Allan Schore - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Allan Schore
Pediatrics in Review, Jun 1, 2005
European Journal of Psychotraumatology, Aug 3, 2015
Development and Psychopathology, 1996
The maturation of corticolimbic systems that neurobiologically mediate essential affective and so... more The maturation of corticolimbic systems that neurobiologically mediate essential affective and social regulatory functions is experience dependent. During the first and second years of life, the infant's affective experiences, especially those embedded in the relationship with the primary caregiver, elicit patterns of psychobiological alterations that influence the activity of subcortically produced trophic bioamines, peptides, and steroids that regulate the critical period growth and organization of the developing neocortex. Interactive attachment experiences of psychobiological attuncment, stressful misattunement, and stress-regulating repair and reattuncment that maximize positive and minimize negative affect are imprinted into the orbitofrontal cortex-the hierarchical apex of the limbic system that is expanded in the early developing right hemisphere. During the critical period of maturation of this system, prolonged episodes of intense and unregulated interactive stress arc manifest in disorganizing experiences of heightened negative affect and altered levels of stress hormones, and this chaotic biochemical alteration of the internal environment triggers an extensive apoptotic parcellation of corticolimbic circuitries. In this manner less than optimal affect-regulating experiences with the primary caregiver arc imprinted into the circuits of this frontolimbic system that is instrumental to attachment functions, thereby producing orbitofrontal organizations that neurobiologically express different patterns of insecure attachments. Such pathomorphogenctic outcomes result in structurally defective systems that, under stress, inefficiently regulate subcortical mechanisms that mediate the physiological processes that underlie emotion. The functional impairments of the cortical-subcortical circuitries of this prefrontal system are implicated in an enduring vulnerability to and the pathophysiology of various later forming psychiatric disorders. The ontogenesis of self-regulation is an es-social and cultural levels. In fact, the adopsential organizing principle, if not a funda-tion of this multilevel, multidisciplinary mental mechanism, of the development of perspective is an absolute necessity for a dynamic living systems. The concept of reg-deeper understanding of ontogeny, because ulation is one of the few theoretical con-development represents a progression of structs utilized by literally every scientific stages in which emergent adaptive sclfdiscipline. The robustness and heuristic-na-regulatory structures and functions enable ture of this construct are reflected in the qualitatively new interactions between the fact that regulatory processes can be studied individual and his environment. Because simultaneously along several separate but this early dialectic between the changing interrelated dimensions, ranging from the organism and the changing environment inmolecular level of organization through the volves dynamic alterations in both structure and function, these "self-regulatory struc-ATdrcss correspondence and reprint requests to: Allan tures" need to be identified in terms of N-Schorc,98i7SyiviaAvcnue,Northridgc,CA9i324. what is currently known about biological
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Feb 1, 2002
Attachment & Human Development, Apr 1, 2000
It has been three decades since John Bowlby first presented an over-arching model of early human ... more It has been three decades since John Bowlby first presented an over-arching model of early human development in his groundbreaking volume, Attachment. In the present paper I refer back to Bowlby's original charting of the attachment landscape in order to suggest that current research and clinical models need to return to the integration of the psychological and biological underpinnings of the theory. Towards that end, recent contributions from neuroscience are offered to support Bowlby's assertions that attachment is instinctive behavior with a biological function, that emotional processes lie at the foundation of a model of instinctive behavior, and that a biological control system in the brain regulates affectively driven instinctive behavior. This control system can now be identified as the orbitofrontal system and its cortical and subcortical connections. This 'senior executive of the emotional brain' acts as a regulatory system, and is expanded in the right hemisphere, which is dominant in human infancy and centrally involved in inhibitory control. Attachment theory is essentially a regulatory theory, and attachment can be defined as the interactive regulation of biological synchronicity between organisms. This model suggests that future directions of attachment research should focus upon the early-forming psychoneurobiological mechanisms that mediate both adaptive and maladaptive regulatory processes. Such studies will have direct applications to the creation of more effective preventive and treatment methodologies.
