[读书] ACT六要素之三：与概念化自我的融合（中/英）
2014-09-13 12:44阅读：
第23期
（以下内容选自：《接受与现实疗法》）
在ACT疗法中，有必要对自我认知相联系的3种自我感进行探讨：
（1）概念化自我，或内容自我
（2）持续的自我意识，或过程自我
（3）以己为景，或情境自我或观察自我
这并不是三种不同的自我，也不是唯一一种探讨有关自我认知的自我的方式；它们是一种方法，探讨的是我们可能以三种不同方式体验独特的自我。在这一部分我们将集中讨论概念化自我，其余两种将在薄弱的自我认知的情境中讨论。
概念化自我是我们用来定义和描述自己的言语内容的自我，正如海耶斯等人所言：“我们人类在这个世界上不仅仅是生活，我们同时还在解释它、建构它、审视它和理解它。用专业的术语来说，派生的刺激关系控制了其他行为过程”。诸如“我是一个28岁的拉丁人，并且是乔吉最好的朋友。”“我是一个会计师，曾经是一个优秀的棒球运动员，”还有“我是一个糟糕的母亲，一个讨厌的人”都是内容自我的例子。注意有些自我描述都是相对固定的（比如性别与族裔），而有些则是描述一个人的活动（如会计师或棒球运动员），还有些是在一段时间内相对稳定或短时间内就会发生改变的评价（如“最好的朋友”“优秀”或“糟糕”）。当珊德拉写下，“我17岁时从高中退学，并且永远不想进大学”，或里克评价说，“我比我的多数同事都聪明”，他们说的都是自己的概念化自我。人们也常常根据自我来描述持续的体验，而没有注意到一个人在感到厌倦时可能说，“我烦了”（或焦虑、抑郁）。就像一个人的体验变成了概念化自我。我们也可以说一个人与概念化自我相融合。
关系框架理论解释了产生概念化自我的原因。个体经过每天生活里发生的多重样本的训练实现了将自己与其他刺激相联系，包括言语描述、事件、人物和地点。通过刺激功能的转化，她自己可能获得与自身所处框架相一致的刺激功能。比如说，一个被告之“你真漂亮”的孩子可能
将自己评价为漂亮，并且他自己就能获得其他漂亮事物的刺激功能。一个被告之“你真丑”的孩子也会有相似经历。
概念化自我是有用的：它使得我们可以加入言语社会群体当中，并回答诸如“你叫什么名字？”“你住在哪儿？”“那是你的儿子吗？”之类的问题。概念化自我本身没有问题的，对概念化自我的依附才会增加心理僵化。当一个人固守已经不再适用的描述，就会增加痛苦或导致无效行为，然后可能就会依附于概念化自我。
现在，我们来看看一些临床案例。首先，请思考马克，一个27的建筑工人，亲吻另一个女人时被妻子当场抓到，之后，在妻子的督促下接受治疗。当时他的妻子已经有七个月的身孕。马克这样描述道：“我知道应该离其他女人远一点，但是我就像个女性杀手，女人们喜欢我，他们同我调情，而且我也喜欢他们这么做。做一个丈夫已经够困难了，但我还是痛克里斯结婚了，因为我真的很爱她。但是现在，一个父亲？父亲角色一点都不吸引人。父亲是很沉闷无聊的。女人们再也不会跟以前一样看待我了。”
马克将自己视为“女性杀手”，而他此刻正在描述对这种概念的依附。他的自我感是僵化的，因为他没有为变换环境与角色留下余地。他没有注意到，即使他的人生角色正在发生着变换，但还是有着基本的法则，他就是而且一直会是原来那个他。请注意，马克没有必要改变对自己的概念，他只是要以不同的方式与之关联。
我们也可以看看珊德拉的案例，她依附于将自己视为“糟糕的”这种自我感。为了与这种自我感抗争，珊德拉努力去做好的事情，而她所谓好的好事就是拿钱给她的孩子们。通过建构关系上的框架，几乎任何事情都能引起“我很糟糕”这个想法。当珊德拉有内疚感时，她就会有“我一定很糟糕”这个想法。当她的孩子有了麻烦，她就会想自己是一个多糟糕的母亲，等等。珊德拉的生活似乎已经适应了将对自己的评价从坏变好。为了改变自己的想法，她想方设法快速减缓自己的情绪或内疚感。她讨好、抚慰、顺从其他人，这样他们就会告诉她又多好。珊德拉的行为有些疯狂，就像在拼命追赶自己的尾巴。
对自己感觉良好当然是没有错的，但是珊德拉对好坏的自我描述的依附导致她的无效行为，做出的事情最终反而会增加糟糕的感觉。比如说，她把钱给儿子，因而觉得自己是一个好母亲，但之后她儿子用这些钱去买毒品，她又重新感觉自己是个糟糕的母亲。问题并不在于她认为自己很糟糕，而在于她对自我概念的依附，在于因此做出的行为，她的这些行为只是为了改变“糟糕”概念，抓住“好的”概念。对于珊德拉和其他许多人而言，这种策略常常是无效的。并会导致她在人际关系、工作以及休息上出现种种问题。
在个案概念化过程中，治疗师应该识别出那些依附于概念化自我的陈述。寻找像一下这样的陈述对治疗师是有帮助的：
（1）我太……
（2）如果我当时那么做了（或者没有那么做），那我现在……
（3）如果我不是这么（丑陋、讨厌、愚蠢，等等），那么我……
（4）我的问题在于我是……
（5）我是一个（败笔，失败者，瘾君子，窝囊废，等等）
（6）我不够（聪明，漂亮，强壮）。
（下期预告：[读书] ACT六要素之四：持续无为、冲动或回避）
----------
英文原文：
Attachment to the Conceptualized Self
In ACT it is useful to talk of
three different senses of self that are related to
self-knowledge:
（1）The conceptualized self, also
called self as content
（2）Ongoing self-awareness, also
called self as process
（3）Self as perspective, also called
self as context or the observing self
These are not meant to be construed
as three different selves or as the only ways of discussing the
self as they pertain to self-knowledge; they are merely a means of
talking about three different ways in which we might experience our
one unique self (Hayes et al., 1999, p. 181). The conceptualized
self is the focus of this section while the other two senses of
self will be discussed below in the context of weak
self-knowledge.
