公平、合作与信任三种亲社会行为的认知神经机制

亲社会行为对维持和发展良好的社会关系具有重要作用。亲社会行为中,目前研究较多的是公平、合作与信任。脑成像研究指出,前额叶、脑岛、杏仁核、腹侧纹状体、颞顶联合区等是公平、合作与信任在内的亲社会行为核心脑区。已有研究表明,虽然支配亲社会行为的脑网络可划分为情绪系统(包括脑岛、杏仁核、尾状核等)、认知控制系统(包括前额叶、背...     

厌恶加工的神经基础

厌恶是由令人不愉悦、反感的事物诱发的情绪。根据刺激类型的不同, 厌恶可以分为不同的类型。脑岛和基底节是厌恶加工的主要脑区, 前扣带回、杏仁核、丘脑、内侧前额叶也参与厌恶加工。对已有研究的总结发现, 不同类型的厌恶、不同感觉通道的厌恶加工可能具有不同的神经基础。在未来的研究中, 应当注重研究厌恶加工的认知机制、神经基础以及与厌恶相关的神经递质等问题。     

社会从众的生物学基础

社会从众是指个体改变态度或行为, 与他人保持一致的现象。社会认知神经科学采用社会心理学的实验范式研究发现：背内侧前额叶、纹状体、眶额皮层、脑岛、杏仁核和海马等多个脑区在社会从众中扮演重要角色; 能够提高多巴胺水平、改善大脑奖赏敏感性的某些神经递质可能间接影响从众。强化学习理论的奖惩预期可以部分解释社会从众的原因。未来研究应改进实验范式, 扩大研究群体, 借助神经、生化技术, 利用动物模型, 深入探讨社会从众的神经生物学基础。     

信任的心理和神经生理机制

信任是建立在对他人的意向或行为的积极预期基础上而敢于托付（愿意承受风险）的一种心理状态。心理学家以及组织管理学家通过对信任发展的研究提出了信任发展的二元互动模型、理性选择模型、动机归因模型和可信赖程度--合作双螺旋模型。背叛行为会对信任关系的建立与发展带来永久性的伤害。已有的关于信任的神经生理机制的研究表明：人们所表现出的信任行为与其催产素水平密切相关,而且信任与背纹状体、前脑岛以及处理奖赏信息相关的脑区--伏隔核、尾状核、腹内侧额叶/前额脑区底部和侧前扣带皮层--的活动相关联。尽管目前关于信任的研究已经取得了很大进展,但是要解开信任的心理机制及其神经生理机制之谜,还需要进一步的研究。     

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。     

焦虑、风险决策及其关系的神经机制

焦虑与风险决策的脑机制之间存在着高度重叠的部分(如:前额叶、杏仁核、前扣带回、纹状体、脑岛等),而且重叠的这部分脑机制也被卷入到了焦虑影响风险决策的过程中。本文通过综述这些脑区在二者关系间的功能及其对应的网络结构,试图探索了焦虑影响风险决策的神经机制,并借用风险敏感理论与认知资源理论,从情绪与认知双加工角度对此进行了阐述。未来对二者关系的研究可考虑从遗传基因、神经递质以及发展性等角度进行探索。     

药物成瘾者决策缺陷的特征、机制及干预

药物成瘾者存在决策缺陷, 并表现出冲动性、风险寻求、奖赏失调、躯体内感信号缺失等特征。神经影像学研究表明药物滥用导致成瘾者背外侧前额皮层、前扣带回、眶额叶皮层、腹内侧前额皮层、杏仁核、脑岛等脑区受损, 这些损伤是引发其决策缺陷的主要原因。认知训练有利于提高个体的决策能力, 如目标管理训练和正念冥想等可以增强个体工作记忆、促进自我觉察和以目标为导向的行为; 而非侵入性脑刺激则可以直接改变与成瘾者决策相关脑区的激活状态, 从而提升与决策相关的认知功能。总体而言, 未来认知训练和非侵入性脑刺激在成瘾干预方面仍有广阔的拓展空间。     

催产素影响恐惧习得和消退的认知神经机制

恐惧是一种基本的情绪, 在人类的生存和适应中发挥着重要作用。先前的研究表明, 杏仁核、背侧前扣带回、脑岛等脑区是条件化恐惧习得的认知神经基础, 杏仁核、海马和腹内侧前额叶等脑区在恐惧消退过程中发挥重要作用。研究发现, 催产素与恐惧习得和恐惧消退过程密切相关。恐惧习得过程中, 催产素影响杏仁核、背侧前扣带回的活动, 影响杏仁核与背侧前扣带回和脑干间的功能连接, 促进或抑制恐惧习得过程; 恐惧消退过程中, 催产素影响了杏仁核和腹内侧前额叶的活动, 并且影响杏仁核与内侧前额叶和海马间的功能连接, 促进或抑制恐惧消退过程。未来研究应从性别差异、神经网络模型、身心发育和病理研究等角度展开, 力图深入理解催产素影响恐惧情绪加工的认知神经机制。     

情绪和记忆的相互作用

情绪与记忆的关系一直是社会认知神经科学研究的重要课题。该文简要介绍了近年来国内外有关情绪和记忆的研究,着重讨论了情绪在记忆中的作用、情绪影响记忆的途径以及参与情绪和记忆交互作用的脑区;特别强调了情绪唤醒对杏仁核的影响,以及杏仁核与其它内侧颞叶结构和前额叶的相互作用     

基于预期理论的风险决策的神经机制

预期理论基于对期望效用理论的批判与发展,提出了价值函数与权重函数,对以往风险决策研究中所发现的现象进行了很好的预测与解释。预期理论的核心概念包括参照依赖、损失规避与权重函数。基于预期理论的一些决策偏差包括框架效应、禀赋效应和默认偏差也部分揭示了与人们风险决策有关的脑区。近年来,通过采用功能性核磁共振等脑成像手段对预期理论的一些核心成分进行的研究表明,涉及到人们风险决策的脑区主要有前额叶、纹状体、脑岛与杏仁核。未来的研究可以从预期理论的产生根源、个体发展以及遗传基因等角度进行进一步的探讨。     

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.