Inhibition and the control of behavior. From Gall to Freud via Phineas Gage and the frontal lobes.

In his On the Functions of the Brain and Each of Its Parts, Franz Joseph Gall proposed that significant behaviors resulted from certain independent, irreducible, and fundamental faculties or propensities. There seems to be nothing in his system for explaining how two or more faculties interact, especially how one comes to predominate over another, other than the implicit notion that the stronger will be manifested. This peculiarity of Gall's system is consistent with the predominately "excitatory" physiology of his time in which there was no place for an independent inhibitory process. Despite the experimental demonstration of inhibitory phenonema, the sensory-motor physiological theories in the last three quarters of the 19th century were similarly deficient. The lack is seen most clearly in the experimental and clinical literature on frontal lobe function, especially in relation to the kinds of changes seen in the Gage case. The deficiencies of sensory-motor physiology are also to be found in Freud's model of the mental apparatus and in his concept of inhibition via a lateral cathexis. In the paper an attempt is made to trace the historical sequence of these ideas and to make their experimental and theorectical basis explicit.     

Spiking Phineas Gage: a neurocomputational theory of cognitive-affective integration in decision making

The authors present a neurological theory of how cognitive information and emotional information are integrated in the nucleus accumbens during effective decision making. They describe how the nucleus accumbens acts as a gateway to integrate cognitive information from the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus with emotional information from the amygdala. The authors have modeled this integration by a network of spiking artificial neurons organized into separate areas and used this computational model to simulate 2 kinds of cognitive-affective integration. The model simulates successful performance by people with normal cognitive-affective integration. The model also simulates the historical case of Phineas Gage as well as subsequent patients whose ability to make decisions became impeded by damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.     

Freud and the figure of Moses: the Moses of Freud.

Moses was a lifelong preoccupation of Freud, representing a double and idealized self and object. Freud identified with different aspects of Moses during different periods of development, from concrete hero to abstract ideal. He turned to Moses in the concluding phase of his relationship with Fliess and his self-analysis, and then at other times of crisis. The Moses recreated by Freud is important to the evolution of the concepts of the superego, and his Moses studies simultaneously illuminate the developmental significance of internalization, identification, and abstract symbolic thought. Latently autobiographical, the Moses motif is related to the analysis of unconscious conflict and trauma and to issues of Jewish identity and analytic ideals.     

Constructing an Aesthetic Weltanschauung: Freud,James, and Ricoeur

I will investigate in this paper what kind of Weltanschauung Freud suggests. Although Freud argues in the lecture XXXV, The Question of a Weltanschauung (1933), that psychoanalysis is incapable of creating a Weltanschauung of its own, I think that he has a certain Weltanschauung, i.e., the aesthetic worldview, which involves his scientific, psychoanalytic, and artistic principles. Furthermore, I will explicate that Freud's aesthetic worldview is ultimately related to the Weltanschauungen of William James and Paul Ricoeur. I will focus particularly on their terms, sympathetic and poetic, which are the crucial elements that constitute the aesthetic Weltanschauung. Finally, I will briefly present my intention in drawing this aesthetic Weltanschauung. I will conclude that throughout the aesthetic Weltanschauung we may accept that everything is precious, pertinent, and worthy to be viewed as a part and a whole, and as home (Heim).     

Psychoanalytic ethics: Edoardo Weiss, Freud, and Mussolini.

This paper examines Edoardo Weiss's correspondence with S. Freud regarding Concetta Forzano's analysis and Forzano's efforts to intercede with Mussolini on Freud's behalf after the Nazis invaded Austria in 1938. Freud's reliance on Mussolini can be explained by traditional Viennese attitudes toward Italy, the Duce's protectiveness about Austrian independence, and the relatively benign attitude of the Fascist regime towards Jews.     

Freud, Rogers, and Ellis: A Comparative Theoretical Analysis

Albert Ellis, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Rogers are widely recognized as the three most influential psychotherapists of the twentieth century. In the present article, it is argued that the striking differences in their therapeutic systems, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), psychoanalysis, and person-centered therapy, respectively, are rooted in more fundamental theoretical differences concerning the essential nature of client personality. The positions of Freud, Rogers, and Ellis on three critical issues in personality theory especially relevant for the practice of psychotherapy are examined and comparatively analyzed. The critical issues are: (1) nature vs. nurture as the foundations of personality; (2) the potency of reason in human behavior; and (3) the possibility of fundamental personality change. For each critical issue the treatment implications are also briefly explored with a view toward illustrating how the theorists' positions directly translate into therapeutic practice. The basic intent of this comparative analysis is to strengthen and further clarify the personality theory underlying REBT.     

