Drivers Welcome: Part III “Drive driver!”

How is it possible to get to a location that you have never or not been to in a long time in your life?  Depending upon the location’s proximity to your current location and if that proximity is distant it probably depends greatly on how many turns, right or left and the overall distance.  Well if we continue with the driver/car and mind/brain metaphor the same applies to how you can get to a place of control or quietude regarding your psychological life's location.  How far away are you from being able to easily control your emotions and/or your overall mood?

I discussed in Drivers Welcome: Part II  how Imagery, Auditory and Kinesthesia (or Feelings) could be compared to the road or the thoughts in which we use as catalysts for our thoughts and how our awareness of these modes of communication information can be likened to the sun or the headlights of a car.  Just as a car’s headlights illuminate the road so too can our awareness of these three modes of processing information as communications act as illuminating our thoughts.  Therapy can assist in becoming better able to bring your awareness to your thoughts especially the more negative thoughts, the ones we DON’T want to think about.

The next step is initiating a road map.  If you or I want to get to a location that we have never been to or at least have not been to in a very long time then we are best to get a map that will aid us in directing us there.  Again this is an area that a therapist can greatly increase the speed or shortness of the traveling but there are things that can be engaged to assist us in our solo travels.

A map would traditionally have some topographical features to assist in orienting the reader.  The topographical features of the map of the mind could reflect a traditional psychoanalytic perspective: Ego, Id and Superego or Conscious, Preconscious, and Unconscious or it could even take on a spiritual connotation: Father, Son and Holy Ghost/Spirit if someone was Catholic/Christian or the Tri-Kaya as the Dharma-Kaya, Sambhoga-Kaya and Nirmana-Kaya if someone was more inclined to Mahayana Tibetan Buddhism. 

The problem with following a map of any of the above referenced is that there is considerable educational or cultural background that is required to begin implementing the suggested directions of the map.  There is nothing intrinsically or internally wrong with the suggestions of any of the information on these maps its just that any specific individual may think that one of maps is better or worse or not even have the time or background to begin reading them.  These maps are very complex and demanding of both time and personal space.

The road map that I would like to suggest takes one component of all of these maps and transfers it into a generalized abstraction of them all.  It does not simplify the complex nature of the terrain but it does de-clutter and de-complicate the basic direction of the route.  The map that I will lay out in a later post will potentially allow the driver to drive! and to drive much more quickly and safely then ever before.


By Mathew Quaschnick

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