From NEUROLOGY to PSYCHOANALYSIS and Back to NEUROSCIENCE:
BASICS of FUNCTIONAL PSYCHONEUROBIOLOGY for Mental Health Professionals and ALL Curious

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:

“The Astonishing Hypothesis is that ‘You’, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. As Lewis Carroll’s Alice might have phrased it: ‘You are nothing but a pack of neurons’.” – Francis Crick

Although the founder and the visionary of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, was a neurologist and a neuropathologist, and although his ideas about the structure of the mind came from observing and making preparations of fish brains and spinal cords, until recently, psychoanalysis and neuroscience were walking the very different paths and were (at best) unconcerned about each other. Then, evolution of psychoanalysis and neurosciences and increased awareness of discoveries in each of them brought us, 21^stcentury practitioners of various clinical and humanitarian disciplines, to understanding that we live in the age of the brain-mind revolution (or brain-mind paradigm shift).

One main feature of this paradigm shift is the realization of ineffectiveness (and unsustainability) of one’s operation in a secluded sphere of one particular discipline anymore, and that cross-pollination of the ideas and the research is not just “suggested,” but “mandatory.”

The objectives of this workshop are to outline those neuroscience findings that are significant in sustaining the psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic practice (e.g., neuroplasticity and neurointegration), as well as how each psychoanalytic case represents unprecedented source of support for brain-mind science. Application of some emerging multi-inter-disciplinary practices (like mindful therapy and integrated mindsight) will be discussed.

We also will discuss the view of many inter-disciplinarians about psychoanalysts/ psychotherapists/ educators being the innate neuroscientists – as Thornton Wilder said once, “. . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it.”

Few words about ‘Why This Topic?’

Significance of understanding of neurobiology for those who dedicate their professional life to psychoanalysis was recognized by Sigmund Freud at the very birth of this profession. One can be fascinated how (without PET scans and fMRIs) he could picture the structure of the mind, while having only unsophisticated fish brains at hand.

In his 1895 letter to W. Fliess, S. Freud wrote: “I am tormented by two aims: to examine what shape the theory of mental functioning takes if one introduces … a sort of economics of nerve forces; and, second, to peel off from psychopathology a gain for normal psychology.” These ideas of the founder of psychoanalysis about the Brain-Mind dynamic functioning had evolved now into different merging areas of interest, such as social neurology, evolutionary neuroscience, interpersonal neuroscience, clinical & academic psychology, mindfulness, neuropsychoanalysis, social work, education, creative practices, and even psychohistory & psychobiography.

In this workshop, we will become acquainted with or expand our knowledge about the main Brain-Mind processes – neuroplasticity, neurogenesis, neurointegration, synaptic connections & synaptic pruning, neuronetworking/ connectomes, mirror neuron networking, electrochemical conduction of information, as well as the main Brain-Mind phenomena – of brain laterality, “don’t use it – lose it,” “what fires together – wires together,” “regions connected together – grow up together,” and we will look at all these as the FUNCTIONAL system (rather than offering the neuroanatomical models that are not able to explain the “Whys” of our behaviors, predispositions to trauma and various mental and body/organs’ disorders, and what to do with these practically.

We will discuss the Brain-Mind Dyad, using Paul MacLean’s Triune Brain theory, as well as the Brain-Mind-Body Triade, where the “body connections” are represented by various parts of the autonomic nervous system. We will touch upon the topics of integration of memory, emotions, social interactions, attachment, traumas (and childhood traumas), epigenetics – all at the level of the Brain-Mind-Body system rather than these being the independent “parts” at work.

We will look into connections of the human Brain’s anatomy (which is very specific to our species) with the wholesome and creative functioning of the Mind (which differs from one individual to another). We will look into how the Brain-Mind dyad makes us social / connected/ attached beings, and into the role stress/traumas (especially childhood traumas) play in human development.

We must recollect that all of our provisional ideas in psychology will presumably one day be based on an organic substructure. — Sigmund Freud, “On Narcissism”

The deficiencies in our description would probably vanish if we were already in a position to replace the psychological terms with physiological or chemical ones.…We may expect [physiology and chemistry] to give the most surprising information and we cannot guess what answers it will return in a few dozen years of questions we have put to it. They may be of a kind that will blow away the whole of our artificial structure of hypothesis. — Sigmund Freud, “Beyond the Pleasure Principle”

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this educational activity, its participants will be able to:

• Discuss and analyze the brain-mind paradigm shift.
• Discuss and analyze one of the main concepts of functional psychoneurobiology: neurogenesis.
• Discuss and analyze one of the main concepts of functional psychoneurobiology: neuroplasticity.
• Discuss and analyze one of the main concepts of functional psychoneurobiology: neurointegration.
• Discuss and analyze one of the main concepts of functional psychoneurobiology: neurocircuitry.
• Discuss and analyze one of the main concepts of functional psychoneurobiology: connectomes.
• Discuss and analyze one of the main concepts of functional psychoneurobiology: electrochemical conduction (and brain as an electro-chemical machine).
• Discuss and analyze one of the fire together – wire together phenomenon.
• Discuss and analyze one of the born together – wire together phenomenon.
• Discuss and analyze the Triune Brain Theory of Paul McLean.
• Discuss, compare and analyze the top-down modulation and the bottom-up processing.
• Utilize the Triune Brain Theory in trauma-sensitive clinical practice.
• Utilize the Triune Brain Theory in clinical practice working with families, parents, children.
• Utilize the concepts of the top-down modulation and the bottom-up processing in clinical cases and in one’s life.
• Discuss the concept of mindfulness and its application in one’s life and practice.

SHORT BIO OF THE WORKSHOP LEADER:

REGISTRATION AND FEES:

Early Bird registration (before April 17, 2022)
$50 regular/ $35 grad students & candidates/ $15 undergrad students.
If CEs are requested — please use the “regular” registration option. There is an additional fee of $25 (can be paid prior or on the day of the conference).

Regular registration (April 17 – June 3, 2022)
$60 regular/ $45 grad students & candidates/ $20 undergrad students.
If CEs are requested — please use the “regular” registration option. There is an additional fee of $25 (can be paid prior or on the day of the conference).

Registration ‘at the door’ (after 6pm EST/ NYC time on June 3rd or June 4th, 2022)
$70 regular/ $55 grad students & candidates/ $25 undergrad students.
If CEs are requested — please use the “regular” registration option. There is an additional fee of $25 (can be paid prior or on the day of the conference).

Please Note: If CEs are requested — there is an additional fee of $25 (can be paid on the day of the conference or in advance).
If you are requesting the CEs, please register as a licensed practitioner and pay the “regular” fee for attending this educational event.

SPECIAL SCHOLARSHIPS are available for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as for retired or disabled practitioners, or need-based or/and those who live outside of the USA.

You can request scholarship using this form