利他惩罚的发生机制及其神经基础

利他惩罚是指个体为惩罚违反社会规范的人而自愿个人支付成本,它在人类合作演化过程中扮演着重要的作用。"认知控制"与"情绪满足"被用来阐述利他惩罚的产生机制。而神经层面的研究也发现,利他惩罚主要涉及以背外侧前额叶皮层为主的基于规则的系统和包括纹状体、内侧前额叶皮层以及脑岛等脑区在内的情绪驱动系统。此外,5-羟色胺、多巴胺等神经递质可能是利他惩罚行为发生的神经生化基础。未来研究除了需进一步深入探讨与整合利他惩罚的发生机制、神经机制、基因机制以外,还应注重利他惩罚在自然情境下的研究。     

正念冥想对情绪的调节作用:理论与神经机制

正念冥想可调节个体的负性情绪、促进个体正性情绪,对于心身疾病具有显著的干预效用.正念冥想的再感知模型、正念应对模型、推动性上升螺旋模型以及正念情绪调节模型都强调了正念冥想对情绪的调节作用.认知神经科学的研究发现,正念冥想可促进左侧前额叶脑区激活增强,涉及的脑区主要包括背外侧前额叶皮层(DLPFC)和背内侧前额叶皮层(DMPFC).研究者进一步发现,正念特质是通过改善前额叶对边缘系统反应的调节来实现对情绪的调节作用.而且,这种调节作用还有可能体现为通过冥想训练分离联结在一起的两种自我参照神经机制,从而加强体验性神经机制.另外,研究者还发现,正念冥想训练还可以改变与情绪加工相关的大脑结构.进一步澄清冥想训练与大脑偏侧化的关系和不同类型被试之间的比较研究将成为该领域日后研究的重点.     

自我控制资源与认知资源相互影响的机制:整合模型

尽管有学者认为自我控制资源和认知资源应该是两种独立的资源,但近期的研究却表明两种资源是互相影响的.以往研究从执行控制的角度解释两种资源为什么相互影响,但却没有指出两种资源如何影响执行控制,以及缺乏考虑神经机制和自我控制资源调节变量在其中的作用.为更系统地解释两种资源相互影响的机制,作者提出了一个整合模型,该模型指出:(1)两种资源相互影响的主要原因是两者都受到执行控制和前额叶皮层的影响;(2)个体进行自我控制或认知加工会消耗能量,产生心理疲劳,降低执行任务的动机,表现为前额叶皮层激活水平下降;(3)前额叶皮层激活不足进一步限制了执行控制在随后的自我控制和认知加工任务中的作用,因而影响后续自我控制或认知加工任务的表现;(4)自我控制资源调节变量通过提高个体对疲劳的耐受性、补充能量和提高动机等方法,使前额叶皮层和执行控制在完成前一阶段任务后仍然能够正常发挥作用,从而维持个体在后续自我控制或认知加工任务上的表现.未来的研究可考察自我控制资源与其他认知加工的关系;用动态的认知神经研究方法,建立前额叶皮层激活水平在前后两阶段任务之间的中介作用模型,以及研究自我控制资源调节变量的神经机制.     

内隐情绪调节:一种有效的自我保护

内隐情绪调节是情绪调节的一种重要形式,它是指个体在没有意识监控和意图的情况下改变了自身情绪反应的品质、强度和持续时间等的一种情绪活动过程。内隐情绪调节的内部机制是自动反向调节,它能让个体的情绪保持平衡状态,具有自我保护作用;其实验研究过程一般分为诱导特定情绪、引发内隐调节过程两个步骤。内隐情绪调节涉及的脑区主要有前扣带回皮层、腹外侧前额叶皮层和腹内侧前额叶皮层。内隐情绪调节的形式包括内隐认知重评和情绪标签等,这些调节方式本身可能受个体差异、情绪体验强度等多种因素的影响。     

自恋型人格的理论模型与神经生理机制

自恋作为一种人格特质, 核心特征是具有夸张和膨胀的自我观点。当前研究将自恋型人格与不同的自我特征相联系, 这些特征包括了夸张性、崇拜的需要、自我中心和高自尊、情感共情缺乏和述情障碍, 研究表明自恋的夸张性和崇拜需要源自扭曲的自我观点和自我提升。当前研究发现额中回、内侧前额叶皮层、眶额叶皮层、揳前叶和前脑岛与自我提升和自我评估有关。前脑岛、右背外侧前额叶皮层和右侧后扣带回皮层与共情缺失有关。未来研究应注重将遗传学、电生理学、生物化学、脑成像等技术的结合, 构建自恋型人格形成的神经生理模型。     

