into subtly expressed anger to our listener and meet more of our basic emotional need. But those same unwanted memories and “triggers” can return when our unmet basic emotional need and our unconscious entity may again increase to that same level that is needed to predicate-equate the unwanted memories of the past. Because of our recurrently becoming very emotionally uncomfortable may seem always associated with a certain remembered past traumatic event, it may seem only logical for us, as well as for mental health professionals, to believe that the distantly past event is the very reason we now feel so uncomfortable. What might be a big deception is fostered when our talking to an interested listener about that past traumatic event leads to our feeling better!
If a person had been in combat, and years later, develops night-mares and recurrent terrifying thoughts of that combat, it means this person doesn’t currently have a comfortable level of an unmet basic emotional need or a comfortable level of unconscious entity. It doesn’t mean that the cause of this person’s emotional problem is service-related. The cause of the present state of being emotionally uncomfortable may have nothing to do with past military service, and all to do with the veteran’s current situation in not meeting his basic emotional need to a comfortable level. If instead, this person had left military service without being emotionally comfortable, as many veterans have done, and not have been later able to maintain a comfortable level in meeting his basic emotional need, he may not have recovered from the psychological trauma of his past combat, or his having been a prisoner of war. This may be particularly so if he later turns to alcohol and drugs which don’t decrease his uncomfortably increased levels of his unmet basic emotional need and his unconscious entity. They produce a deceptive “masking” effect as though the basic emotional need is more fully met and the unconscious entity is greatly decreased, when they actually aren’t! When the drinking and drugging is temporarily terminated, the person has the same uncomfortable levels he had before. During the times when he is not drinking, he can lower his unmet basic emotional need and his unconscious entity by talking with others, but that unconscious process of lowering those levels is diminished, or suspended, when he begins drinking and drugging again, depending upon the extent of the drinking and drugging. This is what makes the recovery take longer. If a veteran leaves the service emotionally uncomfortable, and continues to be emotionally uncomfortable with episodes of heavy drinking, he may continue to have psychiatric symptoms, directly related to his having been so emotionally uncomfortable in his military service, and he might continue to show these symptoms for some time later. These symptoms could include recurrent unpleasant thoughts and dreams of his past combat, or prisoner-of-war, experiences. In contrast, he could have very unpleasant intrusive thoughts and night-mares none of which might be about his past combat or prisoner-of-war experiences. These symptoms too could very well be originating from a continuation of this person being emotionally uncomfortable from his military service experiences from maintaining an uncomfortably increased level of both his unmet basic emotional need and his unconscious entity.
How emotionally comfortable people are, will be determined by how well their basic emotional need is currently being met, and the current level of their unconscious entity. Since this can’t be determined when soldiers at discharge are under the influence of alcohol, or drugs, they may appear emotionally comfortable when their unconscious entity isn’t at a comfortable level. They may not have recovered from their service-connected traumatic experiences. These people are different from soldiers, free of alcohol and drugs at discharge, and who really are emotionally comfortable. If these people later develop a state of being emotionally uncomfortable, and then develop unpleasant intrusive thoughts and nightmares of their past combat, because of unconsciously predicate-equating their present situation, with their distantly past combat situation, their emotional problem isn’t “service-connected.” It’s their unconscious predicate-equating that can deceptively make it seem as though it is.
If a person really is emotionally comfortable when he leaves the service, and then later develops recurrent thoughts and night-mares of his combat, or his physical and psychological abuse as a POW, this person’s problem is that he currently has an uncomfortable level of both an unmet basic emotional need and an unconscious entity. The origin of his symptoms is in the present, not the past! Rather than attempting to determine the current causes for that state of being emotionally uncomfortable, it’s too convenient to simply say “it’s service connected.” Concluding this, effectively hides the real causes which may be all recently “part”-oriented in origin and, as such, much more difficult to ascertain. It deceptively may seem very much as though it is service-connected, when, by predicate-equating, unpleasant memories of his or her past military service are being vividly resurrected from the past. The veteran’s emotional problem may have no more of an origin in his or her past military experiences than the emotional problems of insecure and anxious children, who are having disturbing thoughts and vivid nightmares of being chased by hungry bears, are related in origin to hungry bears. For the veteran, with a distantly past history of combat, and an unwarranted diagnosis of a “combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder,” it unfortunately puts the focus for ascertaining the causes of currently being so emotionally uncomfortable solely on the long past combat, instead of on the present, where the focus should be. Worse than that, it could focus the treatment on the past, rather than correcting the subtle intricacies of what’s currently going on in the veteran’s personal life, that is now creating an uncomfortable level of unconscious entity and an unmet basic emotional need, This is more vital, but much more difficult to ascertain, especially when it’s “part”-oriented in origin, than simply concluding, “it’s all service-connected.” What could result is very inadequate mental health treatment which could be reflected by an astonishingly high suicide rate that surpasses any rate in the past.
Suppose I went to Hawaii twenty years ago and had the most enjoyable time of my life which met exceptionally well my basic emotional need and made me feel very happy, and I currently have now an exceptionally well-met basic emotional need. I could now encounter “triggers” that seem to bring back memories of that Hawaiian trip. These triggers are a result of my unconsciously predicate-equating how emotionally comfortable I am now, with how emotionally comfortable I was when I went to Hawaii twenty years ago. Perhaps I see a picture of a palm tree and that gets me to remembering my trip to Hawaii, when I predicate-equate the palm tree with my trip to Hawaii. I might then have some recurrent pleasant thoughts of Hawaii during the day and I might have some very pleasant dreams of Hawaii at night. There may be nothing in my current situation that I recognize, or anyone else does, that is making me happy. No beautiful woman is wanting to marry me, and I haven’t just hit the lottery. But I’m feeling happy because my basic emotional need is being well met, on an unrecognized “part”-oriented basis, from my involvement with my friends, while I’m simultaneously getting rid of uncomfortable levels of unconscious entity on a “part”-oriented basis, by turning it back into unrecognized anger in my talking with those friends about what I dislike. What brings back those memories of my trip to Hawaii, about which I may now want to talk, and what creates the “triggers,” is my unconsciously predicate-equating how happy I feel now, with how happy I felt in Hawaii. Even if a person doesn’t understand unconscious predicate-equating, no one in his or her “right mind” would say that the reason that I’m now feeling so happy is due to my trip to Hawaii twenty years ago!
As we saw in the last chapter, the causes of why we feel the way we do, are in the present, and not in the distant past. We feel more emotionally comfortable, more optimistic, and have a better self-image and more “positive thinking” about ourselves, as the meeting of our basic emotional need, that we have in the present, increases. We feel less emotionally comfortable, less optimistic, and have less of a favorable self-image and less “positive thinking” about ourselves, as the meeting of our basic emotional need, that we have in the present, decreases. We feel more emotionally uncomfortable, more pessimistic, more worried about things, and have more “negative thinking” about ourselves, as we accumulate more unconscious entity in the present. We feel less emotionally uncomfortable, less pessimistic, less worried about things, and have less “negative thinking” about ourselves, as we diminish our unconscious entity in the present. Pleasant memories and pleasant dreams versus unpleasant memories and unpleasant dreams, like a “good” self-image versus a “bad” self-image, reflect this
