Interfaces Among Neurobiology, Cognitive Science, and Psychoanalysis: Implicit and Explicit Processes in Therapeutic Change. Commentary on Papers by Allan N. Schore, Wilma Bucci, and James L. Fosshage

Abstract

The contributions of Allan N. Schore, Wilma Bucci, and James L. Fosshage in this issue highlight the continuing efforts of these researchers to understand and illuminate the nature of implicit and explicit processing and to construct theories based on their observations and their relationship to therapeutic action. An examination of the core elements of each theory—Schore's focus on right brain processes and the importance of affect, Bucci's further delineation of subsymbolic processes that participate in the formation of emotion schemas, and Fosshage's emphasis on the importance of imagistic symbolic encoding and processing and the interplay of implicit and explicit processing in creating two pathways to therapeutic change—is presented with emphasis on aspects of interpenetration and difference. Areas of further investigation that highlight the importance of implicit processes are discussed. They include inference making, the supervisory paradigm as a means of promoting change in clinical work, the use of videotapes in parent/child observation, and the interactive use of images and memory triggers in an experimental design to assist Alzheimer's patients.

Acknowledgments

A portion of this paper was presented at the Panel “How Do We Come to ‘Know’ and How Do We Change What We ‘Know,’ ” Spring Meeting of APA's Division 39, April 11, 2008, New York City.