Psychotechnology. Interview with Elena Rusalkina

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

For many centuries, the human psyche remained for researchers "". Until the last century, the only methods of knowing it were observation, psychoanalysis and meditative psychotechnics.

Only with the beginning of the technological revolution and the invention of the personal computer, fundamentally new tools for research, analysis and correction of unconscious mental processes appeared - computer psychotechnologies. They allowed scientists not only to establish an indirect dialogue with the subconscious, but also to develop methods of interaction with it.

Russian scientists became pioneers in the creation of computer psychotechnologies. The ideological inspirer and leader of these studies was Igor Viktorovich Smirnov (1951-2004).

I. V. Smirnov

Elena Grigorievna, you have been dealing with psychotechnology for many years. What it is? And what is psychotechnology for?

Psychotechnology is a computer technology that allows diagnosing, correcting and managing the mental and physical state of a person, using his semantic memory, that is, the subconscious.

The term "subconsciousness" today is easily used by politicians, journalists, housewives. But what do specialists mean by this concept?

The subconscious is an area of the human psyche that is responsible for processing and storing information. The subconscious is our semantic (semantic) memory, which stores both genetic and transient information.

From birth in the subconscious of a person, information is accumulated about everything that he sees, hears, smells, senses, feels. Everything that once enters the memory remains in it for the rest of its life. The subconscious mind can be compared to the underwater part of an iceberg, it is much larger than consciousness and is hidden from us. The brain, through the psyche, raises to the level of consciousness only the information that a person uses in everyday life.

Your husband, academician Igor Viktorovich Smirnov, in the 80s of the last century headed the first in Russia Laboratory of psychocorrection at the 1st Moscow Medical Institute named after THEM. Sechenov. There, under his direct supervision, pioneering work in the field of psychotechnology was carried out and methods for the study and correction of unconscious mental activity were developed. Later, this work was continued at the Research Institute of Psychoecology and at the Department of Psychoecology of the RUDN University. What was the impetus for these studies?

Actually, Igor Viktorovich began to develop psychotechnologies in the 70s, while still a student. In 1979, already working at the 1st MMI them. THEM. Sechenov, he and his colleagues submitted an application for the discovery to the State Committee for Science and Technology of the USSR. The patent was obtained, and the work of the group was immediately classified, and in 1980, by decision of the Presidium of the RAS of the USSR and the State Committee for Science and Technology of the USSR, the development of a closed research topic was started:. Within the framework of this project, the Department of Non-Drug Therapy was created, later transformed into the Laboratory of Psychocorrection.

Igor Viktorovich considered his main counterpart to American Howard Shevrin (), a specialist in the field of the unconscious. But why exactly him?

Scientists have long attempted to penetrate the subconscious, linking cognitive and physiological processes. Back in 1926, the scientist, the founder of Russian neuropsychology, Alexander Romanovich Luria, applied the associative-motor technique to identify traces of affect in a criminal, suggesting that the affective state is accompanied by profound dysfunctions in the human body. In fact, he created a prototype of a modern lie detector. Luria published his description in one of his articles.

(A. R. Luria "Diagnostics of traces of affect")

For his research, Luria modified an associated experiment of one of the founders of analytical psychology, the Swiss Carl Jung ().

"".

(A. R. Luria "Diagnostics of traces of affect")

And the lie detector was created according to the articles of Luria by the American police. So Shevrin not only studied the unconscious, but also developed methods of penetrating into it?

Since the end of the forties of the XX century, research on the unconscious input-output of information into human memory began to develop intensively in the world. The leaders in these studies were Russia and the United States.

In 1968, Howard Shevrin published the first studies of the brain's response to unconscious visual stimuli. And in his subsequent works, he defended the point of view that the activation of semantic associations reflects the dynamics of unconscious cognitive processes. Indeed, in the United States, our department's competitor was its laboratory at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute (University of Michigan). But in the development of the psychosemantic algorithm, we were then ahead of him by almost a year.

The term "psychotechnology" first appeared thanks to Igor Viktorovich?

