The Brain Revolution-old version
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New Ideas About Mental Health, Healing and Therapy, With a Christian Response
— Theology Pub, Toronto — Andrew Fountain: Nov 20, 2017
Introduction
- My motivation for my research is the advance of the Kingdom
- I’m very excited that the results of my research will help equip us towards that challenge.
- I’m not going to discuss the question of science vs the Bible
- I believe that the Bible is inerrant and authoritative on every issue it speaks to
- I also believe that God speaks through general revelation, e.g. the way he has designed the universe
- All truth is God’s truth
- So as long as we recognize that the Bible is the final authority, we can value medical and psychological research about the brain
- fMRI
- Limbic system
- Unprocessed memories
- relationships trump method
- Neuroscience of emotions
- Attachment theory
- Dyadic repair
1. Brain Imaging
- In 1991 and 1992 the first papers were published describing a revolutionary new way of watching changes in the brain that indicated activity. This was termed functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI for short.
- As equipment became available, it let to an explosion of knowledge about the brain.
- This led to the discovery of which parts of the brain were active during different events
- A very simplified view of the brain can see it as three parts
- For example, victims of trauma could have a script read to them which described the events that happened while a recording was being made of the brain regions being activated.
- Researchers were shocked to see the rational brain shut-down and the activity in the limbic system
- We don’t have direct control over this part of the brain
- It also explained why anger-management is so difficult
- anger-management training focuses on your rational brain
- but it can be seen that your rational brain is turned off during rage.
- Even more troubling is the discovery that memories can be buried in the limbic system
- e.g. a woman who panics when she sees certain men and she has no idea why
- Her limbic system is spotting a similarity with someone who abused her as a child, and is sounding the alarm as a survival mechanism
- This is why CBT is so ineffective for many problems
- In short, trauma is stored in the limbic system, rewiring the brain in a way that defies cognitive approaches
- Nevertheless, this part of the brain can be transformed, but not simply by logical arguments
- e.g. a study where people who were attacked on the street are taught self-defense and acts out a re-run (van der Kolk, 2014)
- Christian reflection:
- since the “Enlightenment” (beginning in the 1700’s) we have been culturally conditioned to read the Bible through a grid that exalts the rational.
- So we read that we are “transformed by the renewing of our minds”, and read “pre-frontal cortex”, but this word also includes desires.
- Emotions were regarded as animal and something to rise above
- God does not really have emotions, that is a mere anthropomorphism
- The Bible does not present man as simply rational
- Much richer than that
- Christian reflection:
- This is 100% in accord with the Biblical description of humanity
- God, as trinity, has relationship as a fundamental part of himself, and man is in his image
2. A Theory of Mental Illness
- Around 150 years ago, we had no real theory of physical disease
- It was all symptoms: pain in the gut, redness of the eyes, etc.
- Until very recently this has been the state of mental illness
- depression, anxiety —all symptoms
- Finally some coherent models of mental illness are being presented
- However there has been relatively little critical evaluation and response from the Christian community.
- Christian reflection:
- Does this mean that we are not responsible for our behaviour, if it is due to brain changes?
- Yes and no:
- Stroke victims can kill a person and not be held responsible
- We don’t hold someone in the middle of a panic attack up to the same level of accountability
- But even if there are mitigating circumstances, we are still responsible for our actions
- In addition, as we can see, we can do things to help us heal, and one of them is having a deep and trusting relationship with God
- Yes and no:
3. Emotions Drive Change
- Jeffrey M. Schwartz, the discoverer of adult neuroplasticity at UCLA, was a Buddhist but in the last decade has been born again and is a passionate evangelical Christian.
- He developed an effective program for people who suffer from OCD
- He was able to demonstrate that they had actually rewired their brains by overcoming it
- Since the enlightenment our culture would have us believe that we are fundamentally intellectual beings
- We change because we accept something as true
- Our emotions then follow suit
- The Bible doesn’t have a precise set of terms for the brain, but is does say that it’s from our hearts that our behaviour comes
- Evil behaviour flows from the heart
4. Science of Attachment
- What is the most successful therapy?
- Scientific meta-analysis
- Overwhelmingly, it almost doesn’t matter
- It’s the quality of the relationship with the therapist!
