(January, 1994, Vol 7
(1), pp 7-8)
Rustlers' Rhapsody
I would like to follow up my comments on your
case IA (ASCAP Dec 1993) with a case of depression from fiction, which
illustrates, I think, the usefulness of the 3-level model of escalating and de-escalating
alternative agonistic strategies. The
depressive episode afflicts the hero of the spoof Western Rustlers' Rhapsody. Written and directed by Hugh Wilson, the film
is a fantasy on the pre-1947 B movie Westerns starring Rex O'Herlihan
(the "singing cowboy") and his horse, Wildfire. The film illustrates the occurrence of a
depressive episode following defeat in a ritual agonistic encounter; also the formation
of an asymmetrical affiliative bond and an exercise in the theory of logical
types that would have delighted Bateson and the
The
hero comes to town and defends the good guys (sheep-herders) against the bad
guys (cattlemen), adopting, along the way, the town drunk as his
"side-kick". The cattlemen
hire their own "gun" and eventually there is an eyeball-to-eyeball
confrontation between the two gunmen.
But the "frame" of the confrontation is expanded to a higher
logical level. They metacommunicate
about the rules of the encounter. They
agree that, since they are taking part in a Western, and since in Westerns the
good guy always wins against the bad guy, the winner will be the one who
convinces the other that he is the good guy.
Therefore, instead of exchanging shots, they exchange bits of proof that
they are the good guy and the opponent is the bad guy. Since the cattlemen, knowing the metarule, have hired their gunman for his virtue rather
than for his shooting, the hero is beaten, and his immediate defeat behaviour
recalls Leon Sloman's description of losing at tennis. As his opponent counts down to the draw, he
looks uncomfortable and says, "I can't fight you today....I'll fight you
tomorrow....maybe Thursday...yeah, Thursday'd be
good" whereupon he slinks off to his campsite outside town where he throws
away his guns and expresses ideas of low profile and unworthiness: "I'll
get some new clothes, understated stuff, lots of browns [he is presented as a
very flashy dresser], and I'll have to sell Wildfire, he's too good a horse for
me now".
The
victor of the contest, for his part, shows ritual restraint, "If he's
backed down, I couldn't go after him, it wouldn't be
nice."
The
depressive phase is brought to an end by the elicitation of strong anger, when
the bad guys shoot his side-kick, and he then rallies the sheep farmers for a
final showdown.
What
lessons can we draw from this tale? One
is that we need all three modular levels to describe the interaction, so that
the three level diagram of escalation/de-escalation in July's ASCAP (1993) is
better than the two level diagram in the June issue, thus vindicating Leon's
insistence on the importance of anger (both in prolonging depression and, as in
this case, relieving it). Also it
emphasises that the thymic de-escalation of
depression can be over-ridden by escalation in either of the other two
modules. As therapists, we are more
likely to encourage escalation in the deliberative module, if we see that with
help the patient can win his battle, and that yielding is not needed in any of
the modules.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Alternative
strategies
ESCALATING DE-ESCALATING
___________________________________________
CORTEX Fight to win Submit
(deliberative)
___________________________________________
Brain LIMBIC Get angry Feel chastened
Level (emotional)
___________________________________________
STRIATUM Mood elevation Depression
(thymic)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
I am
not sure to what extent the elicitation of anger has been discussed in the
treatment of depression. Clearly it
could be a two edged weapon, as the provoking stimulus might well make the
depression worse; in modular terms, the
stimulus could have intensified thymic (reptilian)
de-escalation because of the loss of RHP caused by the death of an ally and the
insult inflicted by his shooting. It
might have induced de-escalation in the affective module too, leaving only
grief and humiliation. But in fact it
produced such intense escalation in the affective module (in the form of anger)
that this module over-rode the de-escalation of the thymic
module and led to overall escalatory (assertive) behaviour, thus eliminating
the one-down position vis-a-vis the cattlemen's hired
gun which had led to the depressive episode in the first place. It was a true escalation of the fight - he
did not recontest the one-to-one encounter with
pistols, but rather escalated to a group-to-group encounter with rifles; he also shot his opponent in the head and
killed him, in contrast to his usual policy of shooting people in the hand.
Can
ASCAP readers suggest any other fictional (or biographical) examples of
depression following a ritual agonistic encounter?