Embodied empathy and mirror neurons- their impact on the therapist’s role Jean Knox

In 1816 William Lawrence, newly appointed professor of anatomy stated bluntly that the development of the physiological organization of the human body can be observed unbroken ‘from an oyster to a man’,

Schelling: All physical objects ‘aspired to become something higher Schelling: All physical objects ‘aspired to become something higher. There was a ‘world soul’ constantly evolving higher life forms and levels of consciousness in all matter, animate or inanimate. All nature had a tendency to move towards a higher state.

Coleridge: the life principle consisted in an inherent drive towards ‘individuation, which moved up the chain of creation and finally manifested itself in the unique form of human consciousness which included the moral conscience and the spiritual identity or soul

The resistance to the concept of human evolution arises from the fear that our shared ancestry with other animals makes embodied interaction and relationship, which we share with many other species, as fundamental to our human identity as our capacity for mental representation.

Freud: where id was there shall ego be Freud: where id was there shall ego be. Richard Webster : Freud continued to regard sexual and sadistic impulses not as an intrinsic part of the ‘conscious soul’ but as a residue of man’s animal past which had now been relegated to the ‘unconscious’.

Intersubjectivity: the embodied relational matrix out of which each individual human being both emerges and in which he or she also remains embedded

both observation and imitation of the facial expression of emotions not only activate the same facial muscles but also activate the same group of brain structures, a mirror matching mechanism. This enables us to recognize the intention behind the facial expression

The mirror neuron system automatically prompts the observer to resonate with the emotional state of another individual and is the basis not only for motor imitation but also for the experience of emotional contagion, the ‘feeling with’ the other person, which Racker called concordant countertransference (Racker 1968)

Michael Fordham: syntonic countertransference ‘through introjection, an analyst perceives a patient’s unconscious processes in himself and so experiences them long before the patient is near becoming conscious of them’.

The handing over of an Oktoberfest beer mug is a prime example of joint action. Rather than imitate the observed action (grip), generation of a complementary action is appropriate.

Strictly congruent mirror neurons, constituting approximately one third of the MN population, respond to identical observed and executed actions and may be critical to imitation. The remaining two thirds of MNs (broadly congruent) respond to non-identical observed and executed actions and should be relevant for complementary actions.

Grinberg counter-identification: which occurs when, in response to patients’ projective identifications, analysts react (perhaps defensively) to their own countertransference responses

Kenneth Lambert warns of enactments in the countertransference when the analyst becomes caught up in talion law and unconsciously treats attack with counterattack when identified with the patient’s hostile inner objects.

The “active ingredients” of therapy are not necessarily those presumed by the theory or treatment model. For this reason, randomized controlled trials that evaluate a therapy as a “package” do not necessarily provide support for its theoretical premises or the specific interventions that derive from them. (Shedler 2010, p. 103)

We need to move from theory-driven models of clinical practice and training to an approach based on research from a range of disciplines that together give us a coherent and integrated account of the psychological, emotional and interpersonal functioning of the human psyche

It is essential that clinicians understand the involuntary power of embodied simulation, that it operates automatically, determining our embodied responses entirely outside our conscious awareness and without any need to mentally simulate of the other’s internal state or take the perspective of the other through introspection.

a key component in psychotherapy works is through the non-verbal, automatic, unconscious mutual embodied simulation between patient and therapist that arises from mirror neuron activity.