Quite right. He also introduced the concept of "psychocorrection". Initially, Smirnov called it “non-medical psychocorrection”. And the question immediately arose: why "non-medical"? But this cannot be called psychotherapy or psychology. The methods of psychotechnology exist at the intersection of sciences: psychiatry, psychology, neurophysiology, neurobiology, mathematics, physics, computer science.

With the advent of the first computers, a complete technological process was created. At first they worked at "Nairi" - there were such huge electronic computers. Then on "Agatha" and DCK. With the development of computer technology, psychotechnology has also improved.

Initially, Smirnov himself was engaged in programming. But when the first qualified programmers appeared, in particular at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Moscow State University, we began to cooperate with them.

What methods are used in psychotechnology?

First of all, these are methods of psycho-sounding and psycho-correction.

A more unique creation than the human brain is difficult to imagine. If the brain were not what it is, it is not known what a person would be, and whether he would be at all.

Like any organ, the brain has its own functions. The main function of the brain is the psyche.

Through the central and peripheral nervous systems, the brain controls all the activities of the body, exercising control over all organs. His work can be compared to a river bed. If a blockage of trees and stones forms on the river, it will eventually bypass it, but the normal flow will be disrupted. So is the brain. Malfunctions in the work of the brain, manifested in the form of various psychosomatic diseases, functional disorders of the body, depression, stress - these are a kind of "blockages". Psycho sounding (psychosemantic analysis) allows you to reveal information hidden in the subconscious, which is their cause. And psychocorrection "dismantles" these "blockages", activating the mental and physical capabilities of the body, which it does not use in its normal state.

We have developed several types of psychocorrection. There is psychocorrection preventive, proactive. And there is intense. It is used to treat either severe psychiatry or drug addiction.

What do these methods look like at work?

Everything we do is based on unconscious components. Psychoprobing is a computer program based on the method of coding speech while preserving its semantic content. With the help of it, we can get accurate answers to the necessary questions, and if necessary, then the psychological portrait of the patient.

It looks simple. A man sits in front of a computer monitor, on which numbers flash. All he does is press a key.

In fact, the numbers that appear on the screen are superimposed on semantic symbols - words or phrases. Thus, the person is not aware that he is answering the questions. But the brain reacts to what is happening very clearly. The procedure takes from several minutes to half an hour.

And during this time, you can get the amount of information that the psychoanalyst takes several months?

Exactly. Psycho sounding is by far the most accurate tool for studying human mental activity.

And the task of psychocorrection is to correct the patient's internal picture of the world, to initiate in him a state and behavior that is adequate to the environment and situation, undesirable moments. Psychological correction is carried out with the help of plots developed according to the results of psychodiagnostics individually for each patient.

What are stories for?

Much in psychotechnology is based on neurolinguistics - programming using specially constructed language constructs - suggestive plots. As you know, the word contains not only a physical component, but also a mental one. Hence - psycholinguistics and psychosemantics. Therefore, I can say any word with twenty-nine intonations.

For instance?

For example, “” or “” can be pronounced so that the hair stands on end.

In fact, with the help of the plot, we introduce into the subconscious, bypassing consciousness, a coded message, which is decoded by the brain and accepted for execution.

On the picture:

There are several rules for plot development. Firstly, the plot must be compiled in the patient's native language. Many foreigners always turn to us for help, and when drawing up stories we are looking for direct speakers of languages and dialects for everyone, we take into account the mentality and religion. Secondly, the plot must be unconscious. If it is conscious, mind control will turn on. It's unavoidable.

Consciousness always acts as a censor, as a proofreader. This is the defensive reaction of the brain. He displaces traumatic information into the subconscious, where it becomes taboo for a person, but continues to exist, provoking various diseases, including fatal ones. And in no way, except by Smirnov's methods, it is impossible to extract it from there: neither with the help of a polygraph, nor by introducing the patient into a hypnotic trance, nor by means of psychopharmacological influence, nor by methods of psychoanalysis. We need this information for subsequent psychocorrection, with the help of which it can either be removed from the subconscious, or made insignificant, painless for a person.

