William Alanson White Institute

ABSTRACT In moving, poetic prose, Rina Lazar explores her concept of “telescopic memories,” which she describes as “… vivid memories from different times that flood our psyche abruptly, bubbling up in our mind …” Lazar makes inspiring use of her own memories in her treatment of a man at a significant crossroad in his life. My discussion compares Lazar’s concept with ideas from the study of poetry. I also describe my clinical experiences of patients who carry a vision of the life their “unharmed self” would have lived, had they not suffered traumatic abuse.

Synaptic excitation and inhibition are essential for neuronal communication. However, the variables that regulate synaptic excitation and inhibition in the intact brain remain largely unknown. Here, we examined how spike transmission and suppression between principal cells (PCs) and interneurons (INTs) are modulated by activity history, brain state, cell type, and somatic distance between presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons by applying cross-correlogram analyses to datasets recorded from the dorsal hippocampus and medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) of 11 male behaving and sleeping Long Evans rats. The strength, temporal delay, and brain-state dependency of the spike transmission and suppression depended on the subregions/layers. The spike transmission probability of PC-INT excitatory pairs that showed short-term depression versus short-term facilitation was higher in CA1 and lower in CA3. Likewise, the intersomatic distance affected the proportion of PC-INT excitatory pairs that showed short-term depression and facilitation in the opposite manner in CA1 compared with CA3. The time constant of depression was longer, while that of facilitation was shorter in MEC than in CA1 and CA3. During sharp-wave ripples, spike transmission showed a larger gain in the MEC than in CA1 and CA3. The intersomatic distance affected the spike transmission gain during sharp-wave ripples differently in CA1 versus CA3. A subgroup of MEC layer 3 (EC3) INTs preferentially received excitatory inputs from and inhibited MEC layer 2 (EC2) PCs. The EC2 PC-EC3 INT excitatory pairs, most of which showed short-term depression, exhibited higher spike transmission probabilities than the EC2 PC-EC2 INT and EC3 PC-EC3 INT excitatory pairs. EC2 putative stellate cells exhibited stronger spike transmission to and received weaker spike suppression from EC3 INTs than EC2 putative pyramidal cells. This study provides detailed comparisons of monosynaptic interaction dynamics in the hippocampal-entorhinal loop, which may help to elucidate circuit operations.

ABSTRACT How do we negotiate time in the present and hold hope for the future, when the literature of your history, of ancestral traumas housed, unmetabolized, in our bodies, has not as yet been narrated into consciousness? What mediating factors might enable us to negotiate historical and recent loss and, furthermore, facilitate mourning? In this essay, I consider the initial and continued impact on me of first listening to, then re-reading, Adrienne Harris’ evocative presentation, and later publication of, “You Must Remember This” (2009). These revived experiences shepherded me into reflecting spaces, particularly regarding the significance of ghosts, or duppies, as they are referenced in Jamaican culture. Are duppies, in the cultural collective, empowered as links and potential mediators between past and present – as keepers of ancestral secrets that, if newly learned, or “rememoried,” might facilitate subjective and relational transformation? In this regard, the voices of Toni Morrison and Stewart Hall offer contemplative possibilities.

Local field potentials (LFPs) reflect the collective dynamics of neural populations, yet their exact relationship to neural codes remains unknown1. One notable exception is the theta rhythm of the rodent hippocampus, which seems to provide a reference clock to decode the animal's position from spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal spiking2 or LFPs3. But when the animal stops, theta becomes irregular4, potentially indicating the breakdown of temporal coding by neural populations. Here we show that no such breakdown occurs, introducing an artificial neural network that can recover position-tuned rhythmic patterns (pThetas) without relying on the more prominent theta rhythm as a reference clock. pTheta and theta preferentially correlate with place cell and interneuron spiking, respectively. When rats forage in an open field, pTheta is jointly tuned to position and head orientation, a property not seen in individual place cells but expected to emerge from place cell sequences5. Our work demonstrates that weak and intermittent oscillations, as seen in many brain regions and species, can carry behavioral information commensurate with population spike codes.

Psychoanalysis promotes psychological growth by nurturing patients’ creativity and cognitive, interpersonal, and affective competence. Cultivating ironic sensibility in the analytic relationship can give rise to a therapeutic play space in which the patient’s new ways of thinking, feeling, and relating are respected and supported. In particular, irony can facilitate the patient’s growing ability to link, acknowledge, and explore previously unsymbolized, dissociated affective states. By courting irony, the analyst can assist the patient in tolerating the anxiety and shame that emerge while working through traumatic material. This article discusses both the benefits and pitfalls of irony in the analytic process.

White Privilege: Psychoanalytic Perspectives looks at race and the significant role it plays in society and in clinical practice. Much of the effort going into racial consciousness-raising rests on the concept of unearned privilege. In this book, Neil Altman looks deeply into this notion, suggesting that there are hidden assumptions in the idea of white privilege that perpetuate the very same racially prejudicial notions that are purportedly being dismantled. The book examines in depth the structure of racial categories, polarized between white and black, that are socially constructed, resting on fallacious ideas of physical or psychological differences among peoples. Altman also critically examines such related concepts as privilege, guilt, and power. It is suggested that political positions are also artificially polarized into categories of liberal, left and conservative, right, in ways that contribute to stereotyping between people with different political leanings, foreclosing mutual respect, dialogue, and understanding. Finally, White Privilege: Psychoanalytic Perspectives explores the implications for the theory and practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy, discussing these ideas in detail and depth with clinical illustrations. Drawing on Altman’s rich clinical experience and many years of engaging with racial and societal problems, this book offers a new agenda for understanding and offering analytic practice in contemporary society. It will appeal to clinicians, psychoanalytic therapists, and anyone with an interest in social problems and how they manifest in society and in therapy today.

IntroductionAs we conduct this study, the world is in the grasp of a deadly pandemic. In less than six months since its first diagnosis in Wuhan, China, the COVID-19 infectious disease due to the novel coronavirus has infected over 5,000,000 people and claimed over 350,000 lives. In the United States, most of the cases are in large urban settings along the coasts, but the disease is slowly progressing through the mainland. Kansas, with its particular location in the midwest United States, has seen a relatively small number of cases, but these are increasing. The Kansas government took radical measures to prevent the spread of the disease. According to the Health Beliefs Model, an individual’s perception of risk will dictate engagement with preventive behaviors. Knowledge about the disease and preventive measures drive the risk assessment. Knowledge is dependant on the sources of information used. This study explored these metrics in a sample of Kansans living in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA combination of snowball samples and random distribution through social media was used to recruit participants to an online survey. The risk and knowledge instrument was developed and validated by WHO Europe. Data collection lasted 96 hours.ResultsThe attitudes and behaviors of Kansans concerning COVID-19 were consistent with its location in an area of the country with a relatively lower incidence of the disease. Participants had good knowledge about the disease and preventive measures and were willing to comply with recommendations from local authorities.ConclusionLocalized information sources that cater to the community are often primary, while social media is not a valuable source for information pertinent to COVID-19.

Dirigir las consultas sobre derechos y autorizaciones a ceir@psicoterapiarelacional.es