Self Psychology, Attachment Theory, and Ego States - An Intra-relational Approach

Four out of five of my clinical supervisors have little or no idea what it is I do with my trauma clients. I explain to them that I use a relational version of Self Psychology grounded in attachment theory and utilizing various forms of "parts" work - and then they look at me with empty eyes, as though I have just stolen their souls.

BUT, at long last, I have discovered a model that is very close to what I do with my clients - and the article is available for free online.

Let's back up a bit.

Diane Fosha is one the leading figures in contemporary psychoanalytic/psychodynamic theory, especially the relational and intersubjective wings of the movement. She has created a model called Accelerated Experiential-Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), a "brief therapy" form of Self Psychology. Here is the definition of the model given by one of her students:

AEDP is a psychotherapeutic approach based on the idea that deep, viscerally felt affective experiences have the inherent capacity to rapidly and comprehensively transform people. Facilitated through a relationship with an actively engaged, emotionally attuned, empathic, affirming therapist, the patient is guided to process emotions deemed too overwhelming to face. Experientially processing these previously avoided emotions activates innate self-righting mechanisms, adaptive action tendencies and other resources that support psychological wellbeing and optimal functioning. ~ Jerry Lamagna, New York City 

Her book, The Transforming Power Of Affect: A Model For Accelerated Change, is the foundation for this model.

The paper below (and its corresponding model) was created by two of her students. To Fosha's combination of inter-relational therapy and attachment theory, the authors add an intra-relational model of working with attachment relationships between self states (parts, or subpersonalities).

The result is an excellent model for healing early and complex trauma in clients.

Building a Secure Internal Attachment: An Intra-relational Approach to Ego Strengthening and Emotional Processing with Chronically Traumatized Clients

Jerry Lamagna, LCSW
AEDP Institute Faculty
100 Chetwood Terrace
Fanwood, New Jersey, 07023
(908)-490-1449
jtandjl@comcast.net

Kari A. Gleiser, Ph.D.
AEDP Institute Senior Faculty
6 E. South Street
Hanover, NH 03755
(603)-643-0066
karig@alum.dartmouth.org

Abstract


In this paper, we introduce Intra-relational AEDP (I-R) as an attachment based experiential approach to trauma treatment. Integrating Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) (Fosha, 2000a, 2000b, 2002, 2003) with ego state methodology, I-R specifically seeks to help clients by: 1) fostering capacities for self regulation through shared states of affective resonance between therapist, client and dissociated self states, 2) facilitating authentic, open internal dialogue between self states which can alter engrained patterns of intra-psychic conflict and self punishment, 3) developing abilities for self reflection and emotional processing by comingling previously disowned affect and emotional memories with here and now experience, and 4) attending to positive affects evoked through experiences of transformation, selfcompassion, and self-affirmation. Drawing from object relations and attachment theory, I-R places particular emphasis on internal attachment relationships formed through interactions between the client’s subjective selves (internal subjects) and reflective selves (internal objects). Through visual imagery, internal dialogue and explicit relational techniques, I-R aims to develop this subjective-reflective dyad’s capacity for reciprocal attunement, resonance, and responsiveness, thereby fostering healing and psychological integration between the client and heretofore disavowed aspects of self.

Go read the whole article.

New Issue of the Integral Leadership Review

The August issue of the Integral Leadership Review is now online, and as always, there is a great collection of articles. There are reviews of two excellent books - The Postconventional Personality and Dialogical Self Theory.

Table of Contents — August 2011

Leading Comments: Conference Time and Deadlines
Leadership Quote: Peter Drucker

Notes from the Field

The Implications and Remarkable Moments of “Russian Davos”—Eugene Pustoshkin
South West Integral Group: Integral Alive Day with Gary Hawke—Tessa Martin
Reaching New Heights in Leadership Education: Report on the Annual Meeting of the Association of Leadership Educators—Eric Kaufman
Update and Future re Terri O’Fallon’s Research: Her talk at Seattle, WA, USA, June 14, 2011—Rev. Alia Zara Aurami-Sou
2^nd Integral Conference in Moscow: “Potential and Prospects of the Integral Approach”—Victor Shiryaev

Leadership Coaching Tip: Leading Change with Kegan – Barbara Alexander

Fresh Perspective: Integral International Development: Gail Hochachka and Michael Simpson—Russ Volckmann
Another Perspective:  Challenge in Mexico: A Conversation with Roberto Bonillaa—Russ Volckmann

