Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-vmslq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-19T13:04:50.561Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Affects as Central Organising and Integrating Factors a New Psychosocial/Biological Model of the Psyche

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Luc Ciompi
Luc Ciompi*
Affiliation:
Medical Director of the Socio-Psychiatric University Clinic, Murtenst. 21, CH-3010 Berne, Switzerland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A new psychosocial/biological model of the psyche is proposed, in which the affects play a central role in organising and integrating cognition. The psyche is understood here as a complex hierarchical structure of affective/cognitive systems of reference (or ‘programmes for feeling, thinking, and behaviour’), generated by repetitive concrete action. These systems store past experience in their structure, and provide the functional basis for further cognition and communication. Affects endow these programmes with a specific qualitative value (such as motivation), connect cognitive elements synchronically and diachronically, and contribute to their storage and mobilisation according to context. They also participate in differentiating cognitive systems at higher levels of abstraction. These assumptions are supported by recent findings on the role of the limbic and hypothalamic system for the regulation of emotion, on neuronal plasticity, and on the phenomenon of state-dependent learning and memory. Refutable hypotheses are formulated for further research on the interaction of emotion and cognition.

Information

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 159 , Issue 1 , July 1991 , pp. 97 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bandler, R. & Grinder, J. (1975) Patterns of the Hypnotic Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, MD (Vol. I). Cupertino California: Meta.Google Scholar
Barnes, C. A. (1988) Special learning and memory processes: the search for their neurobiological mechanisms in the rate. Trends in Neurosciences, 11, 163–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1926) Affektivität, Suggestibilität, Paranoia. Halle: Marhold.Google Scholar
Changeux, J. P. & Konishi, M. (eds) (1987) The Neuronal and Molecular Bases of Learning. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Ciompi, L. (1984) Modellvorstellungen zum Zusammenwirken biologischer und psychosozialer Faktoren in der Schizophrenic Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie, 52, 191–222.Google Scholar
Ciompi, L. (1986) Zur Integration von Fühlen und Denken im Licht der “Affektlogik”. Die Psyche als Teil eines autopoietischen Systems. In Psychiatrie der Gegenwart (eds Kisker, K. P., Meyer, J. E., Müller, C. & Strömgren, E.), vol. 1, pp. 373–410. Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ciompi, L. (1988a) The Psyche and Schizophrenia. The Bond Between Affect and Logic. Cambridge: Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ciompi, L. (1988b) Aussenwelt – Innenwelt. Die Entstehung von Zeit, Raum und psychischen Strukturen. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar
Ciompi, L. (1989) The dynamics of complex biological-psychosocial systems. Four fundamental psycho-biological mediators in the long-term evolution of schizophrenia. In Schizophrenia as a Systems Disorder (eds Brenner, H. D. & Böker, W.). British Journal of Psychiatry, 155, (suppl. 5), 15 21.Google Scholar
Ciompi, L. (1991) Affect logic and schizophrenia. Schizophrenia and Adolescence: Etiology and Therapeutic Consequences. Essen: (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crow, T. (1988) Cellular and molecular analysis of associative learning and memory in Hermissenda. Trends in Neurosciences, 11, 136–142.Google Scholar
Doane, B. K. & Livingston, K. E. (1986) The Limbic System. Functional Organization and Clinical Disorders. New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Engel, G. L. (1977) The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. Science, 196, 129–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Euler, H. A. & Mandl, H. (eds) (1983) Emotionspsychologie. Ein Handbuch in Schlüsselbegriffen. Munich: Urban & Schwarzenberg.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1895) Entwurf einer Psychologie. In Aus den Anfängen der Psychoanalyse (1887–1902). Frankfurt a.M: Fischer.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1905) Psychiatrische Behandlung (Seelenbehandlung) vol. V, pp. 287–315. London: Imago.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1911) Formulierungen über die zwei Prinzipien des psychischen Geschehens, vol. VIII, pp. 229–238. London: Imago.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1926) Psycho-Analyse, vol. XIV, pp. 297–307. London: Imago.Google Scholar