非情绪与情绪背景下行为抑制时外侧前额叶的功能分化:一项fNIRS研究

采用功能性近红外脑成像技术(f NIRS),结合事件相关设计,在非情绪与情绪背景下,测量个体完成go/no-go任务时外侧前额叶皮层氧合血红蛋白浓度(Hb O)的变化。结果发现:在非情绪背景下,行为抑制时双侧背外侧前额叶皮层和右眶额叶皮层负激活;在情绪背景下,行为抑制时双侧背外侧前额叶皮层和眶额皮层负激活,情绪与行为抑制的交互作用显著负激活双侧腹外侧前额叶皮层。结果表明:在非情绪与情绪背景下,双侧背外侧前额叶和右眶额叶皮层可能以神经抑制的活动形式参与行为抑制反应;腹外侧前额叶皮层可能不是行为抑制的重要脑区,但对情绪与行为抑制整合具有重要意义,特别是在负性情绪背景下,双侧腹外侧前额叶皮层可能以更大程度的神经抑制活动参与到情绪与行为抑制交互作用中来。     

远离“诱惑”:预先承诺对跨期决策的调控机制及其神经基础

预先承诺作为一种有效的自我控制策略,主要通过提前排除那些在未来决策中可能会诱使个体做出冲动决策的选项,以达到降低决策冲动性的目的。预先承诺调控跨期决策主要是通过侧额极皮层(LFPC)、背外侧前额叶(DLPFC)、腹内侧前额叶(vmPFC)、后顶叶皮层(PPC)等脑区的共同激活,在自我控制、价值估算、特质冲动性、惩罚敏感度等心理变量的影响下发挥作用。本研究分别从认知机制和神经基础两个方面提出预先承诺降低冲动决策的整合模型,为干预和降低个体决策冲动性提供理论借鉴。未来研究可进一步探究预先承诺调控跨期决策的心理与神经机制,并加强预先承诺在决策领域的应用研究。     

自我控制失败的理论模型与神经基础

自我控制指那些帮助人们克服思想和情绪, 进而依据实际情况调整自我行为的心理加工。虽然良好的自我控制对个体的成功与幸福非常重要, 但自我控制失败仍然是整个人类社会的核心问题。借助于序列任务范式, 研究者揭示了自我控制失败的认知机制并建构了多种理论, 包括能量模型、加工模型、中央管理器模型和前额叶−皮层下脑区的平衡模型。相关脑成像研究主要聚焦于额下回、杏仁核、眶额叶皮质等脑区。未来研究应侧重不同理论之间的融合与补充, 强化自我控制失败潜在神经机制的探索, 并推动自我控制与社会决策行为的关系研究。     

趋近和回避动机的区分及其对心理病理学的影响

趋近和回避是动机的两种最基本形式, 反映着个体与环境的相互作用方式, 是个体适应环境的核心机能。回避动机保证了个体的生存, 趋近动机则促进个体的成长。两类动机系统在前额叶皮层呈不对称偏侧化分布, 趋近动机与左侧额叶皮层激活相连, 回避动机与右侧额叶皮层激活相连。Youngstorm 和Izard等认为两类动机系统失调可能与一系列的情绪和行为问题有关, 如躁狂、抑郁、焦虑和儿童多动症等。这一观点已得到一些相关研究和临床研究证实。建议未来研究关注趋近-回避动机区分与情绪和认知功能研究的融合, 进一步检验趋近-回避动机系统失调模型, 并加强趋近和回避动机系统的可塑性研究。     

决策中主观价值计算与整合的神经机制及其影响因素

决策在人类社会发展历程中扮演着非常重要的角色,而学界对其神经机制的探讨才不过几十年的时间。价值决策理论认为,人们先计算和表征事物的价值,随后进行比较和决策。在人脑中负责主观价值计算的神经基础有腹内侧前额叶皮层、眶额皮层、杏仁核等,而负责价值整合的脑区有腹侧纹状体、腹内侧前额叶皮层、眶额皮层等。人脑将不同属性及成本按照曲线交互模式进行整合形成主观价值,并通过自我控制、注意、认知调节和情绪调节等手段,调节主观价值。未来需要强调模式分析、个体差异和网络分析对价值计算与整合的影响。     

Together – apart: in touch in a time of separation

This paper explores the experience of working as a Jungian analyst through the various phases of the global COVID-19 pandemic, examining the importance of the physical containing space alongside the analyst’s internal mind and how technology can both help and hinder understanding. A number of clinical vignettes illustrate the challenge of communicating over a distance, paying particular attention to the way countertransference phenomena can become re-attuned. Reference is made to mythology and symbols of hope, and consideration given to the meaning and purpose of the pandemic.     

