Human Synchronization Maps-The Hybrid Consciousness of the Embodied Mind

Information Entropy in Chimera States of Human Dynamics

In human dynamics, functioning relies on intricate coordination patterns. Networks of synchronized oscillators in various biological and semiotic fields shape these dynamics. We have observed stability, instability, and transitions at multiple levels, indicating that coordination happens on all scales. We have examined coordination models for simplified and complex dynamics. In empirical research, we can frequently observe chimera states as the coexistence of coherence and incoherence, even in homogeneous networks. They are more evident in the heterogenous networks' standard in human dynamics, where oscillators and nodes are mixed as different types. This paper proposes a simplified and overarching model for mixed chimeras. We discuss the information dynamics in these types of networks and their pattern transitions.

Nature heals: An informational entropy account of self-organization and change in field psychotherapy

This paper reviews biophysical models of psychotherapeutic change based on synergetics and the free energy principle. These models suggest that introducing sensory surprise into the patient-therapist system can lead to self-organization and the formation of new attractor states, disrupting entrenched patterns of thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. We propose that the therapist can facilitate this process by cultivating epistemic trust and modulating embodied attention to allow surprising affective states to enter shared awareness. Transient increases in free energy enable the update of generative models, expanding the range of experiences available within the patient-therapist phenomenal field. We hypothesize that patterns of disorganization at behavioural and physiological levels, indexed by increased entropy, complexity, and lower determinism, are key markers and predictors of psychotherapeutic gains. Future research should investigate how the therapist's openness to novelty shapes therapeutic outcomes.

The complexity of interpersonal physiology during rupture and repair episodes in the treatment of borderline personality disorder: a proof-of-concept multimethod single case study of verbal and non-verbal interactional dynamics

Introduction

The aim of this proof-of-concept multimethod exploratory single case study is to increase knowledge of the underlying mechanisms of alliance ruptures and repairs in Borderline Personality Disorder treatment across and within the psychotherapeutic treatment process.

Method

The multimethod includes outcome assessment of patient self-reporting questionnaires (the Affect Integration Inventory, the Hopkins Symptom Checklist), observation-based ratings of sessions with the Rupture Resolution Rating System, quantitative analysis of heart rate variability using recurrence quantification analysis, and a qualitative multimodal interaction analysis of within-session dynamics.

Result

Results reveal how patterns of heart rate synchrony between patient and therapist reflect periodical patterns of emotional interaction corresponding to key therapeutic alliance processes throughout the treatment process. Particularly, heart rate synchronization and desynchronization correspond with increasing rupture resolution ratings and positive outcome measures in the last part of the therapy process, indicating increased productivity, affectivity, and positive change. The qualitative microanalysis highlights context sensitivity to alliance management within sessions. Physiological arousal is found to underlie important alliance processes, including emotion regulation, relatedness, security, empathic responding, sense-making, and validation in correspondence with different therapist verbal and non-verbal markerbs.

Discussion

Clinical implications and study limitations are discussed. Recommendations are made for future directions in relation to applying multimethod approaches when studying rupture and repair processes in psychotherapy.

Providing Gender Sensitive and Responsive Trauma-Informed Psychiatric Nursing Care. How Hard Can It Be?

This paper addresses the challenge of providing gender sensitive and responsive trauma-informed care (TIC) in psychiatric nursing practice. Gender identity, gender subordination, and gender-related trauma history are examined as three key individual-level factors that affect nurses' capacity to engage therapeutically to provide gender sensitive and responsive TIC. Using Peplau's Interpersonal Theory and building on a shared trauma and resilience model, gender-sensitive and responsive TIC is situated within interpersonal science and the ability of the psychiatric nurse to attune to her own and her patient's gender ideologies. Strategies for transforming practice including self-reflection, self-compassion, and peer and supervisor support are reviewed. Noting the import of the practice environment, several observations of changes needed at the level of the unit, organization, and society to effect gender equitable policies that enable the implementation of gender-sensitive and responsive TIC are made.

Complexity Science in Human Change: Research, Models, Clinical Applications

Complexity and entropy prevail in human behavior and social interaction because the systems underlying behavior and interaction are, without a doubt, highly complex [...].

Beauty and Uncertainty as Transformative Factors: A Free Energy Principle Account of Aesthetic Diagnosis and Intervention in Gestalt Psychotherapy

Drawing from field theory, Gestalt therapy conceives psychological suffering and psychotherapy as two intentional field phenomena, where unprocessed and chaotic experiences seek the opportunity to emerge and be assimilated through the contact between the patient and the therapist (i.e., the intentionality of contacting). This therapeutic approach is based on the therapist’s aesthetic experience of his/her embodied presence in the flow of the healing process because (1) the perception of beauty can provide the therapist with feedback on the assimilation of unprocessed experiences; (2) the therapist’s attentional focus on intrinsic aesthetic diagnostic criteria can facilitate the modification of rigid psychopathological fields by supporting the openness to novel experiences. The aim of the present manuscript is to review recent evidence from psychophysiology, neuroaesthetic research, and neurocomputational models of cognition, such as the free energy principle (FEP), which support the notion of the therapeutic potential of aesthetic sensibility in Gestalt psychotherapy. Drawing from neuroimaging data, psychophysiology and recent neurocognitive accounts of aesthetic perception, we propose a novel interpretation of the sense of beauty as a self-generated reward motivating us to assimilate an ever-greater spectrum of sensory and affective states in our predictive representation of ourselves and the world and supporting the intentionality of contact. Expecting beauty, in the psychotherapeutic encounter, can help therapists tolerate uncertainty avoiding impulsive behaviours and to stay tuned to the process of change.

Studying Physiological Synchrony in Couple Therapy through Partial Directed Coherence: Associations with the Therapeutic Alliance and Meaning Construction

In line with the growing recognition of the role of embodiment, affect and implicit processes in psychotherapy, several recent studies examine the role of physiological synchrony in the process and outcome of psychotherapy. This study aims to introduce Partial Directed Coherence (PDC) as a novel approach to calculating psychophysiological synchrony and examine its potential to contribute to our understanding of the therapy process. The study adopts a single-case, mixed-method design and examines physiological synchrony in one-couple therapy in relation to the therapeutic alliance and a narrative analysis of meaning construction in the sessions. Interpersonal Physiological Synchrony (IPS) was calculated, via a windowed approach, through PDC of a Heart Rate Variability-derived physiological index, which was measured in the third and penultimate sessions. Our mixed-method analysis shows that PDC quantified significant moments of IPS within and across the sessions, modeling the characteristics of interpersonal interaction as well as the effects of therapy on the interactional dynamics. The findings of this study point to the complex interplay between explicit and implicit levels of interaction and the potential contribution of including physiological synchrony in the study of interactional processes in psychotherapy.