In general, drawing up a plot is a laborious and responsible process. There are no trifles here and cannot be. An incorrectly developed plot can cause irreparable harm to a person. But the patient is unaware of this. He listens to the disc on which they are recorded, but he hears only music or acoustic noise, and that's it.

Psychocorrection is based on the adjustment (regrouping) of psychosemantic elements, leading to a change in the suggestive paradigm. And the essence of the suggestive paradigm, according to Smirnov, is "".

That is, through psychocorrection, the brain begins to cope with the existing problems in the body on its own?

And this is the best possible solution, because it is impossible to find a better doctor than your own body. This is the essential difference between drug therapy and psychocorrection.

But I want to warn you: unfortunately, there are such home-grown psychologists, as a rule, with ridiculous diplomas, such as the New York Academy … They say that in order to overcome any problem, you need to relive it, and then it will be resolved. Complete nonsense. In no case should you do this. If the brain has supplanted information, we cannot compete with it! As a rule, the result of such experiments is severe depression. The human psyche is extremely fragile; it costs nothing to destroy it.

What diseases can psychocorrection help?

First of all, with psychosomatic ones. If we exclude viral infections, as well as diseases associated with mechanical and chemical damage, all the rest, about 70% of diseases, are of a psychosomatic nature. In one way or another, they are represented in our psyche. There are exceptions, though. For example, a stomach ulcer most often occurs on a nervous basis, but it can also appear with chemical or mechanical action. The diagnosis is one, but the causes of the disease are different.

In addition, we manage to fight diseases that are still considered incurable, such as epilepsy.

Epilepsy is an aggressive disease. It is characterized by excessive excitation of neurons in the cerebral cortex. It develops expansively, gradually capturing more and more new areas

A lot of people with epilepsy and epileptic syndrome come to our Center, and we work with them successfully if there is no serious organic matter. Psychocorrection allows you to completely cope with this problem without medication.

Any disease always has its roots, its causes. For example, asthma is the purest psychosomatics. It usually occurs against the background of pneumonia or bronchitis. But the darkness of people is sick with pneumonia and bronchitis, and asthma does not appear at all. For asthma to occur, pathological fixation must occur.

What does it mean?

During pneumonia or bronchitis, difficulty breathing often occurs with attacks of hypoxia or suffocation. And if at this time a pathological fixation occurs, a person will definitely develop asthma. If there is no fixation, there will be no asthma either. The sick person will be cured and that's it. That is, in most cases of the appearance of psychosomatic sores, a pathological fixation of a person on something necessarily occurs.

In the case of asthma, an example is this: we had a charming patient, a woman with thirty years of experience in bronchial asthma. Naturally, she was allergic to pet hair. She was treated in various clinics, experienced everything, including hormonal drugs. Nothing worked. After our treatment, the patient's asthma disappeared. And she fulfilled her dream - she took a dog into the house.

How long did it take to achieve this result?

It took us only a month and a half. Already in the first conversation, we found the cause of the disease and understood when and on what the fixation occurred. Naturally against the background of pneumonia, this is standard. But here the situation turned out to be: when our patient was a child, her parents - young scientists, completely absorbed in scientific activity - delegated the upbringing of their daughter to their grandparents. And the grandmother is authoritarian there. But when the child was sick - it was possible - all if only in joy. This is where the pathological fixation of the painful condition happened. Children are extremely smart.

In childhood, the patient recorded the symptoms of the disease as beneficial for herself

Certainly. And then she was so fenced off from difficulties. This is a kind of protection from reality, very common. Someone goes into alcohol, someone into illness. And the problems, if they are not solved, are layered, creating the illusion of hopelessness. Therefore, Igor Viktorovich always said: "We are treating not a disease, but a patient."

We have developed an appropriate storyline, and the asthma has passed.

No drugs?

No drugs. And now our former patient does not use any drugs.

