskeletal system
with cerebral palsy, especially the intense form
for a more complete understanding and feeling of oneself
to experience transpersonal experiences.

This range of application of thanatotherapy is due to its concept, features of techniques and method (approach).

Certificate program in thanatotherapy. Training of thanatotherapeutic practitioners

V.Yu. Baskakov

Thanatotherapy: theoretical foundations and practical application

* * *

1. Thanatotherapy: problem statement

The main goal of thanatotherapy is to provide specific assistance (from therapy - care, care, treatment) in establishing (or restoring lost) human contact with the processes of death and dying (Baskakov V., 1995). The relevance of such assistance, especially at the present time, is based on the impossibility of full contact between the modern, and, therefore, in the apt expression of the domestic director and actor Rollan Bykov, - schizophrenic a person with his strong feelings that he experiences at the moment of his contact with the reality of death (the problem of the so-called “grounding of feelings”). As a result: real death is expelled from the life of a modern person, is taboo, and, therefore, due to the initial balance/duality of all life, cosmic processes (inhalation-exhalation, day-night, summer-winter), it penetrates into our lives in the form of an ersatz -death, simulacrum (Baudrillard J, 2000). Hence its abundance in modern cinema and fiction - the quantity of ersatz death makes up for the quality of forbidden real death. Due to the noted schizophrenia of modern man, the original balance of the three spheres of his existence is disrupted - “mind” - “feelings” - “bodily sensations and impulses” (Boadella D., 1987, Uspensky P., 1994) with a powerful emphasis/dominance of the “mind” ( mind, consciousness, control). The forecast for the future of the noted imbalance of the three spheres can be easily traced using the example of aliens from the future - humanoids - their appearance - a huge, seemingly “bloated” head and degenerated limbs (see below). As the dominance of the “mind” continues and rapidly develops in modern man, with a parallel “freezing” of feelings and blocking of bodily impulses, Shakespeare’s “I call death!” sounds more and more relevant. Death acts in its specific function and positive role as an activator of strong (even through fear!) feelings of modern man, a reintegrator of his three spheres.

The reality of death and contact with it is the most interesting subject of psychological research and psychotherapeutic activity due to the special qualities of the one who deals with this subject and activity. The object itself presupposes special ways of “grounding”, not a universal tolerance of death, but an exclusive interest in it itself and the mechanisms (behavioral, bodily) activated at the moment of a person’s contact with death.

2. Faces of Thanatos. Symbolic death: types of death

Thanatotherapy models (does not imitate!) real death through its symbolic representation. Such types of symbols of death appear in thanatotherapy: total relaxation, sleep, any ending/completion/stop, orgasm, madness, object characteristics of the body (Baskakov V., 2000). What does such modeling provide for contact with the reality of death? Model (not-real) death, at the same time including patterns (stereotypes) of our behavioral and bodily reactions to the reality of death, does not lead to shock (“short circuit” of three spheres as in post-traumatic stress and shock trauma), does not destroy the body, – allows the thanatotherapist to integrate into this model professionally, technologically and provide assistance in removing patterns. The more “monster” death is not recognized in the model, the more open a person is to this reality, the more complete his contact with it.

2.1. Total relaxation is like death

Only in the first minutes of death does the human body relax as much as possible (cf. “dead” - from peace), super-control of consciousness leaves the body, and the latter becomes an object/subject (cf. "deadly" drunk,” which means he falls like a sack). Those who are professionally involved in transporting such recently deceased bodies have special techniques for moving such absolutely plastic, “flowing” bodies. For this reason, many relaxation techniques use the image of the body of a deceased person as an ideal, i.e., the most relaxed object (compare the “dead person pose” from yoga). The dead body occupies a number of positions important for total relaxation: the arms and legs open completely, the lower jaw falls away, and the eyes open slightly. In the painting by the famous English artist John Everett (Fig. 1), the drowned Ophelia is depicted exactly like this: with her eyes wide open, her mouth and hands palms up.

Rice. 1 Drowned Ophelia

It is interesting that after death, certain actions are often performed with the body of the deceased aimed at bringing these fully open parts of the body “to normal”: the eyes are closed, the lower jaw is tied with a scarf, the arms and legs are tied (Photo 1).

Photo 1. Dead Bismarck.

