Search

This discussion of Daniel Posner's paper has two purposes. First, it affirms Joe Lichtenberg's lifelong forward thinking contributions to the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. In "The Psychoanalytic Situation of Infancy" he redefined infant and subsequent development in terms of the non-dynamic unconscious and the bodily self. At the end of his life, these two components of his contributions led to a redefinition of some mental pathologies making psychoanalysis applicable to those previously considered unsuitable for psychoanalytic clinical work such as the neuroatypical. Second, this discussion suggests additional possibilities for integrating and using the concepts of embodiment and subsymbolic memory in psychoanalytic theory and practice. They provide an additional language to understand and communicate with patients: brief clinical moments are illustrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends concepts from infant research and intersubjective systems theory to couples treatment. Infant research views human development as taking place in a two-person developmental system, in which the caregiver and the infant coordinate to foster infant development. Couples treatment is by analogy seen as a three person developmental system. Systems based psychoanalytic theories are applied to the couple/therapist system, particularly in regard to the oscillation between hoped-for selfobject experiences and feared repetitive experiences. Infant research has shown that the origin of our sense of self, others, and self-with-others emerges from the ongoing, largely nonverbal, dialogue between infants and caregivers. The attachment security from infancy is reorganized by adult relationships. The therapist looks to help partners (1) repair disruptions when they occur, (2) recognize each other and in turn feel recognized and (3) have greater ability to reflect or mentalize on their partner's and their own mental states. The "back and forth weave" of the therapist's attention is shown to have particular salience in fostering development. The paper concludes with a case example of how a single look or expression disrupts the couples enjoyment of an anticipated day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The London‐based Oily Cart theatre company aims to produce shows that are suitable for all young people. This paper closely examines one of their productions, Splish Splash, which was developed for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties. The paper's central purpose is to understand the value of this type of theatrical experience for these children. It argues that Winnicott's conception of play, and his account of the conditions that enable the capacity for play to unfold, provide a persuasive theoretical framework that makes sense of Oily Cart's achievement. Winnicott's framework can integrate the views expressed (in interviews) by adults who were involved with or observed the show; arguably it is also corroborated by more recent infant research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This peer commentary emphasizes the importance of implementing more sophisticated analytical techniques in infant research. It provides examples of information extracted from classical paradigms, the habituation–dishabituation paradigm, the visual pair preference task and the visual expectation paradigm, by means of models such as a latent variables mixture model. Although modelling techniques have been implemented in infant research for many years, they have always been a marginal phenomenon because infant data were mainly analysed using mean level comparisons. This commentary outlines the principal advantage of modelling infant behavioural data: there is no other way to obtain information on behaviour and its development at the individual infant level than through a model, and models can be adapted to the specific requirements of an experimental setting's data. However, there are expenses to such techniques: it takes time both to build and to understand a model for a specific experimental setting, and both data and code need to be made available (and thus readable, i.e. following certain style requirements). If as a field, we do not refrain from investing such time, modelling approaches can be a very useful tool for a more reliable infant research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article 'Six solutions for more reliable infant research' by Byers‐Heinlein et al. proposes six solutions to improve upon the reliability of infant research. The present commentary supports and expands upon the sixth solution, 'Conduct more sophisticated analyses'. This commentary first focuses on group‐level, traditional analytic techniques that infant research has predominantly relied on over the last several decades. Details are provided to expand upon measurement errors in these types of analyses. The second focus is on individual‐level, more sophisticated statistical analyses, such as mixed‐effects models and structural equation modelling. Details are provided to expand upon how measurement error can impact these types of analyses. Throughout the commentary and in its conclusion, this commentary provides ways in which the other five solutions proposed can contribute to the sixth solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their target article, Byers‐Heinlein, Bergman and Savalei describe the neglected challenge of measurement reliability in infancy research. In this commentary, we elaborate on the problem of measurement reliability and demonstrate the problem it poses when using looking time measures to assess individual differences in infancy. We endorse the solutions Byers‐Heinlein et al. propose to increase measurement reliability. In particular, we encourage the field to develop more reliable measures of individual differences infant looking time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ricerca Psicoanalitica is the property of PAGEPress and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Lege Artis Medicine (LAM) is the property of LifeTime Media Kft. