Klesas: The Five Afflictions Driving Emotional Dysregulation

Patanjali identifies five klesas (afflictions or obstacles): avidya (ignorance), asmita (ego/false identity), raga (attachment/craving), dvesha (aversion/rejection), and abhinivesha (fear of death/annihilation). These aren't moral failings but structural patterns of mind that generate suffering. Someone with emotional dysregulation typically exhibits all five: ignorance of triggers and patterns, ego-driven shame about 'weakness,' attachment to how things 'should' be, aversion to pain, and deep fear beneath dysregulation. DBT implicitly targets these same patterns through skills, validation, and dialectics. Making Patanjali's framework explicit provides clients with elegant language for understanding their struggle. Rather than pathologizing dysregulation as 'broken brain chemistry' alone, the klesas framework positions it within universal human psychology—everyone experiences these patterns, though they manifest differently. This simultaneously validates suffering while normalizing it, reducing shame. Identifying which klesas dominate a client's dysregulation (often aversion + ego + fear) enables targeted work, making treatment feel more coherent and less like random skill collection.