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The author describes how his experiencing of the husband in a neurodiverse‐neurotypical couples therapy as narcissistic, led to a countertransference impasse. Using clinical material, he describes how his understanding of neuroscience helped him to view his patient as suffering from high functioning Asperger syndrome, and how this understanding helped in the resolution of the impasse. It is hoped that this clinical situation will emphasize the value of having a greater integration between our psychoanalytic and neurological understandings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are very good reasons to welcome the publication of the second edition of Ronald Britton's I Sex, Death and the Superego i : it contains many changes and additions, large and small, and one completely new chapter, titled "PS(n+1) Brain, Mind and Self", a development of Britton's [4] book I Between Mind and Brain: Models of the Mind and Models in the Mind i . In his chapter "PS (n+1): Brain, Mind and Self" (134-139) Britton updates his ideas of how psychoanalytic models of the mind are beginning to be modified by developing models of the brain. Sex, death and the superego: updating psychoanalytic experience and developments in neuroscience: by Ronald Britton, London, Routledge, 2021, This is the second edition of Sex, Death and the Superego: Experiences in Psychoanalysis (2003), £28.99, 151 pp. [Extracted from the article]

Therapist countertransference reactions related to the phenomenon of vicarious trauma (VT) can be examined through polarising physiological responses. Through an integration of counselling and neuroscientific perspectives on empathy and traumatic countertransference, in-session somatic reactions are approached as valuable information sources. The VT field's research gaps regarding intersecting sociocultural identities of therapists and clients are centred in the proposed framework to examine hyper personalised and depersonalised countertransference polarisations. Awareness of somatic cultural countertransference and power dynamics is proposed as a way to prevent VT and uphold ethical standards of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of psychoanalysts have become excited about mirror neurons, as they are called by neuroscientists. Mirror neurons have the remarkable property of responding identically to an action I intend as well as an action you intend. The argument of some psychoanalysts is that mirror neurons open a new pathway to understanding the intentions of other. They make possible a new type of empathy, more direct and less mediated by the typical defenses. One result of such a perspective on psychoanalysis is the virtual death of the countertransference. If one has direct empathic contact with another mind, then countertransferential experience is only a barrier, not a guide. The essay not only looks at the evidence for mirror neurons, which is ambiguous, but also at what need they might be filling in our contemporary culture. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the problems facing psychoanalysts of all schools is that theory has evolved at a much faster pace than practice. Whereas there has been an explosion of theory, practice has remained, at least officially, static and unchanging. It is in this sense that Murray Jackson's 1961 paper is still relevant today. Despite the rise of the new relational and intersubjective paradigms, most psychoanalysts, and not a few Jungian analysts, still seem to feel that the couch is an essential component of the analytical setting and process. If the use of the couch is usually justified by the argument that it favours regression, facilitates analytical reverie and protects the patient from the influence of the analyst, over time many important psychoanalysts have come to challenge this position. Increasingly these analysts suggest that the use of the couch may actually be incompatible with the newer theoretical models. This contention is strengthened by some of the findings coming from the neurosciences and infant research. This underlines the necessity of empirical research to verify the clinical effectiveness of these different positions, couch or face-to-face, but it is exactly this type of research that is lacking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many educators, the contemporary debate about what counts as good teaching has come around to the question: What is (good) learning? As with many educational debates, both the natural sciences and human sciences offer research-informed theories and practices to advance new and/or improved knowledge of or skills with teaching and learning practices. The authors of this text focus on neuroscience as one of those advancements in knowledge that has begun to shed light onto how to teach a learning brain. As such, the authors, as educators of teachers, in the pedagogic areas of curriculum and instruction and educational psychology, interpret recent neuroscience findings applicable to school-based educators who are wondering about learning, memory, and how environments and social structures may affect a learner's brain physiologically or, in turn, affects the learning-teaching "mind". The authors make a case for this pedagogic possibility: Perhaps, good learning and teaching is more sustainable -- that is, learning and teaching has depth (it matters), has breadth (it spreads) and it endures (it lasts) -- when our brain utilizes its natural "Mimetic" abilities. That is, our natural abilities to imitate and/or represent aspects or whole or part patterns of the sensible world and to do so via incorporation and transference within human actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neuroscience of trauma in increasingly oriented to the importance of understanding right brain to right brain dynamics and helping the therapist to respond to implicit communication, which is discussed, as well as Porges' polyvagal theory. The traumatized patient presents a variety of challenges to clinicians, including a dysregulated autonomic nervous system (ANS), compromised ability to self-soothe and diminished capacity for relatedness with others. Therefore, one effective approach to treating trauma (especially dissociation) includes conceptualizing and responding to our patients through three separate but interconnected lenses: (1) patient and therapist as human mammals-orientation to the ANS, (2) patient and therapist as personalities-orientation to the internal world and, (3) patient and therapist as inhabiting an intersubjective field together-orientation to shared, co-created body/psychological states. The capacity to be guided by countertransference is an especially valuable skill for therapists, as well as the ability to know when they are being experienced as helper or adversary by their patients. Different dynamics driving dissociation and different strategies for responding to the dissociating patient are discussed. Clinical