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Alessandro Gigante, 48, teacher of Italian and Latin at a high school in Rome: I took my degree in psychology after undertaking an 8-year psychoanalysis as a patient with Gianni Nebbiosi. I was fascinated by psychoanalysis and I remained very attached to Gianni who, together with Susi, were my teachers during the 4 years of specialization school in psychotherapy at Isispé. I became a psychoanalyst to try to offer others the same opportunities for awareness, freedom, relationship, listening, affection and understanding that I have received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black Lives Matter and the recent protests have focused attention on questions of racism, racial bias and implicit bias. After a brief discussion of these terms, this paper looks to infant research to see what experiences might dispose of development toward an openness toward diversity or to a bias against it. Positive and negative responses are built into the infant. But research shows that a diverse environment of positive and negative experiences is optimal for development. A variety of evidence from the worlds of infant research and attachment theory is cited. The idea that racism or racial bias is based on a longing for an earlier state of oneness or symbiosis is contradicted by research. Longings for a non-diverse world are seen as an adult fantasy, one that is encouraged and exploited by structures of subjugation. A case vignette is offered of a mixed-race couple in which long-simmering issues of racism and sexism surface in the treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tummy time involves placing an infant in a prone position to help build muscle strength. Pediatricians recommend tummy time because it helps with infant development related to milestones such as crawling, rolling over, and sitting up. However, parents sometimes avoid tummy time due to whining or crying when the infant is placed in the prone position. The current study compared two interventions incorporating preferred leisure items (i.e., varied or constant) for five typically developing infants to increase head elevation and decrease negative vocalizations during tummy time. Improvements occurred in infant performance regardless of the preferred items used. In addition, the mothers who implemented the tummy time procedures found the treatment to be socially valid and were more likely to select the use of the constant item when given the opportunity to choose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychoanalytic innovation is easy to recognize but difficult to define. There is a dearth of literature exploring the nature of innovation in our field. My main thesis is that psychoanalytic innovation can be of two types. Psychoanalytic innovation of the first order is about new discoveries concerning facts related to the psyche, development, transference relations, or psychopathology. It usually emerges as a development of insights from canonical psychoanalytic theory; offers an original explanation for a choice of empirical psychic phenomena hitherto unexamined; is perceived as creative and useful when it succeeds to reconceptualize the relations between the patient's past, unconscious dynamics, and the transference relations; often resembles poetic expression; and registers a truth we knew but did not yet put into words. When it is of the second order, psychoanalytic innovation challenges either methodological or philosophical assumptions held by psychoanalysis, without pretending to replace existing theories. It constitutes a "sensibility" that its adherents strive to incorporate into the existing corpus. I distinguish between two types of sensibilities: cultural -philosophical sensibility represented by the relational approach; and methodological sensibility represented by infant research, and neuropsychoanalysis. In the last part of the paper I analyze psychoanalytic progress pointing to its merits and shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether the therapeutic relationship in music therapy with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder predicts generalized changes in social skills. Participants (4–7 years, N = 48) were assessed at baseline, 5 and 12 months. The therapeutic relationship, as observed from session videos, and the generalized change in social skills, as judged by independent blinded assessors and parents, were evaluated using standardized tools (Assessment of the Quality of Relationship; ADOS; SRS). Linear mixed effect models showed significant interaction effects between the therapeutic relationship and several outcomes at 5 and 12 months. We found the music therapeutic relationship to be an important predictor of the development of social skills, as well as communication and language specifically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Intuitio is the property of EDIPUCRS - Editora Universitaria da PUCRS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Keywords: psychoanalysis; infant research; neuropsychoanalysis; CBT; attachment theory EN psychoanalysis infant research neuropsychoanalysis CBT attachment theory 1 2 2 12/13/21 20211209 NES 211209 Psychoanalysis is not isolated from the scientific and cultural world. Psychoanalysis, infant research, neuropsychoanalysis, CBT, attachment theory In "Clinical Applications of Neuropsychoanalysis: Hypotheses Toward an Integrative Model", Mosri explores clinical applications of neuropsychoanalysis mainly based on affective neuroscience to propose an analysis of emotions that may contribute to the gradual development of a neuropsychoanalytically informed psychotherapy. [Extracted from the article]

