Unconscious prioritization for face-to-face people.

One central question in the scientific and philosophical study of consciousness is regarding the scope of human consciousness. There is a lively debate as to whether high-level information integration is necessarily dependent on consciousness. This study presents a new form of unconscious integration based on the facingness between two individuals. Using a breaking continuous flash suppression paradigm, Experiments 1-3 found that two facing human heads got a privilege in breaking into awareness compared to nonfacing pairs. Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that the breakthrough difference between facing and nonfacing pairs could not be attributed to low-level or mid-level factors. Experiments 6, 7a, and 7b showed that the unconscious priority of facing pairs was significantly diminished when the holistic processing of the two agents was disrupted. Experiments 8-11 demonstrated that the advantage of facing pairs was only observable for human agents and not for daily objects, directional arrows, or nonhuman animals. These findings have critical implications for better understanding the scope of human consciousness and the origins of social vision. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Temporal windows of unconscious processing cannot easily be disrupted.

Conscious perception is preceded by long periods of unconscious processing. These periods are crucial for analyzing temporal information and for solving the many ill-posed problems of vision. An important question is what starts and ends these windows and how they may be interrupted. Most experimental paradigms do not offer the methodology required for such investigation. Here, we used the sequential metacontrast paradigm, in which two streams of lines, expanding from the center to the periphery, are presented, and participants are asked to attend to one of the motion streams. If several lines in the attended motion stream are offset, the offsets are known to integrate mandatorily and unconsciously, even if separated by up to 450 ms. Using this paradigm, we here found that external visual objects, such as an annulus, presented during the motion stream, do not disrupt mandatory temporal integration. Thus, if a window is started once, it appears to remain open even in the presence of disruptions that are known to interrupt visual processes normally. Further, we found that interrupting the motion stream with a gap disrupts temporal integration but does not terminate the overall unconscious processing window. Thus, while temporal integration is key to unconscious processing, not all stimuli in the same processing window are integrated together. These results strengthen the case for unconscious processing taking place in windows of sensemaking, during which temporal integration occurs in a flexible and perceptually meaningful manner.

Prime-induced illusion of control: The influence of unconscious priming on self-initiated actions and the role of regression to the mean.

To what degree human cognition is influenced by subliminal stimuli is a controversial empirical question. One striking example was reported by Linser and Goschke (2007): participants overestimated how much control they had over objectively uncontrollable stimuli when masked congruent primes were presented immediately before the action. Critically, however, unawareness of the masked primes was established by post hoc data selection. In our preregistered study we sought to explore these findings while adjusting prime visibility based on individual thresholds, so that each participant underwent both visible and non-visible conditions. In experiment 1, N = 39 participants engaged in a control judgement task: following the presentation of a semantic prime, they freely selected between two keys, which triggered the appearance of a colored circle. The color of the circles, however, was independent of the key-press. Subsequently, participants assessed their perceived control over the circle's color, based on their key-presses, via a rating scale that ranged from 0 % (no control) to 100 % (complete control). Contrary to Linser and Goschke (2007)'s findings, this experiment demonstrated that predictive information influenced the experience of agency only when primes were consciously processed. In experiment 2, utilizing symbolic (arrow) primes, N = 35 participants had to rate their feeling of control over the effect-stimulus' identity during a two-choice identification paradigm (i.e., they were instructed to press a key corresponding to a target stimulus; with a contingency between target and effect stimulus of 75 %/25 %). The results revealed no significant influence of subliminal priming on agency perceptions. In summary, this study implies that unconscious stimuli may not exert a substantial influence on the conscious experience of agency, underscoring the need for careful consideration of methodological aspects and experimental design's impact on observed phenomena.

How (not) to demonstrate unconscious priming: Overcoming issues with post-hoc data selection, low power, and frequentist statistics.