Articles

The Business of Spirituality: A commentary on a presentation on Spiritual Intelligence and Integral Theory given by Cindy Wigglesworth to the London Integral Salon and EnlightNext, Wednesday 25^th May—Nick Shannon

Leadership is as Simple as A Child’s Game of Marbles: Transdisciplinarity, Learning, and Complexity in Fairsies, Keepsies and Mibs—Gaetano R. Lotrecchiano

Leading the 21st Century: The Conception-Aware, Object-Oriented Organization (A New View of Organizations & Human Action)—Bonnitta Roy and Jean Trudel

Generational Cycles, Saecula and Cities: how do Integral ARTISTS, Boomers, Gen X and Millennial Generations Impact City Calues and Policy Development?—Marilyn Hamilton and Cherlynn Beck

On Potential Repercussions of Mega Sports Events in Russia—Eugene Pustoshkin

Transdisciplinary Axiology: To Be or Not to Be?—Sue L. T. McGregor

The Psychosocial Change in Leadership in Italy—Massimo Bellotto

Precession and Integral Leadership—Christine McDougall

Thinking about Integral—Gary Hawke

Youth Empowerment and Youth Empowerment: The Building Blocks to a More Just and Sustainable Future—Tim Takechi

Leadership Cartoon: Mark Hill

Book Reviews

• Angela Pfaffenberger, Paul Marko, and Allan Combs (Editors), The Postconventional Personality: Assessing, Researching, and Theorizing Higher Development—Glen Rogers
• Hubert Hermans & Agnieszka Hermans-Konopka (2010)/ Dialogical Self Theory: Positioning and Counter-Positioning in Globalizing Society— John Rowan

Learner Paper
Organizational Archetypes and the Spiral Dynamics: How organizational Archetypes Manifest at Each Level of the Gravesian Value Systems—Jorge Taborga

Announcements: Nigeria, Netherland, United Kingdom, United States

Leadership Emerging

• Bruce J. Avolio. Full Range Leadership
• Thomas H. Lee. “Turning doctors into Leaders: Medicine is in for a radical changes as the old guard gives way to performance-driven teams,” Harvard Business Review
• Jena McGregor, “Why Imagining Success Can Make you Fail,” The Washington Post.
• Anne Nigten, ed. Real Products for Real People

CODA: The State of Integral

The Dalai Lama - The affairs of this lifetime are not that important

THE PATH TO BLISS
by H.H. the Dalai Lama,
translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa,
edited by Christine Cox
more...

Dalai Lama Quote of the Week


If you are totally concerned and preoccupied with the affairs of this lifetime, there is a great danger of causing your own downfall. If by such concern you were able to achieve the desired happiness, that is okay, but this is not the case.


We all let ourselves be caught in this web of preoccupation with the activities and confusion of this lifetime. Having too much worldly involvement ends in confusion. We spend our whole lives thinking that this might be better than that, I should do this, or perhaps something else is better and I should do that. If you reflect upon the underlying dissatisfaction, then you will be able to find that, well, after all, whatever they might be, the affairs of this lifetime are not that important, because they yield a limited benefit. This does not mean that you should not work for your own livelihood, but it does indicate that you should not be preoccupied with that alone. (p.107)


--from The Path to Bliss by H.H. the Dalai Lama, translated by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, edited by Christine Cox, published by Snow Lion Publications


The Path to Bliss • Now at 5O% off
(Good until August 26th).

‘The Illusions of Psychiatry’ - John Oldham, Daniel Carlat, Richard Friedman, and Andrew Nierenberg, reply by Marcia Angell

This is an interesting series of responses from some very well-known people in regard to two different articles about the current state of psychiatry. The original articles are both highly critical of modern psychiatry and its reliance on drugs. There are many who might agree, but the letters here are from people who also are critical of psychiatry, so it's informative.

‘The Illusions of Psychiatry’: An Exchange

August 18, 2011

John Oldham, Daniel Carlat, Richard Friedman, and Andrew Nierenberg, reply by Marcia Angell

In response to: 

The Illusions of Psychiatry from the July 14, 2011 issue

The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why? from the June 23, 2011 issue 

To the Editors:

In its June 23 edition, The New York Review chose to review three books that are highly critical of modern psychiatry. We regret that a more balanced approach was not taken.