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2005
I am again delighted to serve as editor of a series of short articles for the Psychologist Psycho... more I am again delighted to serve as editor of a series of short articles for the Psychologist Psychoanalyst. The goal of the series, which first appeared as a number of essays on advances in neuroscience and attachment theory in the 2000 and 2001 issues, is to provide a medium for the rapid integration of very recent interdisciplinary data, research, and concepts into the currently dynamically expanding domain of psychoanalytic knowledge. The artices that will appear over a number of upcoming issues are offerings from members of my ongoing Study Groups in Developmental Affective Neuroscience & Clinical Practice which have met here in Los Angeles since 1996. These groups continuously process a rather large volume of current data from a spectrum of disciplines in order to appraise the relevance of this information for psychoanalysis. A major focus is on a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of psychopathogenesis and of psychotherapeutic treatment, especially of disorders that have previously been viewed to be refractory to psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy.
Neuro-psychoanalysis, 1999
International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Nov 21, 2019
Part 1: Theoretical Models of Right Brain Therapeutic Action. The first part of this article on t... more Part 1: Theoretical Models of Right Brain Therapeutic Action. The first part of this article on the central role of the right brain in group psychotherapy offers evidence-based theoretical models of therapeutic action cocreated by the group members and the group leader. It describes how recent advances in interpersonal neurobiology and neuropsychoanalysis allow for a deeper understanding of the underlying nonverbal right brain change mechanisms beneath the words in individual psychotherapy. It then expands this model to the group context, specifically focusing on the theoretical constructs of cohesion, attachment, transference-countertransference dynamics, and implicit affect regulation, all of which are right brain functions. Part 1 concludes with a discussion of the
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2008
THERE IS CURRENTLY AN increasing awareness, indeed a palpable sense, that a number of clinical di... more THERE IS CURRENTLY AN increasing awareness, indeed a palpable sense, that a number of clinical disciplines are undergoing a signifi cant transformation, a paradigm shift. A powerful engine for the increased energy and growth in the mental health fi eld is our ongoing dialogue with neighboring disciplines, especially developmental science, biology, and neuroscience. This mutually enriching interdisciplinary communication is centered on a common interest in the primacy of affect in the human condition. Psychological studies on the critical role of emotional contact between humans are now being integrated with biological studies on the impact of these relational interactions on brain systems that regulate emotional bodily based survival functions. By defi nition, a paradigm shift occurs simultaneously across a number of different fi elds, and it induces an increased dialogue between the clinical and applied sciences. This transdisciplinary shift is articulated by Richard Ryan in a recent editorial of the journal Motivation and Emotion: After three decades of the dominance of cognitive approaches, motivational and emotional processes have roared back into the limelight.. .. More practically, cognitive interventions that do not address motivation and emotion are increasingly proving to be short-lived in their effi cacy, and limited in the problems to which they can be applied. (2007, p. 1) Echoing this perspective, the neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp now boldly asserts:
Pediatrics in Review, Jun 1, 2005
Editor's Note: This article is a departure from our usual review in that it discusses new frontie... more Editor's Note: This article is a departure from our usual review in that it discusses new frontiers in the correlation of brain, mind, and emotions in developing children as well as areas of collaboration between pediatrics and sister disciplines. Dr Schore has adapted a substantial amount of technical information to the viewpoint of the pediatrician. At the same time, many readers will encounter perspectives and language that seem unfamiliar. We urge clinicians to invest the effort needed for a careful reading to appreciate exciting new ways to look at development and emotional coping mechanisms. Readers desiring an abbreviated version will find it in the print version.-LFN
Development and Psychopathology, Dec 1, 1997
The concepts of self-organization, state changes, and energy flow are central to dynamic systems ... more The concepts of self-organization, state changes, and energy flow are central to dynamic systems theory. In this work I suggest that to apply these general principles to the study of normal and abnormal development, these constructs must be specifically defined in reference to current knowledge of brain development. Toward that end, I present an overview of the properties of self-organizing developmental systems, and then propose a model of attachment dynamics as synchronized energy exchanges that cocreate nonlinear changes of state, discuss the roles of bioamines and energy-generating brain mitochondria in state regulation, and describe the energy-dependent imprinting of synaptic connectivity and neural circuitry in the infant brain. In this application of nonlinear concepts to developmental models of both resistance against and vulnerability to mental disorders, particular emphasis is placed upon the experience-dependent maturation of a system in the orbital prefrontal cortex that regulates psychobiological state and organismic energy balance. This frontolimbic system is expanded in the nonlinear right hemisphere that generates stress-regulating coping strategies, and it serves as the hierarchical apex of the limbic and autonomic nervous systems. Early forming microstructural alterations and energetic limitations of this regulatory system are suggested to be associated with a predisposition to psychiatric disorders.