One widely used scientific approach to studying consciousness involves contrasting conscious operations with unconscious ones. However, challenges in establishing the absence of conscious awareness have led to debates about the extent and existence of unconscious processes. We collected experimental data on unconscious semantic priming, manipulating prime presentation duration to highlight the critical role of the analysis approach in attributing priming effects to unconscious processing. We demonstrate that common practices like post-hoc data selection, low statistical power, and frequentist statistical testing can erroneously support claims of unconscious priming. Conversely, adopting best practices like direct performance-awareness contrasts, Bayesian tests, and increased statistical power can prevent such erroneous conclusions. Many past experiments, including our own, fail to meet these standards, casting doubt on previous claims about unconscious processing. Implementing these robust practices will enhance our understanding of unconscious processing and shed light on the functions and neural mechanisms of consciousness.

Progressing, not regressing: A possible solution to the problem of regression to the mean in unconscious processing studies.

How convincing is current evidence for unconscious processing? Recently, a major criticism suggested that some, if not much, of this evidence might be explained by a mere statistical phenomenon: regression to the mean (RttM). Excluding participants based on an awareness assessment is a common practice in studies of unconscious processing, and this post hoc data selection might lead to false effects that are driven by RttM for aware participants wrongfully classified as unaware. Here, we examined this criticism using both simulations and data from 12 studies probing unconscious processing (35 effects overall). In line with the original criticism, we confirmed that the reliability of awareness measures in the field is concerningly low. Yet, using simulations, we showed that reliability measures might be unsuitable for estimating error in awareness measures. Furthermore, we examined other solutions for assessing whether an effect is genuine or reflects RttM; all suffered from substantial limitations, such as a lack of specificity to unconscious processing, lack of power, or unjustified assumptions. Accordingly, we suggest a new nonparametric solution, which enjoys high specificity and relatively high power. Together, this work emphasizes the need to account for measurement error in awareness measures and evaluate its consequences for unconscious processing effects. It further suggests a way to meet the important challenge posed by RttM, in an attempt to establish a reliable and robust corpus of knowledge in studying unconscious processing.

Contribución al estudio de la mente del terapeuta (Deseos y Pensamientos) relacionado con la Contratransferencia en el contexto de la Supervisión / Contributions to the studies of the therapist's mind (whishesand thoughts) related to the countertransference in the contextofsupervision

El presente trabajo se centra en un estudio preliminar en aras de aplicar el Algoritmo David Liberman (ADL) como instrumento en el campo de la supervisión en un texto, tomado como informe de un supervisante, que pretende tratar el problema relacionado con el cambio psíquico desde las intervenciones del analista y desde una dificultad que surge con el uso que hace el paciente de la intervención para atacar al análisis. Comienza con un estudio de un enactment contratransferencial relatado por el analista, y luego analiza la construcción teórica presentada por él, identificando que su elaboración conceptual aún era inducida por el influjo del discurso del paciente. El énfasis de la investigación propuesta es aplicar la taxonomía de las intervenciones junto a la perspectiva de los errores del pensamiento aportadas por Maldavsky (2017). Se propone articular la práctica clínica y la elaboración conceptual, tal como ocurre en la supervisión AU

The present work presents the possibility of applying the David Liberman Algorithm (ADL) as an instrument in the field of supervision, from a text taken as a report by a supervisor, which aims to address the problem related to psychic change from the analyst's interventions and of a difficulty that arises from the patient's use of the intervention to attackthe analysis. It begins with a study of a countertransferential enactmentreported by the analyst, and later analyzes the theoretical construction presented by him, identifying that his conceptual elaboration was still induced by the influx of the patient's speech. The emphasis of the investigation lies in developing a foundation regarding the link between clinical practice and conceptual elaboration, guided by the categories related to the taxonomy of interventions and origin, function and errors of thought presented by Maldavsky, as occurs in a supervisión AU

Racismo e Sexismo: Estruturas de Transmissão, Incidências da História e Insistências do Real / Racism and Sexism: Transmission Structures, History Incidences and Insistences of the Real / Racismo y Sexismo: Estructuras de Transmisión, Incidencias de la Historia e Insistencias de lo Real