Dr. Marcia Angell writes of a “raging epidemic” in mental illness, citing the fact that there are more individuals receiving disability payments for mental illnesses than ever before. While this is accurate, her article suggests that this is a false crisis that owes its existence to the discovery of psychotropic drugs starting in the 1950s. This creates the impression that Americans are overtreated for mental illnesses. Nothing could be further from the truth. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that currently only 36 percent of those who suffer from mental illnesses actually seek and receive treatment. This is especially concerning given the fact that comprehensive, biopsychosocial treatment of mental illnesses is increasingly effective, comparable to or at times greater than the effectiveness of treatment for many other medical disorders, such as heart disease and diabetes.

Dr. Angell and the authors she reviews also suggest that psychiatry, in general, regards mental illnesses through the reductionist lens of an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. Although psychotropic medications have been found to alter the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain, there is no consensus on whether these imbalances are causes of mental disorders or symptoms of them. The bottom line is that these medications often relieve the patient’s suffering, and this is why doctors prescribe them. It does not mean, as Dr. Angell suggests, that mental disorders were invented in order to create a market for psychotropic drugs. The disorders that these medications (and other therapies) treat have been around for all of recorded history. The difference is that today, thanks to medical and therapeutic advances, there is real help for those who suffer the devastating effects of mental illness.

John Oldham, M.D.

President, American Psychiatric Association

Houston, Texas

To the Editors:

In her two articles, “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?” [NYR, June 23] and “The Illusions of Psychiatry” [NYR, July 14], Marcia Angell takes aim at modern American psychiatry, and finds plenty of shortcomings. Her argument is correct in its essentials. Psychiatrists often overdiagnose disorders of questionable scientific validity, they have become overly fixated on medication solutions to life’s problems, and many have accepted a steady flow of drug industry money, creating so many conflicts of interest that it is impossible to know who we can trust.

But missing from her review is an unequivocal if perplexing truth about psychiatric drugs—on the whole, they work. Antipsychotics for schizophrenia, stimulants for ADHD, hypnotics for insomnia, benzodiazepines and SSRIs for anxiety disorders—in all these cases, drugs are robustly more effective than placebos in double-blind controlled trials. Even Robert Whitaker, in his Anatomy of an Epidemic, concedes that these drugs are effective in the short term—it is the potential long-term effects that he discusses. Whitaker makes the argument that used long-term, all psychiatric drugs are essentially poisonous to the brain and have led directly to skyrocketing rates of psychiatric disability. While his arguments are intriguing, I agree with Dr. Angell that there are significant weaknesses in the evidence he marshals.

Dr. Angell makes much of the fact that we do not understand the mechanism of mental illness, nor of the drugs we use to treat it. While this is true, it does not mean that the drugs are ineffective—only that as psychiatrists, we should stop overselling ourselves as possessors of a sophisticated neurochemical knowledge of our craft.

My chief criticism of Dr. Angell’s review is an uncritical acceptance of the premises in Irving Kirsch’s book, The Emperor’s New Drugs. Dr. Kirsch, in reviewing his lifetime of research on antidepressant efficacy, concludes that antidepressants are no more effective than placebo pills for depression. But his actual research demonstrates quite the opposite. In his meta-analysis of six drugs, he found that active drugs were, in fact, significantly more effective than placebo. Kirsch then dismisses this statistical difference as having no “clinical significance,” with which Dr. Angell concurs.

Other researchers disagree. For example, Erick Turner and colleagues (with no industry funding) conducted an even larger analysis, examining all available data, published and unpublished, on twelve of the most commonly used antidepressants. They found an almost identical benefit of drug over placebo as did Kirsch. While acknowledging that drug companies had boosted the apparent effectiveness of antidepressants by selective publication, they still found that, even including the negative data, all twelve antidepressants were statistically superior to placebo. Furthermore, in an editorial, they pointed out that Dr. Kirsch’s judgment about the lack of “clinical” significance was based on an arbitrary cut-off point suggested by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, a cut-off point with little if any scientific validity.

There is no question that among the medical professions, psychiatry is the most scientifically primitive. We have no more than the most rudimentary understanding of the pathophysiology of mental illness and we have resorted to tenuous and ever-shifting theories of how our treatments work. Dr. Angell’s review highlights these truths well, but at the same time gives short shrift to the very real benefits that we still provide our patients.