Annals of General Psychiatry, Nov 19, 2022
This article overviews my recent acceptance of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Sapienza Univers... more This article overviews my recent acceptance of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Sapienza University of Rome, in which I discussed three decades of my work on the right brain in development, psychopathogenesis, and psychotherapy. In the following, I offer current brain laterality and hemispheric asymmetry research indicating that right brain emotional and relational processes operate beneath conscious awareness not only in early human development, but over the lifespan. I discuss recent interdisciplinary studies on the central role of ultrarapid right brain-to-right brain intersubjective communications of face, voice, and gesture and the implicit regulation of emotion in nonverbal attachment dynamics. Special emphasis is on the fundamental psychobiological process of interpersonal synchrony, and on the evolutionary mechanism of attachment, the interactive regulation of biological synchrony within and between organisms. I then present some clinical applications, suggesting that effective therapeutic work with "primitive" nonverbal emotional attachment dynamics focuses not on conscious verbal insight but on the formation of an unconscious emotion-communicating and regulating bond within the therapeutic relationship. Lastly, I review recent hyperscanning research of the patient's and therapist's brains during a face-to-face, emotionally focused psychotherapy session that supports the right brain-to-right brain communication model. I end suggesting that the right brain is dominant in both short-term symptom-reducing and long-term growth-promoting deep psychotherapy.
Springer eBooks, Aug 25, 2010
Attachment theory, originally proposed by Bowlby (1969), has experienced a powerful resurgence ov... more Attachment theory, originally proposed by Bowlby (1969), has experienced a powerful resurgence over the last decade, not only in the mental health field but also in the biological sciences. Originating in an amalgam of psychoanalysis and behavioral biology, attachment theory is deceptively simple on the surface. It posits that the real relationships of the earliest stage of life indelibly shape
Infant mental health journal, 2017
Why are boys at risk? To address this question, I use the perspective of regulation theory to off... more Why are boys at risk? To address this question, I use the perspective of regulation theory to offer a model of the deeper psychoneurobiological mechanisms that underlie the vulnerability of the developing male. The central thesis of this work dictates that significant gender differences are seen between male and female social and emotional functions in the earliest stages of development, and that these result from not only differences in sex hormones and social experiences but also in rates of male and female brain maturation, specifically in the early developing right brain. I present interdisciplinary research which indicates that the stress-regulating circuits of the male brain mature more slowly than those of the female in the prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal critical periods, and that this differential structural maturation is reflected in normal gender differences in right-brain attachment functions. Due to this maturational delay, developing males also are more vulnerable over a longer period of time to stressors in the social environment (attachment trauma) and toxins in the physical environment (endocrine disruptors) that negatively impact right-brain development. In terms of differences in gender-related psychopathology, I describe the early developmental neuroendocrinological and neurobiological mechanisms that are involved in the increased vulnerability of males to autism, early onset schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorders as well as the epigenetic mechanisms that can account for the recent widespread increase of these disorders in U.S. culture. I also offer a clinical formulation of early assessments of boys at risk, discuss the impact of early childcare on male psychopathogenesis, and end with a neurobiological model of optimal adult male socioemotional functions.
