I have been meditating on producing a General Problem Solver (GPS). I told a doctor in the Montpelier Health Centre in Bristol about twenty years ago that I had plans to produce a GPS.
The following General Problem solver is for reconstructing perception after a trauma or a crisis. I call it 'Rules for Refinement' (refinement as in Step-wise refinement in algorithms for computer programming).
Rules for Refinement
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1. Remember -> incident / trigger - start at an action and work backwards.
2. Regulation -> Affect Arousal Regulation - the affect is inherited from reacting to the environment. With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as an example, one is continually oscillating between keeping the deemed threat in abeyance, and reliving the trauma.
3. Rethink -> action required, for example, emotional identication, empathy, self-awareness, acceptance or meditation.
4. Regain -> mental poise / composure -> still the mind whatever you thought caused the scenario. Meditation or Reflection can still the mind.
5. Resistance -> have the grace not to offer resistance -> 'The Serenity prayer' - God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Self-compassion is not resisting part of ourselves and not being self-prejudiced, but embracing even our darkside.
6. Refocus -> Resistance can be seen positively as an opportunity for growth and not distancing one from a source of help. With refocusing more helpful thoughts impact on behaviour (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).
7. Reframe -> one can reframe / generalise / put the ball into a larger field by reflecting on -
a) You cant calm the storm, so keep calm and wait for it to pass.- Timber Hawkeye
b) Life is not the absence of conflict, it is how you deal with it.
c) Work with the moment, and not against it.- Eckhart Tolle
8. Rationalise -> somebody cannot have an emotion that will produce another emotion in somebody else which will cause them to Respond in a particular way. You only have power over your own mind, not outside events.- Marcus Aurelius.
One can Resolve their defences by seeing that a situation is not as threatening as their model of it believes it to be (R.D. Laing and Existential psychiatry).
The emotion is a response generated from a model in which the client takes no responsibility for experiences he could control (page 52. The structure of magic by Richard Bandler & John Grinder).
9. Responsibility -> Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasises the existence of the individual, who being free and responsible, is held to be what he makes himself by the self-development of his / her essence through acts of the will - The Oxford Popular English Dictionary.
10. Reading (optional) -> examples could include-
The outsider by Albert Camus
Crime passionnel by Jean-Paul Sartre
Knulp by Hermann Hesse
The painter in Pictor's metamorphosis by Hermann Hesse
10. Recognise -> recognise needs.
11. Retrieve -> by exercising memory - 'safe in the zone'.
12. Reparitive -> reparitive care - Safety net.
13. Reflexive knowledge -> from experience, psychiatry, counselling, safety net, etc.
14. Restitution -> If you feel guilty about some issue involving someone else, or if you feel you are contaminating people with your issues or difficulties, you can make amends. It may not be a good idea confronting someone with what the wrong is, you may experience rejection or it may be considered as harrassment, or invite indignation or ill will from someone. A preferred method could be to wait until someone is experiencing a difficulty and then provide or offer help.
15. Realignment -> lessen use of alcohol, drugs, food etc as a result of less stress.
16. Relive -> relive in a therapeutic context.
As a foot note, I gained a Red Cross first aid certificate living in Bristol. The Red Cross was set up by a Swiss business man after the battle of Solferino, to protect the wounded.
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