The Social Brain
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Discoveries being made in our time about human genes, brain
function, brain structure, and neurochemical processes are reworking
our understanding of human emotional problems as well as our
physical health, yet the meanings of these new discoveries may
surprise people who read of them mainly in the popular press.
Learning about the existence of genes that transmit human traits, or
hearing that the different chemicals that pass through the brain's
connection points influence our mood states, seems to say that
neural biochemistry determines our state of mind. But it
is misleading to think that brains, genes, and neurobiology
operate alone to deliver predetermined outcomes, like running a
computer program.
Our brain evolved over time to handle the complexities of the social
world. The brain manages the human as well as physical
environment and is in turn shaped and changed by it. It
is open to social influence, for better or worse, at every
biological level from total bodily health to submicroscopic
processes of gene expression (more about this below) -- so much so
that we could talk about social interaction as part of biology.
The fact that the brain is always being changed and shaped by
ongoing real social relationships as much as by purely
microbiological processes, influencing those relationships in
turn, is often a surprise to those who assume that things must
be either biological OR social. What is interesting is to see
how both processes collaborate and to understand that we can
influence the health of our minds and bodies through the quality of
our social relationships.
Here are some
examples:
- The most widely known
function of genes is the transmission of hereditary traits from
parent to offspring. But there is a second major function of genes -
the transcription function - where the information is copied to RNA
molecules that govern cell development and the
expression of genes in a given person. This transcription process
combines the influence of genes with social and environmental
factors in complicated ways to influence behavior.
The Nobel
prizewinner Eric Kandel said "The regulation of gene expression
by social factors makes all bodily functions, including all
functions of the brain, susceptible to social influences. People
who are not scientists think that genes are the ultimate controllers
of behavior, but what they don't realize is that the environment
can alter the expression of genes and thereby modify the anatomical
construction of the brain."
- Negative
social influence has been shown to negatively influence the
brain. Studies have demonstrated that stress releases
neurotransmitters that impede the ongoing production of new nerve
cells in the brain. Lab rats with high-status social positions
had about 30 percent more neurons generated than rats with low
status relations. In another study, mice that were exposed to
predatory mice for ten days in a row - thus experiencing social
defeat - had altered behavior after this, becoming socially avoidant
with unfamiliar mice.
- Childhood
maltreatment, or an adverse first social relationship environment,
has been shown to release a cascade of negative neural
reactions. Some are: an early activation of the stress
response system such that it remains over - active without
intervention, meaning the person lives on "red alert" even when
unnecessary; decreased integration between the two brain
hemispheres, leading to dissociated mental states; increased
electrical irritability in the limbic system, the seat of fear,
terror and rage; high risk for the development of Post
Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), depression, and substance
abuse.
- In a positive vein, lab animals
with attentive and caring mothers had brain changes in the
hippocampus that prepared them to explore the world around
them with more attention and less fearfulness than those animals
that were not so well reared. The stress response system was less
active in the animals reared by more attentive mothers.
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In 2003, Joseph Le Doux, a researcher in
neuroscience at New York University, published studies on fear
conditioning in the brain, focusing on the amygdala and hippocampus,
parts of the limbic system. He found that positive social
relationships such as occur in loving family bonds or in a good
therapy relationship, can increase nerve connections from the
prefrontal zone to the limbic center, meaning that terror,
rage and panic become more manageable and controlled.
Psychotherapy provides a relationship within which new synaptic
connections can arise that reduce fearfulness. Good social
relationships also facilitate the release of the neural peptide
oxytocin, which reduces pain and anxiety, slowing heart rate and
reducing blood pressure.
- In
2006 the researcher Louis Cozolino showed that when people saw
photos of loved ones, the activity in brain regions connected to
fear diminished; they felt relief from having to scan the world
around them for threats. Cozolino comments:
"despite all of the leverage evolution has given fear, our social
brains can be healed by loving
relationships."
- In 2007 another researcher (Carter)
pointed out that good social relationships and social support are
strongly correlated with overall improved health in relation to
heart disease and cancer.
Social relationships are biological in their impact. Our basic
social relationships in life - our core attachments - are
genetically organized and have a regulating impact on our bodies at
many levels.
All of these
different areas of study suggest that making a clear division
between brain and mind, biology and psychology, is misleading, and
leaves people feeling helpless about changing their "chemistry" or
their "genes." Respectful, caring, compassionate relationships can
slowly change the very way our nerves, chemistry, and brain work for
us.
Brian Koehler, Ph.D.
Written with Susan Parlow,
Ph.D.
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Addiction, Personal Meaning, and
Understanding
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Is a guy who goes out several evenings after work with friends and
often gets drunk sharing a meaningful social experience? Or is
he killing time, zoned out to avoid dealing with the depressing
emptiness of his life? Is a college student who uses speed to cram
for a test just using it to stay up later to get in more studying?
Or is she self-medicating ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), or
trying to make up for a semester of missed schoolwork because of
paralyzing anxiety and insecurity about her intelligence? Is a
successful executive who smokes high potency pot most evenings just
relaxing with music after work? Or is he retreating to a private
cocoon, safely insulated from a social world filled with the anxiety
or sexual insecurity that often contributes to bouts of suicidal
despair about the lack of intimacy in his life?
