School of Psychological Sciences

The relationship between puberty and social emotion processing

by Geoff Bird

Goddings A-L., Burnett Heyes S., Bird G., Viner R.M., & Blakemore S-J.

The social brain undergoes developmental change during adolescence, and pubertal hormones are hypothesised to... more The social brain undergoes developmental change during adolescence, and pubertal hormones are hypothesised to contribute to this development. We used fMRI to explore how pubertal indicators (salivary concentrations of testosterone, oestradiol and DHEA; pubertal stage; menarcheal status) relate to brain activity during a social emotion task. 42 females aged 11.1 to 13.7 years underwent fMRI scanning while reading scenarios pertaining either to social emotions, which require the representation of another person’s mental states, or to basic emotions, which do not. Pubertal stage and menarcheal status were used to assign girls to early or late puberty groups. Across the entire sample, the contrast between social versus basic emotion resulted in activity within the social brain network, including dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), the posterior superior temporal sulcus, and the anterior temporal cortex (ATC) in both hemispheres. Increased hormone levels (independent of age) were associated with higher left ATC activity during social emotion processing. More advanced age (independent of hormone levels) was associated with lower DMPFC activity during social emotion processing. Our results suggest functionally dissociable effects of pubertal hormones and age on the adolescent social brain.

The Standard Edition ?

by Ayla Michelle Demir

The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud

The Standard Edition of the... more The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud

The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud is a complete edition of the writings of the founder of Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud. It was translated from the German under the general editorship of James Strachey in collaboration with Anna Freud and assisted by Alix Strachey and Alan Tyson. The Standard Edition (usually abbreviated as SE) consists of 24 volumes and it was originally published by The Hogarth Press in London in 1956-1974 in collaboration with The Institute of Psychoanalysis. Unlike the German Gesammelte Werke, the English translation, which is situated within the British School of Psychoanalysis, contains critical footnotes by the Anglo-American editors. However, the British translation has been criticized by Continental European psychoanalysts, who understand and interpret Freud’s original writings differently from the British understanding and translation presented in the SE.

Ayla Michelle Demir, 03/2012.

“You can’t kid a kidder”: Association between production and detection of deception in an interactive deception task

by Geoff Bird

Wright, G.R.T., Berry, C.J., & Bird, G. (2012). "You can't kid a kidder": Interaction between production and detection of deception in an interactive deception task. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, (6), 00087

Both the ability to deceive others, and the ability to detect deception, have long been proposed to confer an... more Both the ability to deceive others, and the ability to detect deception, have long been proposed to confer an evolutionary advantage. Deception detection has been studied extensively, and the finding that typical individuals fare little better than chance in detecting deception is one of the more robust in the behavioral sciences. Surprisingly, little research has examined individual differences in lie-production ability. As a consequence, as far as we are aware, no previous study has investigated whether there exists an association between the ability to lie successfully and the ability to detect lies. Furthermore, only a minority of studies have examined deception as it naturally occurs; in a social, interactive setting. The present study therefore explored the relationship between these two facets of deceptive behavior by employing a novel competitive interactive deception task. For the first time, signal-detection theory was used to measure performance in both the detection and production of deception. A significant relationship was found between the deception-related abilities; those who could accurately detect a lie were able to produce statements that others found difficult to classify as deceptive or truthful. Furthermore, neither ability was related to measures of intelligence or emotional ability. We therefore suggest the existence of an underlying deception-general ability that varies across individuals.

Contextual Biases in the Interpretation of Auditory Evidence

by Nick Lange

Freud on the Nature of Science

by Ayla Michelle Demir

Freud, Sigmund. (1957) Instincts and their Vicissitudes (1915), Vol. 14, On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Translated from the German under the General Editorship of James Strachey, in collaboration with Anna Freud and assisted by Alix Strachey and Alan Tyson. The Hogarth Press and The Institute of Psychoanalysis, London. p.117

the psychologist

by Ayla Michelle Demir

the psychologist, vol. 25 no. 1 january 2012
The British Psychological Society more the psychologist, vol. 25 no. 1 january 2012
The British Psychological Society www.bps.org.uk www.thepsychologist.org.uk



The Impossible Professions

"Do you believe in The Unconcious?"

