Writing brains: tracing the psyche with the graphical method

At the end of the 19th century, the graphic method kindled attempts to use it for investigating psychic processes. In Germany, Hans Berger took up this line of research, later to become the pioneer of electroencephalography (EEG). This trajectory of Berger's work is analyzed as an "enabling constraint" guiding him toward the EEG at a time when nobody else was pursuing this line of research and also causing serious methodological problems. In the epistemological perspective of this analysis, many of his problems extend beyond the local context of his work and point toward ambiguities surrounding the project to trace the psyche with the graphic method. From the mid-1930s, the EEG inspired ongoing attempts to decipher the specific meanings of these recordings, and large ensembles of machinery were mobilized, molding concepts of the psyche according to the results and the specifications of the graphic method.     

The Primary Self and Related Concepts in Jung, Klein, and Isaacs

In this paper, I have tried to re-examine my understanding of early psychic processes and contents. This has involved comparing and contrasting the ideas of Jung, Klein, Isaacs, and Fordham, with an emphasis on the contributions of Fordham. Fordham's postulate of a primary self that deintegrates and reintegrates is a model of the mind that combines structure and dynamics, and which, moreover, helps to describe what is observed in infant observations and infant research. Infant observation has been used to illustrate these concepts, and clinical material used to show how the same concepts can be used to describe impairments to psychic development. To pursue this study I have had to construct for myself models that describe and explain. I am aware that they are just as inaccurate as they might be accurate, because they imply that there is an answer to the questions I am asking, and that there is a way of describing and explaining what 'the answer' is. 'Nature is always too strong for principle', wrote Hume (Hume 1751, p. 121), and this is particularly true of the ultimately unknowable self.     

Just a joke. Psychogenesis of humor in alcohol advertisements

This article asks what psychic functions humorous alcohol advertisements employ and how they are connected to the wider cultural meanings of alcohol. The material comprises 27 advertisements televised in Europe in 2013. The material is primarily examined using Freud’s ideas regarding the psychogenesis of jokes. Freud’s conceptions of humor provide in-depth point of views to understand how the advertisements address the viewer’s mind. We recognized three psychic processes: the pleasure of nonsense, recognition of the familiar, and liquidation of criticism. We argue that these are essential psychic activities which characterize the more or less unconscious functioning and content of humorous alcohol advertisements. The article suggests that the humorous strategies recall the infantile pleasure connected to playing with language. The humor in alcohol advertisements may also liquidate the critical attitudes toward drinking, enforce the process of denial of addiction and prohibit the reality-based reflection of alcohol use.     

The omnipotent child syndrome: the role of passionately held bad fits in the formation of identity.

This article explores the hidden somatic passions that get laid down in the earliest bad fits (i.e., misattunements) and become the source of the highly resistant narcissistic behaviors that support and concretize one's identity. The omnipotent child syndrome is used to define these passionate, somatic, psychic attachments. The "Omnipotent Child," as I call it, is that part of the internal psychic structure that is the final common pathway of all the passionately held bad fits that characterize not only the person's object ties and attachments, but also his or her most powerful internal psychic identity. The importance of the exploration and elucidation of preverbal experiences in the group are crucial to the unfolding of these unhealthy attachments. Recent infant research, coupled with neurobiological advances, supports the idea of the formation for these attachments. The author explores the theoretical underpinnings of this syndrome through case examples of the omnipotent child in the group process.     

The Interpenetration of Culture and Biology in Human Development

The central argument of this article is that human development should be viewed as the product of the interpenetration1 of cultural and biological processes. Using developmental system theory, it is argued that our work as investigators of human development is to examine this mutual coregulation: how biology and culture interpenetrate over time in concert with developmental processes. Various findings from developmental research are used to provide evidence on (a) how our biology constrains, gives expression to, mediates, or moderates how culture operates on developmental processes and (b) how culture infiltrates and becomes part of our biology and basic developmental processes. Examples of advances in neuroscience are also used to illustrate this interpenetration and to argue for the pervasiveness of cultural influences on development. To conduct the necessary research, new methodologies are needed. Promise is seen in emerging areas of social cognitive neuroscience.     

