is the internal representation of the original experience. When somebody is propelled into a basin, it puts them back into that original emotional experience. We hypothesize that a basin might be formed by one or more interacting neural nets. Since neural nets are capable of adapting and changing we therefore suggest that basins of attraction have the same capability.

We then went on to describe the features of basins of attraction by stating: “When we consider basins of attraction, we must consider their depth and width. The depth is determined by the intensity of the emotional experience and the width by the number of reference points. A reference point is an event that reinforces the attractor or original experience.”

In our original model we discussed triggers as stimuli into a specific basin. We noted the following: “In traditional psychotherapy we consider change as the process of either destabilizing a negative basin or establishing a positive basin. In our model change occurs when we interrupt the triggers and destabilize the negative basin, making the triggers lead to the new basin.”

OUR REFINED MODEL

Based on our experience in using this model over a four year period, we have now developed a refined view of the model that explains more fully what is happening. Before going further it is useful to provide a visual representation of the model.

Figure I. Psychological Landscape

Distinguishing features of our model:

Psychological landscape

Horizon
Reference points
Triggers
Attractors
Basins of attraction

These features are related as follows:

Psychological landscapes consist of horizons and basins of attraction. The horizons are points of instability and the basins of attraction are stable.

A reference point is a marker of an event which is a gateway to triggers. A reference point is static.
A trigger is a reaction attached to a reference point that propels a person to an attractor which is in a basin. A trigger is dynamic.
Attractors are internal representations of original experiences. Attractors are self-organized into basins.
Basins of attraction are naturally occurring or constructed organized collections of attractors. The attractors self-organize. The depth and width of the basin represent the strength of the collection. The depth represents the intensity of the collection and the width represents the ease of accessibility, and how long this basin has existed.

Figure II. Basin of Attraction

What is the process?

Figure III. Features on the Landscape

Events lead to reference points

There are a wide variety of events that make people access reference points. For example, someone can hear the word “shame” and immediately access the reference point marking your mother as an authority figure. This is a gateway to the triggers that push them into the basin of attraction storing attractors related to their negative feeling about authority figures. On the other hand the person could be in the grocery store and observe a mother reprimanding her child and also be pushed into the “authority figure” basin.

An example of an event related to a positive experience might be smelling the sea air. In this case, the smell might remind one of a pleasant time they spent on a boat. This in turn is a gateway to a trigger that propels the person into a positive basin storing attractors related to good feelings about being on boats or near the sea.

The events that access reference points can be classified into specific categories used in the following two tables.

The first table is an illustration of classes that might be applicable to our first example. All of these events could eventually propel the person into the “authority figure” basin. It should be noted that not all classes of events are found to relate to particular reference points.

Table 1: Classes of Events that Access Reference Points

Class of event	Examples of specific event
Words	Hearing the word “shame”
Visual external	Seeing a mother in a grocery store reprimanding her child
Visual internal
Auditory external	Hearing a mother in a grocery store reprimanding her child
Auditory internal
Tonality	Mother talking to her child with a loud voice
Kinesthetic external	Goose bumps or sweating
Kinesthetic internal	Churning of the stomach
Facial expression	Mother has angry look
Physiology	Mother waving her finger at her child
Olfactory
Gustatory

The second table is an illustration of classes that might be applicable to our second example. All of these events could eventually propel the person into the “sea” basin.

Table 2: Classes of Events that Access Reference Points

Class of event	Examples of specific event
Words
Visual external	Seeing the sea
Visual internal	Dreaming of the sea
Auditory external	Hearing crashing waves
Auditory internal
Tonality
Kinesthetic external	Feeling the wind against your face
Kinesthetic internal
Facial expression
Physiology
Olfactory	Smelling the salt water
Gustatory

Reference points as doorways to triggers

When you access a reference point, triggers are activated which push you towards an attractor. Often the client is not consciously aware of the event that causes them to get to the attractor. These triggers have been developed over time by the experiences attached to the reference point events. These triggers are actually propelling agents that push people along their neural pathways. The more they are used, the more accessible these pathways become and the quicker the triggers fire.

For example, if a person gets an angry phone call from their spouse and they have experienced abuse over time, the trigger leading to the very deep negative basin fires quickly. And conversely, if your spouse calls and the relationship is positive, then the triggers associated with the positive pathway quickly fire pushing you into a positive basin.

These reference points lie on a horizon that is an unstable part of the system. There is a lot of activity on the horizon. Some triggers emanating from the reference points are constantly being fired, leading to the attractor and hence being reinforced. Some are rarely used and therefore weaken. Some reference points are gateways to a multitude of triggers and therefore accessing a reference point does not lead you to travel on a predetermined neural pathway and therefore might lead you to any one of several basins.

James Barry from the United Kingdom says it concisely in his article, Two Competing Pathways in Your Brain:

Your old neural pathways … lead you to your old responses [attractors]. This old pathway is tangible - it is real. Since your old neural pathway was used for many, many years, it is normal that thoughts and beliefs that traveled along these pathways, became ingrained, became habits, and became automatic.

However, when you began therapy, you also began to develop a new neural pathway. … As a result, literally, millions of brain cells began carrying the new messages you were learning … Your new neural pathway was being created.

The more you practiced and “sunk” the information down into your brain, the stronger you made this literal neural pathway. …

The more you used the new, and the less you used the old, you are literally changing the way your brain responds. (Barry n.d.)