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Jun 1, 1997
Routledge eBooks, Sep 11, 2020
Pediatrics in Review, Jun 1, 2005
European Journal of Psychotraumatology, Aug 3, 2015
Development and Psychopathology, 1996
The maturation of corticolimbic systems that neurobiologically mediate essential affective and so... more The maturation of corticolimbic systems that neurobiologically mediate essential affective and social regulatory functions is experience dependent. During the first and second years of life, the infant's affective experiences, especially those embedded in the relationship with the primary caregiver, elicit patterns of psychobiological alterations that influence the activity of subcortically produced trophic bioamines, peptides, and steroids that regulate the critical period growth and organization of the developing neocortex. Interactive attachment experiences of psychobiological attuncment, stressful misattunement, and stress-regulating repair and reattuncment that maximize positive and minimize negative affect are imprinted into the orbitofrontal cortex-the hierarchical apex of the limbic system that is expanded in the early developing right hemisphere. During the critical period of maturation of this system, prolonged episodes of intense and unregulated interactive stress arc manifest in disorganizing experiences of heightened negative affect and altered levels of stress hormones, and this chaotic biochemical alteration of the internal environment triggers an extensive apoptotic parcellation of corticolimbic circuitries. In this manner less than optimal affect-regulating experiences with the primary caregiver arc imprinted into the circuits of this frontolimbic system that is instrumental to attachment functions, thereby producing orbitofrontal organizations that neurobiologically express different patterns of insecure attachments. Such pathomorphogenctic outcomes result in structurally defective systems that, under stress, inefficiently regulate subcortical mechanisms that mediate the physiological processes that underlie emotion. The functional impairments of the cortical-subcortical circuitries of this prefrontal system are implicated in an enduring vulnerability to and the pathophysiology of various later forming psychiatric disorders. The ontogenesis of self-regulation is an es-social and cultural levels. In fact, the adopsential organizing principle, if not a funda-tion of this multilevel, multidisciplinary mental mechanism, of the development of perspective is an absolute necessity for a dynamic living systems. The concept of reg-deeper understanding of ontogeny, because ulation is one of the few theoretical con-development represents a progression of structs utilized by literally every scientific stages in which emergent adaptive sclfdiscipline. The robustness and heuristic-na-regulatory structures and functions enable ture of this construct are reflected in the qualitatively new interactions between the fact that regulatory processes can be studied individual and his environment. Because simultaneously along several separate but this early dialectic between the changing interrelated dimensions, ranging from the organism and the changing environment inmolecular level of organization through the volves dynamic alterations in both structure and function, these "self-regulatory struc-ATdrcss correspondence and reprint requests to: Allan tures" need to be identified in terms of N-Schorc,98i7SyiviaAvcnue,Northridgc,CA9i324. what is currently known about biological
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, Feb 1, 2002
Attachment & Human Development, Apr 1, 2000
It has been three decades since John Bowlby first presented an over-arching model of early human ... more It has been three decades since John Bowlby first presented an over-arching model of early human development in his groundbreaking volume, Attachment. In the present paper I refer back to Bowlby's original charting of the attachment landscape in order to suggest that current research and clinical models need to return to the integration of the psychological and biological underpinnings of the theory. Towards that end, recent contributions from neuroscience are offered to support Bowlby's assertions that attachment is instinctive behavior with a biological function, that emotional processes lie at the foundation of a model of instinctive behavior, and that a biological control system in the brain regulates affectively driven instinctive behavior. This control system can now be identified as the orbitofrontal system and its cortical and subcortical connections. This 'senior executive of the emotional brain' acts as a regulatory system, and is expanded in the right hemisphere, which is dominant in human infancy and centrally involved in inhibitory control. Attachment theory is essentially a regulatory theory, and attachment can be defined as the interactive regulation of biological synchronicity between organisms. This model suggests that future directions of attachment research should focus upon the early-forming psychoneurobiological mechanisms that mediate both adaptive and maladaptive regulatory processes. Such studies will have direct applications to the creation of more effective preventive and treatment methodologies.
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2005
I am again delighted to serve as editor of a series of short articles for the Psychologist Psycho... more I am again delighted to serve as editor of a series of short articles for the Psychologist Psychoanalyst. The goal of the series, which first appeared as a number of essays on advances in neuroscience and attachment theory in the 2000 and 2001 issues, is to provide a medium for the rapid integration of very recent interdisciplinary data, research, and concepts into the currently dynamically expanding domain of psychoanalytic knowledge. The artices that will appear over a number of upcoming issues are offerings from members of my ongoing Study Groups in Developmental Affective Neuroscience & Clinical Practice which have met here in Los Angeles since 1996. These groups continuously process a rather large volume of current data from a spectrum of disciplines in order to appraise the relevance of this information for psychoanalysis. A major focus is on a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of psychopathogenesis and of psychotherapeutic treatment, especially of disorders that have previously been viewed to be refractory to psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy.
