Unconscious prioritization for face-to-face people.

One central question in the scientific and philosophical study of consciousness is regarding the scope of human consciousness. There is a lively debate as to whether high-level information integration is necessarily dependent on consciousness. This study presents a new form of unconscious integration based on the facingness between two individuals. Using a breaking continuous flash suppression paradigm, Experiments 1-3 found that two facing human heads got a privilege in breaking into awareness compared to nonfacing pairs. Experiments 4 and 5 demonstrated that the breakthrough difference between facing and nonfacing pairs could not be attributed to low-level or mid-level factors. Experiments 6, 7a, and 7b showed that the unconscious priority of facing pairs was significantly diminished when the holistic processing of the two agents was disrupted. Experiments 8-11 demonstrated that the advantage of facing pairs was only observable for human agents and not for daily objects, directional arrows, or nonhuman animals. These findings have critical implications for better understanding the scope of human consciousness and the origins of social vision. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Temporal windows of unconscious processing cannot easily be disrupted.

Conscious perception is preceded by long periods of unconscious processing. These periods are crucial for analyzing temporal information and for solving the many ill-posed problems of vision. An important question is what starts and ends these windows and how they may be interrupted. Most experimental paradigms do not offer the methodology required for such investigation. Here, we used the sequential metacontrast paradigm, in which two streams of lines, expanding from the center to the periphery, are presented, and participants are asked to attend to one of the motion streams. If several lines in the attended motion stream are offset, the offsets are known to integrate mandatorily and unconsciously, even if separated by up to 450 ms. Using this paradigm, we here found that external visual objects, such as an annulus, presented during the motion stream, do not disrupt mandatory temporal integration. Thus, if a window is started once, it appears to remain open even in the presence of disruptions that are known to interrupt visual processes normally. Further, we found that interrupting the motion stream with a gap disrupts temporal integration but does not terminate the overall unconscious processing window. Thus, while temporal integration is key to unconscious processing, not all stimuli in the same processing window are integrated together. These results strengthen the case for unconscious processing taking place in windows of sensemaking, during which temporal integration occurs in a flexible and perceptually meaningful manner.

Taking consciousness for real: Increasing the ecological validity of the study of conscious vs. unconscious processes.

The study of consciousness has developed well-controlled, rigorous methods for manipulating and measuring consciousness. Yet, in the process, experimental paradigms grew farther away from everyday conscious and unconscious processes, which raises the concern of ecological validity. In this review, we suggest that the field can benefit from adopting a more ecological approach, akin to other fields of cognitive science. There, this approach challenged some existing hypotheses, yielded stronger effects, and enabled new research questions. We argue that such a move is critical for studying consciousness, where experimental paradigms tend to be artificial and small effect sizes are relatively prevalent. We identify three paths for doing so-changing the stimuli and experimental settings, changing the measures, and changing the research questions themselves-and review works that have already started implementing such approaches. While acknowledging the inherent challenges, we call for increasing ecological validity in consciousness studies.

The dead salmon strikes again: Reports of unconscious processing in the hippocampus may reflect Type-I error.

Steinkrauss and Slotnick (2024) reviewed neuroimaging studies linking the hippocampus with implicit memory. They conclude that there is no convincing evidence that the hippocampus is associated with implicit memory because prior studies are confounded by explicit memory (among other factors). Here, we ask a different yet equally important question: do reports of unconscious hippocampal activity reflect a Type-I error (i.e. a false positive)? We find that 39% of studies linking the hippocampus with implicit memory (7 of 18) do not report correcting for multiple comparisons. These results indicate that many unconscious hippocampal effects may reflect a Type-I error.

Unconscious processing effects manifest only if conscious processing is excluded.

