Esoteric power, useless, useful: considerations about dreams in cognitive-behavioural therapy

For a long time dreamwork in cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) was considered useless and as a technique specific to psychodynamic approaches, consequently overlooked in the treatment course. In the last twenty years, thanks to the contribution of neuroscience studies on sleep and dreams, dreams joined the attention and interest of authors belonging to the CBT field. The central feature of dreamwork in CBT is the abandonment of the exploration of latent meaning, which is instead considered in continuity with the waking life. Dreams reflect a patient’s view of self, world, and future, and are subject to the same cognitive biases as the waking state. Consequently, the dreamwork can be used to get information about the patient, overcome impasses in therapy, restructure self and interpersonal schemas, and stimulate reflective functioning. Therefore, guidelines have been defined and models of well-articulated intervention in terms of process and content, replicable and teachable through specific training structured. This paper aims to provide an overview of theories regarding the use of dreams in CBT, from a clinical perspective, from Beck to more recent proposals.

PECULIARITIES OF METHODS AND DIRECTIONS OF PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC CARE FOR PATIENTS WITH ALCOHOLISM

The paper presents an attempt to carry out a psychological analysis of methods and areas of psychotherapeutic care for patients with alcoholism. The effectiveness of indirect stress psychotherapy, gestalt psychotherapy, behavioral therapy, family therapy is proved. The content of complex psychotherapeutic methods of treatment of patients with alcoholism in the waking state with the use of suggestive training is analyzed. The author of the article made an attempt to analyze one of the well-known methods of psychotherapy - psychosynthesis in working with patients with alcoholism. The principles and system of using the methods of rational psychotherapy in the correction of neurosis-like disorders, which are often observed in alcohol dependence, are described. The article proves a positive role in the treatment of addiction of other psychotherapeutic methods: positive, habitual and methods of psychological correction.

Altered Coactive Micropattern Connectivity in the Default-Mode Network during the Sleep-Wake Cycle

The default-mode network (DMN) is believed to be associated with levels of consciousness, but how the functional connectivity (FC) of the DMN changes across different states of consciousness is still unclear. In the current work, we addressed this issue by exploring the coactive micropattern (CAMP) networks of the DMN according to the CAMPs of rat DMN activity during the sleep-wake cycle and tracking their topological alterations among different states of consciousness. Three CAMP networks were observed in DMN activity, and they displayed greater FC and higher efficiency than the original DMN structure in all states of consciousness, implying more efficient information processing in the CAMP networks. Furthermore, no significant differences in FC or network properties were found among the three CAMP networks in the waking state. However, the three networks were distinct in their characteristics in two sleep states, indicating that different CAMP networks played specific roles in distinct sleep states. In addition, we found that the changes in the FC and network properties of the CAMP networks were similar to those in the original DMN structure, suggesting intrinsic effects of various states of consciousness on DMN dynamics. Our findings revealed three underlying CAMP networks within the DMN dynamics and deepened the current knowledge concerning FC alterations in the DMN during conscious changes in the sleep-wake cycle.

Enhanced Vigilance Stability during Daytime in Insomnia Disorder

Central nervous hyperarousal is as a key component of current pathophysiological concepts of chronic insomnia disorder. However, there are still open questions regarding its exact nature and the mechanisms linking hyperarousal to sleep disturbance. Here, we aimed at studying waking state hyperarousal in insomnia by the perspective of resting-state vigilance dynamics. The VIGALL (Vigilance Algorithm Leipzig) algorithm has been developed to investigate resting-state vigilance dynamics, and it revealed, for example, enhanced vigilance stability in depressive patients. We hypothesized that patients with insomnia also show a more stable vigilance regulation. Thirty-four unmedicated patients with chronic insomnia and 25 healthy controls participated in a twenty-minute resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) measurement following a night of polysomnography. Insomnia patients showed enhanced EEG vigilance stability as compared to controls. The pattern of vigilance hyperstability differed from that reported previously in depressive patients. Vigilance hyperstability was also present in insomnia patients showing only mildly reduced sleep efficiency. In this subgroup, vigilance hyperstability correlated with measures of disturbed sleep continuity and arousal. Our data indicate that insomnia disorder is characterized by hyperarousal at night as well as during daytime.