Daniel Carlat, M.D.

Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry

Tufts University School of Medicine

Boston, Massachusetts

Read the rest of the article.

Eat Like a Caveman? Field Notes from a Conference on the Paleo Diet

I generally support the Paleo diet approach to health and nutrition - aside from my unwillingness to give up cheese, Greek yogurt, or cottage cheese. As far as the rest is concerned, the diet has proven repeatedly to perform better than low-fat diets, vegetarian diets, and every other kind of diet in terms of improving metabolic disorders and blood lipid profiles. And it's easier than Atkins.

Eat Like a Caveman? Field Notes from a Conference on the Paleo Diet 

Matthew C. Nisbet on August 9, 2011

--Guest post by Patrick Riley, AoE Culture Correspondent

Here is a section of the longer article - the names given below contain links to their respective sites in the original article, so if you want to know more about them, go to Big Think.

By now you've heard of the Paleo Diet or the Caveman Diet, what Details magazine called one side in "an epic struggle" underway between "meat lovers and vegans." It generally refers to eating like our hunter-gather ancestors (and more recent tribes) who ate animals and vegetables - but little or no sugar, grains, legumes, vegetable oils or dairy (though many people prefer to ignore that last one) - and apparently weren't affected by obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer etc.

If it's known in the mainstream as yet another fad lifestyle favoring Atkins-sized portions of meat, lifting heavy things, and barefoot running, many of its practitioners aren't in it just for the grass-fed steak. They see it as a way to fix the planet, to make up for the processed food and the factory farming that has been our gift to the world along with pop culture and Levis. So while in some sense this was indeed a Comic-Con for the Vibram FiveFingers set, it was also a remarkable sign of our times.

Having just arrived in Southern California from an extended stay in Vietnam provided me with a perspective of the two ends of the eating spectrum.

In Vietnam, they eat healthily without even trying. They're rightfully proud of their customary cuisine in which every meal includes a balance of vegetables, meat and white rice. They have holidays where specific bitter or fermented foods are eaten to cleanse the system (though such foods are eaten regularly too). Sure, junk food is consumed, but at a level probably similar to that of the '60s or '70s in the U.S.

However, some Vietnamese people have started to accept both the standard Western thinking on nutrition, i.e. the low-fat, whole grain approach, and the Western reality of fast and processed foods. What's more, just like in the U.S., most of the meat consumed there is not from the local farm, it's from factories using feed imported from American agribusiness giants like Cargill. How else to feed a nation of 87 million people?

Back in the USA, at the other end of the spectrum, where the factory farm was invented and continues to thrive, there are, ironically, people who want to answer that question.

This is not exactly news, and it's not limited to this group: we're familiar with Whole Foods and Michael Pollan (whose The Omnivore's Dilemma I've just gotten around to reading). I'm not going to get Jack Shafer on my case by saying that Paleo eating is a "growing trend" but it does seem to have taken off in the past year and a half that I've been following it – and employing it to end several years of quasi-veganism that left me rather malnourished.

So this event, organized by two California-based researchers, was an opportune chance for nutrition big-wigs and popular bloggers alike to mingle with each other and those they influence. Held at UCLA, but not by UCLA, it mixed the scientific ("Heart Disease and Molecular Degeneration," presented by doctoral candidate Chris Masterjohn) with the practical ("MovNat: Evolutionarily natural fitness" by Erwan LeCorre).

Loren Cordain, PhD, was there to talk about the movement he helped popularize with his first book in 2000. Authors such as Michael Eades, MD, Mark Sisson and Robb Wolf put live faces to their own influential diet books. Health issues like the increasingly understood importance of good gut flora was touched on in presentations by bloggers Dr. BG (with Dr. Tim Gerstmar), and Melissa McEwan. Denise Minger, famous or infamous in certain circles for her in-depth statistics-heavy take-down of T. Colin Campbell's The China Study was a popular presenter. Paleo author Nora Gedgaudas was one of several to talk about the dangers of gluten but the only to advocate the less-popular approach of caloric restriction as the best bet for health and longevity.

THE HUMANIST - BOOK REVIEW: The Techno-Human Condition by Braden R. Allenby & Daniel Sarewitz

This book looks interesting - as regular readers know, I am not a fan of transhumanism, but I remain curious about their position and perspectives. On the other hand, the problem for me is that a LOT of books look interesting, so take that for what it's worth. My Amazon Wish List is VERY long.

