Dissociative style and individual differences in verbal working memory span

Dissociative style is mostly studied as a risk factor for dissociative pathology, but it may also reflect a fundamental characteristic of healthy information processing. Due to the close link between attention and working memory and the previous finding of enhanced attentional abilities with a high dissociative style, a positive relationship was also expected between dissociative style and verbal working memory span. In a sample of 119 psychology students, it was found that the verbal span of the high-dissociative group was about half a word larger than of the medium and low-dissociative groups. It is suggested that dissociative style may be one of only very few individual differences that is directly relevant to consciousness research.     

Toward a Comprehensive Theology of Divine Action

This paper proposes a fundamental premise for the conversation between science and theology: In our experience of the natural world we encounter an excess of awareness and of meaning that overwhelm our perceptions, language, and thought. We attempt to construct the coherence of our awareness through our science, and we attempt to render it meaningful in our thoughts and language. Metaphor and symbol are primary vehicles for our attempts at meaning. Since its task is to articulate meaning, theology must acknowledge this premise, if it is to engage the sciences adequately.     

Dissociative states and neural complexity

Recent findings indicate that neural mechanisms of consciousness are related to integration of distributed neural assemblies. This neural integration is particularly vulnerable to past stressful experiences that can lead to disintegration and dissociation of consciousness. These findings suggest that dissociation could be described as a level of neural disintegration reflecting a number of independent processes by means of neural complexity. In the present study measurement of dissociation, traumatic stress symptoms and neural complexity calculated using nonlinear analysis of EEG [during rest conditions], and electrodermal activity (EDA) [during rest and Stroop task] were performed in 52 university students (mean age 24.1). Neural complexity has been described using pointwise correlation dimension (PD2) calculated from EEG and EDA records. While no significant relationship was found between EEG complexity and dissociative symptoms, statistically significant relationship between EDA complexity and dissociative symptoms during rest, but not during the Stroop task, has been found. These results indicate that electrodermal complexity during rest may reflect a level of dissociative symptoms.     

Schizophrenia, dissociation, and consciousness

Current thinking suggests that dissociation could be a significant comorbid diagnosis in a proportion of schizophrenic patients with a history of trauma. This potentially may explain the term “schizophrenia” in its original definition by Bleuler, as influenced by his clinical experience and personal view. Additionally, recent findings suggest a partial overlap between dissociative symptoms and the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, which could be explained by inhibitory deficits. In this context, the process of dissociation could serve as an important conceptual framework for understanding schizophrenia, which is supported by current neuroimaging studies and research of corollary discharges. These data indicate that the original conception of “split mind” may be relevant in an updated context. Finally, recent data suggest that the phenomenal aspects of dissociation and conscious disintegration could be related to underlying disruptions of connectivity patterns and neural integration.     

The effectiveness of positive psychology interventions in enhancing positive behaviors and family relationships in Hong Kong: A community-based participatory research project

This paper describes a program of brief, universal, positive psychology-based interventions to increase targeted behaviors that enhance family relationships, developed and delivered to over 1500 participants using a community-based participatory approach. The cluster-randomized design combined interventions based on one of three themes (gratitude, hope, or open-mindedness) in one of two structures (intervention, or intervention with planning). The latter structure supplemented with materials and exercises derived from the Health Action Process Approach model of behavior change. Planning was more effective in increasing attitude and intention to perform behaviors, frequency of the targeted behaviors, and family health and happiness (Cohen’s ds: 0.10–0.16, p < 0.05), particularly in the theme targeting open-mindedness. Qualitative data supported effectiveness. This project was a first effort to develop a large-scale preventive psychological intervention in an understudied culture with the goal of maximizing acceptability and utilization by involving community stakeholders in every stage of the design.     

Peritraumatic dissociation mediates the relationship between acute panic and chronic posttraumatic stress disorder

Although peritraumatic dissociation predicts subsequent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), little is understood about the mechanism of this relationship. This study examines the role of panic during trauma in the relationship between peritraumatic dissociation and subsequent PTSD. Randomized eligible admissions to 4 major trauma hospitals across Australia (n = 244) were assessed during hospital admission and within one month of trauma exposure for panic, peritraumatic dissociation and PTSD symptoms, and subsequently re-assessed for PTSD three months after the initial assessment (n = 208). Twenty (9.6%) patients met criteria for PTSD at 3-months post injury. Structural equation modeling supported the proposition that peritraumatic derealization (a subset of dissociation) mediated the effect of panic reactions during trauma and subsequent PTSD symptoms. The mediation model indicated that panic reactions are linked to severity of subsequent PTSD via derealization, indicating a significant indirect relationship. Whereas peritraumatic derealization is associated with chronic PTSD symptoms, this relationship is influenced by initial acute panic responses.     

Perspective et actualité de Pierre Janet sur les possessions et les extases mystiques

Pierre Janet (1859–1947), a professor of psychology at the collège de France (1901–1934) and the founder of the French Psychological Society in 1901, took interest in the psychology of religion very young and then all along his career. At age 15, a painful crisis of doubts changes him: he becomes atheistic and above all, gains a passion for the psychology of belief (Prévost, 1973). After his “aggregation” degree, he starts examining and curing people with mental diseases at the hospital in Le Havre. Within six years, his works would build the reference synthesis on the “dissociation of the personality”. But the dissociation process is tightly bounded to the properties of belief (L’automatisme psychologique, 1889). The presentation of his famous case “Achille” (1891–1898) possessed “by the devil” will stand for Janet as a textbook case about religious dissociation, and he will consider his successful treatment of this patient as a “modern exorcism” (Névroses et idées fixes, 1898). The famous mystic “Madeleine” who suffered from psychasthenia provided him the opportunity to precise the links between religious phenomena and the properties of belief. Madeleine's oscillations between torture, void and ecstasy, pertain to “tension” variations that directly impact her belief according to their stage – asseritive or reflected – on the Janetian hierarchy ( Janet, 1926–1928). In the second part of his life and career, where Janet takes time to think about his models and practice, he paints a large picture of the evolution of the “self” (L’Évolution psychologique de la personnalité, Janet, 1929) and extends his analysis to traditional cultures where the bounds of the self is more variable, the personality being able to include spirits within itself. The inclusion in the DSM III, of “dissociative troubles” in 1980, for its first atheoretic release, is visibly drawn upon Janet's English writings ( 0175, 0215 and 0070). Following this introduction, a great body of international studies took Janet's modelization and results into consideration (except in France). In 1994, the DSM-IV also adds the dissociative transe disorder category (DTD), which includes religious possession by demons or spirits: this leads to the development of international studies on the psychology of religion within a transcultural frame. After being forgotten for years, the experimental results of Pierre Janet currently undergo an important excavation thanks to recent psychological research, and prove their relevance to contribute to contemporary debates.     

Neuropsychological dissociations between motion and form perception suggest functional organization in extrastriate cortical regions in the human brain

In this review of neuropsychological case studies, a number of dissociations are shown between different visual abilities including low-level motion perception, static form perception, form-from-motion perception and biological motion perception. These dissociations reveal counter-intuitive results. Specifically, higher level form-from-motion perception can persist despite deficits in low-level motion perception and static form perception. To account for these dissociations, we present a model of functional organization and identify future directions for investigations of higher order form-from-motion perception.