Research on psychoanalytic psychodynamic propositions

Abstract

Mention is mode of a number of research programs that have been in existence for the past 20 years that have systematically explored psychoanalytic issues. One of these, that involves the “subliminal psychodynamic activation method,” is then detailed. At 4-millisecond exposures, verbal and/or pictorial stimuli are presented to subjects, some of which contain content related to unconscious wishes, fears and fantasies and others of which are (relatively) neutral. A variety of psychoanalytically based hypotheses have been tested on various clinical and nonclinical populations. Two major findings have emerged: (a) A number of clinical groups—for example, schizophrenics, depressives and stutterers—have shown intensifications of their symptoms after the subliminal exposure of stimuli designed to stir up particular unconscious conflicts: and (b) various clinical and nonclinical groups have manifested enhanced adaptive behavior after the subliminal exposure of the message MOMMY AND I ARE ONE, conceived as activating unconscious symbiotic fantasies. The implications of these findings are discussed.