BOOK REVIEW: The Techno-Human Condition

The Techno-Human Condition by Braden R. Allenby & Daniel Sarewitz

(The MIT Press, 2011), 192 pages, $24.95

Review by: Jende Andrew Huang

Published in the July / August 2011 Humanist

Growing up I always considered the interaction of humanity and technology presented in the original Star Trek series as a fairly accurate representation of the way things would someday go. Technology would continue to cocoon humanity while maintaining a strict boundary between the two. Then came the Next Generation’s Borg, an antagonistic cybernetic race that subsumed other species by implantation of technology into unwilling victims. Not until I encountered transhumanism did I realize that my earlier understanding of the relationship between humanity and technology might be off. Indeed, with the way things are going, our future may have more in common with the Borg.

The word “transhumanism” has been attributed to Julian Huxley who, among other things, was Humanist of the Year in 1962. In his 1957 book, New Bottles for New Wine, he wrote

The human species can, if it wishes, transcend itself—not just sporadically, an individual here in one way, an individual there in another way—but in its entirety, as humanity. We need a name for this new belief. Perhaps transhumanism will serve: man remaining man, but transcending himself, by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.

In the present, transhumanism is better understood as a movement of techno-enthusiasts who not only anticipate that emerging technologies will have the power to alter and enhance “the human condition,” but who very much embrace the idea. I’ve always been sympathetic to transhumanists—not simply because of their vision, but because it’s so easy to see how their techo-enthusiasm would, in the minds of others, overshadow the serious thought they were putting into the ways emerging technologies could fundamentally (or subtly) alter human existence. This misunderstanding of transhumanism is exemplified in a new book, The Techno-Human Condition, by authors Braden R. Allenby and Daniel Sarewitz, both of Arizona State University.

As they define it, there are two separate “dialogues” concerning transhumanism, the first being “the ways in which living humans use technologies to change themselves, for example, through replacement of worn-out knees and hips, or enhancement of cognitive function through pharmaceuticals.” The second such dialogue is where the authors’ main interest lies. Transhumanism, they contend, is a “cultural construct that considers the relations between humanness and social and technological change.”

These two dialogues give rise to a “definitional ambiguity,” which leads Allenby and Sarewitz to conclude that coming up with a more precise definition for transhumanism is less important than dealing with the implications of this ambiguity.

Geshe Sonam Rinchen - Those who harm us are in particular need of our love and compassion

 

THE BODHISATTVA VOW
by Geshe Sonam Rinchen,
trans. and ed. by Ruth Sonam
more...

Dharma Quote of the Week

Why should we want to help our enemies or to give them happiness? Here are various useful ideas to consider. One approach is to think that the harm they have done us is, in fact, the result of our own past negative actions through which we have set ourselves up as a target for their harm. We could also consider how those who harm us are totally driven by their disturbing emotions.

If someone in our family, someone we love dearly, becomes insane and tries to harm us, we wouldn't think of taking revenge but would try to help them regain a normal state of mind. Living beings, our mothers, are crazed by their disturbing emotions. Those who harm us are in particular need of our love and compassion. (p.52)

--from The Bodhisattva Vow by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, translated and edited by Ruth Sonam, published by Snow Lion Publications

The Bodhisattva Vow • Now at 5O% off
(Good until August 26th).

io9 - Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Sensory Deprivation Tanks

I was fortunate during my first stint in grad school to have a roommate who owned a sensory deprivation tank - we just called it the float tank. I did many sessions in that watery cave, some of them simply using breath meditations, some using holotropic breathwork techniques, and some using ethneogens.

On more than one occasion I came out of the tank feeling incoherent (in a rational sense) and dissociative. But given the chance, I would do it again in an instant - no hesitation. It's a phenomenal tool for exploring inner space. 

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Sensory Deprivation Tanks

By Robert T. Gonzalez
August  12, 2011
 
On Fringe, a sensory deprivation tank can activate your mental powers and even open a gateway to another universe. But what can floating in a dark warm tank do for you in real life? And why would people even want to do such a thing?

The sensory deprivation tank — a temperature-regulated, salt-water filled, soundproof, lightproof tank that can isolate its occupant from numerous forms of sensory input all at once — has gone by many names over the years, but its overall design and purpose have remained largely unchanged: to find out what your brain does when it's shoved into a box all by itself and left alone for a while. Here's the complete lowdown on sensory deprivation tanks.