I have been working with the human brain for many years, but I never cease to be amazed at its uniqueness. And I am sure, if the brain is fully trusted, it, knowing the capabilities of the body, can cope with many troubles in the most gentle way for us.

Elena Grigorievna, were there any cases in your practice when the results of treatment exceeded expectations?

I have a patient, a young man who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and hyperkinesis of unknown origin. In addition, he had vascular pathology; uncontrollable, as in infantile cerebral palsy, movements and a terrible weight deficit with a height of about 190 cm. The boy was prescribed a lot of psychotropic drugs. And with pathology like his, they are not very desirable - they have a bad effect on the vessels, they can cause even more excitement. But, unfortunately, this is not always paid attention to.

The guy turned out to have a colossal hypoxic focus in the left hemisphere of the brain. Violation of blood circulation provoked oxygen starvation of tissues, and the development of pathology could end tragically.

During the period of psychocorrection, the patient underwent standard examinations, in particular, electroencephalographic, ultrasound of the vessels of the brain. At present, all the indicators for which he had pathological abnormalities are normal. The weight also came in line with the height - increased by 18 kg. And, fortunately, there was no mental disorder - rather, very non-standard, protest behavior.

Are oncological diseases also psychosomatic?

Partly. It is not without reason that cancer is called a disease of resentment and sadness. Today, we can say that it is possible to stop the pain syndrome (since pain is a mental phenomenon) and to normalize the psychoemotional state of the patient. Our patients of this profile, as a rule, do not use narcotic painkillers and do not experience panic about their diagnosis.

Igor Viktorovich said that Americans, who have paid considerable attention to the study of pain, have about seventy characteristics of this phenomenon. He is going to investigate the possibility of human control of pain sensitivity

Where else is psychotechnology used?

Let me remind you once again that Igor Viktorovich Smirnov, being a doctor, developed psychotechnologies for non-drug treatment.

But the auxiliary component of psychotechnology - psychodiagnostics or psychoprobing has other applied areas. Currently, psycho-sounding is used by personnel services when hiring, security services of various structures, law enforcement agencies, and some units of "power" departments.

With the help of psychotechnology, it is possible to correct a person's condition for the purpose of psychoprophylaxis: to increase stress resistance, self-confidence; reduce anxiety; relieve tension; accelerate the teaching of specific skills, languages; optimize the state in which it is possible to achieve high sports results.

For example, in 1979, a year before the Olympic Games in Moscow, Smirnov's team was given the task of optimizing the condition of our athletes in order to achieve high results. Within the framework of this task, a method was developed and patented to improve performance and optimize the state of a healthy person, in particular athletes. When using the technique, along with the improvement of the general psychosomatic state, the working capacity is sharply increased. All the athletes we worked with became "gold" medalists of the 1980 Olympics.

Last year, 2008, before the Beijing Olympics, they remembered about us. But due to the lack of time - there were only a month and a half left before the Olympic Games - we took only one athlete. She became an Olympic champion.

As I said, with the help of psychotechnology, you can stop pain, manage it. We have experience in relieving pain syndromes, phantom pains in people who served in hot spots. And you can stop riots, panic reactions, reduce the level of aggression, anxiety.

Judging by the problems that the world community has been facing in recent years, the need for psychotechnology will only grow

And can a person himself interact with his unconscious?

There are ways of meditation that allow a person to be liberated. These techniques contain a rational grain and, with a competent approach, they are quite effective. But very few people own this art. Too complex process that requires a lot of dedication, focus and patience.

Yes, it has long been noticed that people who are engaged in oriental practices and use methods to achieve altered states of consciousness look much younger than their biological age

What are they doing, essentially? Self-improvement. But, any person doing what he likes looks better than doing the work he hates. Everyone who lives in harmony with himself, as a rule, feels happy. A happy person is young by definition and lives a long time.

The fact that physical health is based on moral health cannot be ignored. Much depends on education. Education influences the quality of life, but it is still secondary. You can have ten degrees and be an extremely problematic person. And it is possible not to have a single diploma - which we often encounter when people from the provinces come to us - but to be an aristocrat of the spirit. These people are so integral … It is so interesting with them … You are simply amazed! Intelligence is always an acquired quality. Aristocracy may be congenital. It is either there or not.