In their discussion paper Steinkrauss and Slotnick argue against a role for the hippocampus in unconscious memory formation and retrieval. Unfortunately, they omitted highly relevant evidence that supports a role for the hippocampus in unconscious memory. They criticize four articles, two from our laboratory, pointing out long-known confounds like residual consciousness. We uncover these reproaches as untrue allegations. In our own interest, we prevented conscious mnemonic processing because reliable unconscious memory effects manifest only if consciousness is completely excluded, and because we always knew that residual consciousness would be our Achilles heel for the proponents of the 'explicit memory dogma.'

Prime-induced illusion of control: The influence of unconscious priming on self-initiated actions and the role of regression to the mean.

To what degree human cognition is influenced by subliminal stimuli is a controversial empirical question. One striking example was reported by Linser and Goschke (2007): participants overestimated how much control they had over objectively uncontrollable stimuli when masked congruent primes were presented immediately before the action. Critically, however, unawareness of the masked primes was established by post hoc data selection. In our preregistered study we sought to explore these findings while adjusting prime visibility based on individual thresholds, so that each participant underwent both visible and non-visible conditions. In experiment 1, N = 39 participants engaged in a control judgement task: following the presentation of a semantic prime, they freely selected between two keys, which triggered the appearance of a colored circle. The color of the circles, however, was independent of the key-press. Subsequently, participants assessed their perceived control over the circle's color, based on their key-presses, via a rating scale that ranged from 0 % (no control) to 100 % (complete control). Contrary to Linser and Goschke (2007)'s findings, this experiment demonstrated that predictive information influenced the experience of agency only when primes were consciously processed. In experiment 2, utilizing symbolic (arrow) primes, N = 35 participants had to rate their feeling of control over the effect-stimulus' identity during a two-choice identification paradigm (i.e., they were instructed to press a key corresponding to a target stimulus; with a contingency between target and effect stimulus of 75 %/25 %). The results revealed no significant influence of subliminal priming on agency perceptions. In summary, this study implies that unconscious stimuli may not exert a substantial influence on the conscious experience of agency, underscoring the need for careful consideration of methodological aspects and experimental design's impact on observed phenomena.

The role of identity priming on the (unconscious) bodily self-attribution.

It has been recently demonstrated that hand stimuli presented in a first-, with respect to a third-, person perspective were prioritized before awareness independently from their identity (i.e., self, or other). This pattern would represent an unconscious advantage for self-related bodily stimuli rooted in spatial perspective. To deeper investigate the role of identity, we employed a breaking-Continuous Flash Suppression paradigm in which a self- or other-hand presented in first- or third-person perspective was displayed after a conscious identity-related prime (i.e., self or other face). We replicated the unconscious advantage of the first-person perspective but, crucially, we reported that within the first-person perspective, other-hand stimuli preceded by other-face priming slowed down the conscious access with respect to the other conditions. These findings demonstrate that a top-down conscious identity context modulates the unconscious self-attribution of bodily stimuli. Within a predictive processing framework, we suggest that, by adding ambiguous information, the prime forces a prediction update that slows conscious access.

How (not) to demonstrate unconscious priming: Overcoming issues with post-hoc data selection, low power, and frequentist statistics.

One widely used scientific approach to studying consciousness involves contrasting conscious operations with unconscious ones. However, challenges in establishing the absence of conscious awareness have led to debates about the extent and existence of unconscious processes. We collected experimental data on unconscious semantic priming, manipulating prime presentation duration to highlight the critical role of the analysis approach in attributing priming effects to unconscious processing. We demonstrate that common practices like post-hoc data selection, low statistical power, and frequentist statistical testing can erroneously support claims of unconscious priming. Conversely, adopting best practices like direct performance-awareness contrasts, Bayesian tests, and increased statistical power can prevent such erroneous conclusions. Many past experiments, including our own, fail to meet these standards, casting doubt on previous claims about unconscious processing. Implementing these robust practices will enhance our understanding of unconscious processing and shed light on the functions and neural mechanisms of consciousness.

Progressing, not regressing: A possible solution to the problem of regression to the mean in unconscious processing studies.