This discussion reviews the subjective experience of analysts encountering enactment in clinical practice and the various attempts which have been made to maintain therapist coherence under the destabilizing effects of their own unconscious intersubjective process. The discussion includes descriptions of the phenomenal experience of enactment and a variety of responses to that experience. Also, the issue of how the subjective experience might be reported and conveyed in sharable language is examined, especially with reference to the use of metaphor as a potential bridge between subjects. Questions are raised as to whether process or content variables contribute more to coherence of mind and which relationship variables are more salient. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, an overview of anxiety theories including the latest findings from perinatal and infant research will be explored from a holistic perspective. The body psychotherapy approach to anxiety problems will then be illustrated with case vignettes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Psychotherapie Forum is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

My premise is that a 'layered' approach is necessary to understand the process of exchanges that result in therapeutic change. I imagine these processes occurring in three layers – although the number of domains in which change is taking place is actually infinite – such as in a sandwich. The top layer, or top slice of bread of the sandwich, represents a broad view of the change process; it is non-linear and includes the feature of uncertainty, a general principle of dynamic systems theory. The middle layer, or the meat of the sandwich, is explained by theories that are immediately and clinically useful to a therapist, such as psychoanalytic theories. These are primarily linear theories and use language and symbols to 'tell a story of what happened'. The bottom layer, or bottom slice of bread of the sandwich, is the micro-process; this layer includes the moment-to-moment patterns of coordinated rhythms that both communicate meaning and provide the essential scaffold for all higher-level change processes. The micro-process also requires a non-linear theory to make sense of its variability and emergent properties. Taking a bite out of the sandwich will include a 'polysemic bundle of communicative behaviors' (Harrison and Tronick, 2011). I will illustrate the 'sandwich model' with the clinical case of the analytic treatment of a 5 year-old boy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Psichiatria e Psicoterapia is the property of Giovanni Fioriti Editore and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Results from a longitudinal study on factors influencing conscience development contributed to our appreciation of the importance of moral internalization for a child's well-being. In this article we first present a summary of the research on moral development in children, includingflndings from infant research, with emphasis on the work of Robert N. Emde. Characteristics of classical psychoanalytic theory about superego development are compared with more recent insights. This is followed by a short description of two cheating games-as a measure of conscience development- played with 101 preschoolers. Some contrasts in our empirical data between the fair-play group and the children that cheated are presented and discussed in the light of the theoretical points of view. Finally some reflections on future research and the implications for parenting, prevention and clinical work are followed by suggestions for psychoanalytic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from Freud's Project, the author proposes a model of cerebral development whose sensory-motor structure is defined by a frontal-occipital oscillatory dynamic with a twofold function: the oscillation explains the formation and maintenance of mother-infant attunement in cerebral growth, while, at the same time, also explaining the functioning of the projective-introjective dynamic at the basis of psychoanalytic theory. The oscillatory dynamic, according to this perspective, operates as a 'bridge' between two seminal theoretical models of developments-the psychoanalytic and the infant research model-which, in turn, leads to the formulation of some neurological hypotheses on how oscillation regulates the elaboration of maternal interaction in the infant's brain, and how the mother may act to modify it. The paper discusses how the oscillatory dynamic offers an innovative framework for the reconceptualization of the development of mentalization, the function of mirror neurons, and, most interestingly, of the development of language, explaining the non-verbal properties of ordinary linguistic communication and the function of oscillation in the regulation of information exchange processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relational psychoanalysis, a relatively new and evolving school of psychoanalytic thought, is considered by its founders to represent a “paradigm shift” in psychoanalysis. The relational approach, initiated by the publication of Jay Greenberg and Stephen Mitchell's book, Object Relations in Psychoanalytic Theory in 1983, has developed into a movement with its own substantially separate literature. This paper reviews both the history and theoretical origins of the relational movement, as well as important theoretical premises and viewpoints now associated with the relational school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the integration of self psychology with findings from infant research and neuroscience. While Kohut's psychology of the self provides a useful theoretical model for psychoanalytic practice, aspects of infant research and neuroscience offer specificity and nuance to basic self-psychological concepts. Kohut proposed that self-psychological psychoanalysis ameliorates derailed development through patient–analyst interaction, while a listening stance of empathic immersion begins the curative process of derailed development and sets the stage for reparative psychoanalytic work. Findings from infant research delineate much more specifically the nature of attunement both in early mother–infant and analyst–patient interactions. Findings from neuroscientific research delineate how early