Reconsidering therapeutic action: Loewald, cognitive neuroscience and the integration of memory's duality

Both Loewald's relational theory of memory and the Self-Memory System (SMS) of cognitive neuroscience describe a dual memory system, one system that is experience-near sensory-perceptual, and the other, symbolic and conceptual. In contrast to perspectives that locate therapeutic action in either altering implicit procedural memories or interpreting explicit historical content, we argue that psychological health emerges from effective integration of both memory systems, achieved through a combination of transference dynamics and analytic insight. We support this position by elaborating four key assumptions of the loewaldian and SMS perspectives, followed by application to a clinical example. We highlight the power of certain integrative autobiographical memories called 'self-defining memories' in assisting an understanding of transference dynamics and providing metaphoric touchstones to guide subsequent treatment.     

Gender Differences in Vivid Memories

Seventy-four adults (50% women) individually completed a memory questionnaire. They were given a definition of a flashbulb memory and were asked to describe their 3 most vivid memories. In addition, participants rated the described events for various characteristics (e.g., emotional load and personal importance) and provided their best estimate of the date of each event. Effects of gender on the content of vivid memories, their form, and their distribution were found. The influence of identity on the recollection of personal experiences and gender differences in the development of autobiographical memory are discussed.     

画对儿童错误记忆影响的研究

用包括六个离奇的生活事件与六个填充事件对儿童进行测试,三个年龄组的结果表明:画组的儿童与没有画组的儿童相比,更容易说离奇的生活事件发生过,三个年龄组各自的结果没有出现未画事件的显著差异,但在三个年龄组各自的平均数检验中,发现了没有画的离奇生活事件在实验组后测中增长了,画的访谈技术不仅能提高儿童对事件的正确回忆量,同时也可导致错误量的增加。     

Returning to the present moment: Thinking about one’s childhood increases focus on the hedonistic present

Children seem to live more in the present moment than adults. But is it possible to make the present time perspective more available among adults? Four experiments demonstrated that activating childhood selves can lead adults to be more embedded in the hedonistic present. Studies 1 and 2 showed that recalling memories from childhood, either in an open-ended or a structured form, increased participants’ focus on the hedonistic present. Study 3 showed that this effect also occurred after an implicit childhood manipulation. Study 4 revealed that taking the perspective of a child significantly increased orientation to the hedonistic present, compared to taking the perspective of an adult. The effects of activation of childhood selves were not mediated by mood, nostalgia, impatience, concentration, difficulty of the task, enjoyment connected with the task, or involvement in the task. Evaluation of one’s childhood and tendency to relive childhood memories did not affect the results.     

When Conflict Traumas Fragment: Investigating the Sociopsychological Roots of Turkey’s Intractable Conflict

This article investigates the historical processes contributing towards the specific development of Turkey after the 1920s that in turn established the main contours of Turkey's conflict with the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê (PKK). It first argues that the traumatic conflict memories of the Turkish leadership (1918–35) influenced its individual‐level patterns of actions. These memories were used by the leadership to consolidate its imagined national agency in Turkey. The leadership perceived the traditional‐conservative groups as ontological insecurity sources, jeopardizing this agency. It second claims that Turkey's military apparatus is designed to silence these ontological insecurity sources. Finally, it claims these developments informed the ways in which the PKK's narratives of rebellion were constructed. Empirically, it problematizes the impact of the Ottoman Empire's collapse on the Turkish elites. Then, through a discourse analysis of elites' speeches and legal documents, it traces their anxieties to the Ottoman Empire's traumatic end. This article contributes to the trauma literature on ontological security and the emotions literature in International Relations in two ways. It first explores the particular national context in which traumatic memories are shaped and in turn articulated through emotional performances. Secondly, it shows the interplay between sociopsychological processes of security and agency making.     

自传体广告优势效应的实验研究

自传体广告能够唤起消费者对产品或品牌的某些以往记忆,它会影响人们对广告信息的加工方式,同时更为重要的是它能够改变人们的认知。在营销实战和研究中,都备受关注。本研究试图通过两个实验探讨它的内在机制,以及与事实性广告相比,在感知觉、情绪情感、认知改变等方面的优势。结果发现自传体广告确实在感知觉、情绪情感、认知改变等方面具有优势效应。此外还发现了自传体广告的特异性。     

边缘刺激条件下错误记忆的实验研究

随着研究的深入,研究者越来越关注错误记忆中的无意识成分。本研究试图采用边缘刺激这一方法研究错误记忆中的意识-无意识机制。结果发现,边缘刺激会引发错误记忆,但它不受刺激知觉时的意识-无意识水平限制;而且这种错误记忆-经发生便很稳定,不随测量时间间隔的延长而改变。另外。研究还发现材料这一因素往往会和其他因素交融在一起共同作用于错误记忆。     

Theophostic Ministry: Preliminary Practitioner Survey

This exploratory survey investigated Theophostic Ministry, a recently developed inner healing prayer technique that has simultaneously garnered much anecdotal support and criticism. Specifically, the survey sought to assess who is using Theophostic Ministry, what disorders are being treated, and regular practitioners perceptions of this techniques efficacy. The survey was administered during an advanced training seminar given by Ed Smith, the techniques developer. Of the 148 participants 74% completed the survey (Respondent N = 111). Survey results suggested a wide variety of people are using Theophostic Ministry - from pastors to lay counselors to psychologists. Overall, the respondents believe this technique is very effective and have used the prayer ministry in treating a wide variety of disorders including some quite complex. Training level issues therefore emerged from this surveys findings. These issues are explored and recommendations made. The limitations of the survey are discussed.     

A few seemingly harmless routes to a false memory

Since the invention of photography we have learned to rely on photos to help us remember significant moments in our lives. We have come to believe that photographs are accurate and valuable records of events that—years down the track—we may not be able to remember. In this paper, we review recent research demonstrating that photographs can also help us to “remember” events that never really happened. We trace the development of the leading false autobiographical memory paradigm, and we then describe research on the power of both fake narrative stories and fake photographs to cultivate false memories.     

Drawing Memories: Edouard Manet's Remembrances of the Past

The author examines Edouard Manet's quotations of traditional masters in his work. Instead of debating whether Manet simply imitated, competed with, or paid tribute to the great painters of the past, the author suggests that Manet used the depictions of his painterly past not as a remedial but as a deliberate device. By relying primarily on Freud's Interpretation of Dreams and Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, the author interprets the traditional works embedded in Manet's paintings as dream thoughts lying behind a façade. The author examines these depictions as if they were associations and memories of Manet's painterly past and in so doing uncovers Manet's subtle use of the past as a means of articulating social commentaries and of creating dialogues with both his contemporaries as well as his predecessors. Drawing on Freud's idea of deferred action (Nachtraegklichkeit), the author illustrates how Manet reflects upon the present through images of the past while at the same time rearticulating the scenes of the past through the lens of the present.