Thanatotherapy

Specialists note that in his daily life a person often encounters the components of death (for example, relaxation as death, sleep as death, orgasm as death, metamorphosis as death, etc.), when faced with which, he experiences a fear of death, found in fear of losses, partings, changes and other phenomena and processes that make sense of ending, termination. Tanatotherapy aims to help the patient in such conditions through a number of body-oriented practices that allow you to establish the most complete and real contact with the processes of dying and death. ^{[2] [3]}

As the main tool, modeling (not imitation ) of the states of dying and death is used, using such characteristics as total relaxation, stopping of control of consciousness, objectivity of the body and others. A special kind of death is modeled - the one which the old as a rule die: without excruciating agony , calmly accepting death as a natural result of a life lived. This term of death in the terminology of thanatotherapy is called “regular, natural death,” and references to the works of historian Yu. P. Mirolyubov ^[9] and philosopher P. A. Florensky ^[10] are used to clarify its nature. ^[2]

In the tradition of body-oriented psychotherapy, psychological problems of a person are considered together with their bodily ( somatic ) component (attachment to a specific part of the body), through which they are corrected in therapeutic work. Tanatotherapy in this regard has developed its own classification of basic psychological problems of a person and related bodily areas. According to the author of the methodology ^[11] , as well as independent researchers ^[12], this is primarily:

• “Excessive control of consciousness” , including the problem of finding the meaning of life and the attendant hyperreflexion , manifested in the form of uncomfortable bodily sensations in the head area;
• “Contact feelings” associated with social interaction and the problem of loneliness , expressed in muscle clamps in the arms, shoulder girdle, neck;
• “Sexual relations” , at the bodily level, manifested in somatic problems in the pelvic area (inguinal region);
• The “responsibility problem” associated with infantilism and the search for support manifests itself as support problems, with the appearance of muscle tension and pain in the legs.

Some experts note that using the accumulated methods of body-oriented psychotherapy and developing their own, thanatotherapy managed to widely embrace and work out these four basic psychological problems of man. ^{[2] [3]}

At the beginning of the session, the patient is offered to lie on the floor as he is comfortable. As a rule, the patient takes a position on his back, arms and legs spread, that is, the so-called "star pose". According to practicing psychologists, this pose is characterized by maximum ambivalence (the ability to simultaneously "bestow" and "receive"). Her connection with the famous “ Vitruvius figure ” by Leonardo da Vinci is noted. One or more therapists sit nearby so that it is convenient for them to work with the patient’s body. ^[13]

All actions on the patient are carried out in accordance with the principle of small doses and quantities. With regard to thanatotherapy, it is formulated as follows: the minimum in strength and amplitude of the impact lead to the maximum in strength of feelings and feelings. ^[13]

Since thanatotherapy seeks to “tune” rather than “break” psychological patterns , then its use excludes a response . ^[2] The emphasis is on maximum relaxation of the body and achievement of a state close to trance , which allows a person to safely touch the sources of his problems and fears. In the terminology of practitioners of this method, this condition is called "maximally grounded." In the process of his work, the therapist controls it by the nature of the person’s breathing, eyelash tremor ^[14] , muscle tone .

Theater of Touch

At this stage (also called the “diversity touch technique” ^[15] ), the therapist offers various types of contacts (touches): from point contacts (fingertips), to touching the entire surface of the palm or fist, of various kinds spaced out (simultaneously several touches in different places) and so on. In the terminology of practitioners, the performing therapist is called an “actor”, and the patient passively perceiving his actions is called a “spectator”. The patient’s body at this moment is a kind of scene on which this “performance” unfolds. The therapist conducts all manipulations spontaneously choosing the place and nature of subsequent contacts, not building any system out of them and not coordinating them with the actions of other therapists (if there is more than one session). This technique solves two main problems. Firstly, the patient, thanks to the “touch theater”, is aware of his own body as a separate object (in the terminology of practitioners, he is “aware of the objectivity of his body”). Secondly, since the “viewer” cannot predict the next moves of the “actor,” the control of consciousness weakens over time, which helps to relax the patient for further manipulations with his body. ^[16] According to M. E. Sandomirsky , if the therapist does not work alone, then the constant exposure to a large number of stimuli (touches), the number of which exceeds the person’s capabilities in the number of simultaneously perceived and meaningful units of information, contributes to the induction of trance , which is used by practitioners methodology by specialists in their work. ^[fifteen]

