11. "I Feel Therefore I Am":
Toward a Neurobiology of Emotional Processing
Presenter:
Regina Pally, MD
Chair:
Maxwell S. Sucharov, MD
Self Psychology Page | 21th Conference
Program
OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION AND EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE
From a neurobiologic perspective, emotion evolved to provide animals with more adaptive solutions to commonly encountered situations such as maintaining homeostasis, feeding, mating, caring for young and sustaining social relationships. Emotion organizes an individual's perception, memory, thought, physiology, behavior and social interactions to provide the optimal means of coping with these situations. The educational aim of this presentation is first to illuminate the complex brain circuitry, hormonal response, body physiology, behavior and subjective experience that underlie emotion. Secondly, these neurobiologic processes are applied to a wide variety of clinically relevant issues: the persistence of infantile experience, unconscious aspects of emotion, anxiety disorders, psychosomatic conditions, attachment and nonverbal communication.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF PRESENTATION
From a neurobiologic perspective, emotion provides more adaptive solutions to situations animals commonly encounter, such as maintaining homeostasis, finding food, mating, caring for young, and sustaining relationships. Emotion can be understood to organize the perception, memory, thought, physiology, behavior and social interaction of the individual to provide the optimal means of coping with these situations. Based on animal and human research, the first part of this presentation illuminates, through the aid of slides and handouts, the complex brain and body systems that underlie emotion. These include the (a) brain circuitry which appraise the emotional relevance of stimuli; (b) the hormonal, body physiologic and behavioral changes which comprise the emotional response; and (c) the conscious subjective experience of emotion which derives from these changes. These neurobiologic processes are applied to a wide variety of clinically relevant issues: the persistence of infantile experience, unconscious aspects of emotion, anxiety disorders, psychosomatic conditions, attachment and nonverbal communication.
"I feel therefore I am": toward a neurobiology of emotional processing
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE
At the end of this presentation, the participant will be able to outline the brain systems which activate the physiologic responses which underlie psychosomatic conditions, anxiety symptoms and the nonverbal communications between patients and therapists.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Regina Pally, M.D.
office: 11980 San Vicente Blvd. suite 810
Los Angeles, Ca. 90049
(310) 820-2700
e-mail: rpally@ucla.edu
primary specialty: psychiatry and psychoanalysis
state licence: G28298 (California)
Academic Affiliation
1978- UCLA- associate clinical professor1994- Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society & Institute- faculty
1997- Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis- training and supervising analyst
Professional Organizations
1977- American Psychiatric Association
1977- Southern California Psychiatric Association
1990- American Psychoanalytic Association
1994- Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society & Institute
1996- Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis
Education
1988-94 Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Institute
1974-77 UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute: psychiatric residency
1973-74 Los Angeles County/U.S.C. Medical Center: internship
1969-73 University of Southern California Medical School
1965-69 Queens College
Community Organizations
Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center: consultant
Activities in Southern California Psychiatric Society
July 1995-97 SCPS Newsletter: monthly Neuroscience column
Activities in Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society and Institute
1997- Program Committee- chair
1995- LAPSI Neuroscience Study Group- chair
1995-97 Committee: Curriculum
1993-95 Committee: Post-seminar candidate education
Presentations and Workshops
1997 Cedars-Sinai Psychiatric Staff: "The Neurobiology of Emotion"
1997 American Psychoanalytic Assoc: "Nonverbal Communication"
1996 LA Child Develelopment Center: "Neurobiology and Psychotherapy"
1996 American Psychoanalytic Assoc: "The Neurobiology
of Subjective Reality"
1995 LAPSI & IPA: "Mulitiplicity and Unity: The Subjective Sense of Being More Than One Self"
1993 LAPSI & APA: "Reciprocal Responsiveness and the Matchting of Non- Verbal Cues"
Teaching Activities
1997 Graduate Center: neuroscience and psychoanalysis
1996- USC Dept. of Psychiatry: neuroscience and psychotherapy
1995- LAPSI: neuroscience; contemporary analytic theories
1994-96 UCLA Women's Health Clinic: rape, infertility, pregnancy
1994- UCLA/NPI Psychotherapy Team leader
1991 UCLA/NPI: How to Manage the Rape Victim in the ER
1988-89 UCLA/NPI "Gender and Its Relation to Psychological Development" (seminar for PGY4 Residents)
Publications
Pally, R. (in press) A Primary Role for Nonverbal Communication in Psychoanalysis; Psychoanalytic Inquiry;
Pally, R. (1998) Emotional Processing: The Mind-Body Connection; IJPA vol. 79
Pally, R. (1998) Memory and Brain Systems Which Link Past, Present and Future; IJPA, vol. 79
Pally, R. (1997) How the Brain Actively Constructs Perceptions; IJPA; vol 78
Pally, R. (1997) How Brain Development is Shaped by Genetic and
Environmental Factors;"IJPA;; vol. 78
Pally, R. (1997) Reciprocal Responsiveness and the Matching of Nonverbal Cues in Psychoanalysis" J. of Clinical Psychoanalysis, 5, 7-23
Pally, R. and White, S. "Psychological Management of the Rape Victim in the Emergency Room" ; in Fawzy, F. and Faguet, R. Eds. Contemporary Issues Liason Psychiatry, 1978, Basic Books, NY