Brains On Purpose™

The role of the conflict professional's self-reflection in effective conflict resolution

What is the role of self-awareness and self-reflection in effective conflict resolution? To hear a teleconference on that topic, click here. The title of the teleconference is "Inside Out: How Conflict Professionals Can Use Self-Reflection to Help Their Clients" and it features long-time mediator and lawyer Gary Friedman.

Being mindful to changing your brain: Short videos of neuroscientist Jeff Schwartz

To view short videos of Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz talking about topics ranging from mindfulness to leadership to changing your brain (self-directed neuroplasticity), click here.

Reading each other's minds: Some videos on Theory of Mind (ToM)

Click on over to the University of California Television site to watch some videos from a conference titled "Mind Reading: Human Origins and Theory of Mind."

Click to read the Wikipedia page on Theory of Mind.

Videos of sessions from last Friday's International Neuroethics Society meeting

The day's meeting on Friday included these sessions:

• "The Science and Ethics of Moral Enhancement"
• "States of Consciousness: Neuroethics in impairments of consciousness, brain-machine interfacing and end of life decisions?"
• "Can Neuroscience Inform Us about Criminality & the Capacity for Rehabilitation?"

Descriptions of each of those sessions can be found here. Click to see recommended readings.

Click to watch a video of each of the sessions at the International Neuroethics Society 2013.

I highly recommend watching at least the first session to be reminded of how much the field is in its infancy and how complex it is. And how simplistic are many of the conclusions we hear, such as oxytocin being a love molecule. I enjoyed greatly the criticism of the trolley problem, too.

Click to read John Kubie's blog post about Friday's presentations. The other Society for Neuroscience official bloggers are listed here.

A Halloween treat for you! Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux will be talking about fear

Click for all the details about listening in tomorrow at 3 PM Eastern. Thanks to Science AAAS for the program. From the AAAS Web page:

It's baaaack. … Whether you're scared of brain-eating zombies or evil clowns, Halloween is the time to let your imagination run wild. Many people get a thrill from horror movies and haunted houses -- so long as they're actually safe -- but genuine terror is something most people want to avoid. When fear doesn't subside after a threat is gone, or becomes a phobia, it can be a real-life nightmare. When does healthy fear run amok and become pathological? Why do people respond to threats differently? And is there really a way to "conquer" fear?

New (to me) book on the brain, conflict resolution, and dance

Click to learn about a book published in September titled The Choreography of Resolution: Conflict, Movement, and Neuroscience. You may read at that link the book's Table of Contents, Acknowledgments, Foreword, and Introduction. From the American Bar Association Web site:

This work invigorates connections between somatic knowledge and conflict transformation. Taken together, the chapters address this question: How does the nexus of movement and conflict inform and deepen understandings and generate new questions and insights about conflict geography and the choreography of resolution? Juxtaposing autobiographical and practice experiences with diverse cultural, historical and social realities highlights both challenges and breakthroughs in this burgeoning area.

The chapters also reveal the importance of symbolic and non-literal language in expressing and addressing the true toll of trauma on an individual or community. The contributors describe how physical movement enables more holistic access to decoding emotions that are invariably physiological, containing both mental and embodied nuances. As the body and mind are in constant conversation, it is understood then that emotions begin with physical sensations. When the emotions and energy are blocked by conflict, it then attributes to physical changes. This book illuminates the physical, emotional, and relational intelligence that relate to conflict resolution and takes you on a journey toward reshaping and developing your own mind, as well as your approach to conflict resolution.

I have not read the book and, in fact, only learned of it today (thanks, Merrilyn Astin Tarlton). Have you read it? If so, what were your thoughts? Did it inspire you to try something new?

Be mindful and name that feeling—or write about it—to decrease anxiety

This research on labeling the affect (naming your feeling) will not be new to anyone who has been reading this blog (see, for example, this post) or who has attended my programs but I wanted to call your attention to an excellent article posted by Dana Foundation with an overview of related research . (The article contains some new information, too; I recommend reading it.)

From "When Labeling an Emotion Quiets It":

Brain imaging now supports what psychotherapists, writers, and the philosopher Baruch Spinoza have observed: Simply recognizing and naming an emotion quells its effect, making thoughtful management of subsequent behavior more likely. Psychotherapists employ this phenomenon when treating patients. Writers who turn their attention on themselves often discover it. And in his Ethics, Spinoza observed that “An emotion, which is a passion, ceases to be a passion, as soon as we form a clear and distinct idea thereof.” At that point, Spinoza observed, the mind becomes less submissive to the emotion, and can exercise greater control over it.

Click to read the rest.

Knowledge of psychosynthesis is a great asset for mediators: Here's the neuroscience behind that asset

I have posted a number of times on both my blogs (find posts here and here) about the benefits of understanding psychosynthesis. When I was participating in a two-year intensive in mediation, a 10-day training in psychosynthesis was required. Over the decades since, I frequently have been grateful for my knowledge of psychosynthesis, so much so that I took a several day refresher course a couple of years ago. In short, I highly recommend to any mediator that he or she learn more about this approach and philosophy, at least by reading the books listed over to the right by Assagioli and Ferrucci.