Bismarck's relatives are still suing the photographers who secretly took and published a photo of the dead Bismarck in newspapers because the photo shows Bismarck - this symbol of the power of the empire - as weak.

And this is instead of maintaining during life the characteristics of a fully open body, for example, a slightly open mouth, which our parents close to us in childhood (“close your mouth, otherwise a fly will fly in!”), and as adults we open it only from excessive surprise. At the same time, parents are unlikely to know the key role of the lower jaw not only in suppressing negative strong feelings such as anger, rage, rage, hatred (only when naming these feelings does the mouth reflexively close and the jaw clench!), but also in such an important future area of life their child as a sexual relationship. It turns out that in the Russian swear language the verbs “shut your mouth!” and “don’t talk!” - directly refer to the genitals.

It is important to note that a completely relaxed body becomes colder, and coldness, for example, of the limbs, is a reliable indicator of movement towards total relaxation. This contradicts, for example, the path of autogenic training, where after the autosuggestion “my hand is heavy” (quite rightly; see below, “objectivity and objectivity of body parts”) is followed by “my hand is warm.” Relaxation and warmth are incompatible things (see below).

2.2. Sleep is like death

This type of death is best traced in the fairy tale tradition (the revived characters pronounce the traditional “how long have I slept”). The Old Russian “close your eyes” means simultaneously “to fall asleep, fall asleep” and “to die” (Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language, 2001).

Many of the prayers “for bedtime” and “morning”, in fact, describe the act of the soul leaving the body (death) and its return (resurrection):

When you go to bed, say:

In Thy hand, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, I commend my spirit: Bless me, have mercy on me, and grant me eternal life. Amen (“Prayer for the laity.” Novonikolaevsk, 1996, pp. 34–35).

In mythology, the god of sleep, Hypnos, is the brother of the god of death, Thanatos. Likewise, the mechanisms of dreams and thanatotherapy are similar: at the moment of relaxation in a dream, healing (“morning is wiser than evening”) unconscious structures are activated, energy is activated, which does not lead to its usual suppression and retention (for example, retention of feelings in the “Russian body”, Baskakov V., 1998) or, conversely, reaction, but allows it to be accepted as fully as possible (“grounded”). This helps to unblock and harmonize it. An excellent metaphor for this kind of balance is the famous painting by Henri Rousseau (Fig. 2), which depicts a sleeping singer and a lion standing over him.

Rice. 2 Painting by Henry Rousseau “The Dream”

In this picture, it is important for us to emphasize several key points that distinguish both sleep and thanatotherapy from other types of therapies: maximum security and a peculiar balance of processes of activation (“lion”, dream) and relaxation (“sleeping traveler”), as well as a peculiar body logic: a menacing lion comes out at that moment when the traveler falls asleep.

A person, preparing to “go to bed” (does this phrase remind you of anything?) rarely falls asleep Right. Correct about what? Of course, relatively proper dying(see below). We rarely fall asleep lying on our back (when the body is maximally “grounded” due to the fullest contact with what we are lying on), even more rarely we place our hands with open palms up on top of the blanket (according to A. Solzhenitsyn - this is one of the types of torture of political prisoners in the Gulag), we don’t let go of the lower jaw at all (see below), we don’t let our feet fall apart. And most importantly, we do not habitually fall asleep (the lines of the cult song “if death is instant!”), but slowly wait for the approach of Hypnos. In this case, the meaning of depicting death not with a Kalashnikov assault rifle or with an ax, but with a scythe, becomes clear to us.

Term

Word thanatotherapy is derived from two roots (Greek “thanatos” - death and “therapia” - care, care, treatment) and can be translated as “death therapy”. The system received this name in connection with the body-oriented method of work, combining the states of maximum immobility and total relaxation characteristic of a dying person.

Purpose of thanatotherapy

The main goal of thanatotherapy is to provide specific assistance in restoring a person’s lost contact with the processes of death and dying. Thanatotherapy operates with a wide range of ideas about various types of death, which include total relaxation, sleep, orgasm, completion/stopping of the process, madness, object characteristics of the body, etc. Thanatotherapy technique offers special techniques for restoring contact with the above types of death and normalizing the corresponding psychophysical human processes.

