How Augmented Reality Might Help Trauma Victims
Or, If You Could Change A Life For Good, Wouldn’t You?
I watched enraptured as the mini battle unfolded before my eyes. Here was an astounding use of high quality technology. Apple and Wingnut AR had joined forces to demonstrate what could be possible using mobile technology.
I was just another person among millions watching online as the keynote from the Apple WWDC 2017 unfolded. Here was a demonstration of how an iPad could be used to bring, in real time, a virtual world onto your table top.
Imagine a game being played out with miniature characters right there in your lounge room. Imagine scanning your house with your iPad and watching astounding realistic graphics being painted over your own home, as if they were interacting with your furniture. This excites me immensely.
We Are All Stories
Antonio Damasio, the great neuroscientist and neurophilosopher, has written extensively on the possibilities of how our brain constructs its view of our self, and how our sense of personal identity emerges from our experience of both our outside and our inside worlds.
In his book, When Self Comes To Mind, Damasio talks about how our sense of self emerges from the experiences of our physical body – the felt experience of changes within and without. We have, according to him, both a protoself (how the brain maps the many responses to our internal and external environments at a physical level) and a core self (the sense of personal continuity in the midst of all of that change and in response to all of that change).
But then, we interact with the world and become aware, somehow knowledgeable, that we have experienced and currently experience and may yet experience the world around us. It is these interactive experiences that make up a large part of our autobiographical self, the self that we are conscious of through our experiences.
The autobiographical self is who we remember and say that we are. It is these collection of events — of experiences and possible experiences — that we remember as forming our story. All the things that come through our body and into our brain — and all the interpretations of them — become who we think we are. They are our story. And as far as our self is concerned, we are that story.
Below is a video of Damasio talking about our unique sense of self:
The sensations, the things that create some kind of change in us simply by interacting with us, Damasio calls images. Images can be smells, physical sensations, thoughts, visual signals, anything that comes back into the brain bringing information, information about how the body is impacted by either its internal environments or its external. He calls these images, “… the brain’s momentary maps of everything and of anything, inside our body and around it, concrete as well as abstract, actual or previously recorded in memory” (page 70). “The self,” Damasio tells us, “comes to mind in the form of images …” (page 203). Our sense being us, of being who we are, is the result of being aware of these images, these representations of our body – our whole self – in time and space.
While we have a constant stream of these images entering our brain we’re not consciously aware of them all. They continue to stream through our mind, perhaps in similar fashion to William James’ conception of the stream of consciousness. The exception is that we don’t have to be conscious of them for them to contribute to our sense of self.
The self comes to mind in the form of images …
– Antonio Damasio
These images and our interaction with them are the stories we become. Our memories of these events are the place from which we emerge.
When we watch a movie and it touches our heart, or helps us process a relational hurt, or reminds us of the beauty in our life, we are allowing the fictional story to transform the story we will tell about ourself. The images of that story – visual, musical, sound, allegory, all of it – enter our body and interact with us, somehow becoming part of our autobiographical self by physically changing our neural self. These outside stories have the potential to impact and become part of our own story, sometimes in profound ways.
Augmented Stories
As I watched the Wingnut AR demonstration unfold, I saw immense potential for changing lives.
Imagine if we could tell a story – a story in our own living room – and imagine if we had the power to zoom in on that story, to see the faces of the heroes and the villains, to watch from any angle, and experience that story in real time.
Imagine you had an issue you needed to process; perhaps a traumatic event from your past. Maybe whenever you came across any similar event you went into a state of dissociation, or just of reliving that moment. You re-experience the trauma.
You see, the power of being human is the power of empathy. It’s our ability to watch another person’s experience and without even being aware of it, to place ourselves into that person’s life. We live, for a moment, through their experience. We capture their images and for a time, for a moment, they become our own. Their images and ours become momentarily bound.
In that moment, biologically speaking, our person is experiencing the other’s life vicariously. That’s what happens when we watch a movie and we cry; or we laugh; or we feel embarrassed for the hero. Our body momentarily smudges its sense of self ever so slightly and experiences what it imagines them to be experiencing.
Now, the purpose of this process is healthy, very healthy, indeed. Through it, we can learn how to walk, how to crawl, how to relate to other human beings. This ability makes it possible to learn new sporting skills, to watch cooking shows and learn how to chop up carrots (efficiently).
Every time we watch a movie and feel the emotions of the protagonists, we engage this system. Whenever we read a book and feel for the characters, we’re doing the same. We are, in effect, augmenting our life with their experiences.
For a time, our stories become augmented by these fictional ones. We change our self ever so slightly and sometimes, when the story makes a change in our life, we allow it to shift our sense of self.
Augmented Therapy
In dealing with traumatic events, those parts of the autobiographical self that result in some kind of a noxious shut down or fear response, one of the effective treatments is to return to a place of safety and play in the midst of learning how to handle traumatic events.
Imagine if we could create a story that a person could watch on their iPad. Imagine that this story paints a picture that is different to the individual’s own experience but deals with the same issues in principle.
A person who experiences heart rate increases and anxiety as a result of a past conflict – maybe a violent relationship – might be able to hold their iPad in the safety of their own room and watch a story unfold that has conflict – maybe a boss talking with an employee or a sport coach dealing with an arrogant athlete – and observe that story unfold from the safety of their own home.
They could have the freedom to zoom in and watch the physical expressions of each party in the conflict. If it gets too hard, they could zoom out or pan around the room to look at something more benign.
The therapist in charge could have a library of possible stories to choose from – scripted, produced and acted by skilled professionals. There could be a host of animated scenarios to work with.
In the process, the person would have a chance to expose themselves to distressing scenarios in ways that they have complete control over and which the therapist could help manage their gradual exposure to.
As they watch the story unfold, they have the chance to let its images become their own. As the images fill them out, there is the potential for them to begin to take on some of hat story and absorb it into their own autobiographical self. They can learn from fictional characters because they have control over their trigger points and can choose to engage the story at whatever angle is safest – and most powerful – for them.
Remember that this would never take the place of therapy – that’s why it is called augmented therapy – it would be a tool to strengthen the effectiveness of the therapeutic relationship and increase the individual’s sense of agency and power over their own healing journey.
A Major Warning
This kind of therapy cannot be a half hearted attempt at film. It cannot and must never be a ‘preachy’ kind of thing. There is no room for B-grade productions, predictable and shallow storylines and concrete answers to complex problems.
This kind of therapy demands reality and it demands quality. The stories need to be immersive; the production must be beautiful; and the storytelling be effortless.
For a truly immersive experience to contribute potently to our story, to really shift our sense of self, it should not require a conscious suspension of belief. The moment the person enters that world, experiencing it should be as effortless as breathing. And in it all, a sense of wonder.
I know this is a tall order. It’s tough; I get it. It’s difficult to tell a story; its expensive to create such a journey; and good luck getting people to invest in it.
But for me, this is an amazing future possibility for such technology as this. Imagine entertainment that really, truly, and almost incidentally, changes people’s lives.
Perhaps you can think of other wonderful reasons to invest in that kind of tech. Perhaps you can also think of ways this tech can change people’s lives for good.
Stuart McDonald is a Behavioural Accredited Exercise Physiologist, a sport analytic technology researcher and has a keen interest in how tech can be used to help people change the story they tell about themselves and improve their health and enjoyment in life.
Read more about him here: http://stuartmcdonald.com.au
