In Search of Meaning: Positive Psychotherapy Step by Step

By Nossrat Peseschkian, MD

In Search of Meaning shows that individuals suffering from a loss of meaning cannot find what they are looking for in a global concept, but rather must first take small steps to find the meaning behind single actions

Revised edition:
International Academy for Positive and Transcultural
Psychotherapy Peseschkian Foundation, Wiesbaden, Germany

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jun 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524631628

Nossrat Peseschkian, MD

Professor Nossrat Peseschkian, M.D. (1933-2010), a German Board-certified specialist in psychiatry, neurology, psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy, was born in Iran and lived in Germany since 1954. After graduating from Frankfurt University, he received his postgraduate psychotherapeutic training in Germany, Switzerland and in the United States. Besides his daily work in his psychosomatic and psychotherapeutic private clinic in Wiesbaden, Germany (1969-2000), he was an associate professor for psychotherapy at the Academy of Continuing Medical Education of the State Medical Association in Hesse since 1974. He is the founder of Positive Psychotherapy, a humanistic psychodynamic method based on a transcultural and interdisciplinary approach. Positive Psychotherapy has been introduced by Professor Peseschkian in seminars and lectures at universities and medical centers in more than 70 countries world-wide. Professor Peseschkian was the founding director of the Wiesbaden Academy of Psychotherapy, a licensed postgraduate institute for medical doctors and psychologists, the founding president of the World Association for Positive Psychotherapy (WAPP) and the German Association for Positive Psychotherapy (DGPP).

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© 2016 Nossrat Peseschkian, M.D. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/15/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5246-3161-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-3163-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-3162-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016908619

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Title of Original German Publication:

Nossrat Peseschkian, Auf der Suche nach Sinn – Psychotherapie der kleinen Schritte, Fischer Taschenbuch 6770, November 1983, ISBN 3-596-26770-6

Title of Original English Publication:

Nossrat Peseschkian, In Search of Meaning – A Psychotherapy of Small Steps,

Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York Tokyo, 1985, ISBN 3-540-15766-2, ISBN 0-387-15766-2

© 2014 International Academy for Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy – Professor Peseschkian Foundation –

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

Enquires should be addressed to

International Academy for Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy

– Professor Peseschkian Foundation –

Langgasse 38-40, D-65183 Wiesbaden, Germany

[e-mail]

www.peseschkian-foundation.org

For further information on Positive Psychotherapy,

please visit the international website of the world of Positive Psychotherapy at

http://www.positum.org

Positive Psychotherapy (PPT after Peseschkian, since 1977) has applied in 2015 for a Community trade mark (Word mark) at the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market of the European Union (OHIM). The application number is 014512578. The same application has been made for Canada and the United States of America.

CONTENTS

About Eternal Life

Introduction

Only the seeds - The question of meaning and the view of mankind - The question of meaning in other cultures - What is the intent of this book? - Psychotherapy of small steps - Why not all at once?

Foreword 2014

Original Foreword

CHAPTER 1: MEANING AND MAN

1. Meaninglessness as an Expression of One-Sidedness

Meaning of loss and unity - Hope and helplessness - Child rearing: therapy and the question of meaning - Social changes and the view of mankind - Consequences

2. The Meaning Of Health

The Broken Bowl - Bodily health - Career, family, marriage - Future and meaning - Body, environment, time - Risk factors - The body soul problem (psychosomatics) - Meaning and psychosomatic relationships - Three examples - Consequences

3. Positive Psychotherapy: Answer to the Question of Meaning

An example of positive procedure - Good questions - The duel of the physicians - Psychotherapy instead of psychopathology - The development of positive psychotherapy - Child rearing - Self-help - Psychotherapy - Transcultural problematic - What is this book leading up to? - Consequences

CHAPTER 2: GIVING MEANING AND FINDING MEANING

1. Transcultural Encounters

Knowledge is power, sight is omnipotence - Foreign laborers as a necessary evil - Why psychotherapy must be transcultural - Basic Capacities - Meaning Of Commonality - What is the capacity to love? - What is the capacity to know? - Development of the basic and actual capacities - Man is good - Basic capacities in the literature - Consequences

2. Concepts of the Religious Worldview

Appropriate Prayer - Dangerous tea - Religion as giving meaning - Religion and zeitgeist - Faith, religion, church - Religion and psychology - Consequences

