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'''Awareness Reduction Mechanisms''' (ARMs), a subclass of [[Defense Mechanisms]], are strategies that the [[Bodily Ego]] can use to reduce awareness of itself, its physical and mental condition, the "room" that it's in, and the condition of its life. ARMS are typically deployed in order to reduce pain, suffering, guilt, shame, and the [[disjuncture]] that arises from internal [[Alignment|misalignment]] or external violence and abuse. Several ARMS exist, the most common being:  
'''Awareness Reduction Mechanisms''' (ARMs), a subclass of [[Defense Mechanisms]], are strategies that the [[Bodily Ego]] can use to reduce awareness of itself, its physical and mental condition, the "room" that it's in, and the condition of its life. ARMS are typically deployed in order to reduce pain, suffering, guilt, shame, and the [[disjuncture]] that arises from internal [[Alignment|misalignment]] or external violence and abuse. Several ARMS exist, the most common being:  


==Basic Forms==
===External ARMs===


* Gaslighting
* Compartmentalization – suppressing awareness by breaking your life and your cognitive/emotional processes into discrete spaces. When you come home at night, you block out exploitation and abuse you perpetrate at work. When you go to work in the morning, you block out violence in the home. When you go to Church, you do not think about the hypocrisies in your daily life.
* Denial– simple refusal to accept reality “as it is.” My mom beat me with a wooden spoon and leather belts, but she denies it to this day. The equivalent external ARM is repression.
* Distortion – reshaping reality to avoid awareness of disjunctive realities. “What doesn’t kill you leaves a scar” justifications distort our understanding of violence and abuse and provide a justification for them. 
** Humor is a form of distortion. Using humor to change the “meaning” of reality. Making sexist, racist, homophobic jokes in an attempt to render the abusive behaviours acceptable, or gain social support.
**Intellectualization – Not a defense mechanisms by itself, but a particular form of compartmentalization, dissociation, diversion, using the powers of the intellect
* Dissociation – detachment from reality. Disconnection, especially intellectual.  Daydreaming through dissociative disorders and fugue.
* Diversion/Distraction – engaging in other activities, behaviours that draw attention away from issues in reality. For example, getting into a running club and spending all your time away from family in order to avoid the toxicities/issues at home.
* Rationalization – “the justification of one's behaviour and motivations by substituting "good" acceptable reasons for the actual motivations.”


* [[Cognitive Wall]]
===External ARMs===


* Compartmentalization
* Dissociation – detachment from reality. Disconnection, especially emotional. Daydreaming. Dissociative disorders. Typically used in an attempt to avoid stress/pain/conflict in the environment.
 
* Diversion/Distraction – engaging in other activities, behaviours that allow one draw attention away from feelings. For example, getting into a running club and spending all your time running. Includes obsessions, compulsions, hypochondriasis, etc.
* Compartmentalization. Compartmentalizing various aspects of your life so that disjuncture in one does not bleed into disjuncture in another. For example, you say you are an honest man, but you cheat on your tax returns. Failing to connect the two means you can maintain the self-delusion that you are honest, when in fact you are a lying.  
* Repression – forced submersion of thoughts (I’m doing something wrong) and feelings, like guilt, shame, etc, For the equivalent internal ARM, see Denial.
 
* Regression – fall back to childhood states, allowing only simpler, childlike emotions and awareness.
* Rationalization. Coming up with excuses to justify bad behaviour or bad conditions. for example, suggesting exploiting child labour in Bangladesh is a good thing because it brings development.
* Projection – projecting guilt, shame, other negative emotions and thoughts onto others.  
 
* Reaction formation – choreographing the opposite emotions. Denial.
* Diversion/Distraction/[[Spiritual Bypassing]]. Used to divert critical attention from misaligned behaviors or conditions. Can include addictions like shopping, long distance running, and obsessive compulsive behaviors that focus attention.
 
* Projection. Project your own bad behaviours on other persons.
 
* Reaction formation. Putting on display the opposite behaviours. somebody who mean to their kids at home may be the nicest person in the world to everybody else. many distractions, hobbies, favourite shows, marathon running, "I'm an asshole to my kids most of the time, but look what a good snuggler I am."
 
* Denial. Denial is the simple refusal to accept reality. Alcoholics deny their alcoholism; pedophiles deny the consequences of their actions; parents deny their abuse; friends deny their exploitation.
 
* Repression: Sheer force repression of awareness. mature defense mechanism.  
 