Back in the old days, if you wanted to experience sensory deprivation you wore a blindfold or stuck your fingers in your ears like everybody else. But that all changed in 1954, when neuroscientist John C. Lilly dared to question what would happen if the mind was deprived of as much external stimulus as possible.



In the original deprivation tank, you were suspended in 160 gallons of water with everything but the top of your head completely submerged. A nightmarish-looking "black-out" mask, similar to the ones pictured here, supplied you with air and blocked any light from reaching your eyes. The water and air temperature were kept at the same temperature as your skin, roughly 34 degrees celsius.

The masks were eventually done away with (apparently people found having their heads wrapped in latex distracting), and the requirement of total submersion along with them; instead, the water was saturated with 800 pounds of Epsom salt, which made the water so dense that you could float with your entire body at or near its surface in spite of its shallow depth.



Inside the tank there is no light, and therefore no sense of vision. You experience the kind of quiet that allows you to hear your muscles tense, your heart beat, and your eyelids close. The extreme buoyancy of the water lends your environment an almost zero-gravity quality. The lack of a temperature differential plays with your ability to perceive where your body ends and where the water and air begin.

But then what happens? What do people experience while they're in the tank? Can an isolation chamber really transport you to a parallel universe like it does on Fringe?

Read the rest of the article.

Through the Wormhole: How Does the Universe Work?

Here is another installment of Morgan Freeman's Through the Wormhole - this time he takes a look at how the universe works and attempts to come up with a unified theory - the most discussed attempt being string theory.

A big tip of the hat to Top Documentary Films, who have been making these episodes (and tons of other great documentaries) available at their site.

Through the Wormhole: How Does the Universe Work?

With the help of massive machines called particle accelerators, scientists studied the subatomic realm and made discoveries about the forces that operate at that level. But the search for a comprehensive explanation still continues.

In particular, physicists have sought to find a way to reconcile Einstein’s model of space-time, which seems to work best when applied to big objects like stars and galaxies, and the theory of quantum mechanics, which offers an explanation of electromagnetic and nuclear forces that makes sense of reality at the tiniest level.

In recent years, some have proposed a novel solution called string theory, in which tiny particles are loops that vibrate like violin strings in a multidimensional space.

In the mathematical calculations that make up string theory, gravitation is a byproduct of the process. While string theory offers a possible solution to the ultimate question of the ages, there’s a hitch: Scientists have not yet found a way to test the theory experimentally to prove that it’s more than just an elegant idea. List of all episodes here: Through The Wormhole.

Watch the full documentary now (playlist – 42 minutes)

David Schimke - Cooperation’s Genetic Code

This is a cool article from Utne Reader, originally published in the Harvard Business Review.

Cooperation’s Genetic Code

8/15/2011

by David Schimke

The assumption that human beings are inherently selfish—interested in the greater good only when it serves their own interests—has long-influenced capitalism’s most prominent thinkers (Adam Smith, Alan Greenspan, Gordon Gekko) and served as a litmus test for modern America’s so-called political realists. Employees are best motivated with bags of carrots and a big stick. Without law there is no order, and without the threat of punishment there is no law. We’re all out for number one. Greed is good. Dogs eat dogs.

Just turn on the news anytime of the day or night. The anecdotal evidence is overwhelming.

A compelling counter-narrative is emerging, however. In the latest issue of Harvard Business Review, Yochai Benkler points to “recent research in evolutionary biology, psychology, sociology, political science, and experimental economics [that suggests] people behave far less selfishly than most assume.”

“Evolutionary biologists and psychologists have even found neural and, possibly, genetic evidence of a human predisposition to cooperate,” he writes.

In the piece, “The Unselfish Gene,” Benkler, a Harvard law professor and author of The Penguin and the Leviathan: How Cooperation Triumphs over Self-Interest (Crown Business, 2011), aims to reach executives and managers who he believes must abandon traditional motivational strategies in favor of techniques that “rely on engagement, communication, and a sense of common purpose and identity.” Along the way, though, he points to scientific discoveries and psychological theories that will engage any reader who pines for collective solutions to common problems.

