from our childhood years. These unconscious conflicts continue to affect us—our relationships, our careers, and ultimately our perception of reality—unless they are acknowledged and dealt with. Therefore, the goal of psychotherapy is to make these unconscious conflicts conscious so that we may gain control over them. Theoretically speaking, once this is accomplished we are no longer victims of these unconscious forces, and our reality is no longer tainted and distorted by these determinants of behavior which normally operate outside our conscious awareness. Unfortunately, however, accomplishing this task fully is extremely difficult and in most cases almost impossible. The patient and the psychotherapist often have to grapple and struggle with a variety of conscious and unconscious defensive barriers and practical limitations, which make the psychotherapeutic process long and emotionally (as well as financially) exhausting. Yet, psychotherapy cannot be effective without understanding and dealing with such unconscious defenses and what erected them in the first place. A simple example may be used to illustrate how unconscious conflicts and defenses are formed and how they may affect a person’s life. Imagine a scared child who is given a highly conflicting message by her mother as she enters her parents’ room looking for security and comfort. Upon entering the room the child hears the verbal message (left hemisphere), “I really
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want you to stay here with us,” while at the same time she loudly “hears” the facial expression (right hemisphere), “I wish you would go to your room so that we could sleep in peace without you.” In other words, the left hemisphere hears an inviting, pleasing message while at the same time the right hemisphere “hears” rejection and experiences sadness and emotional pain. These overwhelmingly conflicting messages may seriously impair the child’s ability to respond to her mother. Her only way out is if and when one of the messages is blocked, or pushed outside tile realm of conscious awareness. As Freud (1915) so insightfully stated, “Defense is always against affect.” That is, if the material perceived by the right hemisphere (which is affective in nature) is defended against, the child is likely to go on and behave “normally” for the time being. Although the child may appear to have resolved the emotional and perceptual conflict of the moment, it is very likely that seeds of doubt, mistrust, and confusion have already been planted in her mind. As she continues to deny, block, and repress her inconsistent perceptions, she experiences greater tension and turmoil within. In other words, the nonverbal material in the right hemisphere, even though submerged in the unconscious, will continue to have a life of its own, and will, at one point, manifest itself in the form of physical and/or psychological symptoms.
To put it differently, lack of validation and communication between the two hemispheres may result in the construction of defenses which consequently, and in time, could alienate the child from herself. These unconscious barriers are apt to isolate and stop her from recognizing and acknowledging her resources, abilities, potentials, and propensities that could easily save her from emotional and psychological torment and make problem solving a manageable task. Hence, we come to witness the birth of “mental and psychiatric disorders” and psychosomatic symptoms and conditions. Early in his work, Freud (1913) discovered that by allowing his patients to free-associate, they were able to uncover some of the unconscious material that was interfering with their normal functioning. Symptoms, both physical and psychological, slowly began to disappear as the unconscious became more conscious. Even today, free association continues to be a potent tool for conducting insight oriented psychotherapy. It appears that, during the free-association process, important information and material tend to seep through the defensive barriers spontaneously. This results in recognition and realization of determinants of behavior, conflicts, and traumas often locked in the dungeons of the unconscious. But again, because of the complexities of defense mechanisms, this process is often time-consuming and extremely exhausting. Theoretically, the process of psychotherapy can be accelerated should the two