Among the other techniques used in thanatotherapy, it is worth noting the so-called “body tuning” ( English “body-tuning” ), which allows for deep relaxation of the body, relieves internal stress, safely meets the causes of the fear of death and transforms the experiences associated with them. Performing this exercise, the therapist smoothly and very slowly moves the patient's limbs, turning them in the joints ( hand - forearm - shoulder , foot - knee - thigh ), achieving maximum muscle relaxation. The execution time of this technique is not limited, but in practice it is usually 4-5 minutes per body part. The work with the head is similarly performed: the patient’s head raised and held in the palms on the weight is gently tilted back and forth, left and right, swing and rotate, relieving tension of the neck muscles. ^[17]

"The sequence of supports"

At the next stage, the therapist successively raises the patient's limbs (“supports”), lifting them off the floor. Then the raised limb begins to gently move and rotate in the joints, leading it to a state of complete relaxation, thereby removing muscle clamps. The emphasis is again on the maximum relaxation of the patient’s body, which is controlled by the natural position of the raised limb, as well as by increasing its weight in the hands of the therapist, since the human muscles no longer support it independently. ^[eighteen]

Initially, thanatotherapy was intended to help the dying and people who received psychological trauma associated with the fear of death, but subsequently data were obtained that suggest that it can be used to work with a wider range of problems and diseases.

According to the data of V. Yu. Baskakov ^[11] , he and his like-minded people, when testing the method, managed not only to confirm the effectiveness of thanatotherapy in the correction of psychosomatic disorders ^[19] associated with various fears (primarily with the fear of death) ^[20] , but also to obtain positive results in the treatment of diseases such as depression and asthenia ^[21] , drug addiction ^[22] , schizophrenia ^[23] , spinal osteochondrosis ^[24] . Through practical studies, the efficacy of thanatotherapy has been shown to work with pain ^[25] , in the treatment of infertility and in preparation for childbirth ^[26] .

There are independent studies showing that thanatotherapy has a positive effect on the system of meaningful life orientations of a person. People who have undergone a course of thanatotherapy develop a focus on self-actualization , contact with the present, self-confidence and the ability to control their lives, and make free decisions. ^[27]

There are also suggestions and methods are being developed for the use of thanatotherapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress in people who received psychological trauma as a result of hostilities. ^{[28] [29] [30] [31]}

Due to the fact that the general style of popular literature published by Baskakov and his followers in order to promote thanatotherapy among the general population is more like parapsychological reasoning, and the techniques partly look like rituals incorporating traditions of different cultures, some researchers question the scientific nature of this method . ^[32]

According to some experts, the classification of basic psychological problems of a person adopted in thanatotherapy is more likely to be related to phenomenological approaches , since it does not consider a specific personality model, does not define the concept of a healthy personality, and does not answer the question at what stage of personal development and for what reasons these problems arise . It is also indicated that the identified basic psychological problems of a person are largely layered on top of each other. For example, an imbalance in sexual relations can be caused by problems in the field of social contacts, as well as by the presence of supercontrol of consciousness or lack of support (infantility, insecurity). This circumstance complicates the diagnosis and selection of an appropriate therapeutic strategy. At the same time, experts in the field of body-oriented psychology note the convenience of this classification for practical psychotherapy, its obvious comprehensibility for a person, which gives the therapist the opportunity to work with his problems both in body language and in the language of consciousness. ^[33]

It is also noted that despite the data obtained on the positive experience of using thanatotherapy to correct a wide range of psychological problems of a person, the nature of its (as well as many other methods of body-oriented psychotherapy) influence on the psyche, which is a necessary condition for its use, is still rather poorly studied. ^[34]

Tanatotherapy gained fame not only in the narrow environment of body-oriented psychotherapists, but also gained some popularity in modern public culture. There are a fairly large number of publications in mass periodicals, as well as radio and television programs and videos dedicated to the popularization of this method. ^[35]

This circumstance led to the fact that in public opinion under the general collective name "thanatotherapy" the whole complex of phenomena related to the life-long living of death began to be understood, including such wild ways as digging oneself in a coffin for a while, often leading to tragic consequences . The author of the method separately emphasizes that thanatotherapy creates all conditions for complete, but safe therapeutic contact with the processes of dying and death and has nothing to do with these barbaric "methods." ^[36]

As of 2017, some higher educational institutions of Russia and neighboring countries ^[37] include the study of thanatotherapy in training programs for psychologists ^{[38] [39]} and other specialists ^[40] .