3. The Contribution of Scientific Thinking

Believe in god and tie your camel securely - Can science positively uncover the deeper causes of meaninglessness? - Science as finding meaning - The omnipotence of reason (science without religion) - The meaning of the capacity to know - Religion in science - Zeitgeist and psychopathology - The atomic threat - Scientists vs. Founders of religions - Consequences

4. The Life of the Individual

Don’t forget who you were! - The example of a medical student - Can everyone be happy in his own fashion? - The three pillars of positive psychotherapy - A. The positive approach - B. The contents approach - Microtrauma theory - Differentiation-analytic inventory (dai, short form) - Four ways of coping with conflicts - Modes of the capacity to love - C. Five stages of self-help - Consequences

CHAPTER 3: PSYCHOTHERAPY: OF SMALL STEPS

1. Three Working Possibilities Of Positive Psychotherapy

The eager spectators and the elephant - Body, soul, spirit - Three possible approaches: body, environment, and time - Present, future, and past - Consequences

2. Meaning in East and West

One roof garden and two worlds - East-west-concepts: on the quest for meaning - Marriage, family - Life, death, future - Primary capacities - Secondary capacities - Examples of medical terms and some views of illness - Practice: for example, the question of leaving one’s parents - East-west concepts in politics - Transcultural aspects in the understanding of individual conflicts - Consequences

3. The Meaning of Illness

An optimist - What does Positive Psychotherapy mean? - Translation of conventional illness terminology - Practical application of the positive translation - Positive procedure in the therapeutic process - Traditional interpretation/Positive Interpretation: Adiposity - Alcoholism - Ambivalent attitude - Fear of attachment - Fear of loneliness - Fear of groups - Anorexia nervosa - Bronchial asthma - Bedwetting - Depression - Jealousy - Irritability - Exhibitionism - Existential anxiety - Delayed ejaculation - Precocious ejaculation - Laziness - Fetishism - Fixation - Inhibition - Heart attack - Compulsive neurosis - Aggressivity - Frigidity - Hypertonicity - Homosexuality - Hypochondria - Hysteria - Kleptomania - Criminality - Paranoia - Phobia - Impotence - Psychosomatic Symptoms - Mania - Masochism

- Masturbation - Narcissism - Rheumatism (abdominal) - Rivalry (siblings) - Sadism - Schizophrenia - Vertigo - Stress - Stomach ulcers - Disobedience, insolence - Attention-getting behavior of children - Self-neglect - Change of life - Positive aspects of loneliness - Consequences

4. Five Stages In Positive Psychotherapy

Easy cure - Psychotherapy, self-help - Stage one: observation / distancing - Two hedgehogs - Stage two: making inventory - Peacock’s feet - Application of the four ways of coping with conflict - Stage three: situational encouragement - Beautiful antlers - Relativity of values - Stage four: verbalization - How does a war start? - Partner group, family group - Stage five: broadening of goals - The successful merchant - Crisis as oppurtunity - Application of the five stages - Therapy - Consequences

Chapter 4: Questions Of Meaning

Many questions, many answers - The appropriate word - Child rearing and psychotherapy - Psychological meaning of time - What do you understand by basic capacities? - Is man essentially good? - Where are the basic capacities found? - What are the functions of the actual capacities? - How do you as a psychotherapist stand in relation to sexuality? - What does child rearing consist of in terms of contents? - How are love and justice related? - What is the relationship between anxiety, aggression, and imitation? - Can one get something back that one has let slip away? - Good intentions - The unknown - Man and wife - What does faith have to do with psychotherapy? - What do all religions have in common? - Seven attributes - From the point of view of psychology, how do prejudices arise? - Religion and well-known personalities - Why do the learned and the leaders of religion speak so harshly of a new religion? - The camel driver - What explanations are there for the existence of a creator? - Why can’t one know the essence of god? - Religion and existential anxiety - Isn’t everything over with death? - Reincarnation - What do the scientists say about life after death?

Chapter 5: The Golden Age Of The Future

End or dawn? - Planned future - Future made to order - Suggestions and considerations concerning world peace - The contribution of the politicians to the transcultural encounter - The contribution of the religious leaders - The contribution of the scientists - The contribution of the individual - The dream and its meaning

Bibliography

Index of Stories

Overview of Books written by Nossrat Peseschkian

Positive Psychotherapy (Summary)