Triggers propel you to attractors, which self-organize into basins of attraction

If the horizon that holds the reference points is the unstable part of the landscape, then the basins of attraction are the stable part. Attractors collect themselves into basins of attraction. Once these collections are formed, the basins self-organize and generate their own behavior. This behavior gives the basins the ability to trap a person inside creating a stable environment from which it is hard to escape. Probably when a basin is first being formed, attractors that emanate from the same original experience collect into the same basin. As people have more experiences, the attractors associated with them often add to basins previously formed. It is unpredictable which basins will hold the new attractors, but these new attractors add depth and width to the basins. Herein lies the self-organization.

Figure IV. Traversing the Landscape

How do we effect change?

When the reference point is accessed and we want to change the reaction to this reference point, we need to perturb the triggers so that they propel the person into a new basin of attraction. We modify old triggers and/or create new triggers to do this. The perturbing of the triggers causes new self-organization of the system. The basins can become destabilized or intensified as a result of this self-organization.

We have used this model hundreds of times to effect change. There are a variety of techniques we use to perturb the system. All of the change techniques are initiated by changes at the horizon.

Figure V. Unstable Area Between Two Basins

Pattern Interruption Technique

One technique we use is pattern interruption to perturb the process at the access to the reference point.

The process is as follows:

Step 1. Establish a new outcome basin. Identify a set of positive-feeling experiences (attractors) by identifying a place or time when the client had a positive-feeling experience or achieved a good outcome. Ask the client to “step inside the experience and vivify it as if it were happening here and now bringing it from the past to the present.” Collect these positive feeling experiences (attractors) into a basin, giving the basin a name to identify for future reference and indicating that this basin will represent the original experience. The original experience might give you only one or more than one attractor, so at this point your basin might hold one or more attractors.

Step 2. Help the client revivify the experience again by using the following language “See what you see, hear what you hear, feel what you are feeling during the original event.” This rehearsal will intensify the memory of the experience.

Step 3. Identify the event that accessed the reference point that got you to the positive-feeling experience. The client identifies the event which was occurring when the positive attractors where formed and classifies the event which got them to the feeling, telling whether it was a word, a sound, a visualization, a smell, a tonality, etc.

Step 4. Identify a negative feeling the client would like to change. At this point we want to go back to get an original event associated with the negative feeling. There are various psychological techniques we use, which are beyond the scope of this paper, to help the client access an original event. Identify the negative feeling (the attractor or attractors) in the basin and give it a name.

Step 5. Place markers on the floor, one representing the positive basin and one representing the negative basin. Once again, have the client step inside the positive marker and revivify the feelings associated with the positive basin. Have the client step outside and do the same thing with the negative basin.

Step 6. Have the client place one foot in each basin and shift from side to side allowing themselves to feel the difference between the two states.

Step 7. Have the client step outside both markers. Standing to the side of the negative basin, the client thinks of the original negative event coming into the horizon. Just before the event arrives on the horizon, they step over the negative basin and into the positive basin. Do this five times.

Step 8. Have the client rehearse what will happen in the future when that event approaches the horizon again.

Change Personal History Technique

The change personal history technique is useful when the client cannot identify the original event that gave them access to the system. This technique takes the client from the present and helps them recover the original event and associated attractor. The details of this technique are beyond the scope of this paper. For specific details see M. Reese (1989).

CONCLUSION

Our model of psychological landscapes is obviously a metaphor for the human psychological system. We have found this model to be very powerful in the therapeutic change process.

Our hypothesis is that this model is general enough to provide an opportunity to apply most therapeutic processes. The therapist, or change agent, enters the system at the horizon level which is the level of instability.

It also provides the client with the opportunity to have a better visual and kinesthetic understanding of what is happening when the system is perturbed and self-organizes.

References

Barry, James (n.d.) Two Competing Pathways in Your Brain, n.p.; available from

http://www.jamesbarry.fsbusiness.co.uk/sa/two_competing_neural_pathways.htm, Internet, accessed – March 2002.

Blackberry, R.F. (1993). Application of Chaos Theory to Psychological Models, Performance Strategies Publication, Colorado.

Dilts, R. (1995). Strategies of Genius. Meta Publications, Capitola, California.

Furman, M. and Gallo, F. (2000). The Neurophysics of Human Behavior, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.

Gleick, J. (1987). (1994). Chaos: Making of a New Science,Viking Press, New York.

Jensen, E. (1998). Introduction to Brain Compatible Learning. The Brain Store, San Diego, California.

Kauffman, S. (1995). At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self Organization and Complexity. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Lorenz, E. (1993). The Essence of Chaos, University of Washington Press, Seattle, Washington.

Reese, E. (1996). Be Phobia Free [video], Southern Institute Press. Inc., Indian Rocks Beach, Florida.

Reese, M. (1989). How to Walk What You Talk. Southern Institute Press. Inc., Indian Rocks Beach, Florida:

Reese, E., Reese, M., and Tausner, M. (1999). Systems Models Provide a View of Psychological Self-Organization on CD). International Society for Systems Science.ISSS) 1999.

Thelen, E. and. Smith, L.B (1995). A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of

Cognition and Action, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Warren, K, Franklin, C, and Streeter, C. L. July (1998). “New Directions in Systems Theory: Chaos and Complexity”, Social Work, 33(4):357-371.

Wylie, M. Sykes. (July/August 1996). “Going for the Cure”, Family Networker :21-37.

ABSTRACT

The original model