Hypnotherapy centre opens in Burnham
Clacton and Frinton Gazette Jane Williams, 45, of Tillingham, has been working in the field of physical treatments for several years, training to become a qualified hypnotherapist this year. Hypnotherapy is a form of psychotherapy used to create subconscious changes in patients, ... and more » |
Maldon and Burnham Standard |
Hypnotherapy centre opens in Burnham
Maldon and Burnham Standard Jane Williams, 45, of Tillingham, has been working in the field of physical treatments for several years, training to become a qualified hypnotherapist this year. Hypnotherapy is a form of psychotherapy used to create subconscious changes in patients, ... |
Inverse |
Hypnosis Might Help Treat Anxiety | Inverse
Inverse Hypnosis brings up images of hokey magicians in capes, swinging pocket watches, and people clucking like chickens. But in real life, hypnotism doesn't turn ... The Secret of How Hypnosis Really Works | TIMETIME This is your brain under hypnosis | CosmosCosmos Study IDs Changes in Specific Brain Areas During Hypnosis | Psych ...PsychCentral.com (blog) all 4 news articles » |
You're reading 5 Stress Reducing Activities to Benefit People with Bipolar Disorder, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You've read 5 Stress Reducing Activities to Benefit People with Bipolar Disorder, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you've enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Self Help Gurus etcA community for those who are interested in the mind, brain, language and artificial intelligence.
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Fibromyalgia responds to exercise
Idaho Statesman They also don't recommend biofeedback, capsaicin, hypnotherapy, massage, SAMe and other alternative therapies, and are strongly against chiropractic manipulation. EULAR did, however, offer a “weak recommendation” for mindful meditation, acupuncture ... and more » |
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Brain-Zapping Gadgets Need Regulation, Say Scientists and (Some) Manufacturers (IEEE Spectrum):
“Just a few years ago, the idea of electrically stimulating your brain in the comfort of your own home would have sounded pretty weird, and probably like a bad idea.
But the practice of brain-zapping—in particular, an easy-to-pull-off technique called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)—has quickly advanced from labs to living rooms. DIYers are building their own devices and trading tips online, while startups are bringing out consumer products.
With that as the backdrop, a group of neuroscientists and manufacturers met in New York City on Sunday 28 August to discuss potential regulations for brain stimulation devices sold directly to consumers…The group’s guidelines will also recommend that people with neural or psychiatric conditions consult their physicians before using any brain stimulating gadget. That category includes people with conditions like depression, anxiety, and addiction, who are already turning to DIY treatments using homemade or commercially available tDCS rigs…Some companies claim not only that their devices treat disorders like depression, anxiety, addiction, and chronic pain, they also boast of improving cognition, memory, and social skills. Many DIYers seem most interested in these enhancement possibilities of tDCS. ”
To learn more:
You're reading The Blueprint for Uncommon Success, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You've read The Blueprint for Uncommon Success, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you've enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Self Help Gurus etcNote: Although I share thoughts from personal experience and refer to the narcissist as male, narcissism is not discriminatory.
Maybe you are feeling a desperate need to try and salvage a relationship you intuitively know is unhealthy and imbalanced; or maybe you are wondering why you can’t “let go” and “move on” from the loss of your relationship. It’s possible that you are in love with a narcissist, and now owning the blame for all the sudden problems or downfall. A narcissist is someone who will enter our life and consume our entire existence all for selfish benefit. Understanding the whirlwind and accepting the finality of a relationship with a narcissist will show that we possess tremendous value.
We are smart and confident, so why did we allow ourselves to fall for the narcissist?
He is too skilled to reveal any red flags when we first meet him. He is drawn to our beauty, kindness, and selfless nature because of his own emptiness. The narcissist will be attentive, generous, and impressive, at first. He will charm us with compliments on every small detail giving us attention with such intensity that we believe he is our “soul mate.”
Enchanting promises will be made that make us feel alive and invincible, and he will spend exorbitant amounts of time with us. We will quickly be mesmerized and feel so exhilarated, adored, loved, and then…
Almost instantaneously, the relationship will twist.
Time together will dwindle leaving us confused and craving any small amount of attention from him. We try to connect and share our accomplishments, but he will minimize our effort and make us feel inconsequential. We try to look beautiful for him, but the attention is gone. Intimate moments will leave us feeling used and insignificant.
The partner that once made us feel like royalty is now making us feel insecure and needy. The partner who was affectionate is now a stranger. The narcissist has taken our power to feed his own warped ego.
Why are we hanging on to this relationship?
