The Neurobiology of Personality Disorders: Implications for Psychoanalysis - summary of part of an article by Siever, Larry J, and Lissa N Weinstein (2009)
“The Neurobiology of Personality Disorders: Implications for Psychoanalysis”Siever, Larry J, and Lissa N Weinstein (2009)Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 57, no. 2 361–98. doi:10.1177/0003065109333502 A low threshold for impulsive aggression, as observed in borderline and anti-social personality disorders, may be related to excessive amygdala reactivity, reduced prefrontal inhibition, and diminished serotonergic facilitation of prefrontal controls.Affective instability may be mediated by excessive limbic reactivity in gabaminergic/glutamatergic/cholinergic circuits. This results in an increased sensitivity or reactivity to environmental emotional stimuli. Disturbances in cognitive organization and information processing may contribute to detachment, desynchrony with the environment and cognitive/perceptual distortions. A low threshold for anxiety may contribute to the avoidant, dependent and compulsive personality disorders. Alterations in critical regulatory domains will influence how representations of self and others are internalized. Aspects of neurobiological functioning become cognized through the medium of figurative language into an ongoing narrative of the self. Temperamental abnormalities lie at the basis of the personality disorders emerging in the context of a specific experiential developmental trajectory.Most personality characteristics are influenced by the underlying variability in biological endowments. Individual differences in...
Add new contribution