Dr. Prof. Jacques Alain-Miller, Lacanian Psychoanalyst/Scholar
Translator/General Editor of The Seminar of Jacques Lacan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwrYXfiu1o4&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2emnIlOhfzc&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vCTVk69S_A&feature=player_embedded


How Psychoanalysis 'Relates' to Neuro Science and Psychiatry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LXnZ0-8KmQ&feature=channel_video_title

Dr. Prof. Peter Fonagy, The British Psychoanalytical Society, UCL Psychoanalysis Unit and the Anna Freud Centre.



References

Freud Museum http://www.freud.org.uk
Anna Freud Centre http://www.annafreud.org
The British Psychological Society http://www.bps.org.uk
UCL Psychoanalysis Unit http://www.ucl.ac.uk/psychoanalysis
The Institute of Psychoanalysis http://www.psychoanalysis.org.uk
British Psychoanalytic Council http://www.psychoanalytic-council.org
The Site for Contemporary Psychoanalysis http://www.the-site.org.uk
Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research (CFAR) http://www.cfar.org.uk
London Society of the New Lacanian School http://www.londonsociety-nls.org.uk
The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust http://www.tavistockandportman.nhs.uk

Addiction Is Narcissism

by Ayla Michelle Demir

The Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Positions in the Object Relations theory of Melanie Klein.

by Ayla Michelle Demir

The Life and Death Instincts in Kleinian Object Relations Theory.

by Ayla Michelle Demir

This short essay on the psychical operations of the Life and Death Instincts, as seen in the Object Relations theories... more This short essay on the psychical operations of the Life and Death Instincts, as seen in the Object Relations theories of Melanie Klein, was my first glance at Psychoanalytic Instinct Theory, studied and written in the Spring of 2008. Three years later, in the Autumn of 2011, I was in possession of the entire 24 volumes of The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, at my home and able to study them at leisure. A Psychoanalysis research associate on the Psychoanalysis, Literature and Practice Seminar Series at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, suggested I read Freud’s essay the Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Chapter 1 in Volume 18 of the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud.

To my dismay the Beyond the Pleasure Principle chaper 1 of volume 18 is a very long essay indeed in 7 parts, but I was curious and had a desire to explore Freud’s writings as it felt like an adventure. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Part 5 of the Beyond the Pleasure Principle essay is where Freud lays down the fundamental components of his Instinct Theory. My essay attached here is British psychoanalyst Melanie Klein’s interpretation, development and use of some of the possible psychical mechanisms and processes that can be said to result from Freud’s Instinct Theories. In this Abstract (also attached as an Appendix to my Kleinian, Life and Death Instincts in Object Relations Theory essay), I am tempted to summarize Freud’s actual Instinct Theory itself, as described in Part 5 of Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Vol. 18, p.34-43, as I have never heard it discussed or even mentioned in any Psychoanalytic context and I think it merits attention, especially considering the current Environmental zeitgeist and hegemony that we are all being subjected to.

(Instinct Is Conservative - Journal Article on Freud's Instinct Theory uploaded as a separate word doc.)

In comparison with Klein’s use of Instinct theory, it is plainly evident that she was interested in the functions of instincts as they can be seen operating in everyday life and death experiences and relations, while Freud was much more interested in the very nature of instinct itself. I hope my summary of Freud’s Instinct Theory will show how deep and wide variation in Psychoanalytic theorizing and practice is and how open and attentive Psychoanalytic inquiry and investigation is to an individual theorist’s inherent psychical constitution and conditioned psychodynamics, born of their inner personal/subjective life and death experiences, their external relations with significant others and the external collective conditions that individuals are subjected to. People, individuals/subjects, instinctively find, perceive, understand and even believe what they desire to know and this is one of the reasons why every reader/thinker is biased and projects onto and conditions a text with their own needs, ideas, prejudices, hopes, wishes and delusions. Every past thought and feeling is reawakened and modified by fresh experience through the cycles of time. I certainly can be accused of spinning Freud’s Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Part 5) text to suit my own interests and purposes, just as Melanie Klein took Freud’s ideas where she and her colleagues in the British School of Psychoanalysis (that was not yet formed at that time) were heading. Individuals have their own agenda, but can’t achieve it without others, as the Psychoanalytic theories of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan have made exceptionally clear, in his own way, for his individual purposes and for the purposes of the collective (professional, social, political, etc.) ideologies that he chose to cathect. There can be no Self, whatever you want to call it - individual, person, human being, human organism, etc. - without an Other, because of the function of the I.

