Trauma, dissociation, and conflict: The space where neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychoanalysis overlap.

The authors describe their scientific and clinical interests in developing the panel Trauma, Dissociation, and Conflict: The Space Where Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Psychoanalysis Overlap, given at the 22nd Annual Spring Meeting of the Division of Psychoanalysis of the American Psychological Association. They cite the influence of the panelists, Philip M. Bromberg, Wilma Bucci, and Joseph LeDoux, on their own work. Specializing in the treatment of chronic pain, Anderson has developed a relational intersubjective technique informed by this interdisciplinary approach. Gold's work has focused on the distinction between dissociative processes and repression in traumatic memory. The relevance of trauma, dissociation, and conflict, heightened since September 11, 2001, could not have been anticipated in the planning of the panel. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Partners in thought: Working with unformulated experience, dissociation, and enactment.

Reviews the book, Partners in thought: Working with unformulated experience, dissociation, and enactment by Donnel Stern (see record 2009-17014-000). Following Stephen Mitchell’s untimely death, Donnel Stern is rightly seen as the doyen of Relational Psychoanalysis (RP). In a series of publications he has eloquently and passionately expounded its theoretical-clinical principles in an accessible yet never oversimplified way. This latest volume, mainly a compilation of papers published over the past 10 years or so, further explicates and consolidates his earlier views (Stern, 1997). Relational Psychoanalysis (RP) is perhaps best seen as part of a dialectic, an antiphone to establishment psychoanalysis—if such a thing there still is in an increasingly pluralized world. From a relatively uncommitted perspective, it remains unclear whether RP is a genuinely new set of ideas and practices or a primarily political turn in which traditional ideas are restated in contemporary, and sometimes deliberately contrary, terminology. It is probably both. Reading Stern provides an opportunity to come to a balanced view about this. Whatever conclusions are drawn from his bold assertion of the relational paradigm, listening to Stern’s authentic and enjoyable voice is an experience from which all but the most theoretically blinkered therapists can learn and benefit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of subjectivity and intersubjectivity in the reconstruction of dissociated schemas; converging perspectives from psychoanalysis, cognitive science and affective neuroscience.

Therapeutic change involves integration of emotion schemas that have been dissociated. Two types of avoidant dissociation are distinguished: primary dissociation dominated by fragmentary emotional memories; and secondary dissociation involving initial encoding of more organized memories whose meaning is avoided. Reconstruction of dissociated emotion schemas occurs through the referential process which includes three basic components: arousal of the subsymbolic affective core of a dissociated schema in the treatment relationship; connections of subsymbolic processes to symbolic representations in narratives and interactions in the session; and reflection leading to reorganization of the schema. The role of enactive perception and embodied communication as underlying intersubjectivity in the referential process is reviewed. Variations in states of awareness associated with each phase of the process, in both analyst and patient, and their effects on therapeutic change are examined. Current work in cognitive science and affective neuroscience supporting this process model is reviewed. This formulation is largely compatible with Freud's early theory of recollection and “associative working-over” with new emphasis on subjective state and the relational context. Studies of the referential process provide a potential interface between investigations of psychotherapy process and basic cognitive science and neuroscience research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction to the special section on spatial reference frames: Examining what and how information is encoded through the integration of cognitive, behavioral, and neuroscience approaches.

A spatial reference frame is a system of axes that assigns coordinate values to objects and regions in a given space and can serve as a means for specifying spatial information such as orientation and position. A longstanding literature has focused on the encoding of spatial position, examining what and how that information is encoded. The set of articles selected for this special section present current research on these two themes and are distinguished by their integration of cognitive, behavioral, and neuroscience approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Posttraumatic stress disorder following assault: The role of cognitive processing, trauma memory, and appraisals.

Two studies of assault victims examined the roles of (a) disorganized trauma memories in the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), (b) peritraumatic cognitive processing in the development of problematic memories and PTSD, and (c) ongoing dissociation and negative appraisals of memories in maintaining symptomatology. In the cross-sectional study (n=81), comparisons of current, past, and no-PTSD groups suggested that peritraumatic cognitive processing is related to the development of disorganized memories and PTSD. Ongoing dissociation and negative appraisals served to maintain PTSD symptoms. The prospective study (n=73) replicated these findings longitudinally. Cognitive and memory assessments completed within 12-weeks postassault predicted 6-month symptoms. Assault severity measures explained 22% of symptom variance; measures of cognitive processing, memory disorganization, and appraisals increased prediction accuracy to 71%. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)