• Thanatology
• Thanatos

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• Baskakov V. Yu. Tanatotherapy of post-traumatic stress // Actual problems of psychophysiological correction of the functional state of military personnel / Materials of the All-Army Scientific and Practical Conference (October 25-26, 2001). - SPb. : FARMindeks, 2001 .-- S. 372-373.
• Gazarova E. E. Clinical aspects of thanatotherapy // Psychotherapy in Russia: schools, scientific research and practical achievements. Materials of the All-Russian scientific-practical conference on psychotherapy and clinical psychology. - M .: Publishing House of the Institute of Psychotherapy, 2000. - S. 16-17.
• Gazarova E.E. Tanatotherapy // Clinical Psychology. Dictionary. / Ed. N. D. Tvorogova, L. A. Karpenko, A. V. Petrovsky . - M .: Per Se, 2007 .-- S. 342. - 414 p. - (Psychological lexicon. Encyclopedic dictionary in 6 volumes). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9292-0136-3 .
• Gurevich P.S. Tanatotherapy // Practical Psychology for All: Clinical Psychoanalysis. - M .: Olma media groups , 2007 .-- S. 496. - 512 p. - 4000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-373-00612-5 .
• Malkina-Pykh I.G. Tanatotherapy // Psychosomatics. - M .: Eksmo , 2005 .-- S. 574-577. - 992 s. - (Handbook of the practical psychologist). - 4000 copies. - ISBN 5-699-06449-4 .
• Malkina-Pykh I.G. Tanatotherapy // Body therapy. - M .: Eksmo , 2007. - S. 498-505. - 752 s. - (Handbook of the practical psychologist). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 5-699-09766-X .
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• Petrushina M. V. The use of thanatotherapy in the process of post-war adaptation of combatants // Materials of the XII International Conference of Students, Graduate Students and Young Scientists “Lomonosov”. - M .: Publishing house of Moscow State University, 2005. - T. 2. - S. 292 - 294. - ISBN 5-211-03964-5 .
• Petrushina M.V. Tanatotherapy as a method of correction of survivors of the traumatic stress of war // Bulletin of a scientific session of the Department of Philosophy and Psychology of Voronezh State University : journal. - Voronezh: Voronezh State University, 2005. - No. 7 . - S. 178–182 .
• The use of body-oriented methods for the treatment of patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. A manual for doctors and psychologists / Kotsyubinsky A.P. (comp.) and others. - St. Petersburg. : St. Petersburg Psychoneurological Research Institute named after V.M. Bekhtereva , 2008 .-- S. 6 .-- 58 p.
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• Тимошенко Г. В., Леоненко Е. А. Классификация базовых личностных проблем (по В. Баскакову) // Работа с телом в психотерапии: Практическое руководство . — М. : Психотерапия, 2006. — С. 102—109. - 480 p. — (Золотой фонд психотерапии). - 4000 copies. — ISBN 5-903182-09-7 .
• Углова Т. В., Ткаченко Т. В. Изменения в эмоциональной и мотивационной сферах клиента под влиянием танатотерапии // Вестник Новгородского государственного университета : журнал. — 2011. — № 64 . — С. 88—90 . — ISSN 2076-8052 .
• Флоренский П. А. Не восхищение непщева (Флп. 2, 6-8): К суждению о мистике // Богословский вестник : журнал. — 1915. — № 7/8 . — С. 512—562 .
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• Баскаков В. Ю. Что такое танатотерапия? (unspecified) . « Танатотерра » . — В разделе статьи «Танатотерапия: практические результаты» собраны результаты апробации метода по состоянию на 2002 год. Архивировано 1 мая 2017 года.
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