Transprocessing: a proposed neurobiological mechanism of psychotherapeutic processing

Abstract

How does the human brain absorb information and turn it into skills of its own in psychotherapy? In an attempt to answer this question, the authors will review the intricacies of processing channels in psychotherapy and propose the term transprocessing (as in transduction and processing combined) for the underlying mechanisms. Through transprocessing the brain processes multimodal memories and creates reparative solutions in the course of psychotherapy. Transprocessing is proposed as a stage-sequenced mechanism of deconstruction of engrained patterns of response. Through psychotherapy, emotional-cognitive reintegration and its consolidation is accomplished. This process is mediated by cellular and neural plasticity changes.

Keywords: cognitive-emotional link; neurobiology of psychotherapy; neuropsychoanalysis; psychoanalysis; self-related processing; subcortical-cortical mid-line networks; transprocessing and neuroprocessing.

Figure 1.

Transverse vertical section of the brain, through the fore part of the foramen magnum, looked at from the front.

Figure 2.

A summary of the different levels of processing of the self in association with possible neural and psychological substrate. (Reproduced with permission: Panksepp & Northoff, 2008).

Figure 3.

Pattern of degeneration in the Medial Forebrain Bundle in a rat olfactory tubercle and the corresponding terminal degeneration in the substantia innominata, two days later. (Reproduced with permission: Heimer & Wilson, 1975. Copyright Raven Press, New York).

Figure 4.

Orbitomedial prefrontal cortex and lateral prefrontal cortex. (Reproduced with permission: Price & Drevets, 2010).