* Regression. Regression is reversion to a emotional/psychological stage where an individual was not held responsible for their actions. Regression is typically deployed when the individual feels either a) too weak to confront needs to deny responsibility. One might discern between benign and malignant regression. Benign regression lowers psychological disjunction, hence it is ''not'' an ARM. Malignant regression aims at preserving the psychological status quo, therefore it ''is'' an ARM.  
 
* Dissociation.


==Notes==
==Notes==


 
For LP purposes, we break ARMs down into two general categories, External ARMs and Internal ARMs. External ARMs are defense mechanisms aimed at reducing awareness of things external to the individual, like the behaviour of others, conditions at work, bullying by students/teachers, etc. Internal ARMs are defense mechanisms aimed at reducing awareness of things internal to the individual, like disjunctive shame and guilt, or awareness of complicity, etc.  
ARMS are a defensive reaction the bodily ego uses to reduce pain, anxiety, fear, disorientation, etc. sometimes caused by [[Connection]].


An individual may deploy several ARMs at the same time.
An individual may deploy several ARMs at the same time.
Compartmentalization is, methinks, the single most common ARM. Compartmentalization is what allows tyrants to get elected.




Revision as of 20:08, 20 August 2018

Awareness Reduction Mechanisms (ARMs), a subclass of Defense Mechanisms, are strategies that the Bodily Ego can use to reduce awareness of itself, its physical and mental condition, the "room" that it's in, and the condition of its life. ARMS are typically deployed in order to reduce pain, suffering, guilt, shame, and the disjuncture that arises from internal misalignment or external violence and abuse. Several ARMS exist, the most common being:

External ARMs

  • Compartmentalization – suppressing awareness by breaking your life and your cognitive/emotional processes into discrete spaces. When you come home at night, you block out exploitation and abuse you perpetrate at work. When you go to work in the morning, you block out violence in the home. When you go to Church, you do not think about the hypocrisies in your daily life.
  • Denial– simple refusal to accept reality “as it is.” My mom beat me with a wooden spoon and leather belts, but she denies it to this day. The equivalent external ARM is repression.
  • Distortion – reshaping reality to avoid awareness of disjunctive realities. “What doesn’t kill you leaves a scar” justifications distort our understanding of violence and abuse and provide a justification for them.
    • Humor is a form of distortion. Using humor to change the “meaning” of reality. Making sexist, racist, homophobic jokes in an attempt to render the abusive behaviours acceptable, or gain social support.
    • Intellectualization – Not a defense mechanisms by itself, but a particular form of compartmentalization, dissociation, diversion, using the powers of the intellect
  • Dissociation – detachment from reality. Disconnection, especially intellectual. Daydreaming through dissociative disorders and fugue.
  • Diversion/Distraction – engaging in other activities, behaviours that draw attention away from issues in reality. For example, getting into a running club and spending all your time away from family in order to avoid the toxicities/issues at home.
  • Rationalization – “the justification of one's behaviour and motivations by substituting "good" acceptable reasons for the actual motivations.”

External ARMs

  • Dissociation – detachment from reality. Disconnection, especially emotional. Daydreaming. Dissociative disorders. Typically used in an attempt to avoid stress/pain/conflict in the environment.
  • Diversion/Distraction – engaging in other activities, behaviours that allow one draw attention away from feelings. For example, getting into a running club and spending all your time running. Includes obsessions, compulsions, hypochondriasis, etc.
  • Repression – forced submersion of thoughts (I’m doing something wrong) and feelings, like guilt, shame, etc, For the equivalent internal ARM, see Denial.
  • Regression – fall back to childhood states, allowing only simpler, childlike emotions and awareness.
  • Projection – projecting guilt, shame, other negative emotions and thoughts onto others.
  • Reaction formation – choreographing the opposite emotions. Denial.

Notes

For LP purposes, we break ARMs down into two general categories, External ARMs and Internal ARMs. External ARMs are defense mechanisms aimed at reducing awareness of things external to the individual, like the behaviour of others, conditions at work, bullying by students/teachers, etc. Internal ARMs are defense mechanisms aimed at reducing awareness of things internal to the individual, like disjunctive shame and guilt, or awareness of complicity, etc.

An individual may deploy several ARMs at the same time.


See Also

Connection | Blocking Emotions | Steering Emotions

Further Reading

Lightning Path Workbook Two: Healing. Lightning Path Press. https://www.patreon.com/posts/lp-workbooks-and-91290808

Lightning Path Workbook Three: Connection. Lightning Path Press. https://www.patreon.com/posts/lp-workbooks-and-91290808

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