The Origins of Emotional Pain

Abstract

The authors present an integrative model of emotional pain derived from their The authors present an integrative model of emotional pain derived from their practice with AEDP (Fosha 2000), centered around 3 different types of pain: core emotional pain; relational pain and self pain. They show how each pain originates from 3 different innate fears and how triggering emotional memory of such pain is central in psychological suffering. They argue that correct conceptualization is essential in order to work with the right transformational process, as healing is achieved for each type of emotional pain by 3 distinct processes: 1. regulation of emotion and processing emotions to completion; 2. validation of needs and promoting emotional expression and reception; 3. undoing shame by compassion and the integration of parts that were disowned as unworthy. The authors argue that people generally have several kinds of pain, but some are more dominant than others and that it may be necessary to work on one type of emotional pain first before it is possible to work on other types of pain.