Neuromodulation of Brain State and Behavior

Neural activity and behavior are both notoriously variable, with responses differing widely between repeated presentation of identical stimuli or trials. Recent results in humans and animals reveal that these variations are not random in their nature, but may in fact be due in large part to rapid shifts in neural, cognitive, and behavioral states. Here we review recent advances in the understanding of rapid variations in the waking state, how variations are generated, and how they modulate neural and behavioral responses in both mice and humans. We propose that the brain has an identifiable set of states through which it wanders continuously in a nonrandom fashion, owing to the activity of both ascending modulatory and fast-acting corticocortical and subcortical-cortical neural pathways. These state variations provide the backdrop upon which the brain operates, and understanding them is critical to making progress in revealing the neural mechanisms underlying cognition and behavior.

Pasang-Surut Komitmen Kebangsaan

Our national commitment can be seen through three phases, namely in the early days of independence, in the New Order era, and in the Reform Era. Our national commitment at the beginning of the independen- ce is scratched as negative-defensive nationalism force, when it was faced with a common enemy from outside (colonization). Our national commit- ment in the New Order era is marked by making economy as the comman- der in terms of growth, stability and centralization of power, bringing a variety of inequality. The most striking, there is lack of harmony between the national and statehood character. National multicultural character of Indonesia was denied by the centralized nature of waking state. Imbalance between central and local government with denial of political, social, eco- nomic and cultural rights of local communities. Meanwhile, the national commitment in the Reformation Era is characterized by openness and free- dom of public space that brings euphoria for the expression of marginalized identities. Efforts to bring diversity of expression "plural monoculturalism" into the situation of "multi-culturalism"—with willingness of being differen- ce (pluralism) and willingness of being united (cosmopolitanism)— requires a new solidarity framework, which is based on the premises of political na- tionalism based on rationality, volunteerism and shared prosperity.

ESTIMATION OF THE DEPTH OF ANESTHESIA BY ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM USING NEURAL NETWORKS

Introduction. Monitoring of the depth of anesthesia during surgery is a complex task. Since electroencephalogram (EEG) signals contain valuable information about processes in the brain, EEG analysis is considered to be one of the most useful methods for study and assessment of the depth of anesthesia in clinical applications. Anesthetics affect the frequency composition of the EEG. EEG of awake persons, as a rule, contains mixed alpha and beta rhythms. Changes in the EEG, caused by the transition from the waking state to the state of deep anesthesia, manifest as a shift of the spectral components of the signal to the lower part of the frequency range. Anesthetics cause a whole range of neurophysiological changes, which cannot be correctly assessed with just one indicator. Objective. In order to describe complex processes during the transition from the waking state to the state of deep anesthesia adequately, it is required to propose a method for assessing the depth of anesthesia, using a comprehensive set of parameters reflecting changes in the EEG signal. The article presents the results of study the possibility of building a regression model based on artificial neural networks (ANN) to determine levels of anesthesia using a set of parameters calculated by EEG. Materials and methods. The authors of the article propose the method for assessing the level of anesthesia, based on the use of neural networks, which input parameters are time and frequency EEG parameters, namely: spectral entropy (SE); burst-suppression ratio (BSR); spectral edge frequency (SEF95) and log power ratio of the spectrum (RBR) for three pairs of frequency ranges. Results. The optimal parameters of ANN were determined, at which the highest level of regression is achieved between the calculated and the verified values of the anesthesia depth indices. Conclusion. In order to create a practical version of the algorithm, it is necessary to investigate further the noise stability of the proposed method and develop a set of algorithmic solutions, which ensure a reliable operation of the algorithm in the presence of noise.

Surrealist Presencing in Theophile Gautier’s ‘The Mummy’s Foot’

This paper attempts to pursue a Surrealist approach to Existential presencing as projected in Theophile Gautier’s ‘The Mummy’s Foot’. The existentialist individual is thrown into an absurd nonsensical world, and is only capable of giving meaning to his existence by distancing himself from society and proving his presence through subjective continuous action, or else risks his reduction to nonexistence. Likewise, the Surrealist aim is to escape the rational limitations of society hindering the individual’s ability to project his full imaginative potential. The only possible way for a Surrealist to truly experience and project his creativity and place in the world is through one’s sub-conscious, only possibly accessed in the dream world, which otherwise is never fully attainable in the waking-state. The paper attempts to offer a fresh perspective as it explores the possibility of tracing existential presencing by utilizing the Surrealist method of dream interpretation in literature. The conjoining of the waking-state and the dream world grants access to the possibility of proving one’s existence in either state, so long as subjective action is affected and continued in both realities.