Some people cause us to protect them, save from attacks and aggression of others, pull them out of the “pit” and help cope with all problems. Does this say that in fact we need such help ourselves?

Time flows in only one direction? No, when it comes to the psyche. In the course of natural history, antiquity is replaced by a new era irrevocably, but in the framework of mental experience we can dive into the past, and then return. The state of the adult of the psyche, which we conditionally call the norm, is a late superstructure over its more archaic layers. And the ancient layer of the psyche is psychosis.

What distinguishes him from the “norm”? Lack of boundaries between internal and external. When it includes in the work, the images of the unconscious, like pictures from a magic lantern, are projected outward and perceived as real.

There is nothing wrong with this, despite the fact that the name can scare and hint at problems. Psychotic parts only help the psyche cope with complex experiences until another, more effective way has been found.

There was a case on the therapeutic group. Already at the first meeting, 25-year-old Inna felt more sympathy for another participant, her peer alley. Inna believed that Alla was very vulnerable, took care of her and defended her from attacks by other participants.

The intensity and speed of Inna’s experiences forced me to suggest that in these relations could not be without projections.

In an individual session with Inna, we tried to understand this. She said that from childhood she tried to attract the attention of her parents, but did not receive an answer. Her needs rarely met with a benevolent response.

Our psyche is arranged so that the unsatisfied need is immersed in the unconscious and continues to influence our life

When our unconscious material is associated with such basic needs as safety and affection, it is difficult for us to (too painfully) to meet it directly. To do this, we need a kind of intermediary, and often he is a person with whom we enter into a relationship.

And with the help of her psychotic part, Inna “found” surrounded by who, as it seemed to her, needs help just like she herself.

In other words, taking care of Alla, she tried to satisfy her own need for support. Of course, there was no real change with Inna at the same time. Therefore, my work with her was aimed at ensuring that her unconscious need was realized and assigned.

At first, Inna was able to admit to herself that she herself (and not Alla) needed support, and then ask for help and approval from other group members. And the need for the work of the psychotic part, acting on the principle of “another, is me, what I need, I need another,” because the need began to be satisfied with the participation of more

mature parts of the psyche.

Many of us believe that they live in a fully understandable world and that our idea of ourselves is exhausted by the entire content of mental reality. But it is not so.

We are born into a mental norm from psychosis. And in each of us there are poorly studied areas of the psyche that are associated with our earlier functioning. Sometimes we quietly plunge into the “mental paleolitis”. In this case, psychotherapy helps us return to the present.