This book was conceived out of the authors' shared vision to synthesize key neurobiological developments with effective developments in clinical practice to offer both understanding and practical guidance for the many practitioners working to heal people burdened with traumatic sequelae. It is unique in bringing in all levels of the brain from the brainstem, through the thalamus and basal ganglia, to the limbic structures, including the older forms of cortex, to the neocortex. The book looks at the neurochemistry of peritraumatic dissociation (PD) and explores the effects on neuroplasticity and the eventual structural dissociation. Individual chapters focus on the definition of PD and tonic immobility (TI) and their associations with posttraumatic psychopathology, and review disturbances in self-referential processing and social cognition in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to early-life trauma. Separate chapters focus on the modulatory role of the neuropetides in attachment as well as autonomic regulation, and highlight mesolimbic dopamine (ML-DA) system as central to the experiences of affiliation, attachment urge when under threat, attachment urge during experience of safety, and to the distress of isolation and/or submission. The book while increasing awareness of different parts of the self and ultimately creating a more stable sense of self, also incorporates psychoanalytic, cognitive behavioral, and hypnotic methods, as well as specific ego state, somatic/sensorimotor therapies, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and variations of EMDR suitable for working with trauma in the attachment period. The latter methods are explicitly information-processing methods that address affective and somatic modes of processing.

The inner subjective world of the mind was historically relegated to the margins of social science, confined instead within the traditional domains of psychology and psychoanalysis. In the seven years since the first edition of this book was written, many developments in the fields of neuroscience and psychotherapy that were just beginning to appear on the horizon have received a massive increase in interest and study. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is so profoundly guided by the adaptive information processing (AIP) model, it is crucial to examine how it measures up to researched neurobiological models of consciousness and information processing. The book is written with language that is not only technical but also suitable as an introduction to the neural underpinnings of consciousness and EMDR. It examines pertinent neuroscience research related to the understanding of consciousness, information processing, and traumatic disorders of consciousness. The book first presents with basic research in the neurosciences relevant to online/wakeful information processing, which includes sensation, perception, somatosensory integration, cognition, memory, emotion, language, and motricity. The second section examines the neuroscience research relevant to disorders of consciousness, which include anesthesia, coma, and other neurological disorders. Major focus is given to the disorders of type I posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD/dissociative disorders, and personality disorders. The third section presents the reader with an examination of neuroscience research relevant to chronic trauma and autoimmune function. A number of medical illnesses, collectively known as “medically unexplained symptoms”, are examined. These include fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, systemic lupus erythematosus, type 1 diabetes, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Graves’ disease, multiple sclerosis, Sjögren’s syndrome, and rheumatoid arthritis. The final section examines the foregoing material with respect to the AIP model. It explores treatment implications vis-à-vis the various types of PTSD and the presentations of medically unexplained symptoms.

This book is a major contribution to furthering the understanding of trauma in general, and the schizophrenias in particular The first chapter of the book explores the links between trauma, psychosis, and schizophrenia. Next, the book deals with the phenomenology and diagnostic entities of dissociation, psychosis, and schizophrenia. Chapter 3 explores the phenomenology of dissociation and psychosis, and outlines a semistructured model of history taking and a review of how to examine the mental state. The fourth chapter deals with the current psychotherapies that are applied to psychosis and schizophrenia and explores the work around Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy for psychosis and schizophrenia. The Indicating Cognitions of Negative Networks (ICoNN) paradigm is a methodology that adapts and adds to the standard EMDR therapy model, so knowing where and why we are making a change is professionally and clinically important. EMDR therapy utilizes an information processing model, which is proposed to be innate: the adaptive information processing (AIP) model. Chapter 7 helps the reader to understand the justifiable optimism when applying EMDR therapy to psychosis and to equip clinicians with the skills to identify those people experiencing psychosis who are most suitable for EMDR therapy. The book looks at how to generate a case formulation and develop a treatment plan in general before looking at the specifics of the ICoNN model’s methodology, which is done with the aid of four clinical examples.