How convincing is current evidence for unconscious processing? Recently, a major criticism suggested that some, if not much, of this evidence might be explained by a mere statistical phenomenon: regression to the mean (RttM). Excluding participants based on an awareness assessment is a common practice in studies of unconscious processing, and this post hoc data selection might lead to false effects that are driven by RttM for aware participants wrongfully classified as unaware. Here, we examined this criticism using both simulations and data from 12 studies probing unconscious processing (35 effects overall). In line with the original criticism, we confirmed that the reliability of awareness measures in the field is concerningly low. Yet, using simulations, we showed that reliability measures might be unsuitable for estimating error in awareness measures. Furthermore, we examined other solutions for assessing whether an effect is genuine or reflects RttM; all suffered from substantial limitations, such as a lack of specificity to unconscious processing, lack of power, or unjustified assumptions. Accordingly, we suggest a new nonparametric solution, which enjoys high specificity and relatively high power. Together, this work emphasizes the need to account for measurement error in awareness measures and evaluate its consequences for unconscious processing effects. It further suggests a way to meet the important challenge posed by RttM, in an attempt to establish a reliable and robust corpus of knowledge in studying unconscious processing.

Contribución al estudio de la mente del terapeuta (Deseos y Pensamientos) relacionado con la Contratransferencia en el contexto de la Supervisión / Contributions to the studies of the therapist's mind (whishesand thoughts) related to the countertransference in the contextofsupervision

El presente trabajo se centra en un estudio preliminar en aras de aplicar el Algoritmo David Liberman (ADL) como instrumento en el campo de la supervisión en un texto, tomado como informe de un supervisante, que pretende tratar el problema relacionado con el cambio psíquico desde las intervenciones del analista y desde una dificultad que surge con el uso que hace el paciente de la intervención para atacar al análisis. Comienza con un estudio de un enactment contratransferencial relatado por el analista, y luego analiza la construcción teórica presentada por él, identificando que su elaboración conceptual aún era inducida por el influjo del discurso del paciente. El énfasis de la investigación propuesta es aplicar la taxonomía de las intervenciones junto a la perspectiva de los errores del pensamiento aportadas por Maldavsky (2017). Se propone articular la práctica clínica y la elaboración conceptual, tal como ocurre en la supervisión AU

The present work presents the possibility of applying the David Liberman Algorithm (ADL) as an instrument in the field of supervision, from a text taken as a report by a supervisor, which aims to address the problem related to psychic change from the analyst's interventions and of a difficulty that arises from the patient's use of the intervention to attackthe analysis. It begins with a study of a countertransferential enactmentreported by the analyst, and later analyzes the theoretical construction presented by him, identifying that his conceptual elaboration was still induced by the influx of the patient's speech. The emphasis of the investigation lies in developing a foundation regarding the link between clinical practice and conceptual elaboration, guided by the categories related to the taxonomy of interventions and origin, function and errors of thought presented by Maldavsky, as occurs in a supervisión AU

The significance of the ego in "The Ego and the Id" and its unfulfilled promise.

It is not well known that The Ego and the Id, where Freud presented his second model of the mind, and introduced a new role for the Ego, was ignored by many of the major theorists that followed. I will attempt to demonstrate the importance of this new view of the ego for clinical psychoanalysis, and what has been lost by its being ignored.

America's Lacan AprÈs Coup.

