Of Neurons And Knowings: Constructivism, Coherence Psychology, And Their Neurodynamic Substrates

Abstract

This first of three articles creates a framework for bringing the phenomenology of psychotherapy into fruitful coordination with neuroscientific knowledge. We suggest that constructivism is a conceptual paradigm adequate to this task. An examination of the main features of psychological constructivism and of neural constructivism serves to demonstrate their strong convergence. Attention then turns to a particular implementation of psychological constructivism, the relatively recently developed psychotherapeutic system known as coherence therapy or coherence psychology. We provide an account of the extensive neuroscientific evidence supporting this system's model of clinical symptoms as being produced by coherent, unconscious knowledge structures held in implicit, subcortical memory. Suggestions for research that could test our analysis are the focus of our conclusion.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Laurel Hulley for influential discussions of this article, and to Timothy Desmond for many useful discussions and clarifications. Niall Geoghegan, Elina Falck, Pat Kunstenaar and Maurits Stakenburg also provided valuable comments. This article also benefited greatly from the critiques provided by its anonymous reviewers, whom we thank sincerely.