The Possibility of Meaning in Human Evolution

Science undermines the certitude of non-naturalistic answers to the question of whether human life has meaning. I explore whether evolution can provide a naturalistic basis for existential meaning. Using the work of philosopher Daniel Dennett and scientist Ursula Goodenough, I argue that evolution is the locus of the possibility of meaning because it has produced intentionality, the matrix of consciousness. I conclude that the question of the meaning of human life is an existentialist one: existential meaning is a product of the individual and collective tasks human beings undertake.     

Phenotypic plasticity and archetype: a response to common objections to the biological theory of archetype and instinct

Since Jung’s death in 1961, scholars have attempted to integrate growing biological science data into Jungian concepts such as the collective unconscious, instincts and the archetypes. This enterprise has been challenging due to persistent false dichotomies of gene and environment occasionally arising. Recent works by Roesler (2022a, 2022b) for example, have raised objections to the biological theory of archetypes, but the objections are plagued by such dichotomies. The concept of phenotypic plasticity, however, helps to both avoid this problem as well as bridge the gap between competing theories into a more integrated model with solid biological foundations.     

When is it time to stop? When good enough becomes bad enough

This article draws on Winnicott’s concept of the good enough mother to discuss how to know whether a therapeutic situation is good enough to continue or bad enough to end. This dilemma is explored in terms of clinical syndromes, such as anorexia and pathological gambling, but focuses mainly on analyst-initiated endings, which are termed the ‘Casablanca dilemma’, based on an amplification of the ending of the film Casablanca. The author goes on to discuss such one-sided endings, drawing on interviews with 40 analysts and therapists about their clinical experience. A typology of bad enough endings is presented. The psychological differences between a good enough analysis as opposed to a bad enough one are explored through the ideas of Winnicott and Neumann.     

Kann Es Ein Argument Für Den Skeptizismus Geben? Das Epistemische Problem Der Irrtumsmöglichkeit

Summary  Is there any argument for scepticism? The epistemic problem of the possibility of error. Arguments for scepticism rest on the assumption that knowledge claims are fallible. For this reason the concept of knowledge appears to be questionable. Since it is necessary to distinguish doubts from possible doubts, the arguments for scepticism appear to be unconvincing. If we take it into account that we know something that is immune to doubt, we should draw the conclusion that, contrary to scepticism, knowledge claims have to be compatible with being fallible. Thus any knowledge claim is capable of being doubted.     

The transcendent function in Spitteler’s Prometheus and Epimetheus

In August 2020, John Beebe and Steve Myers met via Zoom to discuss their differing interpretations of psychological typology and the different sources within Jung’s writings that influenced their books: Integrity in Depth: Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type (Beebe), and Myers-Briggs Typology vs Jungian Individuation (Myers). The discussion centred on Spitteler’s epic poem Prometheus und Epimetheus, which forms the basis of chapter V of Psychological Types. This is both the largest chapter and one of two chapters that Jung highlighted in the Argentine foreword as containing the essence of the book. Jung’s book is primarily about the transformation of personality rather than the categorization of people. Although it contains a critical psychology that deconstructs the nature of consciousness, that is only one half of the book and a stepping-stone to the other half, which is the reconciliation of opposites with particular emphasis on the relation of consciousness and the unconscious. Jung assumed that readers were already familiar with Prometheus und Epimetheus, an understanding of which sheds light on the nature of the transformation that Jung described – the development of a new attitude towards attitude itself.     

Chapter 6: Biblical Foundations for a Practical Theology of Aging

SUMMARY

This article reviews Biblical sources pertaining to the elderly, particularly the frail elderly. Founded on these sources, implications for elderly with Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia are addressed through a personal perspective informed by writings of Christian mystics.     

Seeing in the Dark: A View into Dissociation and Healing

In this paper, I will explore the role of art-making, the experience of trauma and dissociation, and the process of working with self-states from an analytic and creative frame. Relevant literature on dissociation, trauma, and the use of art will be discussed. A case involving my work with an adolescent girl who had experienced sexual abuse from a family member will be shared, with an emphasis on the meaningful role images played during the therapeutic process. Both Jungian and psychoanalytic models of conceptualizing and working with dissociation are included, following Donald Kalsched’s (2013) recommendation for a “binocular stance” to treatment, including both a focus on the inner, intrapsychic world and the interpersonal, relational realm, and how art images both illuminated and expressed these realms. Within the therapeutic process, art images allowed the therapist a view into the client’s unconscious process, and created a meeting ground for dissociative barriers to be gradually seen, felt and known, by both therapist and client. The experience of dissociation, in images and in session, provided a reference point for myself and my client, Taylor, to develop a shared understanding and a framework for growth.