Este artigo propõe articulações entre as estruturas coloniais de incidência do racismo e do sexismo no laço social e suas vias de inscrição no inconsciente e no corpo. Partimos de um debate sobre o enquadre colonial da subjetividade e de questões levantadas por Frantz Fanon acerca do modo como o racismo se conecta com a lógica fálica do complexo de Édipo para avaliar sua validade em relação à realidade de povos colonizados. Retomamos formulações freudianas e lacanianas úteis para abordar essa encruzilhada, a partir dos caminhos apontados por Lélia Gonzalez ao discutir as subversões operadas pela mulher negra diante do racismo e do sexismo no contexto brasileiro. Com base em alguns fragmentos clínicos, sustentamos que uma abordagem clínica da perspectiva interseccional antecipada por Lélia Gonzalez demanda uma tomada dialética das relações entre estrutura e história, entre o coletivo e o singular e entre o inconsciente colonizado e o resto que escapa e subverte as relações de dominação.

This article proposes articulations between the colonial structures of incidence of the racism and sexism in the social bond and their ways of inscription in the unconscious and in the body. Starting from a debate about the colonial framework of subjectivity and from questions raised by Frantz Fanon about how the racism connects with the phallic logic of the Oedipus complex to assess its validity in relation to the reality of colonized peoples. We return to useful Freudian and Lacanian formulations to address this crossroads, based on the paths pointed out by Lélia Gonzalez when discussing the subversions operated by black women in the face of racism and sexism in the Brazilian context. Based on some clinical fragments, we argue that a clinical approach to the intersectional perspective anticipated by Lélia Gonzalez demands a dialectical approach to the relations between structure and history, between the collective and the singular, and between the colonized unconscious and the rest that escapes and subverts the relations of domination.

Este artículo propone articulaciones entre las estructuras coloniales de incidencia del racismo y del sexismo en el lazo social y sus formas de inscripción en el inconsciente y en el cuerpo. Partimos de un debate sobre el marco colonial de la subjetividad y de las preguntas planteadas por Frantz Fanon sobre la forma en que el racismo se relaciona con la lógica fálica del complejo de Edipo para evaluar su validez con relación a la realidad de los pueblos colonizados. Retomamos formulaciones freudianas y lacanianas útiles para abordar esta encrucijada, a partir de los caminos señalados por Lélia González al discutir las subversiones operadas por las mujeres negras frente al racismo y al sexismo en el contexto brasileño. En función de algunos fragmentos clínicos, sostenemos que una aproximación clínica de la perspectiva interseccional, anticipada por Lélia González, exige un abordaje dialéctico de las relaciones entre estructura e historia, entre lo colectivo y lo singular y entre el inconsciente colonizado y el resto que escapa y subvierte las relaciones de dominación.

The significance of the ego in "The Ego and the Id" and its unfulfilled promise.

It is not well known that The Ego and the Id, where Freud presented his second model of the mind, and introduced a new role for the Ego, was ignored by many of the major theorists that followed. I will attempt to demonstrate the importance of this new view of the ego for clinical psychoanalysis, and what has been lost by its being ignored.

America's Lacan AprÈs Coup.

Lacan's effect in America was dramatic but limited following his 1975 visit. His polemic with ego psychology in Écrits radically changed the way literary critics, notably feminist critics, thought about psychoanalysis, while in those same years-the 1970s and 1980s-American psychoanalysts, taken up with their own reactions to ego psychology, paid him little attention. Yet après coup, looking back at that period, Lacan can be counted among those who contributed importantly to a major shift in our conception of psychoanalytic process: our contemporary sense of acts of reading-including clinical listening-as acts in themselves, rather than as steps toward the interpretive determination of hidden meaning. In acts of reading inspired by Lacan, feminist critics helped free Freud's theory of disavowal from its origins in the male anxieties of the castration complex. Speaking as the disavowed "others" of psychoanalysis, Lacan's feminist readers also went beyond him in moving psychoanalysis toward acknowledgment of questions of social and historical reality, including its own. Regarding this evolution, it can be speculated that hidden behind the bitterness of the split in the 1950s and 1960s between Lacan and the once European, now American ego psychologists can be found an unconscious agreement. On both sides of the Atlantic, psychoanalysis had had its reasons, if different reasons, to disavow for years the ways it was implicated in the unspeakable trauma of recent European history.

