Dialogue of unconsciouses: conversations we have without our knowledge
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore aspects of this relationship particularly around issues of mutuality versus inequality, all occurring without the conscious involvement of either participant, and propose that these issues of attachment can be further illuminated by examining the underlying neuropsychobiological processes.
Abstract: Following Ferenczi's tradition of examining the dynamics between analyst and analysand, I will explore aspects of this relationship particularly around issues of mutuality versus inequality, all occurring without the conscious involvement of either participant. I propose that these issues of attachment can be further illuminated by examining the underlying neuropsychobiological processes. Case examples will be offered to illustrate these points.
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Journal Article•
5,680 citations
University of York1, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic2, Durham University3, University of Aberdeen4, University of Bern5, Institut national de la recherche agronomique6, Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics7, Royal Holloway, University of London8, University of Sydney9, SupAgro10, Hull York Medical School11, Cornell University12
TL;DR: The results suggest that a recent and widespread cytb replacement event in the continental source area purged cytb variation there, whereas the ancestral diversity is largely retained in the colonized islands as a genetic ‘ark’.
Abstract: Oceanic islands have been a test ground for evolutionary theory, but here, we focus on the possibilities for evolutionary study created by offshore islands. These can be colonized through various means and by a wide range of species, including those with low dispersal capabilities. We use morphology, modern and ancient sequences of cytochrome b (cytb) and microsatellite genotypes to examine colonization history and evolutionary change associated with occupation of the Orkney archipelago by the common vole (Microtus arvalis), a species found in continental Europe but not in Britain. Among possible colonization scenarios, our results are most consistent with human introduction at least 5100 BP (confirmed by radiocarbon dating). We used approximate Bayesian computation of population history to infer the coast of Belgium as the possible source and estimated the evolutionary timescale using a Bayesian coalescent approach. We showed substantial morphological divergence of the island populations, including a size increase presumably driven by selection and reduced microsatellite variation likely reflecting founder events and genetic drift. More surprisingly, our results suggest that a recent and widespread cytb replacement event in the continental source area purged cytb variation there, whereas the ancestral diversity is largely retained in the colonized islands as a genetic ‘ark’. The replacement event in the continental M. arvalis was probably triggered
95 citations
References
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Journal Article•
5,680 citations
TL;DR: These findings suggest direct connections between traumatic attachment, inefficient right brain regulatory functions, and both maladaptive infant and adult mental health.
Abstract: A primary interest of the field of infant mental health is in the early conditions that place infants at riskfor less than optimal development. The fundamental problem of what constitutes normal and abnormal development is now a focus of developmental psychology, infant psychiatry, and devel- opmental neuroscience. In the second part of this sequential work, I present interdisciplinary data to more deeply forge the theoretical links between severe attachment failures, impairments of the early develop- ment of the right brain's stress coping systems, and maladaptive infant mental health. In the following, I offer thoughts on the negative impact of traumatic attachments on brain development and infant mental health, the neurobiology of infant trauma, the neuropsychology of a disorganized/disoriented attachment pattern associated with abuse and neglect, trauma-induced impairments of a regulatory system in the orbitofrontal cortex, the links between orbitofrontal dysfunction and a predisposition to posttraumatic stress disorders, the neurobiology of the dissociative defense, the etiology of dissociation and body- mind psychopathology, the effects of early relational trauma on enduring right hemispheric function, and some implications for models of early intervention. These findings suggest direct connections between traumatic attachment, inefficient right brain regulatory functions, and both maladaptive infant and adult mental health.
991 citations
"Dialogue of unconsciouses: conversa..." refers background in this paper
...Allan Schore and other developmental neuropsychoanalysts explain in detail how the early experiences are essentially imprinted on neurobiological structures that are maturing in the brain during the first two years of life (7)....
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...Schore calls this the evidence of “experience-dependent maturation” of the brain (7)....
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Book•
15 Nov 1988
TL;DR: In the half-century since his death, the Hungarian analyst Sandor Ferenczi has amassed an influential following within the psychoanalytic community as discussed by the authors, and his diary records self-critical reflections on conventional theory and his obstinate struggle to divest himself and psychoanalysis of professional hypocrisy.
Abstract: In the half-century since his death, the Hungarian analyst Sandor Ferenczi has amassed an influential following within the psychoanalytic community. During his lifetime Ferenczi, a respected associate and intimate of Freud, unleashed widely disputed ideas that influenced greatly the evolution of modern psychoanalytic technique and practice. In a sequence of short, condensed entries, Sandor Ferenczi's Diary records self-critical reflections on conventional theory--as well as criticisms of Ferenczi's own experiments with technique--and his obstinate struggle to divest himself and psychoanalysis of professional hypocrisy. From these pages emerges a hitherto unheard voice, speaking to his heirs with startling candor and forceful originality--a voice that still resonates in the continuing debates over the nature of the relationship in psychoanalytic practice.