Our emotions felt heightened so intensely and quickly, and in a blur the table turned leaving our head spinning. We now feel blindsided, angry, and betrayed. It’s almost as though our heart couldn’t catch up with our brain quick enough to understand. So, we are left constantly questioning what went wrong.
We no longer feel a connection to him and wonder if the person devoid of all emotion is the same person we love. We fear the happiness we remember was just a fabrication in our mind. The narcissist has robbed a piece of our soul and we desperately want it back. This is a deeply confusing and emotional process because intellectually, we thought we knew better.
We are assertive and attempt to resolve these relationship issues, but he is so adept at projecting and leading us to believe whatever happened is our fault.
Simply questioning the narcissist will cause him to push further away and punish us with the silent treatment. Being ignored feels so horrid that we will forget why we were upset with him and apologize emphatically to try and win his forgiveness. He preys on this kind of attention, and is incapable of recognizing any personal fault. Our self-esteem has plummeted and our self-respect has diminished.
The narcissist will not show awareness or remorse for the imposed hurt so we assume the downfall was our fault.
We have become so intertwined in making this person happy that we will exhaust and lose ourselves in the process. We start to question our own morals wondering if we deserve this abusive treatment. We start to feel obsessed with “fixing” what is broken in order to feel better, and the more our efforts are ignored, the more persistent we become. We question who this person is that we are chasing and start to feel “crazy” because nothing is changing. It’s a losing battle because after depleting all we can give he no longer has any use for us.
The inevitable downfall with a narcissist.
This relationship is bound to end when we are no longer a conquest and cannot fill the emptiness the narcissist feels inside. The ending feels so awful because we put all our energy and effort into pleasing someone who was never going to genuinely reciprocate, and is too self-absorbed to acknowledge our pain.
The partner we once trusted has completed the narcissistic cycle of abuse and needs to draw the energy and innocence from a new victim. He will end the relationship just as quickly and smoothly as it began, and the coldness and apathy leaves us feeling worthless. He will cut off contact so callously that we feel so defeated and want to curl into ball and disappear. But, this experience has not been in vein, and regardless of how painful the ending feels, it is a gift.
Accepting reality and moving on.
Being under the narcissist’s spell is not our fault and recovering from this will take time. The most important first step is to commit to “letting go.” There is nothing positive that will come from seeing him after all this inflicted damage. We need rebuild and empower ourselves from this experience.
Solicit support from trusted loved ones and make a plan for when there is temptation to reach out to him. Making this commitment will bring relief as the poison is released from our body, mind, and soul. The air will feel fresher and we will welcome healthy people and kindness into our life, slowly beginning to feel like ourselves again.
Overcoming this emotionally torturous experience will produce a stronger self and allow us to feel more attuned, perceptive, and emotionally intelligent. Let’s take the time to define our convictions, keep our heart open and full of courage, and we will find our way to the loving fulfillment we deserve.
Yeko Photo Studio/Bigstock
DRS. OZ AND ROIZEN: Fibromyalgia responds to exercise
Dubuque Telegraph Herald They also don't recommend biofeedback, capsaicin, hypnotherapy, massage, SAMe and other alternative therapies, and are strongly against chiropractic manipulation. EULAR did, however, offer a “weak recommendation” for mindful meditation, acupuncture ... |
The unexpected decisions depressed people make when regulating their emotions.
People who are depressed often do little to improve their mood, even when given the chance, a new study finds.
In fact, their choices often make them sadder, the research found.
Ms Yael Millgram, the study’s first author, said:
“Our findings show that, contrary to what we might expect, depressed people sometimes choose to behave in a manner that increases rather than decreases their sadness.
This is important because it suggests that depressed individuals may sometimes be unsuccessful in decreasing their sadness in daily life because, in some sense, they hold on to it.”
Managing and controlling your emotions is an important part of everyday life.
The researchers looked at the decisions both depressed and nondepressed people made in this regard.
In one trial people looked at happy, sad and neutral photos.
Participants were then given the choice of which photos to look at again.
Ironically, depressed people were more likely to look at the sad photos again.
In another trial, the researchers used happy, sad and neutral music.
Again, it was the sad music that was chosen by 62% of depressed people, as opposed to only 24% of nondepressed people.
Ms Millgram said:
“Depressed participants indicated that they would feel less sad if they listened to happy music and more sad if they listened to sad music, but they picked the sad music to listen to.
We were surprised that depressed participants made such choices although they were aware of how these types of music would make them feel.”
Why depressed people should chose to reinforce their depressed mood is not yet known.
