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.     

Transfer between vision and haptics: Memory for 2-D patterns and 3-D objects

Explicit memory tests such as recognition typically access semantic, modality-independent representations, while perceptual implicit memory tests typically access presemantic, modality-specific representations. By demonstrating comparable cross- and within-modal priming using vision and haptics with verbal materials (Easton, Srinivas, & Greene, 1997), we recently questioned whether the representations underlying perceptual implicit tests were modality specific. Unlike vision and audition, with vision and haptics verbal information can be presented in geometric terms to both modalities. The present experiments extend this line of research by assessing implicit and explicit memory within and between vision and haptics in the nonverbal domain, using both 2-D patterns and 3-D objects. Implicit test results revealed robust cross-modal priming for both 2-D patterns and 3-D objects, indicating that vision and haptics shared abstract representations of object shape and structure. Explicit test results for 3-D objects revealed modality specificity, indicating that the recognition system keeps track of the modality through which an object is experienced.     

Motor learning-dependent synaptogenesis is localized to functionally reorganized motor cortex.

The regional specificity and functional significance of learning-dependent synaptogenesis within physiologically defined regions of the adult motor cortex are described. In comparison to rats in a motor activity control group, rats trained on a skilled reaching task exhibited an areal expansion of wrist and digit movement representations within the motor cortex. No expansion of hindlimb representations was seen. This functional reorganization was restricted to the caudal forelimb area, as no differences in the topography of movement representations were observed within the rostral forelimb area. Paralleling the physiological changes, trained animals also had significantly more synapses per neuron than controls within layer V of the caudal forelimb area. No differences in the number of synapses per neuron were found in either the rostral forelimb or hindlimb areas. This is the first demonstration of the co-occurrence of functional and structural plasticity within the same cortical regions and provides strong evidence that synapse formation may play a role in supporting learning-dependent changes in cortical function.     

INTRINSIC FINKS

Dispositions can be finkish, prone to disappear in circumstances that would commonly trigger their characteristic manifestations. Can a disposition be finkish because of something intrinsic to the object possessing that disposition? Sungho Choi has argued that this is not possible, and many agree. Here it is argued that no good case has been made for ruling out the possibility of intrinsic finks; on the contrary, there is good reason to accept it.     

Diagnostic and Assessment Findings: A Bridge to Academic Planning for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Increasing numbers of children diagnosed and treated for autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has impacted both neuropsychologists and educators. Though both play key evaluative and treatment roles, there is no available method or process in place enabling the translation of the neuropsychological report recommendations into a format educational teams can easily use, leading to a gap between neuropsychological recommendations and educational planning. In the following, we review the areas evaluated by a neuropsychologist when assessing a child with an ASD, discuss the domains targeted by educational teams when designing an educational plan, and then present a process that has met with some success creating a "bridge" between the diagnostic/assessment process and the subsequent academic planning. Though presented in the context of ASD, the process described can be used by neuropsychologists for various populations to facilitate partnerships with educators that result in improved care for the child.     

Enhancement of bistable perception associated with visual stimulus rivalry

Rapid, repetitive exchange of dissimilar, rival stimuli between the two eyes can produce slow alternations in perceptual dominance. This phenomenon, called stimulus rivalry, is potentially important for studying resolution of visual conflict associated with neural processing beyond the level of interocular competition. As previously implemented, however, stimulus rivalry can be difficult for some observers to experience, and it tends to occur within a relatively narrow range of contrasts and spatial frequencies. Here we show that it is possible to increase the incidence of stimulus rivalry by brief, periodic presentation of a composite configuration created by superimposition of the two rival stimuli. Possible reasons for the effectiveness of the composite in promotion of stimulus rivalry are discussed.     

Interocular suppression differentially affects achromatic and chromatic mechanisms

Results from a series of psychophysical experiments show that interocular suppression produced by continuous flash suppression (CFS) differentially affects visual features of a target viewed by the other eye. When CFS stimuli are defined by luminance contrast, target color can be reliably identified but percent-correct discrimination of target orientation is near chance. When the colored target is moving, color identification deteriorates with motion speed but direction of motion discrimination improves with target speed. Color’s immunity to suppression is also weakened when interocular suppression is induced by equiluminant CFS stimuli that presumably stimulate the chromatic pathway. These results are discussed in terms of functional segregation of achromatic and chromatic processing in the visual system.