Lacanian Psychoanalytic Economics

by Ayla Michelle Demir

Jacques Lacan (1901–1981)


1 + 1 = 2 more Jacques Lacan (1901–1981)


1 + 1 = 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN1kH-MGm2c&feature=share


"Do you recognize me?" Jacques Lacan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWvtER7NNtY



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan

Training Social Cognition: From Imitation to Theory of Mind

by Geoff Bird

Santiesteban, I., White, S., Cook, J., Gilbert, S., Heyes, C., & Bird, G. (in press). Training Social Cognition: From Imitation to Theory of Mind. Cognition

Evidence for successful socio-cognitive training in typical adults is rare. This study attempted to improve Theory of... more Evidence for successful socio-cognitive training in typical adults is rare. This study attempted to improve Theory of Mind (ToM) and visual perspective taking in healthy adults by training participants to either imitate or to inhibit imitation. Twenty-four hours after training, all participants completed tests of ToM and visual perspective taking. The group trained to inhibit their tendency to imitate showed improved performance on the visual perspective-taking test, but not the ToM test. Neither imitation training, nor general inhibition training, had this effect. These results support a novel theory of social cognition suggesting that the same self-other discrimination process underlies imitation inhibition and perspective taking. Imitation, perspective taking and ToM are all pro-social processes – ways in which we reach out to others. Therefore, it is striking that perspective taking can be enhanced by suppressing imitation; to understand another, sometimes we need, not to get closer, but to pull away.

Heightened neural reactivity to threat in child victims of family violence. Current Biology

by Geoff Bird

McCrory E.J., De Brito, S.A., Sebastian, C.L., Mechelli, A., Bird, G., Kelly, P.A., Viding, E. (in press) Heightened neural reactivity to threat in child victims of family violence. Current Biology

Exposure to family violence affects a significant minority of children: estimates of physical abuse range from 4 to... more Exposure to family violence affects a significant minority of children: estimates of physical abuse range from 4 to 16%, while intimate partner violence affects between 8 and 25% of children. These maltreatment experiences represent a form of environmental stress that significantly increases risk of later psychopathology, including anxiety. To date no functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have probed the neural correlates of emotional processing in children exposed to family violence. Previous psychological and electrophysiological studies indicate a selective hypervigilance to angry cues in physically abused children, which is in turn associated with elevated levels of anxiety. fMRI research has demonstrated increased reactivity of the anterior insula (AI) and amygdala to angry faces in individuals with anxiety disorder, and in psychiatrically healthy soldiers exposed to combat, making these regions plausible neural candidates for adaptation to threat. We demonstrated that children exposed to family violence (with normative levels of anxiety) show increased AI and amygdala reactivity in response to angry, but not sad faces. While such enhanced reactivity to a biologically salient threat cue may represent an adaptive response to sustained environmental danger, it may also constitute a latent neurobiological risk factor increasing vulnerability to psychopathology.