examples are included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a contribution towards furthering our understanding of a theme more usually associated with the Freudian tradition, namely the role and function of words as action, particularly in relation to the representational process and its somatic roots. Some reference to neuroscience research will be offered in this respect. It also considers the value of differentiating Empathy from Empathism, as defined by the Italian psychoanalyst Stefano Bolognini who distinguishes informing complementary countertransference from states of over-concordance. Two analytic sessions taken from the intensive analysis of a deeply deprived late-latency child showing violent behaviour are provided with the aim of illustrating the application of these concepts. It is argued that, given the same elaboration of the countertransference and the adequate empathic position on the part of the analyst, the difference in the outcome of the interpretation was made by the specific use of words-in this case the use or not of the personal pronoun-in the two sessions. As the case material is taken from the clinical work of a supervisee, some elements regarding the supervisory situation are also discussed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses research by Beatrice Beebe, Bessel van der Kolk and others, exploring the interpersonal processes that underpin early relational trauma and how this contributes to adult psychopathology. An essential feature of early relational trauma, the infant's experience of being unable to evoke an empathic response from the caregiver and the feelings of shame this gives rise to, is discussed and its implications for psychotherapy are considered. The neuroscience that underpins two forms of empathy in the therapeutic relationship, of 'feeling for' and 'feeling with' the patient is discussed and explored in relation to the concordant and complementary countertransference. I argue that when therapists respond to the projection on to them of the abuser by an increasingly determined adherence to analytic technique, this may become a complementary countertransference identification with the abuser and an enactment of the abusive relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines embodied visual meaning in film, the ways that film makes use of recurring dynamic patterns of our shared bodily interactions with the world (image schemas) to communicate abstract meaning to the viewer. Following the lead of recent discoveries in the field of neuroscience, the article argues that this metaphorical transference of abstract thought by means of image schemas is possible via the activation of embodied mirroring mechanisms in the observer. This empathetic and physical encounter of the viewer with the representational content and form of the work is crucial to the understanding of abstract conceptual thought in film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current vigorous debate over the value of neuroscience to psychoanalysis, the epistemological status of the links between the data of brain research and the constructs of interest to psychoanalysts has rarely been examined. An inspection of recent discussions of mirror neuron research, particularly regarding countertransference, reveals gaps between psychoanalytic processes and the available brain activation data, and allows the evaluation of evidence for three implicit assumptions frequently made to bridge these gaps: (1) there is a straightforward correspondence between observed brain activity and mental activity; (2) similarity of localized brain activity across individuals signifies a shared interpersonal experience; (3) an automatic brain mechanism enables direct interpersonal sharing of experiences in the absence of inference and language. Examination of mirror neuron research findings reveals that these assumptions are either untested or questionable. Moreover, within neuroscience there are competing interpretations of mirror neuron findings, with diverse implications for psychoanalysis. The present state of mirror neuron research may offer us new hypotheses or metaphors, but does not provide empirical validation of the proposed models. More generally, as we attempt to learn from research findings generated outside psychoanalysis, we must strive to think scientifically, by minding the difference between data and interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychoanalysis, as every science and its application, has continued to evolve over the past century, especially accelerating over the last 30 years. Self psychology has played a constitutive role in that evolution and has continued to change itself. These movements have been supported and augmented by a wide range of emergent research and theory, especially that of cognitive psychology, infant and attachment research, rapid eye movement and dream research, psychotherapy research, and neuroscience. I present schematically some of what I consider to be the key features of the evolution of self psychology and their interconnection with that of psychoanalysis at large, including the revolutionary paradigm changes, the new epistemology, listening/experiencing perspectives, from narcissism to the development of the self, the new organization model of transference, the new organization model of dreams, and the implicit and explicit dimensions of analytic work. I conclude with a focus on the radical ongoing extension of the analyst's participation in the analytic relationship, using, as an example, the co-creation of analytic love, and providing several brief clinical illustrations. The leading edge question guiding my discussion is “How does analytic change occur?” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Neuroscience research has deepened our understanding of the phenomenon of transference. Neural network theory has taught us that representations are created by forming, strengthening, or pruning connections between neurons. These representations are multiple and help dispel the notion of “the transference.” There are multiple transferences that come into play in varying degrees in every analysis. Similarly, real characteristics of the analyst play a major role in which representations are activated in any specific dyad of analyst and patient. Hence the constructivist notion of the analyst''s contributions to the transference are reinforced by neural network theory. Two distinct memory systems come into play in the creation of transference—both implicit declarative and implicit procedural elements can be found in the component of transference in the clinical setting. Research findings using functional neural imaging with borderline patients also suggest neural anatomical correlates of transference. Finally, neuroscience research leads to a more precise understanding of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis and the fate of transferences. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]