The role of self-representation

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-109
Author(s):  
Chris Letheby
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Outcomes ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Self ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Second Line ◽  
Independent Evidence ◽  
Simple Hypothesis ◽  
Third Line ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

‘The role of self-representation’ presents three lines of evidence in support of a simple hypothesis: the central mechanism of psychedelic therapy is the disruption and revision of mental representations of the self. One line of evidence connects experiences of ‘psychological insight’ to positive clinical outcomes, and the insights in question are often autobiographical in character. A second line of evidence shows that psychedelics can elevate mindfulness-related capacities for taking an open, non-reactive attentional stance toward inner experience. These capacities centrally involve changes in the sense of self. A third line of evidence links positive clinical outcomes to changes in two neural systems, the Default Mode and Salience networks. Both are implicated in self-representation by considerable independent evidence. This chapter argues that one can combine these psychological and neurobiological findings into an integrative account of psychedelic therapy by attending to the cognitive or information-processing functions of the neural systems affected by psychedelics.

scholarly journals ‘Do you mean I’m not whole?’: Exploring the role of support in women’s experiences of mastectomy without reconstruction

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 1598-1609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Archer ◽  
Fiona G Holland ◽  
Jane Montague
Keyword(s):  
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Self ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Younger Women ◽  
Women’S Experiences ◽  
Women's Experiences ◽  
Positive Support ◽  
Unilateral Mastectomy

This study explores the role of others in supporting younger women who opt not to reconstruct their breast post-mastectomy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six women diagnosed with breast cancer in their 30s/40s. The women lived in England, had been diagnosed a minimum of 5 years previously and had undergone unilateral mastectomy. An interpretative phenomenological analysis revealed three themes: Assuring the self: ‘I’ll love you whatever’, Challenging the self: ‘Do you mean I’m not whole?’ and Accepting the self: ‘I’ve come out the other side’. The women’s experiences of positive support and challenges to their sense of self are discussed.

The Bodily Self

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Luis Bermúdez
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Behavioral Sciences ◽  
Significant Contributor ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Selection Of

How can we be aware of ourselves both as physical objects and as thinking, experiencing subjects? What role does the experience of the body play in generating our sense of self? What is the role of action and agency in the construction of the bodily self? These questions have been a rich subject of interdisciplinary debate among philosophers, neuroscientists, experimental psychologists, and cognitive scientists for several decades. José Luis Bermúdez been a significant contributor to these debates since the 1990’s, when he authored The Paradox of Self-Consciousness (MIT Press, 1998) and co-edited The Body and the Self (MIT Press, 1995) with Anthony Marcel and Naomi Eilan. The Bodily Self is a selection of essays all focused on different aspects of the role of the body in self-consciousness, prefaced by a substantial introduction outlining common themes across the essays. The essays have been published in a wide range of journals and edited volumes. Putting them together brings out a wide-ranging, thematically consistent perspective on a set of topics and problems that remain firmly of interest across the cognitive and behavioral sciences.

Activity of new agents (NAs) as third-line treatment in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients (pts) showing a primary resistance (PRes) to NAs-based second line therapy after docetaxel (DOC): Preliminary results from a multicenter Italian study.

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (7_suppl) ◽  
pp. 216-216
Author(s):  
Orazio Caffo ◽  
Ugo De Giorgi ◽  
Gaetano Facchini ◽  
Lucia Fratino ◽  
Donatello Gasparro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Outcomes ◽  
Objective Response ◽  
Progression Free Survival ◽  
Consecutive Series ◽  
Line Treatment ◽  
Second Line ◽  
Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer ◽  
Primary Resistance ◽  
Third Line ◽  
Third Line Treatment

216 Background: The androgen receptor machinery remains the ultimate target of NAs in mCRPC post-DOC, abiraterone acetate (AA), cabazitaxel (CAB), and enzalutamide (ENZ). It is postulated that some mechanisms of resistance may be common to all NAs. This may be crucial in planning their sequential use, mainly when a PRes to one of them is observed. The present study assessed the activity of NAs in pts who previously experienced a PRes to another NA administered after DOC. Methods: We collected data of pts who received sequentially two NAs after DOC in 32 Italian hospital. For each pt we recorded the clinical outcomes of all treatments received after DOC. For the study purpose, we consider with PRes all pts progressing within 3 months after second line NA start. All other pts were considered as without PRes. Results: A consecutive series of 271 mCRPC pts, median age 71 yrs (46-91), with bone (89%), nodal (56%) or visceral (19%) mets, was collected. All pts received NAs as second line after DOC (AA 54% – CAB 34%– ENZ 12%) and 54 (20%) showed a PRes. Among these, third line treatment [AA (31%), CAB (42%), and ENZ (27%)], produced a biochemical and an objective response rate of 11% in both cases, with a median progression free survival (PFS) and a median overall survival (OS) of 4 mos and 8 mos, respectively. No statistically significant differences were observed in terms of clinical outcomes on the basis of NA sequences (see Table). Conclusions: It appears from this preliminary data, that the activity of NAs in pts showing a PRes to second line NAs is very limited, regardless the NA is administered. [Table: see text]

scholarly journals Human Empathy Through the Lens of Social Neuroscience

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 1146-1163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Decety ◽  
Claus Lamm
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
The Self ◽  
Neural Systems