- I find this very exciting because this is what Christians should be good at
- We are the love of God manifested to the world!
- Giving advice or coming alongside?
- But not how wise, or clever, or insightful the therapist is
- The old model of therapy is like a doctor/patient with a wise and detached therapist giving words of advice.
- This has been adopted into the Christian world, but it is not Biblical
- However it has been demonstrated that a much more effective model is that the therapist admits their weakness and is willing to feel the pain of the patient.
- When the therapist is willing to admit their own weaknesses, and be vulnerable, then there is a huge increase in effectiveness (Yalom)
- The old model is not a biblical model for helping the hurting
- Christians have adopted the term “Counselling” (sumboulos)
- συμβούλιον consultation, σύμβουλος advisor (never about helping the hurting, but about giving advice) “they took counsel together to kill him”
- The Biblical term is comforter (parakletos)
- Encourage, comfort exhort: παρακαλέω (0104 times), παράκλητος (5) παράκλησις (28) encouragement
Attachment theory
- I would argue that the single biggest advance in psychology in the last 20 years has been the science of adult attachment
- Totally different to a Freudian model, and fits extremely well into a biblical anthropology
- John Bolby observed children. What he saw was radically at odds with his Freudian training
- He teamed up with Mary Ainsworth who devised a standardized test to see how 12-month old children attached to their mothers
- Later Mary Main came up with the Adult Attachment Interview, to test how adults handle close relationships
- It has been found that behaviour at 12-months is a strong predictor of adult behaviour
- Not only that, but axious attachment is passed on to the next generation
- Even grandparents to grandchildren?
- Recent studies at UofT and Ryerson involved 2000 dating couples, and predictions fell in line with expectations
- It is unusual in psychology to get such rigorously repeatable hard results across culture and social groups
- But the cycle can be broken by the experience of a single safe attachment figure
- Christian reflection:
- This is one of the most exciting outcomes to me of this whole enterprise
- It turns out that the Bible is full of attachment language
- Not good for man to be alone
- Communion with God, severed by sin
- Abraham’s entire story is about attachment—can he trust God?
- Covenants are primarily about attachment
- I will never leave you nor forsake you
- Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
- The Christian community should be a safe place where people can repair attachment styles
- Some of the insights from attachment theory can be a great help
- but being filled with the love of God gives us a unique ability to bring people to healing
5. Attachment Repair
- The curse brought shame and isolation
- People were scared to let themselves be fully seen because of sin
- If at the root of brining healing is the ability to deeply love, then Christians should be the best, because we have the love of God in us
- The famous missionary Hudson Taylor fell deeply into darkness and depression
- What saved him was a powerful emotion experience of union with Christ. He felt the attachment viscerally.
- But it’s just as much God’s love when it comes through another believer
- AEDP “Undoing Aloneness”
- The deepest human bond we know is betwen mother and baby, where brain scans suggest they are almost operating as one organism
- This research is in how we can enhance the depth of adult attachment through learning deep attunement
- A skilled and loving therapist can bring deep attunement between themselves and the other that facilitates change and deep healing
- The evidence is that this creates what is termed a “secure base” from which the client can expored their own wounds and come to healing.
- If non-christians can demonstrate this life-changing love, how much more should Christians be able to.
- My belief is that this kind of thing should be happening within the Christian community as we “weep with those who weep”.
Conclusions
- Can non-Christians be healed from mental illness without explicit reference to God?
- Quite clearly they can be
- But God is involved because he has build into us a healing capacity, just as with our bodies
- However, simply being healed has no ultimate benefit unless it leads us to God.
- But I’m going to argue that this healing only occurs because of a vestage of the image of God in us
- And a restored image gives us much more capacity for healing
- Even fallen human beings are still in the image of God, and can still show genuine love
- Mothers still love their babies
- But we should be able to love much more
- Recent research that carefully observes children and adults has led to some wonderfully effective ways of helping people receive love
- The results of this research is to create tools that accelerate the process of experiencing love
- The tools can be used by Christians or non-Christians, but my contention is that we as Christians are far better equipped to give this love because we are God’s children and are filled with his love.
Updated on 2017-11-20 by Andrew Fountain