Function of Resonance
The psychological guiding process about how one reacts to something or not, can be accomplished by the psychological system functionally or dysfunctionally. It is functional when the complexity of the environment is reduced in such a way that the psyche is not overloaded, that it can process the stimuli from outside and enjoy or tolerate the stimuli inside itself. It becomes dysfunctional when that, which is ignored, is seriously relevant for the wellbeing or survival. Very often, functional and dysfunctional aspects mix: if one ignores something (head in the sand), it immediately becomes more stable internally, and thus functional, but the external danger (herd of elephants racing towards one) does not disappear because of this. Therefore, it is usually important in counselling to differentiate between the favourable function of a certain decision-making premise and the dysfunctional price which this procedure has in other respects (“I feel safe, when I don’t demand anything from others, but unfortunately I have been waiting a very long time for a pay rise!”). Often, therefore, it needs the ability to handle uncomfortable feelings first, before the resonance pattern of ignoring can be converted to responding.