Empathy is the ability to experience and understand what others feel without confusion between oneself and others. Knowing what someone else is feeling plays a fundamental role in interpersonal interactions. In this paper, we articulate evidence from social psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and argue that empathy involves both emotion sharing (bottom-up information processing) and executive control to regulate and modulate this experience (top-down information processing), underpinned by specific and interacting neural systems. Furthermore, awareness of a distinction between the experiences of the self and others constitutes a crucial aspect of empathy. We discuss data from recent behavioral and functional neuroimaging studies with an emphasis on the perception of pain in others, and highlight the role of different neural mechanisms that underpin the experience of empathy, including emotion sharing, perspective taking, and emotion regulation.

scholarly journals I overthink—therefore I am not: Altered Sense of Self in Depersonalisation Disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Ciaunica ◽  
Casper Hesp ◽  
Anil Seth ◽  
Jakub Limanowski ◽  
Karl Friston
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Formal Analysis ◽  
The Self ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Mental Action ◽  
The World ◽  
Physiological Abnormalities ◽  
Sensory Attenuation

This paper considers the phenomenology of depersonalisation disorder, in relation to predictive processing and its associated pathophysiology. To do this, we first establish a few mechanistic tenets of predictive processing that are necessary to talk about phenomenal transparency, mental action, and self as subject. We briefly review the important role of ‘predicting precision’ and how this affords mental action and the loss of phenomenal transparency. We then turn to sensory attenuation and the phenomenal consequences of (pathophysiological) failures to attenuate or modulate sensory precision. We then consider this failure in the context of depersonalisation disorder. The key idea here is that depersonalisation disorder reflects the remarkable capacity to explain perceptual engagement with the world via the hypothesis that “I am an embodied perceiver, but I am not in control of my perception”. We suggest that individuals with depersonalisation may believe that ‘another agent’ is controlling their thoughts, perceptions or actions, while maintaining full insight that the ‘another agent’ is ‘me’ (the self). Finally, we rehearse the predictions of this formal analysis, with a special focus on the psychophysical and physiological abnormalities that may underwrite the phenomenology of depersonalisation.

Crossing Ethical Boundaries in the Pursuit of Passion: How Passion Gaps Cause Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Jachimowicz ◽  
Zachary Brown ◽  
Joel Brockner ◽  
Adam Galinsky
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Unethical Behavior ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Causal Chain ◽  
The Self ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Chain Analysis ◽  
Predicting Success

Many contemporary organizations encourage their employees' pursuit of passion for work. However, we propose that this strategy may simultaneously increase the likelihood their employees engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB), immoral acts that benefit the company. Specifically, we suggest that when employees fall short of desired levels of work passion-i.e., when they experience a "passion gap"-their sense of self is threatened. One way employees deal with the self-threat elicited by passion gaps is by engaging in UPB, which gives them the feeling that they are worthy organizational members. Eight studies (N = 2,695)-including two field studies, an experimental-causal-chain analysis, and two intervention studies-provide support for the proposed relationships between passion gaps, self-threat, and the tendency to engage in UPB. Two interventions highlight factors that directly attenuate the self-threat prompted by passion gaps: (1) having employees engage in self-affirmation, and (2) de-emphasizing the role of passion in predicting success. Our results suggest that organizations' increased emphasis on the pursuit of passion may have an unintended consequence: it leads those employees who fall short of desired levels of passion to engage in unethical behavior designed to help the company, which may harm the organization in the long-run.

Sequential administration of new agents (NAs) after docetaxel (DOC) in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients (pts): Impact of disease control (DC) duration in second line on the subsequent line outcomes.

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2_suppl) ◽  
pp. 210-210
Author(s):  
Francesca Maines ◽  
Ugo De Giorgi ◽  
Gaetano Facchini ◽  
Lucia Fratino ◽  
Donatello Gasparro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Disease Control ◽  
Clinical Outcomes ◽  
Abiraterone Acetate ◽  
Consecutive Series ◽  
Second Line ◽  
Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer ◽  
Primary Resistance ◽  
Sequential Administration ◽  
Progression Of Disease ◽  
Third Line