Ms Millgram said:
“The most urgent task for us is to try to understand why depressed people regulate their emotions in a manner that increases rather than decreases sadness.”
The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Milgram et al., 2015).
• Read on: Depression: 10 Fascinating Insights into a Misunderstood Condition
Image credit: kygp
PsyBlog’s new ebook, “Spark” is a step-by-step guide to using psychological techniques to achieve the goals you want.
Being passionate about a project or goal — no matter how big or small — makes us feel alive.
It is invigorating to think about the changes you could make in yourself or in the world...
Hypnotist Richard Barker Uses Comedy Hypnosis Shows To Reduce Stress
Digital Journal Orlando, FL - Richard Barker, self-dubbed 'the incredible hypnotist' is a bonafide hypnotist who uses hypnosis to bring about humor via his successful comedy hypnosis shows. According to his site, the hypnotist has performed thousands of shows in over ... |
The Carolinian |
Power over matter— hypnosis with Paul Ramsay
The Carolinian Cartoons, movies and childhood stories have led many people to believe that hypnosis is a form of mind control. This understanding of hypnotism is one of the most pervasive myths surrounding mental manipulation. Ramsay's widely recognized stage show, ... |
A community for those who are interested in the mind, brain, language and artificial intelligence.
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The 7-week Stop Worrying Today Course is now open again to join.
If you join during this period you also get free life-time access to all the material in my The Invincible Summer – A Course in Optimism as a special bonus.
Plus, you get free access to 6 brand new bonuses I created over the summer (if you joined the course earlier this year and didn’t get an email about the new bonuses yesterday email me and I’ll reply with the download links).
The registration to join this course will only be open for 5 days this time, until 1.00 p.m EDT (that’s 17.00 GMT) on Monday the 5:th of September.
Click here to learn more and to join the course
I started working on this course last fall but it all started over 10 years ago when I made a decision to not let this toxic habit limit and control my life.
And this course is filled with all the best things I have learned about that in the past decade.
These are the strategies, exercises and simple step-by-step methods that have helped me to stop worrying so much.
The habits that have been a true life-changer for me.
A year from now, where are you going to be?
Each week of the course you’ll get a written guide, a worksheet to help you gain better understanding of your own situation and results as you go through the course and an audio version of that week’s guide that you can listen to anywhere when you need a boost.
At the end of the weekly guide you’ll get just a few specific action-steps to take that week to minimize the risk of you feeling overwhelmed and getting lost in worry again.
Because I want as many as possible to not only to read the information. But also to take small steps forward each week to make a real and lasting change in their lives.
In this course you’ll for example learn how to:
And a whole lot more.
The window to join The Stop Worrying Today Course closes at 1.00 p.m EDT (that’s 17.00 GMT) on Monday the 5:th of September.
Click here to learn more about The Stop Worrying Today Course and to join it
It’s time for the next installment of “Happier with Gretchen Rubin.”
Update: It’s almost September, and for many of us, September is the other January. If you get a clean slate, start-over feeling in September, check out my book Happier at Home. If you’re not happy at home, it’s hard to be happy.
Very Special Episode: Every tenth episode we do a Very Special Episode, and for episode 80, we’re talking about Gary Chapman’s blockbuster bestselling book, The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts.
I love a personality framework derived from observation! If you want to experience my own personality framework, the Four Tendencies, to find out if you’re an Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel, check it out here.
The Five Languages:
Gretchen’s Demerit: I didn’t give a proper good-night kiss to Jamie, even though I’d just been thinking about the fact that his language is Physical Touch.
Elizabeth’s Gold Star: Elizabeth gives Acts-of-Service Adam a gold star for buying a light-weight comforter.
Want to give us the Words of Affirmation we both crave, for the podcast? Easy instructions here about how to rate and review the podcast (scroll down).
Remember, I’m doing weekly live videos on my Facebook Page about the podcast. To join the conversation, check the schedule.
Check out Headspace. Experience the benefits of meditation in your busy life. Download the Headspace app for free, and begin their Take 10 program for ten days of guided meditation. Go to http://ift.tt/22plWn9.
And check out BlueApron.com. Wish you cooked more? Get all the delicious, fresh ingredients you need to make great meals, delivered to your front door. Check out http://ift.tt/1LRMGWJ to get your first three meals free.
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And don’t forget to check out Trunk Club. Get hand-picked outfits shipped right to your door–chosen by your very own personal stylist. Go to http://ift.tt/2bnE7q8 to learn more.
