The Still Face Experiment

As a part of her lecture on YouTube promoting a March 31 to April 2, 2011 Conference on Attachment at Eastern Mennonite University, Dr. Annmarie Early includes a video segment of an experiment based on the “Still Face Paradigm.” It is conducted by attachment theory researcher Dr. Edward Tronick, Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and the Chief of the Child Development Unit at its Children's Hospital.

In a segment about 30 minutes into the video Tronick has a mother interacting face-to-face with her six-month old. They are smiling, “talking,” making sounds together, and generally responding to each other in affectionate ways. On cue, the mother turns her head away, then back to the child, but this time with a totally blank stare. Mother goes from being highly animated and engaged to making  no sound and showing no facial expression whatsoever.

The child almost immediately initiates a series of actions designed to get back her mother’s attention. At first the child seems puzzled, then smiles winsomely at her mom. When this doesn't work she tries pointing, gesturing, making various noises, raising both hands, throwing herself back against her infant seat, and finally gives a loud shriek of desperation as if calling for emergency help. The infant then cries inconsolably to tell the world how awfully distressed she is.

This two-minute clip vividly illustrates how important parents’ interactions are with their children at a very early age. Dr. Tronick’s continuing research demonstrates the importance of going back and repairing ruptures that occur in our everyday interactions. These same patterns of rupture and repair happen throughout the lifespan, he says, and our capacity to repair with our significant others--children and adults alike--makes all the difference between security and insecurity in our relationships.

Incidentally, Annmarie Early is to be the keynote speaker at the Family Life Resource Center's annual Spring Fundraiser Banquet held at 6 pm Saturday, May 14, at the Virginia Retirement Community's Hartman Dining Room. Dr. Early's topic is "Secure Relationships: Strengthening Our Connections Within, With God And With Others."

Annmarie is an engaging and down to earth speaker who uses stories and illustrations to emphasize the importance of our being truly there for each other when we are needed.

Attendance at FLRC's spring fundraiser banquets has been on the increase, so early registration is encouraged, at 540-432-8450 or at services@flrc.org. The Center (where I work) hopes to raise $12,000 to help us continue to provide services to people regardless of their ability to pay.

We just hope you won't respond to this invitation with a blank stare :-).

Disturbing Dreams

Last night I woke up from another of my scarier dreams, a recurring one of being caught unprepared for an important assignment.

In this one I am about to bring the morning message at my former church, only to realize I have left all of my well-prepared notes at home. Since there is no time left to retrieve them, I’m in a state of near panic. And to make matters worse, I can neither remember my text nor get my thoughts together on another suitable topic I might speak on extemporaneously. My mind is blank.

A variation of the same theme involves my coming to a class I am to teach (usually at Eastern Mennonite High School, where I worked part time for many years) and being completely unprepared. In one case, I am without my class outline or any other introductory material, and the students in the class simply walk out. I am powerless to do anything about it.

Another dream theme has to do with my suddenly realizing I have neglected, often for days or weeks, some important responsibility. This may involve taking care of someone’s farm animals, in which I become aware that cows haven’t been milked, chickens haven’t been fed, major chores haven’t been attended to, and I’m totally at fault for failing to do what I had promised. Or I am supposed to teach a class or lead a seminar somewhere and somehow fail to show up.

Some experts believe dreams simply result from random firing of neurons in our brain, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Others assume every detail in a dream has revelatory meaning.

The truth probably lies somewhere in between. The characters, setting, emotions and actions playing out in our late-night “theaters of the mind” may each have something separate to say about what’s weighing on us, but the way they are put together may have little coherence or relevance.

Some believe dreams provide much needed release of distressed emotions for which we’re not finding suitable outlets. Studies in which subjects have been deprived of the REM sleep associated with dreaming, for example, show that these people tend to temporarily develop highly disturbed and even psychotic symptoms, suggesting that dreaming serves a therapeutic function.

In my case, I’m sure my scary dreams represent some of my very worst fears, like those of being humiliated, shamed and/or disgraced. So if occasional nightmare dreams can help flush some of those out of my system, I can live with that.

And waking up after one of them offers such sweet relief.

P.S. I'd welcome your comments on dreams!

Psychobabble

Every year I get a magazine-size copy of the program for the annual national five-day Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, a glossy catalogue of the hundreds of seminars, workshops and symposiums offered there each year.

Some are intriguing, and could certainly be helpful to any counselor like myself, covering topics like dealing with borderline personality clients, overcoming compassion fatigue, understanding the anxious brain, etc. If only I could afford the the $500 or more registration fee, the pricey $200 plus per night rate for the hotel, and meals with after dinner speakers at $39-$62 a plate.

Then there are always descriptions of sessions that make me shake my head and wonder where my profession is going. For example, there is the seminar labeled “The Power of the Field,” in which participants are to be ushered into “a vaster, more liberating field of awareness,” and will be able to “experience feelings of aliveness, connection, creativity, and flow,” and “draw on the collective psycho-physiologically energetic field of the entire group, to experience a state of relaxed readiness and deeper intuition of this awareness.”

Or if that doesn’t induce enough puzzlement, there is another one on “integrating breathing techniques into psychotherapy.” Here we get to practice a variety of breath practices, including Qigong movement, Coherent Breathing, Breath movement, “Ha” breath, and Open Focus meditation.” At which I shake my head and ask, "What?"

I don’t begrudge anyone doing whatever meditation or breathing exercises they find helpful, but I question how how far we should stray from applying good research-based and faith-based common sense when it comes to offering help to people dealing with inner distresses and relationship problems.