All of these people were patients of mine who appeared to be social
recreational users, not evidencing any serious signs of abuse or
dependency. The substances of choice help in some way that is highly
meaningful to them. They are used not only for the pleasure
they provide but also to cope with painful feelings and life
circumstances. These meanings and functions had to be clarified and
addressed for them to successfully resolve their problem substance
use.
Over a long career as a psychologist working with people with drug
and alcohol problems, I have had an ever-growing conviction that
recreational drugs are never the real problem. Instead, it is the
multiple meanings and functions that drugs, their physiological
effects and the rituals associated with them take on for the user
that determine whether drug use becomes a problem or not. Just as
with automobiles and video games, it is the reasons for using them
and the way in which they are used that are at issue.
Thinking of the drug alone as the problem can reinforce a denial in
the user and in society at large of the many factors that make drugs
so desirable to some that they would risk everything to continue
using them. At the personal level, a disconnection from the reasons
for using gives rise to the addictive process. Instead of feelings
being about oneself, one's needs, wishes, or suffering - the pain or
struggles are expressed in the desire for the drug; the problem is
put "in the drug," not in one's self.
If we consider that the personal and social meanings of substances
determine why and how use patterns become problems, we see that it
is essential to identify and address the particular meanings that
substances carry in order to bring about positive change. Each
person has a unique set of meanings and feelings that he or she
gives to their own substances.
A great many Americans experiment with drugs and alcohol. Some of
these experimenters find the initial experience desirable enough in
some way to want to repeat it. Fifteen to thirty percent of casual
users go on to develop patterns of use that interfere with,
threaten, or damage some important aspect of their lives.
Why do some use safely and others develop serious life threatening
problems? Drugs lead to dramatic and varied biochemical changes that
result in shifts in body sensation and states of consciousness.
These changes are not meaningful, pleasurable, or desirable to all
people in the same ways.
Many people experiment with drugs and don't like the way they make
them feel, or don't like them enough to use them with their
attendant risks. It is important to realize that the use of
substances is experienced as desirable in relation to other aspects
of one's inner and outer life.
From this "bio-psycho-social" perspective, problem substance use is
understood to result from the interaction of personal meaning,
sociocultural, and biological factors - elements that are unique for
each individual. With chronic use, substances may become
increasingly relied upon for whatever functions they perform for
each person - for example, interrupting the anxiety of dealing with
intimacy or sexual performance.
Substance use can become intertwined with psychological functioning
and lifestyle such that it becomes part of the fabric of the user's
experience and essential to psychic stability. It can be said that
each user develops a highly personal relationship to drugs that
reflects this complex interaction.
To best understand the troublesome aspects of drug use, a
clarification of the highly personal meanings and functions of the
drug is essential. Since the true meanings and functions of the
desire to use may be disguised from the user or out of awareness,
exploration is often a central focus of psychotherapy. Whether in
psychotherapy or on ones own, acknowledging that one's relationship
to substances is highly meaningful can open up many avenues worthy
of personal attention; a healthy relationship to drugs or
alcohol is a valuable goal.
Andrew Tatarsky,
Ph.D.
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| About Our Authors |
Brian Koehler, Ph.D.,
is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst with a strong neuroscience
background. He is in the private practice of psychoanalytic
psychotherapy in New York City. He is on the teaching faculty
at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy
and Psychoanalysis, at the School of Social Work at New York
University, and at a number of other psychoanalytic training
institutes in New York City and State. Dr. Koehler is
a scientific advisor and reviewer for the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin and a reviewer
for the International Journal
of Psychoanalysis. Dr. Koehler is active in the
treatment of the psychoses through psychoanalytic psychotherapy
and is an executive board member of the International Society
for the Psychological Treatments of the Schizophrenias and Related
Psychoses (ISPS). He is on the editorial board of a new journal
to be published in 2009 - Psychosis:
Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches. Dr.
Koehler has published many articles on these and related topics.
You can see these articles and find out more about him here:
http://www.isps-us.org/
http://www.isps-us.org/koehler.htm
You
may reach him here:
NYC@isps-org
Andrew Tatarsky,
Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist with a private
practice in New York City who lectures internationally on the
treatment of addictions. He studies psychoanalysis at the New
York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and
Psychoanalysis. His book on a psychoanalytic approach to the
addictions - Harm Reduction
Psychotherapy: A New Treatment for Drugs and Alcohol -
was published in 2007. You can read more about Dr. Tatarsky at:
Atatarsky@aol.com
www.andrewtatarsky.com
http://www.andrewtatarsky.com/about/index.shtml
or
contact him at:
Andrew Tatarsky, PhD
Co-director, Harm
Reduction Psychotherapy and Training Associates
303 Fifth Avenue,
Suite 1403
New York, NY
10016
212-633-8157
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Editor in
Chief: Susan B Parlow, Ph. D.
Editorial Consultant: Jane
Tucker, Ph.D.
Editorial
Board: Sharon Brennan, Ph.D., Mary Beth Cresci, Ph.D.,
Sheldon Itzkowitz, Ph.D., ABPP,
Stefan R. Zicht,
Psy.D.
NYSPA, Division of Psychoanalysis
With special thanks to
the Psychoanalytic Society of the Post Doctoral Program in
Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis at NYU, for initial
funding.
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