Psychology

By Robert DePaolo

Abstract

This article discusses the advent of human language grammar as a concomitant of the fine motor planning and executive skills that also facilitated advanced tool making. Neither skill is viewed as antecedent. Instead the point is made that they were essentially concurrent and interdependent in human evolution; that the brain’s capacity to orchestrate manual behaviors toward a pre-planned outcome as seen in tool making extended to oral-motor cortical regions (and vice versa), enabling early humans to develop simultaneously a manual and linguistic grammar.

The idea that human language derives from tool making has been supported by a number of researchers and theoreticians, for example Sample (2010) and Stout (2011).That is in part due to the anatomical, functional and neurological interrelationship between oral and fine motor expression.
Around 75,000 years ago the human brain reached its current volume of roughly 1200 centimeters. Its expansion featured an outward growth of the outer layer – known as the cerebral cortex. Not only did this brain section expand substantially, it also folded up in development so as to maximize its size and experiential influence without overriding the size of the human skull case. The cause of cortical expansion – to the extent that one can insert determinism into the evolutionary process – is uncertain.

There are several possibilities. One is that the primate brain has always had a higher probability of encephalization due to its need to adapt to the sensory-motor demands of an arboreal existence. Implicit in this idea is that Darwin’s concept of chance mutations is inaccurate; that the genetic history of any given organism skews its mutative drift. At the risk of invoking the Aristotelian notion of inside-out teleological development, it would seem lions are more likely to develop changes in coat color and canines than to develop gill slits. Thus “predisposition theory” (which holds that mutations are skewed in terms of a prior ontogenetic template) might provide one answer.

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ABSTRACT

 

This work contains theorethical references about psychotherapy used for clients/pacients who come for therapy beeing influenced by religious, more or less, disfunctional ideas. We also may highlight the fact that usually, persons who encounter several problems which might be solved by using cognitive-behavioral  therapy, have a disfunctional belief that religion is the only way for solving theese problems. Usually these people are ready to try a therapeutical plan, but they also are ready to give up on therapy, so much because of their disfunctional beliefs so long because of some personality disorders which are more or less obvious. It takes a high level of knowledge and experience for the therapist, so that the therapy should work properly and also to offer good results. In order to colaborate with the client/pacient in good terms, we have apealed to the opinion of some psychotherapy classics.

 

Collective unconscious archetypes

In addition to the personal unconscious, there is still a level of spirit and deeper unconscious, the collective unconscious, which is universal and impersonal and that, therefore, it is the same to all of us. The collective unconscious, must emphasize again, it is not so dependent on the individual’s personal history: there is something gained by us lifetime, but rather something suprapersonal “before us”, while it bears “primary  images” of our ancestral life. It is therefore a great mistake to suppose that the psyche of the new born is a tabula rasa, in that it does not contain anything. Every child, or adult, and each is determined by influences what emanates from the collective unconscious; and these influences, which operates independently of the personal unconscious, guarantees each individual the similarity and even an identity experience and representation. By making this statement, Jung is not trying to prove  the existence of collective unconscious; He admits its existence rather than as part of its working hypothesis to explain the almost universal parallelism of imaging in children neurotic fantasies,  dreams, visions, and patient schizoid visions, ethnological, in primitive cultures of mythologies.

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By
Robert DePaolo

Abstract

This article discusses
clinical practice in terms of the medical model, particularly with regard to
the Freudian notion of a psychic homeostat, and more broadly, the tendency in
physiological and psychological systems to re-integrate in response to systemic
disruptions. The point is made that the personality automatically moves toward
re-stabilization and state restoration when under duress and that clinical
intervention can either enhance or interfere with that process; thus raising
the question of whether counseling is appropriate, whether the ostensible
pathology can be culturally,  as opposed
to existentially defined, and how clinicians might proceed to establish a new
stasis that coincides most closely with the client’s natural restorative
responses and cognitions.

With respect to the process of psychotherapy there is nothing unusual or derelict about “leaving
the client to his own devices” – even in the aftermath of duress (Aubrey, Bond et. al. 1997). Since  Sigmund and Anna
Freud (1967) first developed a framework for the use of defense mechanisms (which Sigmund likened to the immune reactions to disease in the soma)
clinicians have come to agree that defense mechanisms work to restore stability. In that sense they operate much the same way as any system in nature
– seeking, as it were, to revert to a prior state. All such systems, which could encompass everything from physiology to cognition to atoms to the
structure of human language require some degree of redundancy. Indeed one could draw a parallel between quantum mechanics and clinical psychology by suggesting
that, like the photon, the personality has a memory of its inherent structure and is disinclined to deviate from that.