Lacan's effect in America was dramatic but limited following his 1975 visit. His polemic with ego psychology in Écrits radically changed the way literary critics, notably feminist critics, thought about psychoanalysis, while in those same years-the 1970s and 1980s-American psychoanalysts, taken up with their own reactions to ego psychology, paid him little attention. Yet après coup, looking back at that period, Lacan can be counted among those who contributed importantly to a major shift in our conception of psychoanalytic process: our contemporary sense of acts of reading-including clinical listening-as acts in themselves, rather than as steps toward the interpretive determination of hidden meaning. In acts of reading inspired by Lacan, feminist critics helped free Freud's theory of disavowal from its origins in the male anxieties of the castration complex. Speaking as the disavowed "others" of psychoanalysis, Lacan's feminist readers also went beyond him in moving psychoanalysis toward acknowledgment of questions of social and historical reality, including its own. Regarding this evolution, it can be speculated that hidden behind the bitterness of the split in the 1950s and 1960s between Lacan and the once European, now American ego psychologists can be found an unconscious agreement. On both sides of the Atlantic, psychoanalysis had had its reasons, if different reasons, to disavow for years the ways it was implicated in the unspeakable trauma of recent European history.

Do Discurso Capitalista Neoliberal ao Sujeito como Inapropriável / From the Neoliberal Capitalist Discourse to the Subject as Unappropriable / Del Discurso Capitalista Neoliberal al Sujeto como Inapropiable

Por meio da formalização lacaniana da teoria dos discursos e do discurso do capitalista, objetivamos localizar os modos de operação presentes na racionalidade neoliberal. Partimos da introdução de uma nova modalidade de laço social, que parece travar as possibilidades de funcionamento do quarto de giro e opera sob o psiquismo aos moldes de uma produção ilimitada, reduzindo o desejo à dimensão da demanda. Esse movimento realiza uma manobra de captura da subjetividade por meio do supereu e passa a se orientar por horizontes forjados pelo neoliberalismo. A empreitada do discurso do capitalista se assemelha a um "crime perfeito", a qual tem como meta o apagamento de qualquer rastro que sirva como uma orientação desejante. Apostamos na inscrição do desejo por meio do ato de escuta como estratégia de localização de representações possíveis. Assim evita-se a consumação de um crime perfeito e trata-se de uma operação com um resto inassimilável pela economia de mercado. É na medida em que esse resto pode ser acolhido por meio de uma escuta que se inscreve a possibilidade de produção não apenas de uma coordenada pautada no desejo bem como de uma estratégia política frente ao ilimitado dos mercados contemporâneos.

Through Lacan's formalization of the theory of discourses and the discourse of the capitalist, we aim to locate the operation modes present in neoliberal rationality. We start from the introduction of a new modality of social bond, which seems to block the working possibilities of a quarter spin and operates under the psyche in the mold of an unlimited production, reducing desire to the dimension of demand. This movement captures the subjectivity through the superego and begins to be guided by horizons forged by neoliberalism. The endeavor of the capitalist discourse resembles the "perfect crime", which has as its goal the erasure of any trace that serves as a desiring orientation. We bet on the inscription of desire through the act of listening as a strategy for locating possible representations. In this way, the consummation of a perfect crime is avoided and it is turns to be about an operation with a leftover that cannot be assimilated by the market economy. It is to the extent that this remainder can be welcomed through listening that the possibility of producing not only a coordinate based on desire, but also a political strategy in the face of the unlimited nature of contemporary markets is inscribed.

Por medio de la formalización lacaniana de la teoría de los discursos y del discurso del capitalista, pretendemos ubicar los modos de operación presentes en la racionalidad neoliberal. Partimos de la introducción de una nueva modalidad de vínculo social, que bloquea las posibilidades de trabajo del rotación y opera bajo el psiquismo en el molde de una producción ilimitada, reduciendo el deseo a la demanda. Este movimiento captura la subjetividad a través del superyó y comienza a guiarse por horizontes forjados por el neoliberalismo. La obra del discurso capitalista se asemeja al "crimen perfecto", que tiene como fin borrar cualquier rastro de orientación deseante. Apostamos por la inscripción del deseo a través del acto de escuchar como estrategia de localización de posibles representaciones. De esta forma se evita la consumación de un delito perfecto y se trata de una operación con un resto que no puede ser asimilado por la economía de mercado. Es en la medida en que este resto puede ser acogido a través de la escucha que se inscribe la posibilidad de producir no sólo una coordenada basada en el deseo, sino también una estrategia política frente a la naturaleza ilimitada de los mercados contemporáneos.