In one cited experiment revolving around cooperative behavior, for example, a majority of subjects consistently behaved cooperatively (some when treated reciprocally, others even when it came at a personal cost).  In another revealing set of studies, participants showed that traditional incentives, such as monetary awards and the threat of punishment, actually hampered productivity and discouraged engagement. This can be explained in part by neuroscience that shows that cooperation, when chosen freely, simply makes people feel good.

“No, we are not all Mother Teresa; if we were, we wouldn’t have heard of her,” Benkler says.

“However, a majority of human beings are more willing to be cooperative, trustworthy, and generous than the dominant model has permitted us to assume. If we recognize that, we can build efficient systems by relying on our better selves rather than optimizing our worst. We can do better.”

Source: Harvard Business Review 

The Last Journey Of A Genius: Richard Feynman Dreams of Tannu Tuva

I saw this film, or one like it (I remember the title "Tuva or Bust" for some reason), many years ago and have wanted to see it again ever since. I was fascinated by the arc of this story and the final outcome. Very cool find from Open Culture.

The Last Journey Of A Genius: Richard Feynman Dreams of Tannu Tuva

August 15th, 2011

In 1989, PBS’ NOVA aired The Last Journey of a Genius, a television film that documents the final days of the great physicist Richard Feynman and his obsession with traveling to Tannu Tuva, a state outside of outer Mongolia, which then remained under Soviet control. For the better part of a decade, Feynman and his friend Ralph Leighton schemed to make their way to Tannu Tuva, but Cold War politics always frustrated their efforts. The video runs roughly 50 minutes and features an ailing Feynman talking about his wanderlust and their maneuverings. He died two weeks later, having never made the trip, though Ralph Leighton and Feyman’s daughter Michelle later landed in their Shangri-La. Her journey was recorded by the Russian service of the BBC. The film now appears in the Documentary section of our collection of Free Movies Online.

Book Recommendation - Self Psychology: An Introduction, by Peter Lessem

I recently read Self Psychology: An Introduction, by Peter Lessem, for my psychoanalytic/relational psychology study group. We are focusing heavily on Heinz Kohut's Self Psychology in this 10-week cycle (without reading Kohut directly) and this was the first book. After reading this, I consider myself a Self Psychologist, as part of an overall integral approach.

The cool thing, for me, is that it ties in perfectly with attachment theory, ego states (parts) work, and a trauma-focused system for working with my current client-base (sexual abuse survivors).

I would love to post a million quotes from the book, but I found this old book review that gives you a good sense of the book. Highly recommended for anyone doing therapy and especially those working with survivors of childhood trauma (physical, emotional, sexual, or neglect).

This comes from the APA's Division of Psychoanalysis:

Self Psychology: An Introduction (Book Review)

Author: Lessem, Peter A.
Publisher: Jason Aronson
Reviewed By: Michael Gawrysiak, Fall 2008, XXVIII, No. 4, pp. 60-61

In Self Psychology, readers will be impressed by the ease and coherence with which Peter Lessem covers the breadth of self psychological theory. As a graduate student in clinical psychology, it is not often that one finds a book within the psychodynamic discipline that so clearly and concisely introduces both the origins and contemporary qualities of a clinical theory. Given the confusing and often inaccessible tone that can characterize the writing style of Heinz Kohut, this book is more than welcome as an appropriate stepping stone to his original works. I found that Lessem’s clear exposition of the central tenets of self psychology enabled me to delve more deeply into the writings of other self psychology theorists.

Lessem begins the book by introducing Heinz Kohut and tracing his deviation from traditional psychoanalytic theory. His re-conceptualization of narcissism marked an important milestone in the discipline. Kohut was a highly regarded Freudian analyst who had achieved the highest ranking one could as a training analyst at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. Well versed in traditional Freudian psychoanalysis, it was not until his analysis of Miss F. that Kohut was put in the unique position of having to modify the conceptualization of narcissism. He did this to more fully accommodate his analysand’s clinical symptomatology and to develop a more accurate case conceptualization. In response to his analysand, Kohut diverged from the pejorative view that narcissism was a problematic product of infantile self-absorption needing to be outgrown. Kohut adopted the perspective that narcissism was something that needed to be nurtured throughout one’s development. It becomes clear from the reading that Kohut conceptualized narcissism as a vital personal resource that, when appropriately matured, facilitates the capacity for empathy, humor, creativity, and self-esteem. Kohut was impelled to formulate developmental aspects of narcissism in what he called the idealized parent imago and the grandiose-exhibitionistic self. Lessem clearly and concisely outlines the concepts idealized parent imago and grandiose-exhibitionistic self as different facets of development required for healthy maturation of narcissism.