mother–infant experiences are encoded in implicit memory and explicates the emotional substrate of affects and feelings. This emotional substrate exists at birth and provides a means of communication both in infancy and adulthood. Additionally, infant research delineates the mutuality of the interactive process. Thus, both infant research and neuroscience add subtlety and nuance to basic self-psychological concepts. This subtlety opens up new ways of understanding patients and expands the clinical repertoire. Three clinical vignettes demonstrate how this nuance and expansion of self-psychological concepts are applied in the context of an ongoing psychoanalytic treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter discusses the author's involvement with contemporary self psychology. Beginning from a traditional Freudian background, the author's history is traced to her current psychoanalytic interest in applying infant research to adult treatment. A case example is provided illustrating the interweaving of the verbal/explicit and nonverbal/implicit dimensions of working with a patient traumatized following the World Trade Center disaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Analytical Psychology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Invited by the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center in New York to lecture on my book Michael Balint: Le renouveau de l’Ecole de Budapest, Toulouse, Erès 2000, I first gave my personal and analytic motivations for writing this book. Then I stressed Balint's original contributions to analytical theory and practice: the object relation combined with the theory of instinct, the development of the infant, adolescent and even of old age, the basic fault, archaic defenses (such as ocnophilia and philobatism), as well as his idea about analytic treatment with its phases of regression and “new beginning”. His style and his discretion in treatment and mainly the responsibility he recommended to the analysts seem to me very important not to forget. I have shown him as Ferenczi's heir and how he continued his work. His clinical approach and his style are evoked to alert contemporary analysts—who sometimes just know his method to train general practitioners through the Balint group—that they have been influenced unbeknown to them.The American Journal of Psychoanalysis (2007) 67, 317–333. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ajp.3350036 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Psychoanalysis is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Reading aloud to infants continues to be the focus of controversy between educators, researchers, and health care professionals. This article will provide insight into what research says about reading aloud to infants as well as the results of a case study of a six-month-old infant who has been read aloud to in utero to the present time. The results of this case study confirm that parents and caregivers reading aloud to infants is necessary in developing literacy skills that are paramount to book awareness, print awareness, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension, all of which are stepping stones to learning to read and write. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article and the four videos linked to this article are a result of the earliest experiences in establishing an international research collaboration among seven countries in the Project Social and emotional experiences in transition through the early years. We draw attention to the complex issues surrounding the many processes, beliefs and attitudes about infants in research that permeated our processes of gaining ethical approval for the international study and which posed many challenges for our project. Through a process of reflective analysis, we have identified a range of ethical tensions and issues which the different countries involved in this international study faced in gaining ethical approval from their institutional ethical committees for their collaborative participation. More specifically, we identify one persistent tension concerning the use of video data in research on young children. This tension is a result of diverse interpretations of international ethical codes, alongside local restrictions and ethics review processes. It illuminates various positions concerning the protection of infants’ privacy versus the benefits of using non-anonymous video data both in joint analysis, and even further, in open publishing. Such positions have been widely debated in research with adults, whereupon many of the ethically challenging questions have been dealt with through processes of acquiring informed consents from the participants. In case of infants, however, the role and nature of informed consents is different from research with adults, as is the role of the adult in using infant ‘data’ in research. For most cases, informed consents are acquired from the parents or the legal guardians that are not necessarily present on a day-to-day basis in the actual data collection process in early years educational settings. The question of children’s own assents for study is widely debated and this is no less so in the project we present in this paper.On the basis of the experiences in this international collaboration, and the challenges and tensions identified in between diverse cultural context and ethical review boards and practices, we propose that more dialogue in relation to research ethics on video research is needed within the diverse research communities and contexts, both locally and internationally. The dialogue is important to include also the representatives from the ethical committees, as the new (open) mediums for publishing are becoming more relevant and promising. Most important, ultimately, is the dialogue among the research participants, including where possible infants as contributors in their own right (as opposed to vulnerable subjects), and researchers in all phases of the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]