1. INTRODUCTION
Speech and language have biological significance as instruments in the quest for food, love and shelter. Language communication serves adaptation as well as defence. A large part of what is spoken or written is concerned with scouting the environment, testing various alternatives before making a choice of action. Speech is used for mutual care and support; and, rather frequently, for verbal attack and replicatory defense. The various functions of language suit the demands of the moment.
We are used to separate mental and physical aspects of speech and language reception and production. Of course we know that the two are inseparable. After a long history of evolution, adaptive communication with the environment has given birth to as many mental states and physical forms as we encounter in humans. If we feel the need to distinguish mental and material aspects, there is a way to do it:
Mental processes and the development of form are on opposite sides of the time-scale of adaptive growth and development:
thought and action have short response times,
growth and development of form both have a long response time.
Although apparent opposites, they are close relatives in the family of adaptation processes, and they interact mutually. Function precedes form, and form is frozen function.
How function and form (or mind and body) interact, can be visualised by distinguishing layers in a concentric body-mind system. The layers of the system interact with the environment and with each other (since they are each other's environment!). The layers are tuned to different response times. Thus they are receptive for either rapid or slow changes in the environment.
Concentric man is a receiver-transmitter that detects and responds to changes (stimuli) in oscillations of very diverse wavelengths. Adapting physiologically to living in a cold climate takes longer than avoiding a sudden threat. Still, both are adaptive responses, belonging to widely different time-scales.
This is relevant for the healing professions who can now sort out their interventions according to the wavelength or duration of the process that is to be disentangled. Here are some of the layers that can be distinguished from deep inside (long response time) to the outer layer (rapid response time):
the genetic system carries the blueprint for the development of form, function and behaviour. It offers potentials and limitations. The blueprint has a long history: it has been developed as a response to environmental challenges
the immune system is the guardian of health. It communicates with the environment and adapts all the time in order to respond efficiently to friendly and noxious stimuli: admitting the first and avoiding (refusing) the latter. Meaningful stimuli are retained in a memory that consists of a network of antibody producing cells (lymphocytes). The lymphocyte system for adaptation and defense has a response time of hours - days. Its memory lasts a lifetime.
the neural system for adatation and defense does the same as the immune system, only 1000 times faster. The neural network integrates sensorial input to meaningful and recognisable forms and concepts. It selects the appropiate responses: either approach (admission) or avoidance (refusal). Response behaviour is genetically determined (instinctive) as well as learned (selected on the basis of experience)
the verbal system of adaptation and defense consists of voice- speech- and language functions and has a special position within the neural system. The neural and verbal systems for adaptation and defense can respond in seconds. Their memories last a lifetime, the verbal memory of a community lasts many generations.
As a neural system develops during a lifetime it successively learns to integrate perceptions over ultra-sort, short and long periods of time. B.de Spinoza (1665) distinguished three levels or stages:
direct sensory observations often lead to emotional confusion and immediate bodily sensations
thought and insight bring order: perceptions are transformed into useful knowledge (short term)
the quality of knowledge and thinking improves further and arrives at a stage of intuitive and comprehensive thinking (long term)
The property to observe fellow human beings with true understanding and free of judgment is a valuable tool for anyone in the healing arts. A mature mental dimension is only acquired on the long term and is needed for counseling. This form of supportive consultation helps the patient to become familiar with his prejudices that stand in the way of changing his beliefs and behavior for the better.
The mature stage of comprehensive thinking has not detached itself from the early stage with its immediate response: life-experiences continue to correct self-knowledge and knowledge of the world. The person is trained to recognise and neutralise misleading emotions, and to draw logic conclusions from all relevant details. He/she takes into account logical levels, as indicated by Gregory Bateson (1972), sorted from the immediate, short term influences to moral and mental processes of long duration:
the environment of the client, in particular the instantaneous demands and expectations thrust upon him; can he become more independent?
his behaviour and its variability; does he feel free to explore unused territory?
his potential skills to change customary thoughts and behavior; can this barrier be overcome?
the beliefs and convictions, the moral values that influence thoughts and behavior; have they the potential to grow to a new level?
the identity, the self-concept and body-concept with which the client identifies himself; do they obstruct change and progress?
the spiritual level in which the client feels he is part of the cosmos and the society, and represents traditional family values. The spiritual orientation may exert a powerful influence on the (problematic) behavior of the client.
The six levels operate in different time-scales, envelopping each other, and thus form a concentric time-structure. In the footsteps of Baruch de Spinoza and Gregory Bateson we have explored this temporal organisation. Not only in man however: in every form of life that is in continuous adaptive dialogue with its environment, we see a similar time-structured layout. The oscillatory nature of information-exchange often enables us to determine an eigen-frequency of a system, which is related to its response time.
Success in counseling and therapy depends in part on insight in the layered time-governed structures of the human being and the abillity of handling them in the right order. It is also the essence of managerial success with an enterprise or organisation. We can all learn from how nature is organised.