List of Short Psychoanalytic Psychology Essays by Ayla Michelle Demir

by Ayla Michelle Demir

List of Short Psychoanalytic Psychology Essays by Ayla Michelle Demir

July 2011
Exploring... more List of Short Psychoanalytic Psychology Essays by Ayla Michelle Demir

July 2011
Exploring Creativity Psychoanalytically:
Freud on the Nature of Creativity. 3000 words
Klein on the Nature of Creativity. 3000 words
The Affect of Creative Art 1500 words

December 2010
Introduction to Lacan: Consider the main features of Freud’s concept of the Ego. In what ways did Lacan’s ideas on the Formation of the Subject depart from Freud’s? 3000 words

July 2010
Psychoanalysis and Art: Using Psychoanalytic ideas discuss a work of Art - Man in the Tree Automatically produced Surreal Watercolour Painting by Ayla Michelle. 3000 words

March 2010
Psychoanalysis, Leadership and Organisation: A Review of Freudian and Kleinian Psychoanalytic Theories of Group Psychology. 3000 words

March 2008
Kleinian Object Relations Theories: The Role of the Life and Death Instincts in Kleinian Object Relations Theory. 3000 words

December 2007
Kleinian Object Relations Theories: Describe the Paranoid-Schizoid and Depressive Positions. 3000 words

July 2007
Loss, Longing and Creativity, Psychoanalysis and Literature: Discuss Loss of Self in Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. 3000 words

March 2007
The Freudian Foundations of Psychoanalysis: Describe and give examples of Defence Mechanisms in Everyday Life. 3000 words

December 2006
The Freudian Foundations of Psychoanalysis: Describe and Evaluate Josef Breuer’s case of Anna O. 3000 words

July 2006
Jung and Analytical Psychology: How does a study of Alchemy, enhance our understanding of Unconscious Processes and Carl Jung’s concept of Individuation. 3000 words

January 2006
Narcissism, Depression and Authenticity: Describe the links between Freudian and Jungian theories of Narcissism in understanding Sex Addiction. 3000 words

December 2005
The Meaning of Myths: The Myth of Persephone. 1500 words

Cook, J., & Bird, G. (in press). Atypical Social Modulation of Imitation in Autism Spectrum Conditions. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

by Geoff Bird

Appropriate modulation of imitation according to social context is important for successful social interaction. In the... more Appropriate modulation of imitation according to social context is important for successful social interaction. In the present study we subliminally primed high-functioning adults with ASC and age- and IQ-matched controls with either a pro- or non- social attitude. Following priming, an automatic imitation paradigm was used to acquire an index of imitation. Whereas imitation levels were higher for pro-socially primed relative to non-socially primed control participants, there was no difference between pro- and non- socially primed individuals with ASC. We conclude that high-functioning adults with ASC demonstrate atypical social modulation of imitation. Given the importance of imitation in social interaction we speculate that difficulties with the modulation of imitation may contribute to the social problems characteristic of ASC.

The Affect of Creative Art

by Ayla Michelle Demir

Kleinian Psychoanalytic Object Relations theories on the Nature of Creativity.

by Ayla Michelle Demir

Freud's Psychoanalytic theories on the Nature and Functions of Creativity.

by Ayla Michelle Demir

A compelling body of evidence indicates that observing a task-irrelevant action makes the execution  of that action more likely. However, it remains unclear whether this ‘automatic imitation’ effect is  indeed automatic or whether the imitative action is voluntary. The present study tested the  automaticity of automatic imitation by asking whether it occurs in a strategic context where it reduces  payoffs. Participants were required to play Rock-Paper-Scissors, with the aim of achieving as many  wins as possible, while either one or both players were blindfolded. While the frequency of draws in  the blind-blind condition was precisely that expected at chance, the frequency of draws in the blind-  sighted condition was significantly elevated. Specifically, the execution of either a rock or scissors  gesture by the blind player was predictive of an imitative response by the sighted player. That  automatic imitation emerges in a context where imitation reduces payoffs accords with its ‘automatic’  description, and implies that these effects are more akin to involuntary than to voluntary actions.  These data represent the first evidence of automatic imitation in a strategic context, and challenge the  abstraction from physical aspects of social interaction typical in economic and game theory.

by Geoff Bird

All papers now available on my Birkbeck website

by Geoff Bird

Psychoanalysis & Art: Unconscious Automatic Watercolour Painting and Analysis

by Ayla Michelle Demir