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If you’re like me (until recently) you’re intrigued by podcasts, but you don’t know how to listen or subscribe. It’s very easy, really. Really. To listen to more than one episode, and to have it all in a handier way, on your phone or tablet, it’s better to subscribe. Really, it’s easy.
Want to know what to expect from other episodes of the podcast, when you listen to “Happier with Gretchen Rubin?” We talk about how to build happier habits into everyday life, as we draw from cutting-edge science, ancient wisdom, lessons from pop culture—and our own experiences (and mistakes). We’re sisters, so we don’t let each other get away with much.
HAPPIER listening!
The post Podcast 80: A Very Special Episode Focused on Gary Chapman’s “The Five Love Languages.” appeared first on Gretchen Rubin.
One of the worst parts about depression — and there are certainly many — is that it robs you of hope. Hope that you’ll actually feel better. Hope that the darkness will lift. Hope that the emptiness will fill up and you’ll feel motivated and excited. Hope that it won’t be like this forever. Hope that you’ll get through it.
“I’ve been struggling with depression for almost 35 years,” said Douglas Cootey, who pens the award-winning blog A Splintered Mind. “In that time, I have often felt hopeless, usually during times of suicidal ideation…Depression has a way of warping our outlook so that we only notice the bleakest parts of the world.”
The darkness stops feeling like a lens that distorts your reality, and starts to become your reality, said John A. Lundin, Psy.D, a psychologist who specializes in treating depression and anxiety in adults, teens and children in San Francisco and Oakland, Calif.
“Depression often robs you of the memory of joy or happiness, so it becomes difficult to draw on happy memories to give one hope for the future,” Lundin said. Depression even makes hope seem foolish, like an illusion, he said.
Many people with depression aren’t able to articulate that they feel hopeless. Because doing so requires putting “words to an experience that just feels as real and encompassing as the air they breathe.” Saying you feel hopeless, Lundin said, can actually be a positive step. “[I]t holds the implication that hope is something that is possible.”
“Depression can be overwhelming,” said Cootey, also author of Saying No to Suicide: Coping Strategies for People Dealing with Suicidism and for the Loved Ones Who Support Them. “All those negative emotions are suffocating. This makes it difficult to believe that things will get better.”
Most of Rebecca Rabe’s clients say they’ve lost hope because they feel alone. They feel like no one understands what they’re going through. They feel like they can’t talk to anyone.
Loss of hope also might represent a loss of belief that you matter or that you can be loved, Lundin said. (This is something he works on with clients, helping them understand why they don’t feel adequate or lovable.)
What can you do when hope feels unfamiliar or impossible? What can you do when you’re in the middle of the storm?
Cootey stressed the importance of using a wide variety of coping strategies. “When I use my coping strategies to overcome depression, the next day isn’t a prison of more of the same. It’s a brand new day free of the sadness.”
Colleen King, LMFT, a psychotherapist who specializes in mood disorders and also has bipolar disorder, stressed the importance of having a treatment team and support system. This might include a therapist, doctor and several friends and family. Ask them to help you remember the times when you’ve felt better, she said. Ask them to “encourage you to be in the moment when you do experience temporary joy, even if it’s for a few minutes.”
Both King and Lundin suggested participating in activities that feel nourishing to your soul, activities that you love to do when you’re not depressed. Do them even if you don’t feel like it, King said. “You will most likely alter your mood at least a little bit, and [the activity] may be a welcome distraction from depression.” Plus, it helps to “arouse glimmers of hope that you can feel whole and healthy, again.”
It often feels like depression will last forever, King said. Which is why she also suggested placing prompts at home and work to remind yourself “that you are having a depressive episode and that it’s not a permanent state of being.”
Don’t underestimate the power of small steps. Rabe, LMFT, who specializes in treating children, teens and young adults with depression, anxiety and trauma, shared this example: She worked with a woman who was struggling with depression and complained about “not being able to do anything.”
They worked on tracking small but significant accomplishments and setting small goals. “For example, she would strive to check 10 things off her list. Sometimes just getting to therapy got her these 10 checks.” After all, getting to therapy is anything but trivial. It involves getting up, showering, getting dressed, driving to the office, making the appointment on time, talking in session and driving home, among other tasks. Her client also started reaching out to supportive loved ones (instead of isolating herself); taking walks; and writing in her journal—all of which has helped to diminish her depression and create a more positive outlook.
“I’ve been through the worst my mind can throw at me. I’ve felt the pain of suicidal depression,” Cootey said. “I’ve wished and even planned for my own death, yet I learned an important truth: Depression lies to us.” This is another reason it’s helpful to surround yourself with support: These individuals can help you see through the lies, he said.
