How Therapy Can Make Us More Interested in Others

"When we are gripped by mild or major symptoms, we often have little grander perspective on things and are locked into a narrow and deeply personalistic gaze. A panic attack forces us dramatically inwards—into our racing thoughts or somatic feelings. When we are gripped by such strong symptoms, all we can think about is our embodied distress—we are too much in ourselves."

"It is this intensity of self-inwardness that can lead to violent self-harm, like cutting, as a way to try and symbolically and literally escape from the pain of interiority. Treatment here, in a therapeutic setting, often involves the very opposite of navel-gazing."

Therapy is often misconceived as self-indulgent navel-gazing that strengthens narcissism, but clinical reality reveals the opposite. Psychological symptoms themselves are inherently self-focused and narrow one's perspective inward. Panic attacks, anxiety, and other conditions force intense internal preoccupation with bodily distress and racing thoughts, creating psychological claustrophobia. This symptom-driven self-focus can lead to harmful behaviors like self-injury as escape attempts. Effective therapeutic treatment works against this inward spiral, helping individuals break free from symptom-driven self-preoccupation and expand their capacity to engage meaningfully with the external world and other people.

Read at Psychology Today