My guess is that Sensei Shojiro Koyama, 8th Dan, JKA, doesn’t know the English phrase “systematic desensitization”.
On the other hand, I don’t know the first line of Gichen Funakoshi’s dojo kun in Japanese, so Sensei Koyama is way ahead of me in international language studies.
And while he may not say “systematic desensitization” a lot, he is a master psychologist, and he understands the concept just fine.
Systematic desensitization is the practice of taking a patient with a phobia, and exposing the patient to the thing they fear, in circumstances in which the patient is relaxed. Eventually the patient associates the scary thing with the state of relaxation, at which point, the phobia is gone.
For instance, suppose somebody has a fear of snakes. The therapist would see that the patient was fully relaxed, either by way of fractional relaxation techniques, or hypnosis (which is sometimes very effective), or breathing exercises, or a tranquilizer.
Then the therapist would introduce the idea of a snake into discussion, and at the next session, show the patient a tiny picture of a snake on the other side of the room, dimly lit.
And at the next session, after the patient was relaxed, he might show the patient a bigger, more realistic picture of a snake, with brighter lighting.
And anywhere along the line, if the therapist saw that the patient was getting tense, he’d back off and move the picture farther away, or turn it to the wall.
Eventually, over a period of indeterminate length, the therapist would introduce a big photograph of a harmless snake, and then a photograph of a deadly snake, and then a tiny rubber snake, and then a big inflatable snake, and then, very far away in the room, under weak lighting, a somewhat realistic fake snake.
Which, over some number of sessions, would gradually be brought closer to the patient.
At some point, a living snake inside a glass case would be set up in another room, where the patient could see from behind a window. And the case would gradually, over several sessions, be brought closer to the window.
And then the case would be brought into the room in which the patient sat, relaxed. But if the patient showed anxiety or fear, the sake would be moved back or out of sight.
And the process would continue until the patient died or gave up his fear of snakes, because he came to associate snakes with the sensation of relaxation.
I was never inordinately afraid of snakes. Karate exams, on the other hand, had a way of making me hold my breath until I passed out, or hyperventilate until I passed out. But passing out and karate exams seemed to go together for me.
Note: this is a literary device. I didn’t really pass out. But I sure got nervous and jumpy, and that sure makes my exams lousy!
Sensei Koyama has been practicing systematic desensitization on me, moving me through the exercises that I will be doing for my Shodan (first black belt) exam. Every single class, twice a week, for about a year now. Those exercises are essentially identical to the exercises I’ve done for my past three exams.
And every now and then, like tonight, he’ll take his folding chair and take his place at the front of the dojo, as he does during actual exams, to put me through my exercises as though this were an actual Shotokan karate belt rank exam.
Then he tells me that I am making good progress. This is either true, or therapy for me, or some combination of the two. I expect I actually am getting somewhat better, because Sensei Koyama has turned out some remarkable and superlative karate students, some of whom are teachers at their own schools, and most of whom certainly could be.
Mind you, I have an almost amazing lack of fundamental talent for karate, but under Sensei Koyama’s training, I am starting to look more like an actual karate student, and less like an old man who wandered into a dojo by mistake.
And after I rehydrate, the next day, I feel much better.
P.S. I still don’t know whether Sensei Koyama knows the phrase “systematic desensitization”, but he sure knows the phrase “conditioned response”. I know that because he used it discussing our class tonight, in connection with my increased relaxation during the simulated test he administers every class.