Useful scientific theories are useful: A reply to Rouder, Pratte, and Morey (2010)

In a recognition memory experiment, Mickes, Wixted, and Wais (2007) reported that distributional statistics computed from ratings made using a 20-point confidence scale (which showed that the standard deviation of the ratings made to lures was approximately 0.80 times that of the targets) essentially matched the distributional statistics estimated indirectly by fitting a Gaussian signal-detection model to the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC). We argued that the parallel results serve to increase confidence in the Gaussian unequal-variance model of recognition memory. Rouder, Pratte, and Morey (2010) argue that the results are instead uninformative. In their view, parametric models of latent memory strength are not empirically distinguishable. As such, they argue, our conclusions are arbitrary, and parametric ROC analysis should be abandoned. In an attempt to demonstrate the inherent untestability of parametric models, they describe a non-Gaussian equal-variance model that purportedly accounts for our findings just as well as the Gaussian unequal-variance model does. However, we show that their new model—despite being contrived after the fact and in full view of the to-be-explained data—does not account for the results as well as the unequal-variance Gaussian model does. This outcome manifestly demonstrates that parametric models are, in fact, testable. Moreover, the results differentially favor the Gaussian account over the probit model and over several other reasonable distributional forms (such as the Weibull and the lognormal).     

Freud, Dora, and the maid: a study of countertransference

Early advances in psychoanalytic knowledge, profound though they were, were incomplete structures to be built upon, modified, and partially discarded. In addition to errors due to insufficient knowledge, Freud's difficulties with Dora stemmed from countertransference. Dora's transference included an identification with a governess/maid. Important oedipal role played by a nursemaid in Freud's life made him vulnerable to being left by Dora. The maid, Monika, "the prime originator" of Freud's neurosis, seduced him, chastised him, and taught him of hell. In his self-analysis she was associated with Freud's mother who left him when she gave birth to his sister. When he was two and a half years old, Monika was discharged and jailed for stealing. I suggest that Freud's attraction to Dora revealed itself in his libidinal imagery of the treatment and his premature sexual interpretations, the effects of which he misjudged. Defending against his attraction, he pushed her away from him, did not act to keep her in analysis or allow her to reenter analysis later. In addition, since Dora had left him as he must have felt his childhood nursemaid had, he reacted as if she were that maid. Hurt, saddened, and angered, he used reversal and deserted her, thus damping his feelings.     

The Perennial Freud: Method versus Myth and the Mischief of Freud Bashers

Nowadays Freud bashing is not only à la mode, in certain circles it has become de rigueur. Once a name of respect, Freud has become a name of ridicule. But like any scientific method, body of knowledge, and therapeutic procedure, psychoanalysis should be subjected to critical scrutiny. The recent crop of hostile Freud critics may have filled a vacuum left for decades by a psychoanalytic establishment which, like the Church of yesteryear, shunned all forms of criticism intramural and extramural. A central guiding idea of this essay is the distinction between the psychoanalytic method and psychoanalytic doctrines, hypotheses, and theories. This distinction has been invariably confused by both Freud's adherents and Freud's attackers. Moreover, arguments ad rem have been conflated with arguments ad hominem. A socially responsible criticism must seek to be constructive and not merely destructive. It is the latter course that was taken by the various hostile critics that came to be labeled as Freud bashers. The time has come to take a stand against the more egregious attacks on Freud and the psychoanalytic method.     

The Paradox and Tragedy of Helplessness: Freud,Winnicott, and Religion

This article explores the works of Freud and Winnicott from the prism of the experience of helplessness in everyday life. Their theories provide a framework for and psychological insights into understanding the etiological sources and dynamics of non-traumatic helplessness. In addition, it is argued that Freud’s and Winnicott’s respective psychological theories manifest and were shaped by their own personal attitudes and responses toward experiences of helplessness, which, in turn, influenced their views regarding the role of religion in human life.     

Narrating the self: Freud,Dennett and complexity theory

Abstract

Adopting a materialist approach to the mind has far reaching implications for many presuppositions regarding the properties of the brain, including those that have traditionally been consigned to “the mental” aspect of human being. One such presupposition is the conception of the disembodied self. In this article we aim to account for the self as a material entity, in that it is wholly the result of the physiological functioning of the embodied brain. Furthermore, we attempt to account for the structure of the self by invoking the logic of the narrative. While our conception of narrative selfhood incorporates the work of both Freud and Dennett, we offer a critique of these two theorists and then proceed to amend their theories by means of complexity theory. We argue that the self can be characterised as a complex system, which allows us to account for the structure of the material self.     

Interpreting Dreams: Joseph, Freud and the Judaic Tradition

This essay focuses upon the biblical texts concerning Joseph, in order to review the moral, cultural, and historical differences in approaches to dreams.