Words of Fear Become the Flesh of Paralysis

Words become the flesh that forms on the bare bones of our lives. From my years of clinical experience, I have come to see the psychological significance to Saint John’s description of how the Divine became incarnated in the flesh of Jesus Christ. “In the beginning was the Word . . . And the Word became flesh . . .” The words we use do indeed become flesh.

In the beginning of any creative endeavor, there are our words. Sometimes our initial words are in picture form: the proverbial picture is worth a thousand words. Our vision is fleshed out in reality.
It would not be until I had been in private practice for a while that I would see another way that our words become flesh. Buried words laden with painful emotions had an insidious way of becoming flesh. There, in the presence of David Hart, a student of Jung, and while studying the theories of some of the venerable fathers of psychoanalysis, I learned about the power of our words. I would learn how the words in our heart can become the flesh of physical symptoms.

I had my first glimpse of this phenomenon in the form of combat neurosis. Words of fear became the flesh of paralysis and blindness for D.W. Jones, a young soldier. I had been in basic training with him. He went to Vietnam and was sent home after he developed combat neurosis. Just like other soldiers with combat neurosis, D.W. was unable to return to battle because he was unable to do so. In this case it was a paralyzed hand, the hand with the trigger finger. And he also developed hysterical blindness.

When D.W. was examined medically, the doctors found his eyes showed no damage that would interfere with being able to see. But D.W. could not see and he was not faking it. The trauma of combat had rendered D.W. paralyzed by words of fear hidden in his heart. Repressed fear dictated his paralysis and blindness.

Years later I was faced with this same kind of thing when a police officer from the police department of a small New England town was referred to me. A big strapping man, Ron had not been afraid of anything. He and his partner fashioned themselves to be like the characters depicted in the 1970’s police drama Starsky and Hutch.

Then one day, he found his gun hand partially paralyzed. He had been on the force for nearly twenty years. His wife had just had a baby. He was fearing that his luck might be running out. Now that he had a wife and baby, he was not so fearless. Ron was about to retire from the force to start a new career. Again, I was witness to how words of fear could become the flesh of paralysis.

• Today, experiment with uncovering and releasing the words of stress hidden in a physical pain. Recall times when you had a stress-related physical pain, e.g., headache, back pain, neck pain. Try silently speaking to the pain, saying, "Stop huring me like this!" Keep repeating tis phrase. Then look through the pain and see who or what situation it is that you could say these same words to and trust what comes to mind. Once you have identified an external source of pain, try silently saying, "I hate how you hurt me by_____. And that's because, I'd love it if you would_____."