Selective Interference During the Retrieval of Spatial and Verbal Information from Episodic Long-term Memory

Recent studies have shown that the retrieval of spatial versus verbal information is dissociated by the topography of cortical activation despite the fact that response times did not differ. We investigated whether the topographical dissociation will become apparent in a behavioural dissociation if subjects repeatedly have to switch between the retrieval task and one of two tasks which differ in the amount of load they put on the respective representational system. Therefore, retrieval of both spatial and verbal information was combined with no switching task, a mental rotation task, and a gender classification task. In the no-switching condition response times were identical for spatial and verbal information. In contrast, a more pronounced difficulty effect for spatial information was observed with mental rotation as the switching task, whereas the reverse pattern was found with gender classification. The results support the assumption of localized neural networks specialized for distinct aspects of information processing.     

Traumatherapy 2001, Part II: The Multiphase-Oriented Approach and the Future

This article is the second part of a two-part contribution that incorporates the author's learning-from-the-trauma patient originally reported in a paper, The Reparation of the Self some 17 years ago. The article discusses the most likely trends in trauma theory and practice, and the multiphase-oriented approach to treatment of biopsychic trauma. Because crystal ball-gazing is not a viable approach to predicting the future of traumatherapy, the present article instead approaches the task of prediction through first understanding historical and contemporary treatment conventions spanning several decades in this century, and describes the principles and processes of the multiphase-oriented treatment model, a system of treating psychological trauma beginning with Pierre Janet.     

Traumatic Stress Personality Disorder (TrSPD), Part III: Mental/Physical Trauma Representations—From Focus on PTSD Symptoms to Inquiry into Who the Victim Has Now Become

Many trauma patients are unwittingly led to believe that once their traumatic memory, dreams, irritability, sleep disorder, and intrusive ideation are under greater control that the work of integration is complete. The point of view here is that victims' biopsychobehavioral trauma symptoms contain the nucleus of a damaged identity system that distorts the self-image and relational functioning. This nucleus is linked to a dissociated representational memory system. It is this memory system which is implicated in some incest survivors' profoundly negative self-perception, as seen in the assertion, I am a tragic, soul-destroyer: look at what I've become! Or in a veteran's belief that I am the Devil for what happened in combat. One crime victim described his dissociated identifications and emotional volatility in terms of a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde tendency. Cyclical relational pathology seen so pervasively in the lives of victims are related to these self- and other-representational distortions. Though cognitive and behavioral techniques address the narrative trauma memory system and ameliorate associated distress, these may be less useful in integrating the patient's representational memory system. This article argues that in order to foster post-traumatic integration, the representational memory system may require specialized direct therapeutic action, a focus on mutual relational dynamics between patient and therapist.