Neuro-psychoanalysis, 1999
International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Nov 21, 2019
Part 1: Theoretical Models of Right Brain Therapeutic Action. The first part of this article on t... more Part 1: Theoretical Models of Right Brain Therapeutic Action. The first part of this article on the central role of the right brain in group psychotherapy offers evidence-based theoretical models of therapeutic action cocreated by the group members and the group leader. It describes how recent advances in interpersonal neurobiology and neuropsychoanalysis allow for a deeper understanding of the underlying nonverbal right brain change mechanisms beneath the words in individual psychotherapy. It then expands this model to the group context, specifically focusing on the theoretical constructs of cohesion, attachment, transference-countertransference dynamics, and implicit affect regulation, all of which are right brain functions. Part 1 concludes with a discussion of the
PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2008
THERE IS CURRENTLY AN increasing awareness, indeed a palpable sense, that a number of clinical di... more THERE IS CURRENTLY AN increasing awareness, indeed a palpable sense, that a number of clinical disciplines are undergoing a signifi cant transformation, a paradigm shift. A powerful engine for the increased energy and growth in the mental health fi eld is our ongoing dialogue with neighboring disciplines, especially developmental science, biology, and neuroscience. This mutually enriching interdisciplinary communication is centered on a common interest in the primacy of affect in the human condition. Psychological studies on the critical role of emotional contact between humans are now being integrated with biological studies on the impact of these relational interactions on brain systems that regulate emotional bodily based survival functions. By defi nition, a paradigm shift occurs simultaneously across a number of different fi elds, and it induces an increased dialogue between the clinical and applied sciences. This transdisciplinary shift is articulated by Richard Ryan in a recent editorial of the journal Motivation and Emotion: After three decades of the dominance of cognitive approaches, motivational and emotional processes have roared back into the limelight.. .. More practically, cognitive interventions that do not address motivation and emotion are increasingly proving to be short-lived in their effi cacy, and limited in the problems to which they can be applied. (2007, p. 1) Echoing this perspective, the neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp now boldly asserts:
Pediatrics in Review, Jun 1, 2005
Editor's Note: This article is a departure from our usual review in that it discusses new frontie... more Editor's Note: This article is a departure from our usual review in that it discusses new frontiers in the correlation of brain, mind, and emotions in developing children as well as areas of collaboration between pediatrics and sister disciplines. Dr Schore has adapted a substantial amount of technical information to the viewpoint of the pediatrician. At the same time, many readers will encounter perspectives and language that seem unfamiliar. We urge clinicians to invest the effort needed for a careful reading to appreciate exciting new ways to look at development and emotional coping mechanisms. Readers desiring an abbreviated version will find it in the print version.-LFN
Development and Psychopathology, Dec 1, 1997
The concepts of self-organization, state changes, and energy flow are central to dynamic systems ... more The concepts of self-organization, state changes, and energy flow are central to dynamic systems theory. In this work I suggest that to apply these general principles to the study of normal and abnormal development, these constructs must be specifically defined in reference to current knowledge of brain development. Toward that end, I present an overview of the properties of self-organizing developmental systems, and then propose a model of attachment dynamics as synchronized energy exchanges that cocreate nonlinear changes of state, discuss the roles of bioamines and energy-generating brain mitochondria in state regulation, and describe the energy-dependent imprinting of synaptic connectivity and neural circuitry in the infant brain. In this application of nonlinear concepts to developmental models of both resistance against and vulnerability to mental disorders, particular emphasis is placed upon the experience-dependent maturation of a system in the orbital prefrontal cortex that regulates psychobiological state and organismic energy balance. This frontolimbic system is expanded in the nonlinear right hemisphere that generates stress-regulating coping strategies, and it serves as the hierarchical apex of the limbic and autonomic nervous systems. Early forming microstructural alterations and energetic limitations of this regulatory system are suggested to be associated with a predisposition to psychiatric disorders.
Annals of General Psychiatry, Nov 19, 2022
This article overviews my recent acceptance of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Sapienza Univers... more This article overviews my recent acceptance of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Sapienza University of Rome, in which I discussed three decades of my work on the right brain in development, psychopathogenesis, and psychotherapy. In the following, I offer current brain laterality and hemispheric asymmetry research indicating that right brain emotional and relational processes operate beneath conscious awareness not only in early human development, but over the lifespan. I discuss recent interdisciplinary studies on the central role of ultrarapid right brain-to-right brain intersubjective communications of face, voice, and gesture and the implicit regulation of emotion in nonverbal attachment dynamics. Special emphasis is on the fundamental psychobiological process of interpersonal synchrony, and on the evolutionary mechanism of attachment, the interactive regulation of biological synchrony within and between organisms. I then present some clinical applications, suggesting that effective therapeutic work with "primitive" nonverbal emotional attachment dynamics focuses not on conscious verbal insight but on the formation of an unconscious emotion-communicating and regulating bond within the therapeutic relationship. Lastly, I review recent hyperscanning research of the patient's and therapist's brains during a face-to-face, emotionally focused psychotherapy session that supports the right brain-to-right brain communication model. I end suggesting that the right brain is dominant in both short-term symptom-reducing and long-term growth-promoting deep psychotherapy.