Racismo e Sexismo: Estruturas de Transmissão, Incidências da História e Insistências do Real / Racism and Sexism: Transmission Structures, History Incidences and Insistences of the Real / Racismo y Sexismo: Estructuras de Transmisión, Incidencias de la Historia e Insistencias de lo Real

Este artigo propõe articulações entre as estruturas coloniais de incidência do racismo e do sexismo no laço social e suas vias de inscrição no inconsciente e no corpo. Partimos de um debate sobre o enquadre colonial da subjetividade e de questões levantadas por Frantz Fanon acerca do modo como o racismo se conecta com a lógica fálica do complexo de Édipo para avaliar sua validade em relação à realidade de povos colonizados. Retomamos formulações freudianas e lacanianas úteis para abordar essa encruzilhada, a partir dos caminhos apontados por Lélia Gonzalez ao discutir as subversões operadas pela mulher negra diante do racismo e do sexismo no contexto brasileiro. Com base em alguns fragmentos clínicos, sustentamos que uma abordagem clínica da perspectiva interseccional antecipada por Lélia Gonzalez demanda uma tomada dialética das relações entre estrutura e história, entre o coletivo e o singular e entre o inconsciente colonizado e o resto que escapa e subverte as relações de dominação.

This article proposes articulations between the colonial structures of incidence of the racism and sexism in the social bond and their ways of inscription in the unconscious and in the body. Starting from a debate about the colonial framework of subjectivity and from questions raised by Frantz Fanon about how the racism connects with the phallic logic of the Oedipus complex to assess its validity in relation to the reality of colonized peoples. We return to useful Freudian and Lacanian formulations to address this crossroads, based on the paths pointed out by Lélia Gonzalez when discussing the subversions operated by black women in the face of racism and sexism in the Brazilian context. Based on some clinical fragments, we argue that a clinical approach to the intersectional perspective anticipated by Lélia Gonzalez demands a dialectical approach to the relations between structure and history, between the collective and the singular, and between the colonized unconscious and the rest that escapes and subverts the relations of domination.

Este artículo propone articulaciones entre las estructuras coloniales de incidencia del racismo y del sexismo en el lazo social y sus formas de inscripción en el inconsciente y en el cuerpo. Partimos de un debate sobre el marco colonial de la subjetividad y de las preguntas planteadas por Frantz Fanon sobre la forma en que el racismo se relaciona con la lógica fálica del complejo de Edipo para evaluar su validez con relación a la realidad de los pueblos colonizados. Retomamos formulaciones freudianas y lacanianas útiles para abordar esta encrucijada, a partir de los caminos señalados por Lélia González al discutir las subversiones operadas por las mujeres negras frente al racismo y al sexismo en el contexto brasileño. En función de algunos fragmentos clínicos, sostenemos que una aproximación clínica de la perspectiva interseccional, anticipada por Lélia González, exige un abordaje dialéctico de las relaciones entre estructura e historia, entre lo colectivo y lo singular y entre el inconsciente colonizado y el resto que escapa y subvierte las relaciones de dominación.

'A Home to the Lie': The Contemporary (Per)version of Truth.

This paper explores the contemporary trend towards relativization and perversion of truth increasingly prominent in American culture, which, in Bion's terminology (1970), has become an ever more hospitable "home to the lie." The anti-COVID vaccine movement emerging in the United States in 2021, and its related network of conspiracy theories, is presented as an example. To make sense of these phenomena the author presents clinical vignettes illustrating (1) Bion's (1970) notions of catastrophic change, the lie/thinker relation, and the messianic idea; (2) Freud's (1921) thinking on group leaders; and (3) Matte-Blanco's (1975) bi-logical theory of mind. According to Bion, the lie is mobilized to avoid the psychological upheaval associated with catastrophic change. The author suggests that developments in American life experienced as threatening catastrophic change provide a hospitable environment for the lie, making the recognition of truth more elusive. In line with Matte-Blanco's bi-logical theory, the author suggests that creation of opportunities for dialogue giving weight to both conscious and unconscious ways of thinking is necessary for re-establishing a culture of truth.