Do you know, since we have touched upon education, which educational system has been recognized as the best that has ever existed in the world?

Which?

In the 1980s, now in the last century, Americans decided (in my opinion, absolutely justifiably) that their education system was worthless. And they analyzed all existing, and at the same time those that existed earlier, education systems.

And which turned out to be the best?

The Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum system. Which is not surprising. At one time, the best ideas of the Enlightenment were laid in it.

I am sure that the intelligence of a nation is determined, first of all, by language. Richer than the Russian language - in nuances, shades - no. For example, the word we use all the time is pillow. Think about the meaning, the semantics of this word. This is what we put under our ear. Not just under the ear, under the ear! This is psycholinguistics, psychosemantics.

In addition, only in Russian can one find: "all over the place - a naked shirt", "perish yourself, and help your comrade." And so it was. In Russia, the whole world built, the whole world survived. It's a shame that now the Russian language is being crumbled, forgotten, and supplanted, and with it culture and traditions.

Any person (nation, state) can be represented as a tree: crown, foliage - future, trunk - present, roots - past. Foliage falls - a new one appears. A broken trunk - anyway, the tree is alive, thanks to the roots, which means it will give new shoots. And if you cut the roots? Then there will be neither present nor future. Only that nation is strong that carefully preserves its roots! But the Russian people have very deep historical roots. And thanks to its roots, its powerful culture, Russia will certainly survive.

You said that inner harmony prolongs life. How important is the influence of the environment on the human psyche?

By the way, Igor Viktorovich Smirnov is the founder of a new scientific direction - psychoecology. Everyone knows what ecology is - it is the interaction of living organisms with the environment. But, as a rule, the influence of the environment on the physical state of living objects was always considered, and there were no studies of the effect of the environment on the human psyche. Smirnov, on the other hand, believed that it was extremely important to study this, since life is an informational process. Information surrounds us from the very first breath. Our development takes place through learning - that is, through the transfer of information. Every second we receive information, assimilate it, process it, transmit it, exchange it. And from this point of view, a person is also an information system. But for some reason, the impact of the surrounding information environment on the psyche had not been considered anywhere before Smirnov. And this influence is colossal!

What role does knowledge of the inevitability of death play on human health, on his psyche?

Many thinkers have pondered this topic. From domestic - Fedorov, Bekhterev, Vernadsky.

In my home library I have Radishchev's treatise On Man, His Mortality and Immortality. Very interesting job. I read it with indescribable pleasure.

How do you feel about the topics covered in it?

Alexander Nikolaevich raised the fundamental and at the same time very delicate issues of human existence. Even now, two centuries later, they still require deep, comprehensive comprehension.

But what is especially inspiring is Radishchev's faith in a person whom he considered the crown of creation. He believed that the imperfection of physical organization inevitably prompts a person to develop, which, thanks to his creative nature, is infinite. Remember: "" Sounds optimistic.

Advances in molecular biology have profoundly impacted gerontology, the science of aging. Today, scientists from various scientific fields are taking part in the study of the mechanisms of aging and in the search for means to slow it down. And here I cannot but quote Dr. Smirnov: “

Is it possible to slow down the aging process by changing the suggestive paradigm?

Proceeding from the postulate that the psyche is the highest controlling system in a living organism, it is the mental processes that need to be investigated …

So the most famous Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov before his death said: ""

Perhaps it is thanks to the knowledge of mental processes that answers to the most pressing questions will be found.

But so far there are much more of them than answers. Igor Viktorovich believed that we had just opened the door to the unknown.

But he himself, apparently, acutely felt that science was on the verge of discoveries that would lead to global changes not only in society, economy, culture, but, above all, in man himself

And so it will be. The question is whether humanity is ready for such discoveries.