'A Home to the Lie': The Contemporary (Per)version of Truth.

This paper explores the contemporary trend towards relativization and perversion of truth increasingly prominent in American culture, which, in Bion's terminology (1970), has become an ever more hospitable "home to the lie." The anti-COVID vaccine movement emerging in the United States in 2021, and its related network of conspiracy theories, is presented as an example. To make sense of these phenomena the author presents clinical vignettes illustrating (1) Bion's (1970) notions of catastrophic change, the lie/thinker relation, and the messianic idea; (2) Freud's (1921) thinking on group leaders; and (3) Matte-Blanco's (1975) bi-logical theory of mind. According to Bion, the lie is mobilized to avoid the psychological upheaval associated with catastrophic change. The author suggests that developments in American life experienced as threatening catastrophic change provide a hospitable environment for the lie, making the recognition of truth more elusive. In line with Matte-Blanco's bi-logical theory, the author suggests that creation of opportunities for dialogue giving weight to both conscious and unconscious ways of thinking is necessary for re-establishing a culture of truth.

Does response inhibition occur unconsciously? A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis.

Consciousness is traditionally considered necessary for response inhibition. Recently, researchers have attempted to explore unconscious response inhibition using the masked go/no-go task. However, their findings were controversial and might have been confounded by the methodology employed. Therefore, we used a three-level Bayesian meta-analysis to provide the first systematic overview of the field of unconscious response inhibition. Finally, 34 studies in 16 articles with a total sample size of 521 were included. In summary, we found only inconclusive evidence of a reaction time slowing effect after excluding studies with conscious no-go experience (mean difference = 8.47 ms, BF10 = 2.71). In addition, the overall effect size of the difference in sensitivity to masked stimuli between the masked go/no-go task and the objective awareness task was small and uncertain (mean difference = 0.09, BF10 = 2.39). Taken together, these findings indicate a lack of solid evidence for the occurrence of unconscious response inhibition. Our findings do not oppose the possibility of unconscious response inhibition, but rather emphasize the need for more rigorous research methodologies in this field.

Raw Object Identification.

This paper attempts to deal with a specific kind of pathological identification-"raw object identification"-which tends to appear as concrete physiological phenomena, trying to escape meaning and integration. These somatic manifestations stem from early traumatic experiences with a meaningful object and entrap-as revealed through analysis-specific significant qualities of that object. A massive splitting ensues between body and mind, self and object, relation and identification. Certain properties of the object are then experienced as a foreign body in the subject and are defensively identified with. Thus, raw object identification is often manifested in stubborn bodily symptoms.

Fetal Fantasy and the Perfect Child: How Certain Challenges of Adolescence may Inform Aspects of the Abortion Debate.

This article explores psychic aspects of abortion, from the fixity of beliefs over its legalization, to conscious and unconscious fantasies related to the fetus, children, parenting, fertility, and so on. Generally speaking, the field has shown less direct interest in abortion per se than might be surmised, particularly given the centrality of sexuality and procreation in psychoanalysis. The recent legal changes may initiate more psychoanalytic interest in the topic. The current writing studies a possible strand of fantasy in which conscious and unconscious wishes for an unending, idealized, and blameless child-object are displaced onto a fetus or fetal imago. Speculations and suggestions are drawn from casework with an individual which points to a possible channeling or avoidance of unprocessed grief when the seeming perfection of childhood ends abruptly, almost without transition, with the imposition of adolescent personality development.

Raw reveries, polaroid reveries: Some hypotheses about possible functions and technical uses of reveries in the session.

