The distinction between energy and information is critical, as Rock and Page (2009, p. 21) note in setting the stage for tracing out the implications of neuroscience findings for the field of professional coaching. As they observe, our life “is a flow of energy and information.” I would specifically propose that the polystatic process is itself a flow of these two fundamental entities. While Energy comes primarily from the amygdala, and more generally, the Emotional Element of the polystatic process, it also comes secondarily from the Cognitive Element. We get excited about an anticipated event, whether positive or negative. We are motivated by the positive (and negative) environment we are about to confront. The relationship we anticipate in the coming moments encourages us to become more closely involved with this person or to abandon this relationship as soon as possible.
Similarly, while Information comes primarily from the Cognitive Element of the polystatic process, and more generally from the environment in which we are about to operate, information also comes secondarily from the Emotional Element. It is particularly important to note that we must infer our Emotional information. Our feelings do not present themselves to us in a straightforward manner as do people or events “out there” in our environment.
In many instances, we only derive information from our Emotions by concentrating on our feelings via meditation or by gaining insight from some form of biofeedback or neurofeedback. We might even rely on assistance offered by a depth-oriented psychotherapist to gain access to and interpret our emotions. As professional coaches, we can also assist our clients in deriving information from their Emotional state, though we are not in the business of offering intense psychotherapy. We are more in the business of helping our clients identify and label emotions when they naturally emerge during a coaching session, rather than eliciting these emotions through intense probing of our client’s past history of abuse or neglect or current history of trauma.
Polystatic Adjustment
Having completed our appraisal, we adjust the current baseline of desired functioning if it is no longer appropriate. At the neurobiological and somatic template level, this has to do with what is called the brain’s “error-detection function” (Rock and Page, 2009, p. 153):
“Our brains have functions to detect changes in the environment and to send strong signals to alert us to anything unusual. These error-detection signals are generated by a part of the brain called the orbital cortex. . . that is closely connected to the brain’s fear circuitry in a structure called the amygdala. These two areas compete with and direct brain resources away from the prefrontal region that promotes and supports higher intellectual functions. As a result of error detection and amygdala activation, we act more emotionally and more impulsively. Our animal instincts start to ‘take over’.”
Given the origin of error-detection signals in the orbital cortex (the site of our seeing functions), it is almost as if we are “viewing” our emotions from inside our head (and heart). The so-called object relations theorists of the psychoanalytic school actually portray intrapsychic “objects” interacting with one another in what might be considered an internal theater of conflict and attachment. Our orbital cortex might somehow be observing this theatrical “production” and warning the amygdala of what is going on. Our anticipations would in turn be influenced moment-to-moment by what is being observed in the orbital cortex and reacted to in the amygdala. All of this might only exist in my own imagination. After all, this is nothing but neural tissue. But what happens when the vast number of neural entities in our brain get together and do some feeling, thinking, and organizing of behavior?
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