210 Background: Abiraterone acetate (AA), cabazitaxel (CABA), and enzalutamide (ENZ) are NAs which demonstrated their efficacy in mCRPC pts who have previously treated with DOC. Unfortunately all pts develop a resistance to these drugs and eventually show a progression of disease. Since the androgen receptor machinery remains the ultimate target of NAs in mCRPC post-DOC, some mechanisms of resistance could be common to all NAs. To date, NAs are sequentially administered in the hope of obtaining a cumulative survival benefit. To date it is unknown if the DC duration influence the outcomes of the subsequent treatments. The present study was aimed to retrospectively assess this issue in a large series of mCRPC pts. Methods: We recorded the clinical outcomes of all treatments received after DOC. For the study purpose, we categorized the pts according to the duration of DC (absence of progression) during NA-based second line: DC ≤ 3 mos (primary resistance – PRe); DC from 3.1 to 11.9 mos (intermediate sensitivity – IS); DC ≥ 12 mos (long term disease control – LTDC). Results: A consecutive series of 291 mCRPC pts, median age 71 yrs (46-91), with bone (88%), nodal (53%) or visceral (18%) mets, was collected. All pts received a NA-based as second line after DOC: 160 (55%) received AA, 99 (33%) CABA and 32 (11%) ENZ. PRe was observed in 56 pts (23 AA – 25 CABA – 8 ENZ), IS in 178 (101 AA – 58 CABA – 19 ENZ), LTDC in 57 (36 AA – 16 CABA – 5 ENZ). The third-line clinical outcomes are detailed in the table. Conclusions: From this data, it appears that DC duration may be a prognostic factor, as a probable result of pts/disease selection. In fact, pts progressing more than 12 mos from the start of NA-based second line appear to have more probabilities to live longer, compared to pts progressing earlier, when they receive another NA-based third line therapy. [Table: see text]

Patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) are primary resistant (PR) to the new agent (NA)-based second line: Clinical outcomes and prognostic factors of subsequent treatment with another NA.

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (6_suppl) ◽  
pp. e585-e585
Author(s):  
Orazio Caffo ◽  
Emilio Bria ◽  
Ugo De Giorgi ◽  
Marcello Tucci ◽  
Elisa Biasco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prognostic Factors ◽  
Lactate Dehydrogenase ◽  
Clinical Outcomes ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Objective Response ◽  
Subsequent Treatment ◽  
Consecutive Series ◽  
Second Line ◽  
Cox Regression Analysis ◽  
Third Line

e585 Background: Several NA [abiraterone acetate (AA), cabazitaxel (CABA), or enzalutamide (ENZ)] changed the prognosis of mCRPC pts being able to significantly prolong their overall survival (OS) after docetaxel failure. Unfortunately, a quote of pts experiences an early progression (within 3 mos) during the second line treatment and it is unclear if a clinical benefit may result from a subsequent treatment with another NA. The present study is aimed to assess the clinical outcomes and prognostic factors of subsequent NA treatment in those pts PR to the second line NA. Methods: We collected data of pts who received sequentially two NAs after DOC in 38 Italian hospitals. For each pt we recorded the clinical outcome of all treatments received after DOC. For the purpose of the present analysis we consider as PR pts who progressed within 3 months from the start of the NA second line. Cox regression analysis was used to assess the independent prognostic value of a series of third-line baseline covariates, in terms of progression free survival (PFS) and OS. Results: A consecutive series of 476 mCRPC pts with bone (86%), nodal (56%) or visceral (15%) mets, was collected. The NA-based second line consisted of AA (261 pts), CABA (151), and ENZ (64): we identified 55 PR pts (AA 24 – CABA 24 – ENZ 7). All pts received a subsequent NA-based third line: 22 received AA, 25 CABA, and 8 ENZ. Compared to no-PR pts, PR pts showed a lower biochemical response rate (12.2% vs 31.6%; p = 0.005), but no significant differences in terms of objective response rate (17.1% vs 15.2%), PFS (median 3.5 vs 4.7 mos), and OS (median 9.4 vs 12.9 mos). Considering the PR population, at the multivariate analysis , lactate dehydrogenase and PSA were independent prognostic factors for PFS in third line, while hemoglobin, PSA, administration of one NA in fourth line and lactate dehydrogenase were independent prognostic factors for OS. Conclusions: In our experience, NA-based third line is active also in mCRPC PR population and some factors may help in selecting patients with higher probability of achieving a disease control.

scholarly journals An Ethnographic Study of Former Dissociative Identity Disorder Patients

2001 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eli Somer ◽  
Orit Nave
Keyword(s):  
Childhood Abuse ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Dissociative Identity Disorder ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The Self ◽  
Integration Process ◽  
Depth Interview ◽  
Spirituality And Religion ◽  
Childhood Suffering

Three therapists interviewed five of their former DID patients in a semi-structured depth interview. Two respondents were Israeli, two were North American, and one was Dutch. Prior to therapy their sense of self had been vague at best and was described as an uncomfortable feeling of internal void. They all had at least rudimentary recollections of their childhood suffering. They were more likely to believe their memories of childhood abuse if they succeeded in experiencing the feelings connected with those images. Fantasy, spirituality, and religion played a role in helping them manage their existence. Their integration process was incremental, as they gradually embraced the disowned aspects and functions of the self. Dissociative and ego state processes were still present during the period of data collection. The results are discussed in terms of the convergence of borderline and dissociative symptomatology, the role of fantasy and spirituality in DID, therapeutic processes, and patterns of treatment outcome.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document