Institutions of Positive Psychotherapy

Nossrat Peseschkian, M.D. was a specialist in psychiatrics and neurology and a psychotherapist, as well as specializing in psychotherapeutic medicine. He was born in Iran in 1933 and had lived in Germany since 1954. He did his medical studies in Freiburg, Mainz and Frankfurt and received his psychotherapeutic training in the Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland and the United States. From 1969 to 2010, Professor Peseschkian had a psychotherapeutic practice and day clinic in Wiesbaden. He was the founder of Positive Psychotherapy and a professor at the Academy for Continuing and Further Education in Medicine of the Hessen State Medical Association. In 1997, Nossrat Peseschkian received the Richard Merten Prize for his work, Computer Aided Quality Assurance in Positive Psychotherapy. In 2006, Nossrat Peseschkian received the Order of Merit, Distinguished Service Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany. (Bundesverdienstkreuz). The International Academy of Positive and Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy – Professor Peseschkian Foundation – was established in 2005. Nossrat Peseschkian passed away in April 2010 in Wiesbaden, Germany.

A list of the books by the author Nossrat Peseschkian is included at the end of this book.

A NOTE TO THE READER

Today’s contemporary world is quickly moving towards a more open and global society, requiring its citizens to continually develop and utilize different kinds of knowledge, intelligences, and skills from different cultures in order to make sense of, adapt to, and contribute to change in a positive way. In this book, written almost 40 years ago and long before such incidents as for example the attacks of September 11 in the USA and the Arabic spring, the author, Dr. Nossrat Peseschkian proposes the idea of a collective perspective that accepts the differences between eastern and western cultures. He makes a point of the increasing importance of a transcultural Weltanschauung. With his insight in psychotherapy and his background as a bridge builder between orient and occident, he was able to recognize the ever growing need for people to learn how to deal with the increasing pressures of modern society. The practice of his theories support the development of individual capacities in order to take control of personal growth, while taking a worldly step towards furthering societal development in a constructive direction.

Despite the increasing variety in media and accessible information over the years, which has created more opportunities for economic development, world peace, and closeness to once far away cultures, it has managed to bring with it a separation in perspective in the areas of religion, science, and ultimately, in the meaning of life. The author bravely confronts this issue by addressing the imbalance between science and religion. Using his knowledge and experience from his own practices as a follower of the Baha’i Faith, he carefully presents the idea of a balanced cooperation between the two realms, in order to find the meaning and unity in which we all are searching. It is this Weltanschauung that accepts all cultures, religions, and scientific perspectives in their uniqueness, and unites us as one in our search for meaning.

For nothing vanishes without leaving a trace, and disappearance is only an alteration (Werner von Braun)

While we mourn the loss of the brilliant author, psychotherapist, and visionary, we are blessed with the traces he has left behind, not only in this classic work of positive psychotherapy. His inspiring knowledge in which he has documented and shared in the following chapters of this book, together with the worldly wisdom of positive psychotherapy, should lead the reader to confidently analyze the past as support to better understand current symptoms and live happily and healthfully into the future.

International Academy for Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy – Professor Peseschkian Foundation, Wiesbaden 2016

ABOUT ETERNAL LIFE

A mighty king wandered for a long time through his kingdom. On a sunny slope he saw a venerable old man bent over, hard at work. Followed by his courtiers, the king came nearer and saw that the old man was planting year-old seedlings. What are you doing there? the king inquired. I’m planting date trees, replied the old man. The king asked in amazement, You are already quite old. Why are you planting seedlings when you won’t see their foliage, won’t rest in their shade, and won’t eat their fruit? The old man looked up and said, Those who came before us planted, and we were able to harvest. Now we plant so that they who come after us can harvest.

The king was pleased by the answer and gave the man a piece of gold. The old gardener, bowing down, thanked the king. He asked, Why do you bow down for me? I have not only the joy of planting young trees. They have also already brought fruit, as you have given me this gold, answered the old man. This again pleased the king so much that he gave the man another piece of gold. The old gardener kneeled again and said, The other trees bring fruit only once, while mine have already yielded two harvests.

The king laughed and asked, How old are you? The man answered, I am twelve years old. How can that be? You certainly look very old! The gardener answered, In the days of your predecessor the land was disturbed by war and grief, so I cannot count that as a part of my life. But since you have been on the throne, the people are happy and live in peace. And since it has only been twelve years since your reign began, I am only twelve years old. This brought such joy to the king that he perforce gave the man another piece of gold and said, I’ll have to leave you now, for if I listen to you anymore, I’ll lose all my wealth to you.

(After Abdul-Bahá)

The contemplation of the question of meaning is

tightly bound with the therapist’s view of mankind,

with his therapeutic training, and with the society

within which he treats his patients.

