Impaired vitality form recognition in autism.

Along with the understanding of the goal of an action ("what" is done) and the intention underlying it ("why" it is done), social interactions largely depend on the appraisal of the action from the dynamics of the movement: "how" it is performed (its "vitality form"). Do individuals with autism, especially children, possess this capacity? Here we show that, unlike typically developing individuals, individuals with autism reveal severe deficits in recognizing vitality forms, and their capacity to appraise them does not improve with age. Deficit in vitality form recognition appears, therefore, to be a newly recognized trait marker of autism.

The neural correlates of 'vitality form' recognition: an fMRI study: this work is dedicated to Daniel Stern, whose immeasurable contribution to science has inspired our research.

The observation of goal-directed actions performed by another individual allows one to understand what that individual is doing and why he/she is doing it. Important information about others' behaviour is also carried out by the dynamics of the observed action. Action dynamics characterize the 'vitality form' of an action describing the cognitive and affective relation between the performing agent and the action recipient.

The foundational level of psychodynamic meaning: implicit process in relation to conflict, defense and the dynamic unconscious.

Traditionally, intrapsychic entities such as conflict and defense were assumed to determine what happened at the interactive level. The interactive level was seen merely as the instantiation of such deeper forces. The authors delineate the upsidedown theoretical conception of the relationship between the supposedly 'superficial' layer of immediate interaction and the supposedly 'profound' layer of intrapsychic entities such as conflict and defense.

Explicating the implicit: the local level and the microprocess of change in the analytic situation.

This paper proposes a method of examining the micro-events of the analytic process that borrows heavily from developmental research. The increasing importance of illuminating the microprocess of interaction to understanding the process of change in analytic treatment is emphasised. A set of constructs and terminology is proposed for the study of the moment-to-moment interactive process in psychoanalytic therapy referred to as the local level.