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Hunger and Longing: A developmental regulation model for exploring core relational needs
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Recovery from emotional challenge and increased tolerance of negative affect are both hallmarks of mental health. Mindfulness training (MT) has been shown to facilitate these outcomes, yet little is known about its mechanisms of action. The present study employed functional MRI (fMRI) to compare neural reactivity to sadness provocation in participants completing 8 weeks of MT and waitlisted controls. Sadness resulted in widespread recruitment of regions associated with self-referential processes along the cortical midline. Despite equivalent self-reported sadness, MT participants demonstrated a distinct neural response, with greater right-lateralized recruitment, including visceral and somatosensory areas associated with body sensation. The greater somatic recruitment observed in the MT group during evoked sadness was associated with decreased depression scores. Restoring balance between affective and sensory neural networks-supporting conceptual and body based representations of emotion-could be one path through which mindfulness reduces vulnerability to dysphoric reactivity.
This article introduces the systems-centered concept of the “group mind” by linking systems-centered thinking and interpersonal neurobiology, building on Siegel's definition of mind as the process of regulating the flow of energy and information. Functional subgrouping, the systems-centered group method for resolving conflicts, discriminates and integrates the flow of energy and information within and between group members, subgroups, and the group-as-a-whole, thus potentiating survival, development, and transformation. This article uses the interpersonal neurobiological framework to discuss functional subgrouping as a tool for developing the group mind: considering how functional subgrouping facilitates emotional regulation, creates a secure relational context, and potentiates neural integration.
p>Empathy is a building block of social behavior and interpersonal competence. The neural mechanisms of empathy have been largely unknown until recently. The discovery of a special class of cells in the monkey brain has inspired a series of recent imaging studies that have revealed a large-scale neural network for empathy in the human brain. This neural system seems a robust biomarker of the human capacity to empathize with others.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marco Iacoboni, MD, PhD, is Director, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Lab, Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Brain Research Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Address correspondence to: Marco Iacoboni, MD, PhD, iacoboni@ucla.edu .
The author disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
Discuss the mirror neuron system in monkeys.
Describe the human mirror neuron system.
Explain neural networks for empathy and social behavior in humans. </ol
p>Interpersonal neurobiology is a “consilient” approach that examines the independent fields of knowing to find the common principles that emerge to paint a picture of the “larger whole” of human experience and development. Interpersonal neurobiology attempts to extract the wisdom from more than a dozen different disciplines of science to weave a picture of human experience and the process of change across the lifespan. This article summarizes the principles of interpersonal neurobiology, with an emphasis on neuroscience findings regarding the mirror neuron system and neural plasticity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Siegel is a clinical professor of of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine where he is also on the faculty of the Center for Culture, Brain, and Development and the Co-Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA.
Address correspondence to: Daniel J. Siegel, MD, Mindsight Institute, 11980 San Vicente Blvd., Ste. 809, Los Angeles, CA 90049; or e-mail info@DrDanSiegel.com .
Dr. Siegel disclosed no relevant financial relationships.</p
Over the past decade attachment theory has undergone an intense expansion of both its original scientific foundations as well
as its applications to clinical work. Bowlby’s original description occurred during a period of behaviorism and an emphasis
on the strange situation and secure base behaviors, which then gave way to a dominance of cognition and an emphasis on attachment
narratives and reflective capacities. We will argue that in line with Bowlby’s fundamental goal of the integration of psychological
and biological models of human development, the current interest in affective bodily-based processes, interactive regulation,
early experience-dependent brain maturation, stress, and nonconscious relational transactions has shifted attachment theory
to a regulation theory. This emphasis on the right brain systems that underlie attachment and developmental change has in
turn forged deeper connections with clinical models of psychotherapeutic change, all of which are consonant with psychoanalytic
understandings. Modern attachment theory can thus be incorporated into the core of social work theory, research, and practice.
This article selectively highlights relevant areas of neuroscience research which have direct application for attachment theory and group psychotherapy. Emerging evidence from the neurosciences is revealing that the developing brain of the infant, sculpted by the earliest attachment relationships, continues to be malleable in adulthood and can be profoundly influenced by ongoing relationships throughout one's lifespan. Advances in the neurosciences are also supporting the idea that strong attachment bonds and external interpersonal interactions that arise within the context of these attachments are registered as a person's neurophysiology and neurobiology. Attachment theory in particular provides a common language and conceptual framework from which the contributions from the neurosciences can be made applicable to group psychotherapy.
Recently discovered mirror neurons in the motor cortex of the brain register the actions and intentions of both the organism and others in the environment. As such, they may play a significant role in social behavior and groups. This paper considers the potential implications of mirror neurons and related neural networks for group therapists, proposing that mirror neurons and mirror systems provide "hard-wired" support for the group therapist's belief in the centrality of relationships in the treatment process and exploring their value in accounting for group-as-a-whole phenomena. Mirror neurons further confirm the holistic, social nature of perception, action, and intention as distinct from a stimulus-response behaviorism. The implications of mirror neurons and mirroring processes for the group therapist role, interventions, and training are also discussed.
In his foundational work The Restoration of the Self, noted psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut boldly challenges what he called âthe limits of classical analytic theoryâ and the Freudian orthodoxy. Here Kohut proposes a âpsychology of the selfâ as a theory in its own rightâone that can stand beside the teachings of Freud and Jung. Using clinical data, Kohut explores issues such as the role of narcissism in personality, when a patient can be considered cured, and the oversimplifications and social biases that unduly influenced Freudian thought. This volume puts forth some of Kohutâs most influential ideas on achieving emotional health through a balanced, creative, and joyful sense of self. "Kohut speaks clearly from his identity as a psychoanalyst-healer, showing that he is more of a psychoanalyst than most, and yet calling for major theoretical revisions including a redefinition of the essence of psychoanalysis.ââAmerican Journal of Psychotherapy
Adler (2002; Adler & Fagley, 2001) argued that being appreciative facilitates and enhances feelings of well-being and life satisfaction, as well as feelings of connection to what we have, to what we experience, and to life itself. In addition, expressing appreciation to others is believed to build social bonds. Although appreciation is viewed as a disposition, it is also viewed as something people can learn over time, making it an especially valuable construct to measure. Appreciating something (e.g. an event, a person, a behavior, an object) involves noticing and acknowledging its value and meaning and feeling a positive emotional connection to it. We defined eight aspects of appreciation and developed scales to measure them: a focus on what one has ("Have" Focus), Awe, Ritual, Present Moment, Self/Social Comparison, Gratitude, Loss/Adversity, Interpersonal. Scores on the subscales may be totaled to yield a score representing one's overall degree of appreciation (or level of appreciativeness) (coefficient alpha=.94). We also developed an 18-item short form (coefficient alpha=.91) that correlates .95 with scores on the long form. The scales correlated in predicted ways with measures of life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. More importantly, appreciation was significantly related to life satisfaction and positive affect, even after the effects of optimism, spirituality, and emotional self-awareness had been statistically controlled.
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