INTRODUCTION

ONLY THE SEEDS

In a dream, a young man entered a store. Behind the counter stood an old man. Impetuously, he asked him, What have you got to sell, Sir? The wise man answered in a friendly way, Whatever you want. The young man began to count off a list. In that case, I would like to have world unity and world peace, the elimination of prejudices, abolition of poverty, more unity and love among the religions, equal rights for men and women, and…, and… At that point, the wise man broke in, Excuse me, young man, you have misunderstood me. We do not sell the fruit; we only sell the seeds.

THE QUESTION OF MEANING AND THE VIEW OF MANKIND

If I were a physicist, a political scientist, or a theologian, I would certainly take quite a different approach, even if the goal were the same. Among my own personal presuppositions, which I will later seek to define more exactly, is, however, the psychotherapeutic point of departure.

My way of dealing with the question of the meaning of life always brings me back to a key situation: meeting with people. Much of what I would like to share with the reader relates to experiences with people who have confronted me, in my capacity as psychotherapist or leader of psychotherapy seminars, with the problems of the experience of meaninglessness.

This problem culminates in the question, what meaning does my life have? It is soon differentiated into questions concerning the areas in which life runs its course. What meaning has my profession, my marriage, my family, my illness, etc.? The sense of meaninglessness can become a deadly menace; conversely, the sense of meaningfulness can bring deep happiness and satisfaction. Finding an answer to this question is not easy, especially in a time in which the previously accepted views of man are being challenged in their most basic assumptions.

This all became especially clear to me in considering psychotherapy. For contemplation of the question of meaning is tightly bound with the therapist’s view of mankind, with his therapeutic training, and with the society within which he treats his patients. In my 23 years of medical and psychotherapeutic activity, I have seen over and over that the symptoms that a person identifies as sickness bear a meaningful relationship to each other, giving them significance. Behind bodily infirmities career problems are often concealed; behind these, again, marriage and family difficulties. Tightly bound with all these questions is the question of the future. Our health, career, and social future, and the future as embodiment of the meaning of life, is uncovered less through hard scientific data than through faith, in its broadest sense. This is the gap between meaningfulness and meaninglessness, hope and hopelessness, optimism and pessimism, trust and doubt, and solace, perplexity, changing and giving up.

THE QUESTION OF MEANING IN OTHER CULTURES

Just as every individual seeks to find an answer to the question of meaning, it seems that there are also solution strategies in which are typical of groups and whole culture areas, whose historical and socioeconomic situations mirror. If you ask someone from the Western European culture area, How’s it going? you receive a response like, "Working hard, it’s getting on my nerves. How should it be going? You keep on living, it’s got to go on. Or else the question is simply returned out of politeness. I have learned to always do one thing after another. Everything must happen in sequence. First I brush my teeth, then I wash, shave, dress myself in an orderly way, sit down at the breakfast table, drink two cups of coffee, read my newspaper, and then go to the toilet. When this sequence is disturbed, I get all confused. My bowels don’t move anymore, and the whole day is lost for me (35-year-old political economist).

In other culture areas, and I’m thinking here of the Middle East, the responses have another element: Thanks be to God that we’re alive, we’re happy. It could be a lot worse.

While in the first group the smooth functioning of the individual parts of life, their control, and domination are valued, and the meaningful life appears in the image of a well-oiled machine, in the second group a more integrated thinking is found. The crucial point rests less on the active and acting ego than on larger projected entities such as the family, the group of close acquaintances one encounters daily, and a religiously colored concept of fate.

People, especially out of Eastern culture areas, see their lives as a railway station one passes through, as a waiting room, and their death as a door to life. Death offers them a deeper solace, although they often seem to stand to on side of life. Thank God it’s not all over when you die. Only because I know that am I able to endure everything (36-year-old mother of a 9-year-old girl). Many people from the Western culture area shun reference to these questions. They want to ban every anxiety-provoking event from their consciousness and experience.

WHAT IS THE INTENT OF THIS BOOK?

The goal of our common reflections is not to prove that one system is superior in meaningfulness to another. For some, these cultural answers to the question of meaning are just as much an object of knowledge as the individual making of compromises. We ask how these attitudes have developed, what functions they perform, and how they operate in everyday life. In this way, the inclusion of foreign ways of thinking and living becomes for us a potential broadening of our own possibilities. We learn to mirror ourselves in other people’s views of man, and therefore to know ourselves better. We learn from the experience of others and to know and use possible new solutions.

