The historical Freud and 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

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

Frontiers

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

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)

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"