Frey, D. (1980) Kognitive Theorien der Sozialpsychologie. Bern: Huber.Google Scholar
Gleick, J. (1988) Chaos. Making a New Science. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Greenough, W. T. & Bailey, H. (1988) The anatomy of memory: convergence of results across a diversity of tests. Trends in Neurosciences, 11, 142–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gressot, M. (1955) Psychoanalyse et connaissance. In Le Royaume Intermédiaire. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Groves, P. & Schlesinger, K. (1979) Learning in Biological Psychology, pp. 465–505. Dubuque/Jowa: Brown.Google Scholar
Grof, S. (1985) Vorstoss ins Unbewusste. In Psychologie in der Wende (eds Walsh, R. N. & Vaughan, F.). Bern: Scherz.Google Scholar
Gustavson, B. & Wogström, H. (1988) Physiological mechanisms underlying long-term potentiation. Trends in Neurosciences, 11, 156–162.Google Scholar
Haisch, I. (ed) (1983) Angewandte Sozialpsychologie. Bern: Huber.Google Scholar
Janzarik, W. (1988) Strukturdynamische Grundlagen der Psychiatrie. Stuttgart: Enke.Google Scholar
Kernberg, O. (1976) Object Relations Theory and Clinical Psychoanalysis. New York: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Kernberg, O. (1980) Internal World and External Reality. New York: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Klüver, H. & Bucy, P. C. (1937) “Psychic blindness” and other symptoms following bilateral temporal lobectomy in rhesus monkeys. American Journal of Physiology, 119, 52–353.Google Scholar
Klüver, H. & Bucy, P. C. (1939) Preliminary analysis of functions of the temporal lobes in monkeys. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 42, 979–1000.Google Scholar
Koella, W. P. (1984) The limbic system and behaviour. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 69, (suppl. 313), 35–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koukkou, M. (1987) Hirnmechanismen des normalen und schizophrenen Denkens: Eine Synthese von Theorien und Daten. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Koukkou, M. & Lehmann, D. (1980) Psychophysiologic des Träumens und der Neurosentherapie: Das Zustands-Wechsel-Modell. Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie, 48, 324–350.Google Scholar
Koukkou, M. & Lehmann, D. (1983) Dreaming: the functional state-shift hypothesis. A neuropsychophysiological model. British Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 221–231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koukkou, M. & Manske, W. (1986) Functional states of the brain and schizophrenic states of behaviour. In Brain Electrical Potentials and Psychopathology (eds Shagass, C., Josiassen, R. C. & Roemer, R. A.), pp. 91–114. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishing.Google Scholar
Lisberger, S. G. (1988) The neural basis for motor learning in the vestibulocenter reflex in monkeys. Trends in Neurosciences, 11, 147–152.Google Scholar
Machleidt, W., Gutjahr, L. & Mügge, A. (1989) Grundgefühle. Phänomenologie Psychodynamik EEG-Spektralanalytik. Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacLean, P. D. (1952) Some psychiatric implications of psychophysiological studies on fronto-temporal portion of limbic system (visceral brain) EEG. Clinical Neurophysiology, 4, 407–418.Google Scholar
MacLean, P. D. (1958) Contrasting functions of limbic and neocortical systems of the brain and their relevance to psychophysiological aspects of medicine. American Journal of Medicine, 25, 611–626.Google Scholar
MacLean, P. D. (1964) Man and his animal brain. Modern Medicine, 25, 95–106.Google Scholar
MacLean, P. D. (1973) The triune brain, emotion, and scientific basis. In The Neurosciences Second Study Program (ed. Schmitt, F. D.), pp. 336–349. New York: Rockefeller University Press.Google Scholar
MacLean, P. D. (1986) Culminating developments in the evolution of the limbic system: the thalamocingulate division. In The Limbic System: Functional Organization and Clinical Disorders (eds Doane, B. K. & Livingston, K. E.), pp. 1–28. New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Mandl, H. & Huber, L. (1983) Emotion und Kognition. Munich: Urban und Schwarzenberg.Google Scholar