Illness,the mind,and the body: Cancer and immunology: An introduction

From the sixties on it has become clear how the human physical condition could be influenced by human behavior. Although hypothesis were lacking to understand these connections, nursing research especially proved how systematically introduced patient behavior during illness and hospitalization could induce better recovery results and better prognosis for the patient.Information andattitude proved to be crucial elements in these processes of improved patient expectations. It took less than two decades to get to the insights we have in 1994. Recent research shows the interlocking mechanisms of nervous and endocrine systems with the immune system as significantly being influenced by behavior and especially psychic and or psychosocial stress. This special issue of Theoretical Medicine briefly describes the historical development with contributions on the most recent state of the scientific art. These developments are emphasized by discussion on the clinical reality of the (breast) cancer patient and recent findings on the complexity of the prevalence of cancer in epidemiology. An attempt is made to consider practical consequences of the actual knowledge if applied to patient care.     

Relationship between automatically analyzed quantitative EEG data and psychological performance parameters in patients with epilepsy

A report is given on results of comprehensive studies in which significant positive correlations between automatically analysed parameters reflecting the frequency behaviour of the EEG background activity and psychometrically recorded relatively complex psychic and psychomotoric tempo performances as well as some partial aspects of the re-adjustment capability in epileptics were found. EEG indicator values could be ascertained which point to psychic performance disturbances in epileptics.     

Using EEG to Study Cognitive Development: Issues and Practices

Developmental research is enhanced by use of multiple methodologies for examining psychological processes. The electroencephalogram (EEG) is an efficient and relatively inexpensive method for the study of developmental changes in brain–behavior relations. In this review, we highlight some of the challenges for using EEG in cognitive development research. We also list best practices for incorporating this methodology into the study of early cognitive processes. Consideration of these issues is critical for making an informed decision regarding implementation of EEG methodology.     

ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE SCANDINAVIAN PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIETIES

This article discusses some basic problems of the theory of science connected with understanding the psychoanalytic process. The epistemology of psychoanalysis is seen in relation to the specific status of time, space and causality. It is argued that in psychic life, time and space cannot be a priori categories in the Kantian sense because they are constituted in psychic development and in the dynamics of the psyche and can be abolished in psychopathological conditions as well as in the unconscious. Psychic causality is discussed in relation to Freud's concepts of Nachträglichkeit and overdetermination and remarks are made on the necessity to consider the complex nature of psychic causality when doing research.     

Wie arbeite ich wirklich mit einem Traum?

According to Jung major impulses for psychic development and therefore for dealing with conflicts accrue from the unconscious in the form of dreams. In this article it will be shown as clearly as possible how a dream was dealt with in the therapeutic relationship.     

Perspectives Following Klein and Bion on the Development of the Internal World: Clinical Implications

Ed Tronick’s comprehensive theory of human development encompasses the psychological, neurobiological, and cultural to address how human beings make meaning. In addition to a large body of theoretical work and empirical studies, he has collaborated with Alexandra Harrison to develop a model of therapeutic process and change. In this article, we explore the divergences and convergences between Tronick’s theories about psychological development and psychotherapeutic process and those of Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion. We organize our exploration around three areas of interest to both Tronick and Klein: (1) the development of levels of psychic organization, from primitive to organized; (2) the way in which experience is communicated and received across these different levels, and the kind of therapeutic listening necessary to discern this; and (3) the implications for therapeutic interventions that promote psychic change. We discuss Kate, the young patient Harrison and Tronick use to illustrate their model of psychic change, to explicate some differences and commonalities in the perspectives under consideration.     

Jungian Analysis of the Chinese Mythological Image of Sun Wukong

This paper examines the symbolism of the cultural image Sun Wukong (the Monkey King), a Chinese legendary hero, and how it influenced an eight-year-old boy’s psychic development. Through an analysis of Sun Wukong’s life from his birth to attaining Buddhahood, a three-phase healing process is identified in Sun Wukong’s tale and the psychotherapeutic process: “naming and initiating,” “nurturing and taming,” and “transforming and transcending,” proposed by Dr. Heyong Shen. Sandplay visually highlighted these key clinical changes in conscious awareness and developmental behaviour influencing the boy’s individuation process. Images found either in cultural traditions or spontaneously emerging from the unconscious in individuals are of significance in human life, offering pathways to psychic healing and development. Further, myths and cultural resources used in clinical work demonstrate that having cultural competency is invaluable in Jungian analysis. Pathogenic and health-maintenance factors of culture can be explored in future clinical practice and research.     