Thanatotherapy method

Thanatotherapy and body-tuning

The thanatotherapy method is based on the natural processes of self-regulation of the human body. The conditions for their manifestation arise due to the nature of the techniques and the special approach to working with the patient (the so-called “body-tuning” - harmonization of an unbalanced internal reality, “tuning” the body). Such work with the body leads to the removal of mental stress, maximum immobility and total relaxation of the body (thorough grounding), which creates conditions for a safe meeting and contact with the causes of fear of death. These same conditions contribute to the gradual transformation and integration of the patient’s painful experiences and ideas.

Simulation of “proper death”

As a means of establishing and restoring lost contact with the processes of death and dying, thanatotherapy uses modeling of the so-called. proper death. The basis of this model is total relaxation. The body of a person dying a proper death is characterized by a number of specific parameters. His feelings are calm and he may even experience joy. His body relaxes as much as possible, his breathing becomes shallow and slow, his arms open, turn around and lie palms up, his feet open, and his legs themselves fall apart; the lower jaw relaxes, the eyes open slightly. (Here it is worth noting some similarities with the Shavasana asana (corpse pose) - a pose in classical yoga designed for relaxation, complete rest of the body and normalization of the flow of prana. This pose is recommended in yoga to eliminate anxiety, tension and fatigue. Shavasana allows you to achieve complete rest of the body and mind, since while taking this pose, attention is paid to deep breathing and concentration on it, while tactile sensations are minimized: the body lies free, the jaw and tongue are relaxed, the lips are closed, the eyes are closed, the palms are turned up, the heels are brought together together, breathing is done through movements of the lower abdomen and diaphragm, and the mind is directed only to observing the inhalation and exhalation.)

By following a special thanatotherapeutic regimen during a session, the body achieves energy balance and produces exactly the right amount of energy (the process revitalization), how much it itself absorbs (the process absorption). The body acts as a kind of guarantor of safety and regulator of the balance of processes of activation and absorption of energy. Thus, during the therapy process, the natural mechanisms of the patient’s body are used, and the work of the thanatotherapist is reduced to launching them.

Problematic anatomy

At the basis of all human diseases, thanatotherapy considers four basic problems localized in their corresponding parts of the body (problem anatomy):

control/supercontrol by consciousness (head)
feelings/contacts (arms, chest)
strong feelings/sexual relations (groin area)
supports (legs)

Corporality in thanatotherapy is considered in the context of opposition/interaction between social and biological bodies. In addition, corporeality finds expression in five levels of physical bodies: individual and a number of group ones (family, organization, state, civilization). The concept of body tuning in thanatotherapy involves working with four basic problems through the principle of the so-called. body optics. Through subtle bodily work, the therapist changes the orientation of the “mirrors” inside the body, as a result of which it becomes completely grounded, and the control of consciousness retreats and lets go of feelings. Feelings (energy of feelings) trigger the mechanism of absorption (absorption) of energy, and absorption promotes further grounding. The patient’s usual patterns, blocks and defenses become unnecessary and lose their meaning and significance.

Thanatotherapy and burying in the ground

It is worth emphasizing that thanatotherapy and its method have nothing to do with trainings and practices that involve voluntary temporary burying of their participants in the ground.

Indications

Thanatotherapy allows you to provide assistance in a wide range of situations:

in working with the dying;
when providing assistance to the family of a dying person;
for any fears, and above all - fear of death and fear of the difficulties of life;
for sleep disorders;
to achieve maximum relaxation;
when providing assistance to victims in emergency situations;
during pregnancy (establishing more complete contact with the biological body and new life in this body - the child);
in the complex treatment of infertility and miscarriage;
with difficulties in sexual relationships;
in the complex treatment of sexual disorders;
for some mental illnesses and psychopathy;
as a rehabilitation of crisis conditions;
during the rehabilitation period for any internal diseases and after operations on internal organs and the musculoskeletal system;
with cerebral palsy, especially the intense form;
for a more complete understanding and feeling of oneself;
in personal growth groups to experience transpersonal experiences.