Springer eBooks, Aug 25, 2010
Attachment theory, originally proposed by Bowlby (1969), has experienced a powerful resurgence ov... more Attachment theory, originally proposed by Bowlby (1969), has experienced a powerful resurgence over the last decade, not only in the mental health field but also in the biological sciences. Originating in an amalgam of psychoanalysis and behavioral biology, attachment theory is deceptively simple on the surface. It posits that the real relationships of the earliest stage of life indelibly shape
Infant mental health journal, 2017
Why are boys at risk? To address this question, I use the perspective of regulation theory to off... more Why are boys at risk? To address this question, I use the perspective of regulation theory to offer a model of the deeper psychoneurobiological mechanisms that underlie the vulnerability of the developing male. The central thesis of this work dictates that significant gender differences are seen between male and female social and emotional functions in the earliest stages of development, and that these result from not only differences in sex hormones and social experiences but also in rates of male and female brain maturation, specifically in the early developing right brain. I present interdisciplinary research which indicates that the stress-regulating circuits of the male brain mature more slowly than those of the female in the prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal critical periods, and that this differential structural maturation is reflected in normal gender differences in right-brain attachment functions. Due to this maturational delay, developing males also are more vulnerable over a longer period of time to stressors in the social environment (attachment trauma) and toxins in the physical environment (endocrine disruptors) that negatively impact right-brain development. In terms of differences in gender-related psychopathology, I describe the early developmental neuroendocrinological and neurobiological mechanisms that are involved in the increased vulnerability of males to autism, early onset schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorders as well as the epigenetic mechanisms that can account for the recent widespread increase of these disorders in U.S. culture. I also offer a clinical formulation of early assessments of boys at risk, discuss the impact of early childcare on male psychopathogenesis, and end with a neurobiological model of optimal adult male socioemotional functions.
Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Jun 1, 1997
Routledge eBooks, Sep 11, 2020
NEUROSCIENCE AND PSYCHOANALYSIS (Second edition), 2021
The second edition of the book is foreworded by Jakub Przybyła who criticizes the idea of integra... more The second edition of the book is foreworded by Jakub Przybyła who criticizes the idea of integrating neurobiology and psychotherapy based mainly on the study of psychoanalysis and neuropsychoanalysis. The author tackles philosophical and methodological problems which arise from attempts to carry out this integration. Parallel issues of psychoanalytic psychotherapy practice are also addressed. He presents the view that integration can result with a harmful reduction. It also proposes a look at the relationship between psychotherapy and neurobiology as an area of cooperation that avoids the confusion of theoretical languages thanks to the separability of research planes of both domains. This separation results in a kind of dualism and instrumentalism. The book, after the first two chapters written respectively by Georg Northoff and Grigoris Vaslamatzis, introducing some unavoidable theoretical questions this interdisciplinary dialogue has to face, presents four chapters in which as many basic clinical areas, dissociation, sleep and dream, post-traumatic conditions and infant research, constitute the main topics. Georg Northoff discusses the possibility of overcoming the highly impasse generating contraposition between localizationism and holism. Grigoris Vaslamatzis states that Freud’s legacy, deriving from his work “Project for a scientific psychology” (1895), could give a new impetus to the dialogue between psychoanalysis and neurosciences. David Mann tries to show how reflexive processes generate each of the levels of the human system (relationship, human substance and group) and integrate them one to another, while dissociative processes tend throughout to pull them apart. Matthew Walker and Robert Stickgold explore one of the most exciting hypotheses about the functions of sleep, i.e. that of the contribution of sleep to processes of memory and brain plasticity. Bessel van der Kolk examines how the research showing how exposure to extreme stress affects brain function is making important contributions to understanding the nature of traumatic stress. Allan Schore in the last chapter in his review integrates recent advances in attachment theory, affective neuroscience, developmental stress research, and infant psychiatry in order to delineate the developmental precursors of post-traumatic stress disorder and to generate more powerful models of the early genesis of a predisposition to psychiatric disorders, including PTSD.