A skin for the imaginal

This paper focuses on the development of internal space, the evolution of psychological boundaries and the capacity for symbolization as they first arise during infancy. The concept of the psychic skin as an early form of psychological boundary is presented. The development of the psychic skin, or psychological container, is necessary for imaginal processes to function for the purpose of psychological growth and development. Infant observation material utilizing the Tavistock model and analytical material from an adolescent analysis is presented to help elucidate the theoretical concepts.     

EEG coherence,joint attention and language development in the second year

Recent research has raised the hypothesis that brain maturation processes may play an important role in the linkage between infant joint attention and language development. This hypothesis was examined using EEG, joint attention and parent report language measures in a longitudinal study of 29 infants assessed at 14, 18 and 24 months of age. The results indicated that both measures of joint attention and EEG coherence at 14 months were related to language development at 24 months. Furthermore, both EEG coherence measures and joint attention measures made contributions to multiple regression equations predicting individual differences in language development. Finally, coherence data from this study were consistent with Thatcher's (1994 ) theory of different patterns of neural integration and differentiation in the early maturation of the left and right hemispheres. The implications of these results for understanding the nature of the relations between joint attention and language development, as well as the utility of EEG coherence measures in developmental neuroscience are discussed.     

The developing mind in action: measuring manual dynamics in childhood

Developmental theory has long emphasized the importance of linking perception, cognition, and action. Techniques designed to record the spatial and temporal characteristics of hand movements (i.e., manual dynamics) present new opportunities to study the nature of these links across development by providing a window into how perceptual, cognitive, and motoric processes interact and unfold over time. Although manual dynamics are commonly used to explore a range of topics with adults, including language processing, numerical cognition, social perception, and cognitive control, comparatively little research has used hand-tracking techniques to explore these topics with children. The current article aims to bring attention to this methodological gap and discuss how and why developmental researchers might want to address it. The article introduces two hand-tracking techniques, contrasts how the techniques have been used with adults relative to children, and explores how manual dynamics might fit into the broader landscape of research in child development.     

Bringing together humanistic and intergroup perspectives to build a model of internalisation of normative social harmdoing

This article introduces a model of the internalisation of normative social harmdoing: the MINSOH. This model seeks to explain how group members internalise harmful social norms such that they personally endorse their groups' normative actions. To this aim, the MINSOH integrates two divergent yet complementary theoretical perspectives: self-determination theory and the social identity approach. These perspectives differ in their basic assumptions about the possibility for harm to become internalised, yet when integrated, they provide a powerful account of how harmdoing can become internalised. The MINSOH proposes specific conditions under which harmful normative actions become accepted by group members. This article outlines multiple self-determined motivations for harmdoing and discrete group processes that enable harmdoing to be internalised and autonomously enacted, and reviews factors that facilitate (i.e., strong/unique/comparative social identification; endorsement of ideological justifications) and block the internalisation process (presence of multiple identities/diverging norms; inclusive superordinate identity). Directions for future research are then discussed.     

Changes of chaoticness in spontaneous EEG/MEG

Depending on the task being investigated in EEG/MEG experiments, the corresponding signal is more or less ordered. The question still open is how can one detect the changes of this order while the tasks performed by the brain vary continuously. By applying a static measurement of the fractal dimension or Lyapunov exponent, different brain states could be characterized. However, transitions between different states may not be detected, especially if the moments of transitions are not strictly defined. Here we show how the dynamical measure based on the largest local Lyapunov exponent can be applied for the detection of the changes of the chaoticity of the brain processes measured in EEG and MEG experiments. In this article, we demonstrate an algorithm for computation of chaoticity that is especially useful for nonstationary signals. Moreover, we introduce the idea that chaoticity is able to detect, locally in time, critical jumps (phase-transition-like phenomena) in the human brain, as well as the information flow through the cortex.