Main Text

Lesson 33 The Transference of Climates

In the lessons on Relax we worked on converting tense everyday images and tense biographical images. These were exercises that corresponded to that introductory level of experience and work. The transferential process was presented there in a rudimentary way when we worked on dissociating the negative climates associated with certain images, and subsequently making the emotional climate positive. The Transference of Climates is a particular form of transference used when the subject is either unable to dissociate an image from a climate, is unable to transfer the charge to a different content (or image), or is unable to make the climate positive. These difficulties happen when there is only one climate present, and it is not connected to themes or plots that can be visualized, that is, the climate is not associated with a specific visual image. When a subject experiences a negative climate linked either to biographical themes, images of everyday situations, or even images of imaginary situations, the Transference of Images will be a most fruitful tool. Because the climate is based on images, it will be relatively easy to conduct the transference of the climate using these images. But what happens when a person experiences a generalized and diffuse climate of depression, fear, insecurity, or anxiety? What happens when the person has a phobia that is not related to particular objects, when he does not have a defined obsessive image, when he does not have a compulsion towards specific objects or acts, but rather has a profound, general and diffuse uneasiness? We answer these questions by observing that they indicate the presence of climates without visual images (although of course cenesthetic, kinesthetic and images of other external senses are operating), and one can transfer, modify and integrate these climates only if one can first manage to associate them with images. This is the task we take on in a Transference of Climates.

Requirements for a Transference of Climates If a subject experiences a fixed climate (not a temporary or occasional one) that is negative and diffuse, before he proceeds with the transferential sessions it is important to know whether he has any physical or organic faults affecting him in a general way. These could be glandular malfunctions, circulatory problems, etc. Many times the malfunction that produces such climates is a physical one, and not at all a psychological one. Thus, medical treatment alone can sometimes solve the difficulty. As we have mentioned, physical problems produce diffuse impulses, and they also produce images that will appear over and over in normal transferences in basically similar, although deformed ways. Such images always appear in identical “places” in the space of representation; such an image might always appear, for example, in the middle of one’s screen of representation, just to the left of center, even though its specific form changes. The physical difficulty cannot, of course, be corrected by transferential means. However, if there is no medical solution to his situation, the subject may still be able to redefine the problem by focusing on it in a new way, and thus finally integrate it. Therefore, an important requirement we have already mentioned in other courses is that a subject who feels pressure from fixed diffuse climates should have a medical examination. Another requirement is to try to find out the time when this physical problem originated. To do this, the subject can review the autobiographical material he produced in studying the lessons on Self Knowledge. If the subject can become aware of when the problem began, this will help orient the guide better in the process. Finally, one should know whether the reason the subject is unable to associate the negative climates with visual images is because he does not normally work with visual images. If this is the case, the subject can still use the Transference of Climates, but he will also on his own have to do the practices previously recommended to correct a lack of visual images (Lesson 14, Exercise Series 10).

The Treatment of Climates That Do Not Have Visual Images 1. Preparation: One follows the same Preparation as in the Transference of Images. 2. Entrance: The Entrance is also the same as in the Transference of Images, except the subject now “looks” for the climate he wishes to adhere to an image. Next, the guide asks the subject to “look” for images of either biographical or fictitious situations which “fit” the climate very well, without giving an artificial sensation. The subject should try to fit the climate to a variety of images and look for the best match. An entire session may be devoted to this search for an adequate image without success. In this case, repeat the preparation and entrance in later sessions until one finally finds a good “fit,” no matter how many sessions it takes. When the subject eventually achieves a good fit, the guide asks him to perfect the image until the climate acquires maximum suggestive strength. The subject should not continue until the climate has been strongly associated with a precise theme and plot. The indicator that he has successfully associated the climate with an image is when the subject, upon seeing himself in the scene he has obtained, experiences that the climate is “real.” In his repeated attempts to adapt images to the diffuse climate, the subject will likely remember the actual event that marked the beginning of the problem. Once this happens, he then continues by following the usual steps of a Transference of Images. In general, when one completes the first step of “fitting” and strong association of the climate and a visual image, one then continues with Steps 3 through 7 in the Transference of Images in the previous lesson.

Observations While working with a climate and building its register, the subject may have a cathartic reaction which will lower the potential charge needed to associate the climate with an image. If this happens, the guide should let the discharge be fully produced, but should then suspend the session. Although the subject will have gained temporary relief from his unpleasant tension, it will also be necessary to speak with him and help him reach conclusions about the event and increase his understanding of this phenomenon. It is important for the guide to obtain some biographical data from the subject, and also if possible material on the subject’s reveries, dreams, and allegorizations; all this information will make the orientation of the process easier. At times, the subject may confuse the diffuse climate with other permanent tensions-tensions different from those that generate the climate itself. These tensions prevent the subject from entering the necessary level of consciousness of active semi-sleep. If it seems likely that this is happening, use a Cathartic Feedback Probe to discharge these tensions. When a catharsis has been produced, either the climate will cease to operate and disappear, or it will be more clearly associated with a corresponding image which had been previously dampened or blocked by the permanent system of tensions.

Exercise: Transference of Climates Do a pedagogical practice where one participant mobilizes a minor diffuse climate, which may not in itself be of great importance, but can demonstrate how one “fits” the climate to a visual image. Whether one should then go on to the actual work of a Transference of Climates (done between two people only) depends on whether there really is a decisive negative climate without an associated visual image. Thus, one does not work on this artificially with subjects whose climates are already related to definite visual images.

Exercise: Negative Transference This is a very useful work in which one associates a negative or inhibiting climate with the image of a harmful habit one wishes to break (smoking, drinking, etc.) To do this, the guide helps the subject relax and begin to see images until the subject has a clear image of himself carrying out the harmful habit. Then, the subject immediately evokes a different image that produces a strong inhibitory climate, that is, an image of something very unpleasant and repulsive to the subject. The subject makes this repulsive image enter the first scene and connect with the harmful habit. One should take care to choose images for this combined complex scene that are as closely and naturally related as possible. One can continue to work on the transfer and “fitting” of the inhibitory climate to the image of the harmful habit over a period of time. Repeat this in several sessions until, when one evokes the image of the harmful habit, the inhibitory climate appears strongly associated with the harmful habit. To accelerate the process of “fitting” and association, the subject can repeat this whole process on his own several times a day until the next session. If he reinforces it this way on his own, he should need only two or three sessions with the guide to obtain the Negative Transference. Finally, if upon evoking the image of the habit in question, the subject experiences a strong inhibitory climate, the guide then formally requests the subject to permanently abandon the habit from this time on. This technique will yield excellent results if: 1) the subject has good, clear reasons why he wishes to abandon the habit; 2) the subject truly wishes to free himself from the habit as a matter of vital importance, and 3) the subject proposes to permanently and abruptly break the habit, that is, not to gradually abandon it in a step by step way with tentative limits. One begins a session of Negative Transference with steps one and two of any profound transference.