Does response inhibition occur unconsciously? A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis.

Consciousness is traditionally considered necessary for response inhibition. Recently, researchers have attempted to explore unconscious response inhibition using the masked go/no-go task. However, their findings were controversial and might have been confounded by the methodology employed. Therefore, we used a three-level Bayesian meta-analysis to provide the first systematic overview of the field of unconscious response inhibition. Finally, 34 studies in 16 articles with a total sample size of 521 were included. In summary, we found only inconclusive evidence of a reaction time slowing effect after excluding studies with conscious no-go experience (mean difference = 8.47 ms, BF10 = 2.71). In addition, the overall effect size of the difference in sensitivity to masked stimuli between the masked go/no-go task and the objective awareness task was small and uncertain (mean difference = 0.09, BF10 = 2.39). Taken together, these findings indicate a lack of solid evidence for the occurrence of unconscious response inhibition. Our findings do not oppose the possibility of unconscious response inhibition, but rather emphasize the need for more rigorous research methodologies in this field.

Raw Object Identification.

This paper attempts to deal with a specific kind of pathological identification-"raw object identification"-which tends to appear as concrete physiological phenomena, trying to escape meaning and integration. These somatic manifestations stem from early traumatic experiences with a meaningful object and entrap-as revealed through analysis-specific significant qualities of that object. A massive splitting ensues between body and mind, self and object, relation and identification. Certain properties of the object are then experienced as a foreign body in the subject and are defensively identified with. Thus, raw object identification is often manifested in stubborn bodily symptoms.

Fetal Fantasy and the Perfect Child: How Certain Challenges of Adolescence may Inform Aspects of the Abortion Debate.

This article explores psychic aspects of abortion, from the fixity of beliefs over its legalization, to conscious and unconscious fantasies related to the fetus, children, parenting, fertility, and so on. Generally speaking, the field has shown less direct interest in abortion per se than might be surmised, particularly given the centrality of sexuality and procreation in psychoanalysis. The recent legal changes may initiate more psychoanalytic interest in the topic. The current writing studies a possible strand of fantasy in which conscious and unconscious wishes for an unending, idealized, and blameless child-object are displaced onto a fetus or fetal imago. Speculations and suggestions are drawn from casework with an individual which points to a possible channeling or avoidance of unprocessed grief when the seeming perfection of childhood ends abruptly, almost without transition, with the imposition of adolescent personality development.

Raw reveries, polaroid reveries: Some hypotheses about possible functions and technical uses of reveries in the session.

The author tries to show how the epiphany of a reverie during a session can become a source of unexpected intuitions about the essence and possible figurability of the emotional experience which is flowing in the here-and-now of the analytic life. Reverie becomes an important analytic source above all when an analyst is in contact with primordial states of the mind, characterized by turbulences of unrepresentable feelings and sensations. In this paper the author outlines a hypothetical kit of functions, technical uses and analytic effects of a reverie in an analytic process, working through the idea of analysis as the transformation in dreaming of the nightmares and terrors which beset and trouble the patient's mind. In particular the author describes: (a) the use of reverie as a criterion of analysability in first consultation meetings; (b) the specificity of two different types of reverie, which the author names reveries polaroid and raw reveries; and (c) the possible disclosure of a reverie in case of a specific kind of reverie that the author calls polaroid reverie. Sketches of analytic life become living portraits of the hypothesis proposed by the author about these different possible uses of a reverie in analytic work, as a probe and resource for beginning and developing a course of analysis that engages with archaic and presymbolic areas of psychic functioning.