After providing a strong foundation of narcissism from a Freudian and then Kohutian perspective, Lessem moves into a discussion of Kohut’s conceptualization of the self and selfobject relations, positing the selfobject concept as foundational for self psychology theory. Lessem articulates that the self is best understood as a potential that actualizes only in response to appropriate selfobject experiences, which occur throughout childhood, adolescence, adulthood or within the dynamics of psychotherapy. The book outlines how the self emerges in response to the interplay of variables related to an individual’s innate biological features, and how selfobject needs are selectively responded to by prominent attachment figures. Lessem cogently discusses each of the three primary selfobject needs posited by Kohut: the mirroring, idealization and twinship or alter ego selfobject needs. As he articulates the ways in which these needs can facilitate or obstruct psychological development, he unpacks the meaning of selfobject needs, the experiences of each need, and how they do and do not manifest within the therapeutic dyad. Moreover, Lessem expands one’s exposure to the broader and more recent developments in the field of self psychology. By incorporating contemporary authors who have extended the theory by elaborating on guidelines for treatment, as well as those authors who have suggested revisions, Lessem succeeds in portraying self psychology in a modern light.

As a central and fundamental concept in self psychology, empathy is given a thorough discussion in the chapter following narcissism, self and selfobject relations. Kohut, in his most recent publication on empathy, defined it as “the capacity to think and feel oneself into the inner life of another person. It is our lifelong ability to experience what another person experiences” (Kohut 1984, Page 82). Lessem describes the Kohutian perspective on empathy in a way that is readily digestible and easily understood with regards to attempting to apply it within one’s clinical practice. This chapter concludes with a brief discussion of recent conceptualizations of empathy outlining the advent of understanding empathy as a two-person interactive process.

As a graduate student, I found the most interesting parts of the book to be the chapters focusing on conceptualization of growth and therapeutic action, psychopathology and clinical action. Lessem skillfully and informatively covers how self psychology conceptualized the primary objective of treatment as strengthening one’s sense of self. He clearly demonstrates the use of the selfobject transference relationship as a vehicle of change, to mobilize one towards corrective emotional experiences. Lessem also adeptly covers Kohut’s theory of optimal frustration and transmuting internalization and how these principles apply to one’s therapeutic practice. He further goes on to discuss an understanding of Kohut’s mirroring, idealizing, and twinship selfobject needs, how they are a transferential perspective within the therapy, and ultimately how they are used as mutative properties in service of therapeutic change. As an aspiring clinician, these chapters were particularly helpful in cogently spelling out Kohut’s theory of change within psychotherapy. Moreover, Kohut’s theory was further contextualized into contemporary self psychology through Lessem’s brief elaboration on recent critiques and alternative theoretical explanations of structure building provided by other self psychologists.
Another quality of this book that I found myself appreciating was the respect paid to those clinical theorists who, in many ways, anticipated self psychology. Although Kohut rarely acknowledged if, how, or by whom he was influenced, his ideas exhibited a strong similarity to the concepts articulated by earlier British Object Relations theorists. In the appendix of this book, Ferenczi, Balint, Fairbairn, and Winnicott are all discussed with regards to how their theoretical contributions to psychoanalysis plausibly informed the development of self psychology, or at the minimum anticipated it in many ways. Reading about the theoretical similarities these clinicians propounded upon prior to the advent of self psychology further contextualized numerous ideas Kohut outlined in self psychology.

This book is excellent for anyone interested in quickly developing a broad understanding of the emergence of self psychology, its developmental history, and some subsequent theoretical extensions. Broad in scope, this introduction provides a thorough foundation from which one can begin to move deeper into self psychology. Lessem’s book has been used as required preliminary reading in a graduate student book club focusing on the original work of Kohut. Graduate students who participated in this group agreed that reading this book served as an effective primer in preparation for Kohut, as it make easily accessible the evolution of self psychology concepts. As a graduate student in clinical psychology pursuing edification of psychodynamic theory and psychoanalysis, this book was much appreciated. It is highly recommended for graduate students interested in self psychology or for practitioners wishing to become familiar with the field.

References

Kohut, H. (1984). How does analysis cure? Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Michael Gawrysiak