421 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: In this paper, three San Francisco psychiatrists successfully explain new discoveries, insights, and developments in neurobiology during what has been called the Decade of the Brain, and by using love as their focal point, they also help us to understand more about love.
Abstract: hat is love, and why are some people unable to find it? What is loneliness, and why does it hurt?” are the opening words of this important book. These ancient human problems still haunt us, but what do they have to do with medical practice? In this highly readable book, three San Francisco psychiatrists successfully explain new discoveries, insights, and developments in neurobiology during what has been called “The Decade of the Brain,” and by using love as their focal point, they also help us to understand more about love. These three physicians provide welcome counterpoint to Alan Barbour’s observation that efforts to understand the patient as a person are most often relegated to psychiatry, a field which itself seems to have abdicated that goal. The authors show that an understanding of humans and an understanding of neurobiology can be combined successfully: “In this book, we demonstrate that where intellect and emotion clash, the heart often has the greater wisdom. In a pleasing turnabout, science—Reason’s right hand—is proving this so.” pviii The authors ultimately discuss how we might use this knowledge to improve health and medical practice itself. The model of a three-level brain is used throughout the book. This triune brain consists of the brainstem, or reptilian brain, which senses and controls internal functions such as heartbeat and avoidance of threat; the mammalian, or limbic, brain that represents the evolutionary advent of emotion in mammals, the ability to sense and respond to external phenomena; and the cortex, or neocortical brain, which consciously responds to that of which we are cognitively aware. We usually ascribe the most important aspects of our being to the neocortical brain. The authors use descriptions of clinical disorders and evidence from interesting and ingenious experiments to support this triune model of the brain. For example, reptiles are neither emotionally responsive nor playful. By contrast, we mammals can sense the internal state of another mammal and adjust our own physiology to match. This phenomenon of limbic resonance is illustrated by the calming influence a secure mother has on her baby by gazing into her baby’s eyes or by cradling her baby so that it can listen to her heart beating. Although we all have made these observations, their meaning has escaped us, but their subtlety has not. Alfred de Musset is quoted on limbic resonance: My heart, still full of her, Traveled over her face, and found her there no more... I thought to myself that a woman unknown Had adopted by chance that voice and those eyes And I let the chilly statue pass Looking at the skies. The authors move to the arena of relationships: How do we identify those with whom we fall in love? They discuss the profound importance of our earliest experiences, those experiences that we can’t consciously remember but that are nevertheless imprinted on our unconscious and somatic memories. The lasting importance of the emotional content of our early experiences is clearly illustrated by the devastating results of Harry Harlow’s experiments with maternal deprivation of otherwise well-fed and well-cared-for infant monkeys and by Rene Spitz’s observations of similar fates for children raised in foundling homes. The authors ask rhetorically, “Why should human contact—‘gestures and gladness of countenance’—rank with food and water as a physiologic need?” One might consider whether a homesick child had good or insecure interpersonal attachments as an infant; the word homesick has interesting implications. Dean Ornish, MD, helpfully wrote about the delayed medical consequences of homesickness in his book, Love and Survival. A General Theory of Love has an interesting discussion about the roles of serotonin, opiates, and oxytocin; however, the important roles these three neurochemicals play in CNS function are at times incorrectly described as causal instead of as intermediary. Identity, the consciousness of a stable self, is discussed in terms of our expanding knowledge of neurobiology. “The stability of an individual mind–-what we know as identity—exists only because some neural pathways endure.” An interesting discussion follows of the profound importance of various forms of unconscious memory and their formation mechanisms. The important roles of very early, stable, somatic, and emotional unconscious memory is made clear. For instance, many are familiar with the term, but few are aware that blindsight is a literal, well-described visual phenomenon in some blind people. A more obvious New York: Random House; 2000. ISBN: 0375503897. 274 pp; $23.95 “W
376 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a stance toward patients who exhibit severe and persistent negative reactions to ordinarily adequate therapeutic conditions is proposed, based on the theory that meaning making is a central drive for therapeutic endeavor.
Abstract: This article proposes a stance toward patients who exhibit severe and persistent negative reactions to ordinarily adequate therapeutic conditions Previous theories have often designated these patients as untreatable The new stance is based on the theory that meaning making is a central drive Therefore we can see that our patients' affects and actions as communications of parts of their stories that are meaningless to them and confounding to us The reasons for these wordless communcations are examined The new stance enables us to accept the limitations of language and to believe in the quality of the therapeutic ambience we create In this ambience, the therapeutic endeavor is to struggle along with our patients to find consensual meanings and to translate them into language
5 citations
"Dialogue of unconsciouses: conversa..." refers background in this paper
...This is called ambient trauma (5) because it is both cumulative and inescapable....
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