A Theory and Treatment of Your Personality. Garry Flint
A Theory and Treatment of Your Personality
A manual for change
by
Garry A. Flint, Ph. D.
Copyright 2011 Garry Flint,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0097-6
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Disclaimer
Great care has been taken in preparation of this book, but the author makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind, nor does the author assume any responsibility for errors or omissions. Likewise, the reader assumes entire responsibility for what he or she may do with the information presented here. The material in this book is experimental and is based on clinical results. There has been no peer-reviewed research proving the efficacy of this treatment method. The author recommends consulting with another mental healthcare professional before self-administering this method and assumes no liability for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the information contained in this book.
This book provides accurate and authoritative information about the subject matter covered. The author offers this information with the clear understanding that the information presented here is not a substitute for professional mental health or medical advice, nor is the author giving professional mental health or medical advice. If the reader wants mental health advice or any other professional advice, he or she should seek the services of a competent professional.
Acknowledgments
I have had a lot of support in writing this book. It seems like a lifelong process that started after I flunked out of the University of Redlands as a theoretical physics major. After I went back to school at San Francisco State University, I met Forrest Harrison, a fellow student. His enthusiasm and go-for-it mentality inspired me and put me in touch with Willard Day at the University of Nevada. The three of us worked together on a teaching machine program for a summer workshop and Day invited me to get a Master’s Degree in experimental psychology at the University of Nevada. I continued my education at Indiana University, where I was fortunate to have James Dinsmoor as my mentor and dissertation chairman. Dinsmoor was a rocksolid experimental psychologist with complete integrity.
After graduating in 1968, I eventually ended up working with families and children. My theoretical bent started with my training and exposure to Francine Shapiro, who presented a descriptive theory for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) with which I had trouble. The theory had good face validity, but I was a reductionist, and Richard Smith introduced me to an article by Walter Freeman (1991), which directed my theoretical explanation of EMDR to chaos theory. This fit in with my learning theory background that was based on B. F. Skinner’s work. Later, I trained with Roger Callahan, whose model for the treatment of trauma and mental issues motivated me to extend and refine the EMDR theory to cover the treatment interventions of Thought Field Therapy. I also want to thank Gary Craig, who gave me permission to publish a book based on his Manual for Emotional Freedom Techniques (Craig and Fowlie, 1995).
I discovered the mechanics for the Process Healing Method while treating a patient in November 1993. I collaborated briefly with Jane WakefieldFlint until our theoretical inclinations took us in different directions. In general, I worked in isolation but conversed with Dean Kansky, who was enthusiastic in his support. He created a couple of interventions that appear in this book, gave many innovative suggestions, tried most of the interventions, and was creative in his use and exploration of the limits of the Process Healing Method.
I have had consistent support from Fred Gallo, whom I have bugged with my theoretical ideas on his Internet list on which I threw out my ideas from time to time. Charles Figley has been a longtime supporter of the work I was doing and of this book.
A few years ago I received an email from Joaquin Andrade (personal communication, March 20, 2002), a true physician-scientist who explored the Process Healing Method and found that it was indeed effective with many difficult patients. He went on to teach it to his colleagues and to present the ideas at institutions all over Latin America. He has truly been a motivating factor in my getting this book written in an acceptable format and completed. Eroca Shaler, Lee Pulos, Liz Medearis, and Donna Cameron gave valuable suggestions and support at various stages in developing and writing the book.
I want to thank Don Elium, who created the ProcessHealingForum to discuss the book as the chapters evolved. This Forum was the source of many insights and suggestions about how to improve the quality of the writing, as well as insights into the constructs from the readers. It also served to motivate me to organize and write the book. Thanks to those people on the forum who made contributions to the final version of the book if only by participating on the Forum. The Forum members who actively made suggestions were Joaquin Andrade, Claire Enright, Charles Figley, Laura Hewitt, Molly Hunt, Susan Hykes, Kathy Izzo, Caroline James, Colleen Kaffashan, Dean Kansky, Karen Milstein, Catherine Murphy, Judith Poole, Kate Strong, Zsigmond Szatmári, Phyllis Wadleigh, and others who commented to the list moderator about the positive value of the Forum.
Editing the book was a task. I have had a lot of help over the years. David Juran edited an earlier version of chapters 1 to 3; Joanne Martin edited chapters 1 through 6, pointing out confusing sentences and unclear sections. Two Forum members did extensive editing: Kathy Izzo, who gave significant help in clarifying the text and editing gross grammatical errors and gave great suggestions on the organization of sections of the book; and Kate Strong, who edited for clarity and made suggestions that improved the quality of the book. I want to specially thank a friend and colleague, Jo Willems, who was a sounding board every other week at lunch and who was a significant supporter. She went beyond the call of duty by critically editing the manuscript from start to finish. Her theoretical and clinical experience helped refine many of the concepts in the book. Finally, I sent it off to Christopher Butler of WordsRU.com and Barbara Feiner, Los Angeles Professional Writers Group, who did the final edit and copyediting of the entire book.
I want to thank all of these people who contributed in their own way in the path to the completion of this book, especially to all my patients, who gave me varying amounts of insight, taught me about memory structures and about the uniqueness of all individuals.
I want to thank my daughters, Dana and Susan Flint, for their support in completing this project and Jennifer and Matt Wakefield for creating the pictures in Chapter VI. Most importantly, I want to give a special thanks to my wife, Jane WakefieldFlint, who supported me in many ways and who put up with my theoretical conversations and theory-building.
Preface
The reason for being and purpose of a clinician is to reduce human suffering and, in that ongoing battle, to look continually for innovative tools and new tactics. All dogmas, theories, schools, styles, lines of thought, beliefs, systems and their assumptions collapse in the face of an alternative intervention when the patient relaxes and says with a smile, “I feel much better! I can do things now that I couldn’t do before!”
Because none of the available therapeutic tools is perfect, the clinician is a perpetual seeker. Attention must be divided between the practice of healing and the nonstop search for tools that may have the possibility of producing results that were not possible before. The clinician wants tools that work faster, simpler, and are longer lasting, less complicated, and free of side effects.
This was the sense of mission that led me, as a young doctor, some 30+ years ago, to take my first trip to China. I studied acupuncture at its original and most genuine source. Since that