References

Arkhangelsk psychiatrists treat with death. “Kurgan and Kurgan people” (Kurgan), No. 60, 06/03/2003, p.5.
Baskakov V. Yu. Thanatotherapy: theoretical foundations and practical application. M., Institute of General Humanitarian Studies, 2007. ISBN 5-88230-196-3, 978-5-88230-196-4
Baskakov V. Yu. Thanatotherapy. Psychotechnical approach. // Sat. Thanatos figures. Philosophical almanac. Fifth special release. St. Petersburg, 1995
Baskakov V. Yu. Russian body (towards the formulation of the problem of body-oriented analysis of national character). Psychological consultation. No. 1. 1998. Pp. 13-20.
Baskakov V. Yu. Body-oriented psychotherapy and psychotechnics: generalization and comparative analysis of existing approaches // Collection of articles. Human corporeality: interdisciplinary studies. M., 1991. Pp. 54-61.
Baskakov V. Yu. Minimal impact in terms of strength and amplitude. Body-oriented psychotherapy. Reader. St. Petersburg, 2000, pp. 264-276.
Baskakov V. Yu. Thanatotherapy: the art of life and death / Free body / Reader on body-oriented psychotherapy and psychotechnics. - M.: Institute of General Humanitarian Research, 2001 - p. 108-125.
Baskakov V. Yu. Thanatotherapy of post-traumatic stress / Current problems of psychophysiological correction of the functional state of military personnel / Materials of the all-army scientific and practical conference (October 25-26, 2001) - St. Petersburg: FARMIndex LLC, 2001, pp. 372-373.
Baskakov V. Yu. Thanatotherapy / Encyclopedia of traditional folk medicine: Directions. Techniques. Practices / Comp. I. M. Mineev. - M.: AST Publishing House LLC: “Complicity”, 2002, pp. 537-539.
Baskakov V. Yu. Thanatotherapy: theoretical foundations and practical application. M., Institute of Thanatotherapy, 2002. - 90 p.
Gazarova E. Madness is like death. Clinical aspects of thanatotherapy: obsessive-phobic disorders. Materials of the IV International Interdisciplinary Scientific and Practical Conference “The Other Side of Life”, Kharkov, Ukraine, April 22-25, 2004, pp. 11-15.
Gazarova E. “Thanatotherapy: deep exhalation.” Popular Psychology, No. 8, 2005, p.72.
Gazarova E. E. Thanatotherapy. Materials of the participants of the “2nd All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference of Practitioner Psychologists”, Moscow, February 9-12, 2006. Ed. Sukmanyuk A. N. - Moscow: 2006, pp. 60-63.
Gorobets P. Yu. Models of bodily psychotherapy. NLP Bulletin, issue 2, 2000.- M., KSP+ Publishing House, 2000, p.363.
Zamaraeva E. V. Thanatotherapy and transformation of relationships. In: III Interdisciplinary Scientific and Practical Conference “Man and Woman. Love, partnership, family,” M., 2003, pp. 300-304.
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Kozlov V.V. Psychotechnologies of altered states of consciousness. - 2nd ed., revised. and additional - M.: Publishing House of the Institute of Psychotherapy, 2005. p. 379, 479-480.
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Malkina-Pykh I. G. Body therapy. - M.: Eksmo Publishing House, 2005. - pp. 498-505 (chapter “Tanatotherapy”).
Psychotherapeutic encyclopedia. Ed. B. D. Karvasarsky. - St. Petersburg, “Peter”, 2002. - (mentioned “Thanatotherapy” in the section “Body-oriented psychotherapy”), p. 886.
Sandomirsky M.E. Psychosomatics and bodily psychotherapy: A practical guide - M.: Independent Firm “Class”, 2005, p. 129, 172, 395, 562.
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Body Magic. Energy and Character. The Journal of Biosynthesis. Vol.25 No. 1, April 1994, p.15-17.
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La formazione in thanatoterapia e molto diffusa soprattutto all Est. Uni seminario per imparare a morire. Corriere di Siena, Domenica 28, Ottobre 2001.

Links

from the publication “Clinical Psychology. Dictionary" from the Yandex.Dictionaries project.
E. E. Gazarova. Thanatotherapy: body - life - death // Abstracts of the speech at the PPL conference on October 4, 2008 (GNU FDL license)
ANO "Institute of Thanatotherapy"

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See what “Thanatotherapy” is in other dictionaries:

thanatotherapy- parapsychic. honey. death cure (used in the treatment of depression) ... Universal additional practical explanatory dictionary by I. Mostitsky

Death (death) is an irreversible cessation, cessation of the vital activity of the body. For unicellular living forms, the end of the period of existence of an individual organism can be either death or mitotic cell division. In medicine... ...Wikipedia