St Paul tells us in Romans 7,19: For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Substitute for St Paul’s dilemma: The way that I would like to speak I don’t and the way I don’t want to speak is how my speech comes out.
Why is this the case? St Paul attributes it to sinful nature, but psychology has given us some useful insights into this particular phenomenon
In his excellent book The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt reports Dan Wegner’s work suggesting that when we want to avoid something we set up unconscious monitoring for what we want not to happen. When we have tried to suppress these thoughts and have failed, they become intrusive and obsessive. Test it for yourself: try not to think of chocolate for 3 hours and see what happens. Or, as you are reading this, try not to think of a pink elephant with blue polka dots and don’t let that image come to mind for the rest of the day. Milton Erickson, the great medical hypnotist, used negative commands frequently, because they worked.
Have you ever read Dale Carnegie’s books? Well worth reading for folk who stammer. One of his points is to attend to other people and what they are saying, particularly before speaking. He says, ‘ it is especially important to keep attention off yourself just before it is your turn to speak’.
Constant monitoring for specific behaviours sensitises the PWS to situations and issues associated with speaking. When one fails again the situation becomes all encompassing.
PM
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
About Me
- PM
- I am a middle aged medic who is interested in Modelling Behaviour. I have 12 yrs experience and attend trainings regularly with John McWhirter at Sensory Systems Training in Glasgow, Scotland. I am interested in stammering and I am convinced that in the majority of cases it is a behaviour and not an affliction. Rather than lurk on other sites I decided to share my thinking on a blog.
2 comments:
Hi PM,
Yes, it's the dilemma of trying not to think about something you're already thinking about.
And yes, as Dale Carnegie suggested, distraction can be an effective way to stop thinking about something.
For stutterers, though, this is a Herculean task where talking is involved. I've tried countless times to focus solely on what others in the conversation are saying, but no matter how much I try, I can't seem to shake the constant worry about how my words will come out.
Why is this?
I've discovered that my brain *wants* me to think about my speech.
I'm certainly no brain expert, but I believe our brains are wired to help us avoid earlier unpleasant experiences. For example, if you've ever burned your hand on the stove, you'll notice that your brain makes sure that no matter what else is happening you're very careful to keep your hand away from the burners.
So when I'm about to speak, my brain remembers the teasing on the playground and other unpleasantness I experienced when I stuttered, and in a desperate effort to prevent me from experiencing that unpleasantness again, my brain pushes the idea to not stutter in front of any other distracting thoughts I try to conjure up, which unfortunately only makes my speech choppier.
So for many stutterers distraction is not enough to move their attention away from their speech. The brain needs to be retrained into believing that it's safe to stutter, so that it doesn't automatically make "don't stutter" the dominant thought.
That's why, I think, for many stutterers, acceptance of their speech can be a great help. Acceptance basically tells the brain that it doesn't matter if a stutter slips out.
Thank you for the thought-provoking post.
Best wishes,
Sophie
Hi Sophie
Some interesting stuff there covering positioning, judgments, supervision, distraction, standards, history and habit.
I couldn't agree more that trying isn't the way to go and I worry about the muscular psychologies.
I hope to explore each of the things you brought up in future but I hope you don't mind if I put some thoughts on distraction on the main post.
Thanks for sharing
Peter
Post a Comment