“You do have worth. You will overcome this. You won’t be sad forever.”
There is always hope for someone struggling with depression, Rabe said. “People are resilient human beings, and they can do so much more than they think they’re capable of.”
Also, remember that “how hopeless you feel does not correlate to whether you can feel better,” Lundin said. Depression is an illness that extinguishes hope. It’s the nature of the disorder.
Thankfully, therapy and medication can help. So can participating in support groups. “Some depression requires a short treatment to work, and other takes a long time. But I have never met a patient who didn’t see significant progress if they stuck with it.”
If your therapist or doctor doesn’t seem to be helping, seek out new providers, King said. “Having a trusting and caring treatment team greatly assists with creating confidence and hope for the future.”
For people who don’t respond to therapy and medication, other treatments are available, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), Lundin said.
With good treatment, effective and varied coping strategies and compassionate support, you can feel better. The heaviness gets lighter. The world becomes brighter.
So no matter how hopeless you feel right now, please don’t throw away your shot. Hope and relief are not some foolish illusion. They are real. They are possible.
gor stevanovic/Bigstock
A new UK study suggests autism could be diagnosed by allowing children to play games on smart phones and tablets.
University of Strathclyde researchers believe the technology could offer an accessible and less intrusive way to diagnose the developmental disorder.
Dr Jonathan Delafield-Butt, of Strathclyde’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and colleagues used fun iPad games to track players’ hand movements – gathering information that can help identify autism.
The study, appears in the Nature group journal Scientific Reports.
Dr Delafield-Butt, a Senior Lecturer in Child Development, said: “We have shown that children with autism can be identified by their gameplay patterns on an iPad.
“This is potentially a major breakthrough for early identification of autism, because no stressful and expensive tests by clinicians are needed. Early detection is important as this can allow parents and children to gain access to a range of services support.
“This new ‘serious game’ assessment offers a cheaper, faster, fun way of testing for autism. But more work is needed to confirm this finding, and to test for its limitations.
“This study is the first step toward a validated instrument. Interestingly, our study goes further in elucidating the origins of autism, because it turns out that movement is the most important differentiator in the gameplay data.
“In other words, it is not social, emotional, or cognitive aspects of the gameplay that identify autism. Rather, the key difference is in the way children with autism move their hands as they touch, swipe, and gesture with the iPad during the game.
“This unexpected finding adds new impetus to a growing scientific understanding that movement is fundamentally disrupted in autism, and may underpin the disorder.”
Anna Anzulewicz, Director of Research at Harimata, a company that develops mobile technology for improving early assessment of developmental disorders, said:
“Early assessment of autism allows timely therapeutic intervention, but professional diagnosis of the disorder is difficult and time-consuming.
“Our aim was to develop a test that would be intuitive, fast, fun and engaging for the children. iPad-based games seemed to be perfect, and they are embedded with powerful sensors, which allow for the precise measurement of the children’s play dynamics.”
In the study, researchers examined movement data gathered from 37 children with autism, aged three to six years. The children were asked to play games on smart tablet computers with touch-sensitive screens and embedded movement sensors.
Investigators discovered autistic kids displayed distinct play patterns including greater forces at contact and a different distribution of forces within a gesture. Gesture movements were also faster and larger, and used more space.
“These data support the notion disruption to movement is a core feature of autism, and demonstrate autism can be computationally assessed by fun, smart device gameplay.”
Autism spectrum disorder is a childhood neurodevelopmental disorder, and its global prevalence is estimated at one in 160 children.
Source: University of Strathclyde
The awesome power of the subconscious mind
Coeur d'Alene Press To become familiar with the miracle of the human mind and the human body is be acquire awesome power. This power is magical because it literally allows us to create new bodies. One that is more flexible, more fluid, more dynamic, more creative and ... |
Following up a previous study that discovered adolescent bipolar disorder was linked to greater cigarette smoking and substance use disorder, a new study finds that risk of substance abuse was even greater five years later, particularly among those with persistent bipolar symptoms.
Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators also found evidence that the presence of conduct disorder, in combination with bipolar disorder, may be the strongest influence on the risk of smoking and substance use disorder.
Study findings appear in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
In the new study, researchers discovered ongoing bipolar symptoms appear to predict substance use issues.