The question of meaning appears to be universal. There is no area that is not touched by this theme. To me, four aspects of the theme seem especially significant because they concern the development of the relationship to meaning, the changing of meaning contents, and the attempt to reacquire access to meaning. These are (a) education, (b) self-help, (c) therapy (exemplified by psychotherapy), and (d) the transcultural problematic. These four aspects do not stand in mutual isolation, but are interwoven and provide the framework within which we seek to concretize the question of meaning. At first, these questions seem frighteningly general and, posed in this undifferentiated generality, they almost necessarily end in a feeling of diffuse meaninglessness.

PSYCHOTHERAPY OF SMALL STEPS

Our way, on the other hand, is a path of small steps. This is not surprising, in view of the fact that every development takes place in seemingly small steps, out of which something qualitatively new develops. We must think about the goal, but also about how we can come nearer to it. Thereby we run up against a paradox, which accompanies our lives in many ways, namely, that we must strive for something that we already carry within us.

WHY NOT ALL AT ONCE?

I am aware that the search for meaning can also take place within the domain of systematic philosophy. Nevertheless, I thought it sensible to point out questions and points of view, which seem to me essential, especially in the areas to which I can bring my own experience in the practice of psychotherapy. In the process, I hope that the aphoristic style of the book will also bring pleasure and joy to the reader. I would like to refer those readers who are interested in a systematic presentation of Positive Psychotherapy to my books Positive Psychotherapie, Positive Familientherapie, and Psychotherapie des Alltagslebens (Positive Psychotherapy, Positive Family Therapy, and Psychotherapy of Everyday Life). Those who find pleasure in the stories can find further stimulus in the book The Merchant and the Parrot. A spur to my writing of this book was the reaction of professional people and readers to my previous books. I thank my secretaries, Mrs. Krieger and Mrs. Hofmann, for their patience and care. My wife Manije and my sons Hamid and Nawid have made many and various contributions to this book.

I express my warm thanks to Dr. Robert K. Walker for his translation from the German.

Nossrat Peseschkian, September 1985

FOREWORD 2014

Almost 40 years ago Nossrat Peseschkian invited his readers to explore new ways to search for meaning based on spiritual perspectives. Today, these tools are as important as they were then. I am excited to help introduce a new generation of readers to these seminal constructs.

[Original Foreword]

Enjoy your journey of discovery, even as total comprehension remains beyond human reach.

ORIGINAL FOREWORD

Many authors shy away from religious definitions of human purpose. But Nossrat Peseschkian, who shares with me the Bahá’i perspective of purpose, clearly shows how the quest to unite a soul with its God serves and is served by scientific and cultural perspectives of meaning. Spiritual verities become beacons to guide us to find ways to work together and create new dimensions for consultation in the making of decisions.

Depression is rife today. We often do not feel that we are in charge of our own lives, and feel impotent to influence the destiny of society. Peseschkian brings us a positive approach. He provides a key for us to discover the relationship between our various capacities and their development. For so many of us, our capacities lie unused, often even unrecognized. This book seeks to answer the question How can I use my capacities? and to demonstrate practically and specifically how science, politics, religion, and the web of human relationships can assist in their development and use.

Balance is the key: the balance between various aspects of our life, the balance of our modes of learning and thinking and feeling, the balance in our concept of man and his purpose, the balance found in the lessons of the past and the vision of the future, and the balance which defines our responsibility for our personal and our societal destinies.

How important it is for us to follow Nossrat Peseschkian’s advice and not feel that we are alone with our problems. It is the essence of his book to issue an invitation to us to join in a search of meaning and to see how we can benefit from multiple perspectives. We must discover how these perspectives do not compete, however much they may appear to do so. This leads to the need for a new understanding of paradox.

Unless we can accept the necessity of paradox, and its desirability, we are unlikely to make much progress in our search for meaning. If meaning is not totally compassed by sensual experience, then our preoccupation with scientific evidence defeats our search for meaning.

Dr. Peseschkian uses questions and answers to help us differentiate the influences of intuition and faith, sensory, perception, tradition, and thought; the multiple sources of influence on our feeling, thought, and action.

Peseschkian is also fond of stories. Stories help individuals to see beyond mere information, and provide the basis for new levels of awareness and understanding. My reaction, and the reaction of many others, is often to wish there were more.

If common meanings are expressed in divergent ways in different cultures, then our traditional evaluation of experience, which is customarily confined to one cultural tradition, will fail to yield universal meaning. Perhaps this means that we choose our own meaning: the