Maturana, H. R. (1982) Erkennen: Die Organisation und Verkörperung von Wirklichkeit. Braunschweig: Vieweg.Google Scholar
Miller, J. G. (1969) Living systems: basic concepts. In General Systems Theory and Psychiatry (eds Gray, W., Dual, F. J. & Rizzo, N. D.). Boston: Little and Brown.Google Scholar
Miller, J. G. (1975) General systems theory. In Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry (eds Freedman, A. M., Kaplan, H. J. & Sadock, B. J.), pp. 75–88. Baltimore: William & Wilkins.Google Scholar
Mishkin, M. & Appenzeller, T. (1987) Die Anatomie des Gedächtnisse. Spektrum der Wissenschaft, 8, 94–104.Google Scholar
Morris, R. G. M., Kandel, E. R. & Squire, L. R. (1988) The neuroscience of learning and memory: cells, neural circuits and behavior. Trends in Neurosciences, 11, 125–127.Google Scholar
Nauta, W. J. H. (1958) Hippocampal projections and related neural pathways to the mid-brain in the cat. Brain, 81, 319–340.Google Scholar
Nauta, W. J. H. (1973) Connections of the frontal lobe with the limbic system. In Surgical Approaches and Psychiatry (eds Laitinen, L. V. & Livingston, K. E.), pp. 303–314. Lancaster: Medical and Technical Publishing.Google Scholar
Nicolis, G. & Prigogine, J. (1987) Die Erforschung des Komplexen. Auf dem Weg zu einem neuen Verständnis der Naturwissenschaften. Munich: Piper.Google Scholar
Nieuwenhuys, R. (1985) Chemoarchitecture of the Brain. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Overton, D. A. (1979) Drug discrimination training with progressively lowered doses. Science, 205, 720–721.Google Scholar
Papez, J. W. (1937) A proposed mechanism of emotion. Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 38, 725–743.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1972) Die Psychologie der Intelligenz. Olten: Walter.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1976) Die Aequilibration der kognitiven Strukturen. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1977) The Essential Piaget (eds von Gruber, H. & Voneche, J.). New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1981) Intelligence and affectivity. Their relationship during child development. In Annual Review Monograph (eds Brown, T. A. & Kaegi, C. E.). Palo Alto: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Ploog, D. (1986) Biological foundations of the vocal expressions of emotions. In Emotion: Theory, Research and Experience (eds Plutchik, R. & Kellerman, H.), pp. 173–197. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Poletti, C. E. (1986) Is the limbic system a limbic system? Studies of hippocampal efferents: their functional and clinical implications. In The Limbic System. Functional Organization and Clinical Disorders (eds Doane, B. K. & Livingston, K. E.), pp. 79–94. New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Prigogine, I. & Stengers, J. (1981) Dialog mit der Natur. Neue Wege naturwissenschaftlichen Denkens. Munich: Piper.Google Scholar
Rapaport, D. (1950) On the psychoanalytic theory of thinking. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 31, 161–170.Google Scholar
Sabelli, H. C. & Carlson-Sabelli, L. (1989) Biological priority and psychological supremacy: a new integrative paradigm derived from process theory. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 1541–1551.Google ScholarPubMed
Shannon, C. E. & Weaver, W. (1949) The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Urban: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Squire, L. R. & Jola-Morgan, S. (1988) Memory, brain systems and behavior. Trends in Neurosciences, 11, 170–175.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ulrich, D. (1982) Das Gefühl. Munich: Urban und Schwarzenberg.Google Scholar
Varela, F. (1979) Principles of Biological Autonomy. New York: North Holland.Google Scholar
von Bertalanffy, L. (1968) General Systems Theory. Foundations, Development, Applications. New York: George Braziller.Google Scholar
von Förster, H. (1968) From stimulus to symbol: the economy of biological computation. In Modern Systems Research for the Behavior Scientist (ed. Buckley, W.), p. 170 181. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
von Glasersfeld, E. (1987) Wissen, Sprache und Wirklichkeit: Arbeiten zum radikalen Konstruktivismus. Wiesbaden: Vieweg.Google Scholar
Wexler, B. E. (1986) A model of brain function and its implications for psychiatric research. British Journal of Psychiatry, 148, 357–362.Google Scholar
Wiener, N. (1948) Cybernetics of Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. Massachussetts: Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.