Bodily and Emotional Activation in Pain: Bridging Neurosciences and Gestalt Therapy to Understand the Therapist’s Wish for Help

Bodily and emotional activation in front of pain have been connected with the wish to help the other. Basing on previous researches of neuro-aesthetics, and on the concept of Aesthetic Relational Knowledge inside the frame of Gestalt therapy, the research has inquired on the reactions of 29 individuals in front of images of pain and neutral feelings, in artistic representations and in photos of actors. The individuals were tested with SCL-90-R, MAIA and IRI. The results confirm the hypothesis that the wish to help relates to bodily-emotional activation, with the capacity to feel one’s own body and yet hold the emotion of the other. Bodily-emotional activation was shown only in artistic representation of pain. A possible explanation is that the “movement” that activates a person in front of the pain is better expressed in artistic images. At the same time, the wish to help relates to the capacity to de-centralize from oneself and focus on the other. Lack of empathy is not connected with avoidance to help the other. Lack of empathy and wish to avoid helping has shown to relate to a feeling of anxiety and mistrust in coping, rather than with lack of empathy.