Psychosomatics vol.5 – Liver – What does the body tell us?
The liver does not make it easy for us to observe ourselves, because it is an organ with multiple functions. It is one of the largest organs in humans and the central organ of intermediate metabolism, or, figuratively speaking, the human laboratory.
Let us briefly list its most important functions:
1. Energy storage: The liver builds glycogen (starch) and stores it (for approximately five hundred kilocalories). Carbohydrates taken in excess are converted into fat and stored in the body’s fat stores.
2. Energy production: The liver builds glucose (energy) from amino acids and fats taken in with food. All fat reaches the liver and can be used there for burning, thus obtaining energy.
3. Protein metabolism: The liver can both break down and synthesize amino acids. Thus, the liver is the link between the proteins of the animal and plant worlds, from which our food comes, and the proteins in humans. The proteins of each type are, in fact, completely individual, but the components of which they are composed, namely amino acids, are universal (compare: different, individual types of houses — proteins — are all made of the same bricks — amino acids). The individual diversity of proteins in the plant, animal and human kingdoms therefore consists in a different pattern of amino acid order; the order of amino acids is encoded in DNA.
4. Elimination of poisons: Both internal and foreign poisons are deactivated in the liver, so that they can then be excreted via the bile and kidneys. Furthermore, bilirubin (a breakdown product of hemoglobin) must be changed in the liver, so that it can be excreted. A disruption of this process leads to jaundice. Finally, the liver synthesizes urine, which is excreted through the kidneys.
So much for the most important functions of the multifaceted liver. Let us begin the symbolic presentation with the last point, the removal of poisons. The liver’s ability to remove poisons presupposes the ability to distinguish and evaluate, because anyone who cannot distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous cannot remove poison. Liver disorders and diseases therefore lead to the conclusion that there are problems of evaluation, or assessment, and indicate a wrong assessment of what is actually harmful (food or poison?). Namely, as long as the assessment of what is beneficial and how much can be processed and digested functions, there will never be too much of it. But the liver always gets sick from excess: too much fat, too much food, too much alcohol, too many drugs, and so on.
A diseased liver shows that a person is taking in too much of something that exceeds his capacity to process, shows immoderation, excessive desires for expansion and too high ideals. The liver gives energy. However, a person with liver disease loses precisely this energy and life force: he loses his potency, he loses the will to eat and drink. He loses the will to all areas that have to do with the expression of life — and so the symptom already corrects and compensates for the problem, which is called: too much. It is the body’s reaction to his immoderation and megalomaniac fantasies and teaches him to abandon this goal. Since the clotting factors are no longer produced, the blood becomes too liquid — and so the patient’s blood, the elixir of life, literally leaves. The patient in his illness learns restraint, peace and restraint (sex, eating, drinking) — we see this process more than clearly in hepatitis. The liver also has a strong symbolic connection to worldviews and religious areas, the implementation of which may not be so easy for many to understand. Let us recall protein synthesis. Proteins are the building blocks of life. They are made of amino acids. The liver creates human proteins from plant and animal proteins in the diet, in which it changes the spatial arrangement of amino acids (the pattern).
In other words, by retaining individual components (amino acids), the liver changes the spatial structure and thus corresponds to a qualitative leap, or rather an evolutionary leap from the plant and animal kingdom to the human. At the same time, however, despite the evolutionary step, the identity of the components remains preserved, and they thereby establish a connection with their origin. Protein synthesis is a complete microcosmic copy of what we call evolution in the macrocosm. By changing and modifying the qualitative pattern from the always same “original components”, an infinite multitude of forms is created. Due to the constancy of “materials”, everything will always remain interconnected, which is why the sages teach that everything is in one and one in all (pars pro toto).
Another term for this knowledge is religio, literally “feedback”. Religion seeks a feedback loop with the first cause, with the origin, with everything in one, and finds it, because diversity, which separates us from uniqueness, is ultimately only an illusion (maya) — it is established only through the play of different orders (patterns) of the always same being. Therefore, only he who has seen through the illusion of different forms can find the way back. Many and one — in this field of tension the liver works. Gallbladder The gallbladder collects the bile produced by the liver. But bile cannot find its way to the digestive tract if the bile ducts are blocked, which often happens due to gallstones. We know from everyday speech that bile corresponds to aggression. We say that someone is choleric, and even “choleric” is named after this choleric, accumulated aggression. It is noticeable that gallstones occur more often in women, while kidney stones are more common in men.
Gallstones are significantly more common in married women with children than in unmarried women. This statistical observation may perhaps make the interpretation a little easier. Energy wants to flow. If energy is blocked in its flow, energy stagnation occurs. If energy stagnation does not find a way to flow for a long time, the energy tends to solidify. Sedimentation and the formation of stones in the body are always an expression of coagulated energy. Gallstones are petrified aggression. (Energy and aggression are almost identical concepts. It should be clear that words such as, for example, aggression do not have a negative value in our country — we need aggression just as much as we need bile or teeth!) The frequency of gallstones in married women with families is therefore not particularly surprising. These women experience their families as a structure that forces them to let energy and aggression flow according to their own laws.
Family situations are experienced as compulsions that we do not dare to free ourselves from, — energies coagulate and petrify. The patient with colic is forced to make up for everything that he did not have the courage to do before: with strong movements and shouting, he puts a lot of repressed energy into motion again. The disease makes one honest!
Liver patients should ask themselves these questions:
1. In which areas have I lost the ability to truly evaluate and judge?
2. Where can I no longer distinguish between what is beneficial for me and what is “toxic” for me?
3. Where have I fallen into excess, into excess, where do I want too much (megalomaniac fantasies), where do I expand into immoderation?
4. Do I care about the area of my “religion”, my feedback loops with the original reason or do I have too much insight? Do I neglect worldview themes in my life?
5. Do I lack trust?
Based on the book by Rudiger Dahlke - Disease as a Path
*Keywords: liver, Digestive tract diseases, Digestive tract, disease as a path, psychosomatics, gestalt psychotherapy, somatic experiencing therapy, psychotherapist Zagreb
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