Self-narratives and dysregulated affective states: The neuropsychological links between self-narratives, attachment, affect, and cognition.

Abstract

This paper explores one of the more salient aspects of dysregulated affective states; namely the automatic, repetitive beliefs and ruminations about the self that often are part and parcel of unregulated emotion. As often witnessed within and outside the analytic setting, such self-narratives can acquire an intrusive, autonomous life. Strongly associated with a specific set of overwhelming or numbing emotions, they surface unbidden, flare up as familiar thoughts, fantasies, and images, and end up dominating one’s intrapsychic and interpersonal experiences. These self-narratives (or ruminations) include irrational, negative convictions about the self, low expectations about one’s efficacy and value, and an exaggerated preoccupation with the projected negative judgment of others. At times,