ABSTRACT
In principle, every system has a threshold for its processing capacities, beyond which it goes into system overload and malfunctions. This constraint inevitably applies to the emotion-processing mind and each of its two main systems—conscious and deep unconscious. There are two broad and interrelated classes of processing system dysfunctions—short-term malfunctions and long-term reconfigurations of the emotion-processing mind. The problem of tracing the effects of therapists’ interventions (triggers) on patients, and the related difficulties in recognizing the clinical consequences of alterations in how patients process emotionally charged information and meaning, are among the most important unsolved issues in all of psychotherapy. The seemingly overwhelming obstacles can be overwhelmed by, among other things, seeking encoded validation for every intervention made by a therapist—verbally or with respect to frame management. It must be assumed that a valid intervention is salutary for, and a nonvalidated intervention is inherently harmful to, the patient.