About a year ago, an article about the neuroscience of psychosynthesis was published by the Association for the Advancement of Psychosynthesis. It was written by Piero Ferrucci, a man who studied with Roberto Assagioli, the founder of psychosynthesis, and who is very skilled at explaining Assagioli's gift to us. Because I was so impressed with the article, I am shocked that I did not link to it before now. What's that cliche? Better late than never?

From "Psychosynthesis in the Light of Neuroscience":

Many studies in neuroscience show us psychosynthesis in action (without calling it that) in all its important aspects. Studying neuroscience in this context is like learning psychosynthesis again from a different, more concrete perspective. In this essay—by no means an exhaustive treatment of the subject, which would require much more space—I will highlight some basic themes that psychosynthesis and neuroscience have in common.

You likely will recognize several of the names Ferrucci references, including Jeffrey Schwartz, Mario Beauregard, and Daniel Siegel. Click to read the article. I enthusiastically recommend it!

Experts in Emotion: Listen to Kevin Ochsner talking about emotion regulation

Click to listen to Columbia University's neuroscientist Dr. Kevin Ochsner talking about emotion regulation. (The interview is a part of a Yale interview series.) Among other topics, he talks about reappraisal and reframing, generating emotions, and using cognitive control. One of the processes he studies is using high-level thoughts to adjust the amygdala response; he explains in this interview.

I am glad to hear that he recommends emabracing the complexity because nothing about the brain can be reduced to sound bites!

While you are at the link, listen to many other interviews in the series Experts in Emotion, including James Gross, Lisa Feldman Barrett, and Roy Baumeister.

The Future of Emotion Regulation Research: Capturing Context

Abstract from "The Future of Emotion Regulation Research: Capturing Context" (Perspectives on Psychological Science):

Emotion regulation has been conceptualized as a process by which individuals modify their emotional experiences, expressions, and physiology and the situations eliciting such emotions in order to produce appropriate responses to the ever-changing demands posed by the environment. Thus, context plays a central role in emotion regulation. This is particularly relevant to the work on emotion regulation in psychopathology, because psychological disorders are characterized by rigid responses to the environment. However, this recognition of the importance of context has appeared primarily in the theoretical realm, with the empirical work lagging behind. In this review, the author proposes an approach to systematically evaluate the contextual factors shaping emotion regulation. Such an approach consists of specifying the components that characterize emotion regulation and then systematically evaluating deviations within each of these components and their underlying dimensions. Initial guidelines for how to combine such dimensions and components in order to capture substantial and meaningful contextual influences are presented. This approach is offered to inspire theoretical and empirical work that it is hoped will result in the development of a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the relationship between context and emotion regulation.

Concluding Remarks:

In this review, I proposed an approach to the systematic study of contextual factors in emotion regulation. Such an approach consists of specifying the components that characterize emotion regulation (i.e., the organism carrying out the regulation; the emotion-eliciting stimuli; the selection and implementation of strategies; and the types of outcomes considered) and then systematically evaluating deviations in the dimensions underlying these components. In this way, context is operationalized in relative terms. I provided initial guidelines for how to combine such dimensions in order to capture substantial and meaningful contextual variability. It is my hope that this approach will inspire theoretical and empirical work that will contribute to the development of a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between context and emotion regulation. As the 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume said, “the passion, in pronouncing its verdict, considers not the object simply, as it is in itself, but surveys it with all the circumstances, which attend it” (Hume, 2004, p. 224). The time has come for emotion regulation researchers to systematically survey those circumstances and develop a more sophisticated understanding of this fascinating process by which heart and mind are constantly seeking to influence each other.

Video of Joseph LeDoux talking about the emotional brain

I've been away for a bit due to the illness of a family member, and hope to be back blogging more often soon. Today I post for you a link to a talk given by neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux as part of the 15th Kraków Methodological Conference for the Copernicus Center in 2011. The talk is titled "Our Emotional Brains: From the Humanities to Neuroscience and Back Again."

H/T: CRPS UK.

6 benefits of mindfulness which can support the resolution of conflict

If parties to a conflict were adept at understanding and practicing these states and traits, would the likelihood of mutually satisfactory resolution increase?

(1) [I]ntention and motivation; (2) attention regulation; (3) emotion regulation; (4) memory extinction and reconsolidation; (5) prosociality; (6) non-attachment and de-centering.

In the model of mediation I use, of course the presence of those 6 would facilitate resolution. That list was taken from a new article titled "Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness" (Frontiers in Human Neuroscience). In the article, the authors define the listed six states and traits, and explain how they are promoted by mindfulness.

I recommend this article both to those of us who already understand the way mindfulness of both the mediator and the parties can smooth the way to resolution, as well as to those diehards who still protest that mindfulness is not an important component of the way mediation is defined and practiced in the 21st century.

Note: Click to read the press release from Brigham and Women's Hospital issued about this article: More than Good Vibes: Researchers Propose the Science Behind Mindfulness. The release provides a quick overview.