Meet Gregg Henriques, Psychologist of Depression, Suicidal Behaviour, and Personality Disorders
Hello everyone! It is my pleasure to introduce you to Gregg Henriques. With a background of post-doctoral training from the University of Pennsylvania, he has spent many years studying personality disorders and depression. With his work he hopes to create an organizational shift in how psychology is approached. He’s the author of “A New Unified Theory of Psychology“, which he’ll be talking about today. He’ll also be talking about how his theory relates to his studies in depression and personality disorders. Check it out!
1. In your profile on Psychology Today, you mentioned how you’re developing a meta-theoretical system. Can you tell me more about that, and how it’s been helping with research on people’s personality and social motivation?
Psychology and psychotherapy are very disorganized at the level of theory and there is no basic understanding of the field’s subject matter (i.e., mind, behavior, human versus animal consciousness) and there are different and competing paradigms (e.g., neuroscience, evolutionary, psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, and socio-cultural) that do not currently fit well together. This is a significant problem (I call it “the problem of psychology”), and my position is that if we can achieve greater unity and do so in a way that is clear and leads to a much more holistic understanding and a clear way to help people with psychological problems, then that should be pursued.
My scholarly work over the past 20 years has been devoted to developing a unified theory of psychology and unified approach to psychotherapy. My ideas for the former were spelled out in my 2011 book, A New Unified Theory of Psychology. I have been writing and blogging on my unified approach to psychotherapy for the past several years. I also direct a doctoral program at James Madison University, where students learn how to assess and intervene based on the system.
Links:
A New Unified Theory of Psychology at Springer:
http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781461400578
James Madison University’s Combined Integrated Doctoral Program:
http://www.psyc.jmu.edu/cipsyd/
Two Blogs on the Unified Theory of Psychology:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201702/psychologys-grand-unified-theory
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201412/the-unified-theory-blog-tour
2. I understand you used to do post-doctor training. Why did you choose to become a psychologist instead of a doctor?
In psychology, after someone gets their doctoral degree they sometimes will decide to get additional training. I was fortunate to work with Dr. Aaron T. Beck, the father of cognitive psychotherapy, at the University of Pennsylvania.
I went into psychology because I was always more drawn to thoughts, feelings, actions and relationships than I was to cells, physiology and anatomy, which is the primary focus of bio-medical doctors. I will say that I consider myself and the folks I train in the program at James Madison University to be “psychological doctors”. A psychological doctor is someone who uses the science of human psychology to engage in psychological assessments, interventions, and consultations to foster adaptation and well-being.
A blog describing “psychological doctors”:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201504/what-is-psychological-doctor
3. It’s nice to hear that you are pursuing something you’re more passionate in. Can you tell me about the Tree of Knowledge system you’ve developed?
The Tree of Knowledge System is the central idea that enables me to unify psychology. It is a new map of reality that allows one to tie together modern science, human consciousness, and philosophy into a coherent whole.
This is important because as mentioned early, psychology is very fragmented, so it provides a way to approach the whole and tie together the different paradigms into one overarching system. There are a couple of key ideas that go into the ToK.
First, one needs to study the map itself; that is, one needs to look carefully at the ToK System depiction and get familiar with it.
Second, the ToK System claims that we should think about the Universe as an “unfolding wave of energy-information”.
Third, the ToK System divides the wave of energy-information into four different dimensions of complexity, which are labeled Matter, Life, Mind and Culture.
The reason that there are these different dimensions of complexity is that, following Matter, there has been the emergence of three different information processing systems.
Genetic/epigenetic information processing gives rise to the dimension of complexity identified as “Life” (living organisms), neuronal information processing gives rise to the dimension of complexity identified as “Mind” (animals), and linguistic information processing gives rise to the dimension of complexity identified as “Culture” (humans living in groups and societies tied together by language).
Finally, there are the “joint points” on the Tree of Knowledge System. These are the links between the dimensions of complexity.
The Tree of Knowledge System on Wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Knowledge_System
Three Blogs on the Tree of Knowledge System:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201403/mapping-cosmic-evolution-the-tok-system
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201611/three-cheers-big-history
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201601/empirical-support-the-tree-knowledge-system
4. What are your thoughts on depression? Is it a disease, illness, or a behavior problem?
This is the first question many people ask about depression. I don’t think it is the right first question to ask.
Before we ask this question we need to define what depression is. Depression is a state of psychological or behavioral shutdown. It is when the perceptual-motivational-emotional system shifts and shuts down positive investment (that is why people lose interest and diminish their pleasure responses) and jacks up negative defenses (that is why people feel many different strong negative emotions of helplessness or defeat or shame or irritability). Once we have this as our definition, then we can ask What is causing the shutdown?
If the shutdown makes sense as a response to a brutal environment (for example, someone in a chronic and abusive relationship), then we should think of it in terms of a depressive reaction. If the shutdown make sense, but is causing many more problems than it is solving, thus sending a person into a vicious, maladaptive cycle of shutdown, then we should think of it as a psychological illness. If the shutdown is pervasive, almost irrational and unresponsive to changes in the environment or to good psychotherapy, then we should consider that is might be best characterized as a depressive disease. Most “clinical depressions” are maladaptive cycles.