For example, over the past 6-7 years of our joint work with scientists from other fields of science, extremely interesting things have come to light. In particular, in people with various mental disorders, certain changes in blood biochemistry are recorded. Can this be considered a regularity? What is primary and what is secondary? Fundamental research is needed. But the state is silent. And in the USA, Europe, Korea, Japan, psyche research is taking on a second wind.

Yes, neurophysiology is developing very quickly. Not so long ago, information appeared about the development by a group of scientists from University College London, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, as well as the Institute of Cognitive Problems and Neurophysiology. Max Planck's technique, which allows, through a brain scan and subsequent computer analysis, to "read" a person's intentions before he realized them. And the question inevitably arises about the ethics of using such developments

In 2002, director Steven Spielberg () filmed the fantastic action movie Minority Report (), in which he showed what the uncontrolled use of such methods can lead to

And the philosopher Francis Fukuyama () in his works "The Great Divide" and "Our Posthuman Future" (Consequences of the Biotechnological Revolution) reflects on "" and comes to the conclusion that "" and therefore "" arises

By the way, in the media Igor Viktorovich was often called "the father of psychotronic weapons." But if you think about it, indeed, psychotechnology can be viewed as a dual-use tool. It can be used for medical reasons, or for less humane purposes

Psychotechnology is no exception … And atomic energy, and a scalpel, and much more can be used to achieve opposite goals. Smirnov, like no one else, understood this. That is why we once accepted the offer to join the Expert Council of the State Duma Committee on Security and devoted so much time and effort to the development of the "Law on Information and Psychological Security". Unfortunately, it was never adopted by the State Duma.

By comparison, the United States has about 2,000 laws and regulations in this area.

Igor Viktorovich believed that the PC revolution will sooner or later lead to the creation of integral intelligence - human-computer systems

In his works "Psychotechnology" and "Psychoecology" he wrote about the third direction of his developments - psycho-feedback (), in which a closed system arises - a man-machine

This correlates with his idea of the Semantic Resonator. What plans did he associate with this project? What is his destiny?

The main idea of the Semantic Resonator is the maximum use of the capabilities of the human psyche.

The author himself saw it like this: "". Serious application for a leap into the future

At the time of this writing, "Psychoecology" had developed complex algorithms that were supposed to form the basis of the system

About ten years ago, during an evening walk with the dog, my husband began to look at me so slyly. Since we thought and felt the same way, I said - well, now the resonator is ready! The husband answered - a charming children's four-stroke resonator!

Algorithmically, the system is based on the phenomenon of kindling - the buildup of brain cells, and on some other manifestations of brain activity.

Of course, there are some developments. A fragment of the semantic resonator is used. We could not finish it due to the lack of the necessary supercomputer with high performance. To do this, we need at least "ONYX".

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, science, unfortunately, still has to be done on the knee.

Elena Grigorievna, how do you see the future of psychotechnology? Will humanity ever be able to gain direct access to the hidden reserves of the psyche? Will a person not “lose” his head from the perspectives opening up before him?

I would like to be an optimist. Will humanity be able to gain direct access to the latent reserves of the psyche? Psychocorrection of Dr. Smirnov is a direct access to the reserves of the psyche. Smirnov has patented over 20 inventions in this area. Four of them still have no analogues in the world.

And the path of the pioneers is always thorny.

Think of the famous Nikola Tesla (), a pioneer in electrical engineering. Many considered him an eccentric and dreamer. But Guglielmo Marconi (), who stole some of his inventions, nevertheless became a Nobel Prize winner.

And only half a century after the death of the brilliant researcher do people begin to remember his invaluable contribution to the development of science.

The laser, electrosleep, electroanalgesia in medicine - appeared thanks to the research of Nikola Tesla, radio broadcasting, television - also, thanks to Tesla, and telephone scramblers, and even microwave ovens that have become commonplace in the kitchen.

I do not want such a fate for the development of Dr. Smirnov. The development of Smirnov's psychotechnologies will allow people not only to get rid of many mental and physical ailments, but also to become absolutely healthy. Isn't that enough?

Elena Rusalkina's interview, questions Elena Vetrova