Holes in the Psyche & holes in the Soul
Both the Psyche and the soul are made of materials invisible to the naked (mortal) eye, yet, they can still be wounded. Some of the injuries stem from life events, experiences in the womb and at birth, due to early attachment failures and throughout our life.
These events leave a mark both on both Psyche and Soul (also on the physical-nervous level, but that’s a topic for another post).
The soul level is connected to additional information and wounds from the life experiences of others – wounds we hold onto, echo, or are mixed with from our ancestors, from the collective and cultural dimensions.
What is the difference between a wound and a hole?
In general – Wounds heal, or at least close naturally.
Perhaps they need time, and perhaps
favorable conditions for their healing, but eventually they become a memory, sometimes creating scars and a limited movement but they close.
A crucial part of what enables this
healing process is the restoration of the intercellular matrix.
Physiological wound healing
Let us use the healing processes of a physiological wound as an analogy (and maybe more than that):
In short, in a physical injury to a living tissue, the blood vessels contract and blood clots to form – a temporary stopper for blood flow.
Then an inflammatory process begins, aimed at preventing infection and clearing broken cell and pathogen residues.
At the third stage of healing, the intercellular matrix is rebuilt, and blood vessels in the injured area begin to grow into it, to nourish it (this is the stage where you see pale pink tissue).
At the end, new skin cells are built and the wound is fully healed to the degree possible.
What happens if the wound is so big that this third stage is not possible?
When that happens, it is impossible to rebuild the intercellular matrix – a gap remains. The new cells cannot fill it because they have nowhere to anchor to and no blood vessels to nourish them.
No matter what is done to the wound and how much it is nourished, where there is no matrix, the nourishment will go to waste, will be lost and forgotten.
Holes in the Psyche, holes in the Soul.
Let us now return to the soul and psyche – they too have a matrix that holds their substance.
Many of our wounds, including psychological and spiritual ones, heal on their own. It may take time,
sometimes with periods of weakness, but eventually we recover. Even relatively large wounds may heal, such as the loss or death of a loved one – Eventually, we rise from the mourning.
The natural healing process is possible only when the wounding did not destroy too much of the matrix.
Some wounds however, tear big holes in the matrix, creating “black holes”.
Where the matrix is not there to accumulate new experiences and memory, time alone does not help anymore. Nor do the usual conditions required for lesser healing.
Something in the soul or psyche fails to return to its place, to return home. Good experiences, experiences that
could have settled in the wound and helped it to recover, do not take hold and
fall into the black hole.
Even “good therapy sessions” find it difficult to leave a long-term imprint.