Jeffrey Schwartz, a neuropsychiatrist at UCLA, states: “You are more than your brain.”
In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), brain circuits run in loops: the prefrontal cortex, a veritable ‘gear lever’, remains connected to the structure of our habits, housed in the ‘habit centre’. Automatic behaviour, necessary for our functioning, can nevertheless become obsessive. As for the orbitofrontal cortex — the seat of decision-making — it can become blocked, like a seized mechanism.
One solution involves therapeutic training aimed at reinterpreting emotions and thoughts: relabel and reframe these obsessive signals, then tell yourself: ‘This is not necessary; it is a false message from my brain, I can change it.’ For OCD, behavioural therapy alone is not enough: real training is indispensable to relearn how to reconsider one's emotions, thoughts and behaviours. This training borrows heavily from animal training methods, but we are more than just a brain: an animal cannot declare: ‘This is not me, I am not these feelings or these thoughts.’ It is precisely at this moment that we find the leverage: we understand the mechanism and can choose not to react to the next feelings or thoughts.
The Wise Advocate: discovering your true Self
A person cannot be reduced to the mechanisms of their brain alone.
The inner self manifests as a benevolent narrative voice that guides you through trials, focusing your attention on the positive.
The Wise Advocate is the outcome of Jeffrey Schwartz's response after forty years of research into mindfulness. It acts as an impartial spectator: far more than a simple conscience, it is a loving inner guide, an intimate narrative and an observer's perspective.
To overcome your countless difficulties, the Wise Advocate must establish a relationship with your true Self and communicate with it.
Disidentification and detachment
I am not my body, my emotions, my thoughts or my anxieties. In neuroscience, ‘self-observation’ is often practised in a detached way: by examining emotional states separately from the reactions that follow from them, we manage to regain control of the situation.
The aim is not to become an automaton, but to free oneself from certain emotions, thoughts, physical sensations or dependencies so as no longer to be their slave. It is about breaking with automatic and obsessive reactions.
The AS person adopts an intrinsically detached and disidentified stance: nothing is fixed, everything depends on who we are and the context in which we find ourselves. The AS person does not rely on a fixed identity and, more often than not, postpones impulsive reactions until later.
Stepping back strengthens our self-control: we are no longer at the mercy of our impulses and emotions, and we can learn to manage our psyche rather than remain its victims.
Daniel Siegel, of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), introduced the concept of ‘mindsight’ (literally ‘sight of the mind’), meaning the ability to perceive one's own emotions and mental processes clearly. He structures it around three principles: openness, observation and objectivity.
● Openness: welcome your inner world as it is, without distorting it.
● Observation: notice, from a detached perspective, our fleeting emotional and mental reactions, without identifying with them or yielding to automatic responses.
● Objectivity: become aware that our thoughts and emotions do not define us.
In the autistic person (AS), certain brain areas involved in time management, the construction of identity, spatial orientation and communication function differently from those of an allistic person. Unlike the ‘integration centre’ of allistic people, the AS person develops alternative ways of processing.
According to Siegel, ‘mindsight’ is rooted in the prefrontal cortex, set back from the limbic brain: it allows calm observation, freed from impulses and anxiety. In the AS person, this form of ‘sight of the mind’ can resemble a trance; it often manifests through extrasensory skills and great intellectual subtlety.
Some researchers, such as Jeffrey Schwartz of UCLA, regard inner detachment as a powerful means of healing: naming our emotional states reduces their hold. Schwartz proposes a four-stage protocol:
1. Relabel: clearly identify and name each emotional or mental state.
2. Reframe: distance yourself by affirming: ‘It is not me, it is my brain producing this panic.’
3. Refocus: deliberately redirect your attention towards another activity: sport, writing, music…
4. Revalue: engage in dialogue with your ‘inner coach’, adopting a wiser and broader view of the situation.
These methods, tested in everyday life, are an integral part of our experience: because of their neurological characteristics, people with AS often have to use them to function better and survive in a world adapted to allistic people.
Siegel and Schwartz agree on the importance of disidentification: observing our thoughts and emotions without confusing ourselves with them, a first step towards psychosynthesis — that is, the harmonious integration of all our aspects. If we identify with illness, pain or age, we limit our possibilities; by stepping back, we discover that we are much more than the passing states of our body or mind, and that well-being, growth, work and relationships open up to new possibilities.
For someone with AS, learning to detach requires a particular effort: exceptional memory, fixed ideas and specific perceptions make the exercise longer and more demanding. In-depth work is needed to dismantle false beliefs and remove inner obstacles. In the case of overwhelming anxiety, for example, identifying with fear traps us in a narrow emotional world: recognising that this fear does not belong to us, that our Self remains unchanged, allows us to reclaim the inner space we need to live as something other than a suffering body.