The author tries to show how the epiphany of a reverie during a session can become a source of unexpected intuitions about the essence and possible figurability of the emotional experience which is flowing in the here-and-now of the analytic life. Reverie becomes an important analytic source above all when an analyst is in contact with primordial states of the mind, characterized by turbulences of unrepresentable feelings and sensations. In this paper the author outlines a hypothetical kit of functions, technical uses and analytic effects of a reverie in an analytic process, working through the idea of analysis as the transformation in dreaming of the nightmares and terrors which beset and trouble the patient's mind. In particular the author describes: (a) the use of reverie as a criterion of analysability in first consultation meetings; (b) the specificity of two different types of reverie, which the author names reveries polaroid and raw reveries; and (c) the possible disclosure of a reverie in case of a specific kind of reverie that the author calls polaroid reverie. Sketches of analytic life become living portraits of the hypothesis proposed by the author about these different possible uses of a reverie in analytic work, as a probe and resource for beginning and developing a course of analysis that engages with archaic and presymbolic areas of psychic functioning.

Questioning the Unrepresented: The Essential and the Accidental in Psychoanalysis, Part 2.

The author questions the conceptual basis of the unrepresented, a set of terms including: the unstructured unconscious, figurability, and reverie. Because this terminology proposes a profoundly different metapsychology than Freud developed, the author contextualizes the fate of Freud's metapsychology in America and how it was confused with the authority of the classical analyst. Then excerpts of texts by Howard B. Levine, one of the main proponents of the unrepresented, are analyzed to show that the decisive element in Levine's claim of creating meaning for patients is figurability. The author does a close reading and elaboration of French analyst Laurence Kahn's very thoughtful critique of figurability. Kahn's scholarship is brought to bear on Freud's metapsychology, showing how what is at stake are presentations not figures. Figuration and reverie are founded on the projection of referential and narrative coherence onto what is presented by the patient. But the unconscious does exactly the opposite, it presents to consciousness its noncoherent derivatives (presentations). Kahn illuminates Freud's mode of thinking using the critique of figurability as a springboard to show us what is essential in conceptualizing unconscious functioning.

Unrepresented States and the Bodily Encoded Unconscious.

Unrepresented states are considered important obstacles to the psychoanalytic process. They describe elements that are beyond the reach of the symbolic network with which psychoanalysis is used to working. The emergence of unrepresented states has often been described as the failure of the caregiver to symbolize the child's emotions and thereby enable the child to connect his or her bodily states to the psychic representation. Psychoanalysis, however, has been reluctant to name the locus of these inscriptions beyond the symbolic network as the body-self. The author proposes to do so and discusses two concepts for describing the dynamics of the bodily unconscious and the therapeutic method for calibrating our technique to unrepresented states. The concept of the encapsulated body engram is used to describe the dynamic structure of the bodily unconscious. Processes of disorganization, petrification, perceptual defense, and secondary self-stimulation form the dynamics of the bodily unconscious. The method of somatic narration systematically examines body sensations of the analysand, reverses the defense processes of the engram, and leads to a reorganization of the body self, which can now find connection to symbolic structures again. This requires a more active analytic stance that responds to the defensive processes with which the subject fends off the threat of annihilation he or she was exposed to in the traumatic engram. A clinical vignette illustrates the mode of operation.

The Play of Mourning.

Playing is a form of responsiveness that involves a shift from more formal interpretation about defense, unconscious fantasy, or transference to one that employs humor or irony regarding the content of fantasy or poses a more direct confrontation between internal fantasy and external reality. Playing is differentiated from more formal interpretation by the analytic couple's intensity of affective expression, the idiomatic language used to express affect or ideas, or the analyst's more personally revealing reaction to the patient's recruitment of him as an internal object. Two clinical vignettes show how play emphasizes experiences of loss and waste that have been enacted in the patient's life and often in transference-countertransference engagement. Through newly discovered forms of play, these processes are occurring now in real time between patient and analyst and less through frozen memorialization of what never was.

