Post on 14-Jan-2016
The historical Freudand today’s developmental
orientation
Freud conference- Melbourne- May 20, 2006
Courtesy Carter-Jenkins Center
Born May 6, 1856
From Gamwell, L. and Solms, M., 2006
Freud’s early dream
• Understanding links between neurobiology and mental activity
• A developmental understanding
D E V E L O P M E N TAL T R A N S I T I O N S
BIRTH
2-3 5-8 10-13 18-22 3-4 5-7 mos mos mos mos yrs yrs
Outline
• Commemorating Freud– The use of the past– Freud’s dream – A personal connection
• Developmental updates- from Freud to today• A developmental orientation• Example of early moral development • Developmental orientation and therapeutic action• Brain imaging and mental functioning• Conclusion- reaching Freud’s dream
Freud’s developmental contributions
• Then – Early development-
sequences
– Unconscious
– Past-present
– Mastery
– Early moral development
• Now– Increasingly organized
complexity
– Procedural/implicit
– Future orientation
– Mode of development
– Expanded view of morality
A developmental orientation
• Lifelong- ongoing
• Increasing organization
• Context dependent- intimate relationships– Early formative– Later
• Future oriented
• Open
Early Moral Development
• First year– Imitations & observations of social behavior– Sharing and regulation of emotions
– Reciprocity, turn taking– Rules, routines
• “grammars” of expectations about social behavior (procedural knowledge)
• Second year– Empathy, prosocial behavior– Distress on violation of standards– Prohibitions
• New rules• Early strategies for negotiation
Early Moral Development
• Third and Fourth Years– TOM skills (appreciating other minds)
• Feelings• Beliefs• Perspectives• Experiences of conflicts and of resolutions
– Narrative skills• Telling about experiences to others not there• New possibilities; perceptions of alternatives for action
– Strategies of not telling, not feeling and avoiding perspectives of others
– Anger and aggression management skills– Conflict management and negotiation
Therapeutic aspects of a developmental orientation
• Background developmental processes• New beginnings
– Re-experiencing– Confirming useful continuities– New possibilities
• Therapeutic action- 2 dimensions• Many questions
FrontiersFrontiers
Some frontiers for clinical thinking and research
• Practicing in new relationship contexts
• Expectations, emotional bonds and suggestion- a return to Freud’s dream
Thinking about brain functioning and mental activity
• Empathy
• Placebo effects
• Expectations
• Romantic love and maternal love
• Mirror neurons– Linking to emotions– Linking to intentions
Singer et al., Science (2004)
How do we understand placebo effects?
They are powerful!!!
Placebo reduces reported pain and brain activity-I
• Shock (R wrist) vs. no shock– Activates the “pain matrix”
• Thalamus (T) • Somatosensory cortex (SII, SI)• Insula (I or AI)• Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
Wager et al., Science (2004)
Placebo reduces reported pain and brain activity II
• Placebo cream vs. non placebo cream– Reported pain greater for control (C) than
placebo (P)– Amount of placebo reported analgesia
correlated with reduction of neural activity during the shock period
– Also true for thermal pain in a separate study with more complex time effects
Placebo effect: behavior-brain correlations in shock experiment
• rACC .66
• IC .59
• Thal (cl) .53
• (n= 24; all significant P< 0.005)
Anticipation of painful shock in placebo condition increases prefrontal activity
• Correlations between fMRI activity in anticipation period (P>C) and reported placebo effects (C>P)– DLPFC .62, .62– OFC .65, .76
• Correlations between fMRI activity in anticipation period and components of pain matrix– For DLPFC: T (-.56,-.38), I (-.59,-26),rACC (-.44, -.45)– For OFC: T (-.52,-.63), I (-.61,-.56),rACC (-.65,-.70)
The Neural Correlates Of Maternal And Romantic Love
Bartels, A. and Zeki, S., 2004, NeuroImage
Welcome Dept of Imaging Neuroscience, UCL
Conclusions (Bartels and Zeki, NeuroImage,)
• For both M and R love similar brain regions activated– Striatum (P, GP, CN)– Middle insula– Dorsal ACC
• Activity in these areas known to have high density of vasopressin and oxytocin receptors (mediating attachment and reward)
• Both M and R love deactivate areas in PFC and temporal poles referred to as “social judgment network”
More generally, our brains are built
• “wired” for feelings
• “wired” for connectedness
• In infants as well as parents
The surprising story of mirror neurons
In observing and participating socially the brain is building
expectations about feelings and about intentions, over time, about self in relation to significant others
What about Freud’s dream? Are we envisioning the links? Are we reaching
a developmental understanding?
• Conclusions: – There is much promise– And there is another frontier of our
knowledge, to be illustrated in the next talk…
A Coda
We have come a long way from this
And there are many questions
Website for downloadable publications
www.uchsc.edu/earlydev
A rethinking
• The developing individual in a changing environment
• (The fish is in the water, the water in the fish- Arthur Miller)
Regulation
(From Sameroff, A.J. and Fiese, B.H., 2000)
Readings (Available electronically on web) www.uchsc.edu/earlydev/
Emde, R. N., & Spicer, P. (2000). Experience in the midst of variation: New
horizons for development and psychopathology, Development and Psychopathology, 12, 313-331).
Emde, R. N., Korfmacher, J., & Kubicek, L. F. (2000). Toward a theory of early
relationship-based intervention. In J. D. Osofsky, & H. E. Fitzgerald (Eds.), WAIMH Handbook of infant mental health. Vol. Two. Early intervention, evaluation, and assessment (pp. 3-32). New York: John Wiley and Sons
Emde, R. N., & Robinson, J. L. (2000). Guiding principles for a theory of early
intervention: A developmental-psychoanalytic perspective. In J. P. Shonkoff, & S. J. Meisels (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood intervention. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Emde, R. N. (1999). Moving ahead: Integrating influences of affective
processes for development and for psychoanalysis. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 80(2), 317-339.
Emde, R. N. (1998). Early emotional development: New modes of thinking for
research and intervention. In J. G. Warhol (Ed.), New perspectives in early emotional development. Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute.
Creative writers and day-dreaming 1908
• "a wish makes use of an occasion in the present to construct, on the pattern of the past, a picture of the future."
• "....thus past, present, and future are strung together....on the thread of the wish that runs through them"