Blogs on the Behavioral Shutdown Model of Depression:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201704/how-understand-depression
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201604/the-behavioral-shutdown-theory-depression
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201610/three-kinds-depressive-episodes
5. Sometimes depression can get to a very scary place. It can feel like your thoughts control your mind and body. Is depression the cause of suicide, or is it something else?
Let’s first make the point that there are different reasons that people kill themselves. For example, sometimes there are murder-suicides that might occur for very different reasons than depression. There are also acts of euthanasia. But there certainly are a large number of suicides, definitely the majority, that are intimately tied to depressive feelings. “Psyche ache” is a term that is sometimes used to describe the profound emotional pain that some people feel. They feel it so deeply and perceive that it will never end that they start to believe that they would rather feel nothing than feel such pain. So, suicide is perceived as a possible solution to escape the pain.
6. The more I read about psychology, and specifically abnormal psychology, the more I think about how it can all lead to suicide. Eating disorders, unemployment, tragic/traumatic situations, relationships, and family problems all seem to be causes. Why do people think of suicide as a form of relief from hopelessness?
People feel emotional pain when life does not turn out the way they hoped and they do not get their core needs for relational value met (relational value is the feeling of being known and valued by important others). If they have poor coping skills, poor relationships and life keeps throwing curve balls at them that they cannot cope with, they start to feel hopeless and miserable and suicide is seen as a final, desperate solution to end the pain. Folks often feel very ambivalent about it, of course. Usually a part of them will want to die and another part will want to live. And sometimes the act of making a suicide attempt is more a way to communicate and show others how desperate one is.
7. What type of characteristics would someone have to have to attempt suicide? Is it a personality disorder?
Many people who attempt suicide do not have a “personality disorder”, meaning that they would not meet the diagnostic criteria for such a condition. At the same time, it is the case that having a personality disorder generally would make someone more at risk. A personality disorder is simply defined as a long standing problem with one’s identity, emotional processing and relationships. Because of this it makes sense that there would be a relationship between the two. Indeed, there are some personality disorders, such as Borderline Personality Disorder that is strongly associated with self-harm and suicidal behaviors.
The kinds of personality characteristics associated with making a suicide attempt include emotional dysregulation (feeling overwhelmed by negative emotions), impulsivity, poor relationships and low social support, difficulty with problem solving, aggressive or acting out tendencies, and tendencies to become depressed and hopeless.
Three Blogs on Personality Disorders:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201305/what-is-dysfunctional-personality
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge/201204/the-personality-disorder-star
8. While dealing with suicide, has there been any cases you haven’t been able to solve throughout the years you had worked in this profession?
Thankfully, I have never had anyone kill themselves while I was directly working with them. However, there have been several cases where the situation was so brutal and the individual so wounded that I was unable to work with them in a way that resulted in a clear path toward health.
9. What is psychosis? Is psychosis developed in the early stages of life? What happens when you experience psychotic episodes? How do you solve it?
Psychosis is a broad term that refers to when people mentally lose touch with reality. This can happen at many different stages in life for many different reasons. People can become psychotic after taking drugs or because of a disease such as a brain tumor or because of an acute trauma or because of a severe mental illness like schizophrenia. Because there are so many different ways someone can become psychotic there is no straightforward answer to the question of how you “solve it”.
10. When someone experiences psychosis, they can sometimes have hallucinations. What is the difference between schizophrenia and psychosis, and which one is more at risk of suicidal tendencies?
As mentioned above, psychosis is a broad term for when someone loses touch with reality. Schizophrenia is a specific diagnosis, one of the “psychotic disorders”, although that term is not used too much in modern practice. Schizophrenia involves mental deterioration and a breakdown of consciousness that can manifest itself in several different ways. One common manifestation is “delusions”, which refer to unusual or highly improbable beliefs about the world and one’s place in it. For example, the famous mathematician John Nash suffered from schizophrenia and had the delusion that governments across the world were sending him secret messages in the newspaper, calling him to set up a new world order. Hallucinations are when a person’s perceptual experiences are fractured and they experience voices or visions that seem to be real and external to the individual, but they do not actually exist in the external world. Disorganized and chaotic thinking and very unusual behaviors (e.g., collecting garbage) can also emerge. Finally, there are what are sometimes referred to as “negative symptoms” that involve a lack of motivation, apathy about life, or social withdrawal and disengagement. In terms of recovery from schizophrenia, there is a general rule of “thirds” if folks get good treatment (which would involve good therapy focused on coping and problem solving and the new class of anti-psychotic medications). That rule is that about a third can recover to close full functioning, about a third will be able to function but with notable limitations, and about a third will be severely impaired and likely will not be able to function independently.
Gregg has been incredibly helpful by linking references for us to read and giving us a better knowledge of his work. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave it in the comment section below.
Are there different types of delusions a person, suffering from schizoprania, can have? does personality play a role?