Making Appropriate New Choices Through Unconscious Thought Based on New Goals.

This research examines whether appropriate choices can be made based on a new goal through unconscious thought. The experimental materials are four mobile phones, one suitable for older adults and the other for younger people. The results of Experiment 1 show that when the goal was changed from judging whether a mobile phone is suitable for older adults to judging whether it is suitable for younger people, the scores of the participants in the unconscious thought group-that mobile phones are objectively suitable for older adults-were significantly higher than those for the group which thought that mobile phones are objectively suitable for young people. In Experiment 2, the immediate decision-making group was added, which ruled out the possibility that the participants had already made a choice during the information presentation process. The results of this study show that unconscious thought can make appropriate new choices based on new goals.

Formação de professores e educação inclusiva: a démarche clínica centrada na transferência / Formación del profesorado y educación inclusiva: el abordaje clínica centrada en la transferencia / Teacher training and inclusive education: the transfer-centered clinical démarche / Formation d'enseignants et éducation inclusive: la démarche clinique centrée sur le transfert

Este artigo se propõe a discutir a pertinência e a dinâmica do funcionamento do dispositivo de démarche clínica na formação de professores. Partindo da constatação dos limites da abordagem hegemônica na formação docente - aqui denominada abordagem cientificizante com método dedutivo -, levanta-se como hipótese que um trabalho de escuta de professores em grupos de discussão de casos - abordagem clínica com método indutivo -, nos quais se parte dos impasses que surgem no trabalho docente, permite levantar elementos que promovem um modo particular de implicação do professor na teorização de seu trabalho. Para tanto, discutiremos a posição da démarche clínica no interior do campo da formação docente, bem como analisaremos, através de fragmentos de trabalho nos grupos de escuta de professores, o funcionamento e a eficácia destes grupos na formação docente

Este artículo se propone discutir la pertinencia y la dinámica del funcionamiento del dispositivo clínico en la formación docente. A partir de la observación de los límites del enfoque hegemónico en la formación docente - aquí denominado enfoque científico con método deductivo -, destacamos la hipótesis que un trabajo de escucha de los maestros en grupos de discusión de casos - enfoque clínico con método inductivo -, en los cuales se parte de los impasses que se presentan en la labor docente, nos permite plantear elementos que promuevan una forma particular de implicación de los maestros en la teorización de su trabajo. Para ello, discutiremos la posición del abordaje clínica en el campo de la formación docente, así como analizaremos, a través de fragmentos de trabajos en grupos de escucha docente, el funcionamiento y la eficacia de estos grupos en la formación docente

This article discusses the relevance and functioning dynamics of the clinical démarchein teacher training. Based on the limits of the hegemonic approach in teacher training - here called the scientific approach with deductive method -, it is hypothesized that listening to teachers engaged in case discussion groups - clinic approach with inductive method.-, in which discussion starts from the challenges that stem from teaching, allows highlighting elements that promote a particular way of teacher involvement in the theorization of their work. To do so, we will discuss the place of the clinical démarche within teacher education and analyze, through fragments of work in teacher listening groups, the functioning and effectiveness of such groups in teacher training

Cet article traite de la pertinence et de la dynamique de fonctionnement de la démarche clinique dans la formation des enseignants. Partant du constat des limites de l'approche hégémonique dans la formation des enseignants - ici appelée approche scientifique avec méthode déductive -, on fait l'hypothèse que l'écoute des enseignants en groupes de discussion de cas - approche clinique avec méthode inductive -, dans lesquels la discussion part des défis qui découlent de l'enseignement, permet de mettre en en évidence des éléments qui favorisent une manière particulière d'implication des enseignants dans la théorisation de leur travail. Pour ce faire, nous discuterons de laplace de la démarche clinique au sein de la formation des enseignants et analyserons, à travers des fragments de travail dans des groupes d'écoute d'enseignants, le fonctionnement et l'efficacité de tels groupes dans la formation des enseignants