“We also made another interesting finding — that those originally diagnosed with bipolar disorder who continued to have symptoms five years later were at an even higher risk for cigarette smoking and substance use disorder than those whose symptoms were reduced either because of remission from bipolar disorder or from treatment,” said Timothy Wilens, M.D., co-director of the MGH Center for Addiction Medicine, who led both studies.
“Both those with active symptoms and those whose symptoms had improved were at greater risk than our control group.”
The original study, published in the June 2008 issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence, analyzed extensive data — including family histories, information from primary care physicians and the results of structured psychiatric interviews — on 105 early adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder and a control group of 98 with no mood disorders.
Among those participants, with an average age of 14, the rate of substance use disorder among those with bipolar disorder was 34 percent, while it was only 4 percent in controls. The risk for smoking was 22 percent for those with bipolar disorder and 4 percent for controls.
For the five-year follow up, structured psychiatric interviews were conducted for 68 of the original participants with bipolar disorder – 37 being lost to follow up – and 81 control group members.
Among those in the bipolar group, 23 no longer met criteria for the disorder, 36 still were experience active symptoms and 9 had symptoms that did not meet full criteria.
During the five years since the original study, more members of the bipolar group developed new cases of substance use disorder than did controls, leading to an overall incidence rate of 49 percent versus 26 percent.
In the new analysis, researchers found that controlling for conduct disorder caused the increased levels of substance use disorder to disappear.
That result suggests that co-occurring conduct disorder plays a significant role in the risk associated with bipolar disorder.
“We were surprised to find that conduct disorder, but not ADHD, played such a large role in mediating the increased risk of substance use disorder among those with bipolar disorder,” says Wilens, who is an associate professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
“While this might be result of having only a few participants with bipolar disorder alone, it may be that it is the presence of conduct disorder that drives substance use disorder as adolescents with bipolar disorder become young adults.
Since symptoms of bipolar disorder usually appear before substance use disorder develops, clinicians following youth with bipolar disorder should carefully monitor for cigarette smoking and substance use, along with treating bipolar symptoms.”
Wilens and his colleagues are also analyzing a subgroup of study participants who received detailed brain imaging in an effort to understand the brain circuitry involved in these disorders and their interaction.
They also plan to investigate factors underlying the persistence of bipolar disorder and the impact of treatment on the incidence of smoking and substance use disorder.
Source: Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)
For many decades, fearlessness has been considered the hallmark trait of psychopathy and has been blamed for the bold risk-taking behavior commonly found in the personality disorder. Now new research shows that psychopathic people may be capable of feeling fear, but they seem to have difficulty detecting and responding to a threat.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, is the first to provide strong evidence that an individual’s conscious experience of fear as an emotion may be quite separate from his automatic ability to detect and respond to threats.
Researchers at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam and Radboud University Nijmegen reviewed brain and behavioral data to look for any link between fear and psychopathy in adult individuals. Their definition of fear was based on state of the art knowledge of the neurobiological and cognitive underpinnings of this emotion.
Then they created a model that separated brain mechanisms involved in the conscious experience of fear as an emotion from those involved in automatic detection and response to threats.
Using this model as a reference, they first performed a conceptual analysis of the work of earlier theorists, going back as far as 1806. They found that only one theorist incorporated the construct of fear into a model of psychopathy.
The evidence for impairments in brain areas involved in the experience of fear was less consistent than is currently assumed, indicating that the experience of fear may not be completely impaired in psychopathy.
The researchers then demonstrated that psychopathic individuals may in fact feel fear but have trouble in the automatic detection and responsivity to threat, providing direct support for the claim that the conscious experience of fear may not be impaired in these individuals.
Another meta-analysis examining the five other basic emotions found that there may also be impairments in the experience of happiness and anger, but the lack of consistency in the current literature prevented making any strong claims.
“As a consequence of our research, some very influential theories that assign prominent roles to fearlessness in the aetiology of psychopathy will need to be reconsidered and made consistent with current neuroscientific evidence,” said researcher Sylco Hoppenbrouwers at VU Amsterdam.
“Such re-evaluations of key concepts will lead to increased precision in research and clinical practice which should ultimately pave the way toward more targeted and more effective treatment interventions.”
The findings are the first to provide strong evidence that the automatic and conscious processes may be separate in an individual. The proposed model not only applies to psychopathy, but can also be used to further increase conceptual precision and generate new hypotheses for research on mood and anxiety disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder.
“While psychopathic individuals may suffer from a dysfunctional threat system, people with posttraumatic stress disorder may have a hyperactive threat system, which later leads to them feeling fearful,” said Inti Brazil at Radboud University.
Source: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