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Abstract

This article discusses causation regarding two core aspects of human evolution: bipedal movement and brain expansion. Rather than focusing on their retroactive adaptive benefits, the discussion revolves around typical causes of mutation, particularly metabolic changes fomented by climate shifts over the course of time.

The causal origins of two distinctly human traits; bipedal movement and brain expansion are unclear. With respect to upright walking, a number of theories have been put forth over time. So- called “savanna theory” (generically) is based on the premise that nature selected bipedal locomotion because it facilitated food carrying (Hewes, 1961) and provided heat resistance in the African flatlands (Wheeler 1991) and facilitate a throwing capacity for hunting and self defense. (Calvin 1990).

Another is the“generalist/fisherman” theory (my term) (Niemitz 2010) which holds that an upright posture evolved because it is readily supported by water and that early hominids spent considerable time by water’s edge in search of a plentiful, convenient aquatic food supply. Still another, free-hands theory, suggests that an upright posture allowed the first hominids to make tools (Darwin 1861) and/or throw objects to hunt or defend themselves (Young, 2003) (Kirschmann, 1999).

Meanwhile, aquatic ape theory provides a scenario in which homo sapiens became adapted to water environments. It is based on the fact that our species has tear ducts and other features seen in aquatic creatures. (Morgan 1997)

Each of these theories has merit but each has been subject to criticism. With respect to Aquatic Ape theory, Preuschoft has argued humans are biomechanically suited to life in the water, that too many of us are afraid of water and/or poor swimmers for this to be a species indigenous trait (1991). It begs the question of how competitive would we be in an aquatic milieu; for example vis a vis crocodiles and boas? Could we submerge without air for long periods of time as they do? Could we employ stealth in fleeing from predators? Even the most adept Olympic swimmers splash too much to rely on stealth in the water.

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By Robert DePaolo

Abstract

This article discusses a model of psychological adaptation by applying components of Donald Hebb’s phasic model of cognition/ brain function to the clinical concept of experiential congruity as seen in the psychoanalytic, client-centered and cognitive-behavioral methods. The possible use of a-training (psycho-innoculation) method analogous to that of Seligman is discussed and self directive language is described as a mechanism of implementation.

Theory and Research…

Donald Hebb’ proposed a neurophysiological model of learning and memory, partly in response to his frustration over the impasse during his time between the behaviorists and introspectionists. He was interested in the meditational process in the brain, specifically what happens in the period between presentation of a stimulus and subsequent response that finally consolidates learning and memory. His solution was something he called the cell assembly. He suggested that the brain is organized into cellular configurations which become hypersensitized to specific inputs with repetition of those inputs (1949). In a sense this notion not only built a bridge between introspectionism and learning theory but also between respondent and classical learning theories since they were seen as theories devoid of a meditational, cognitive component..

Hebb postulated that with repeated inputs specific cell assemblies are activated in the form of loops or circuits. These loops could be more or less exclusive, depending on the habit strength incurred through repetition. However Hebb also felt brain activity consisted of multiple assemblies, trended toward formation of hierarchical loops, and that there was some probability that one cell assembly could merge with and be influence by another to form a higher order, mega-circuit. Hebb referred to the interactions among cell assemblies and the hierarchical influence they purveyed as phase sequences.

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SUMMARY

This work includes a case study and theoretical basis which led to the accomplishment of a therapy plan and of a therapeutical deal and to client’s positive evolution. We also may highlight good consequences of Schultz-Jacobson relaxation methods and breathing exercises. The case study is a part of our daily reality and shows the importance of cognitive-behavioral approach for treating anxiety and long-term stress, and the progress which can be made this way, especially because the client had encountering a high level of anxiety, which generated difficulty in relaxation exercises. The client, female, age 23, was also encoutering difficulties in the relationship with her parents, especially with her mother, state of facts which started with financial problems, and in time, those difficulties had increased leading to her mother’s violent behavior. Eventually we have accomplished an improvement of her general status and of her ability to establish relationships with her close pearsons.

 

THE AUTOGENUOUS TRAINING (SCHULTZ)

The controlled modification of biological stress reactions involves using techniques which reduce psycho-physiological parameters of stress. One of the most important techniques is the autogenuous training.

The fundamentation of this method by J.H. Schultz at the beginning of XXth century, in Germany, is closely linked with medical hypnosis’ development.

The autogenuous training is a scientifically well foundamented method, experimentally and clinically verified which is characterised by simplicity and economicity, meaning it is easy to learn and it takes little time. The effects of this kind of training may be observed even from the very first days of practicing (a better relaxation, reduced anxiety, better sleep, concentration capacity and better memory capacity).

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