The conceptualized self is the
verbal content that we use to define and describe ourselves. As
Hayes et al. (1999) describe it, “We humans do not merely live in
the world, we live in the world as we interpret it, construct it,
view it, or understand it. In technical terms, derived stimulus
relations dominate over other behavioral processes” (pp. 181-182).
Statements such as “I am a twenty-eight-year-old Latino man and
Jorge’s best friend,” “I am an accountant and I used to be a good
baseball player,” and “I am a terrible mother and a rotten person”
are all examples of self as content. Notice that some descriptions
of self are relatively permanent (for example, one’s gender or
ethnic identity), while others describe one’s activities (for
example, accountant or baseball player), and others are evaluations
that might remain relatively stable over time or might change over
the course of hours, days, or years (for example, “best friend,”
“good,” or “terrible”). When Shandra notes, “I dropped out of high
school when I was seventeen and I never wanted to go to college,”
or Rick evaluates, “I am smarter than most of my coworkers,” they
are speaking of their conceptualized selves. People also often
describe ongoing experience in terms of self, and instead of
noticing that one feels tired, one might instead say, “I am tired”
(or anxious or depressed). It is as if the experience becomes one
with the conceptualized self. We might also say that one is fused
with the conceptualized self.
Relational frame theory provides an
account of why this occurs. An individual, through the multiple
exemplar training that occurs in everyday life, comes to relate
herself to other stimuli, including verbal descriptions, events,
people, and places. Through transformation of stimulus functions,
she herself may acquire stimulus functions of the thing with which
she is in a frame of correspondence. For instance, the child who is
told, “You are pretty,” may evaluate herself as pretty and have,
for herself, the stimulus functions of other pretty things. The
child told, “You are ugly,” has a similar experience.
A conceptualized self is useful; it
allows us to participate in a verbal social community and answer
questions such as “What is your name?”, “Where do you live?”, “Is
that your son?”, and so on. A conceptualized self is not itself
problematic; rather, attachment to the conceptualized self can
foster psychological inflexibility. When one rigidly holds onto
descriptions that no longer apply, increase one’s suffering, or
lead to ineffective behavior, then one may be attached to the
conceptualized self.
Now for a few clinical examples.
First, consider Mark, a twenty-seven-year-old construction worker
who came to therapy at the urging of his wife after she caught him
kissing another woman. Mark’s wife was seven months pregnant at the
time. Mark described it this way: “I know I should have stayed away
from other women, but I’m like ‘Mark the ladies’ man.’ Women like
me, they flirt with me, and I like it when they do. It was hard
enough to be a husband, but I got married because I really love
Krissy. But now a dad? Dad’s aren’t hot. Dads are boring. Women are
never going to look at me the same.”
Mark is describing attachment to
his conception of himself as a ladies’ man. His sense of self is
inflexible because he isn’t making room for changing circumstances
and roles. He doesn’t notice that, even while his life roles are
changing, there is a fundamental way in which he is and always will
be the same person he has always been. Notice also that Mark does
not need to change his conception of himself; he needs only to
relate to it differently.
We can also look at Shandra’s
attachment to her sense of herself as bad. Shandra struggles with
this sense of herself as bad by trying to do good, which she
defines as giving money to her kids. Through framing relationally,
almost any event can trigger the thought “I am bad.” When Shandra
feels guilty, she has the thought “I must be bad.” When her
children get into trouble, she thinks about what a bad mother she
is, and so on. Shandra’s life seems geared to changing this
evaluation of herself from bad to good. She acts to quickly
alleviate feelings of guilt in the service of changing what she
thinks. She flatters, pacifies, and acquiesces to others so they
will tell her how good she is. There is a frantic quality to
Shandra’s behavior, as if she is chasing her own tail.
While there is nothing wrong with
feeling good about one’s self, Shandra’s attachment to a
description of herself as good or bad leads her to behave
ineffectively and to do things that ultimately lead her to
strengthen her sense of badness. For example, she gives her son
money and she feels like a good mother, and then he buys drugs, and
she is back to feeling like a bad mother. The problem is not that
she thinks she’s bad. The problem is that she is attached to her
conception of herself and engages in behaviors to change that
conception when it is “bad” and hold onto it when it is “good.” And
for Shandra, as well as many other people, such strategies are
usually ineffective and lead to problems in her relationships,
work, and leisure.
During the case conceptualization,
the therapist should identify statements that demonstrate an
attachment to conceptualized self. It would be helpful to look for
statements such as these:
（1）I am too…
（2）If only I did … (or didn’t …),
then I …
（3）If I wasn’t so (ugly, hated,
stupid, and so on), then I;
（4）My problem is that I am…
（5）I am a (failure, loser, druggie,
wimp, and so on).
（6）I am not (smart, pretty, strong)
enough.
