I use the word 'attunement', but I am well aware that various terminologies have been employed to indicate almost identical concepts: mirroring, affect mirroring, affect attunement, etc. so all theoretical perspectives are welcome!
very interesting topic. I am trying (together with other colleagues, as Fabian Ramseyer and Wolfgang Tschacher) to conceptualize (and empirically investigate) the concept of attunement in adult psychotherapy from the perspective of dynamic systems theory (DST). According to it, relational attunement is an emergent process resulting from the increasing coordination of the participants of an interaction (self-organization). It would be interesting to connect this more general DST with theories dealing with relational attunement in human development (a lot has been done in conceptualizing human development as a self-organizing system).
Hi Allesandro I admire your work very much. I am sure you have thought about Decety's work on the mirroring process - this is pretty much how I understand what happens between mothers and infants and therapists - with this underlying a process of empathic identification that can be more elaborated in mental state terms subsequently. Some therapists are great with this and use it as a starting point and other therapists work it out more cognitively, they think about it and then get enough of a mental picture to become attuned.
Maybe a social cognition and behavioral-evolutionary perspective can be helpful. This "ability" (to participate with others in collaborative activities) is often conceptualized as "shared intentionality". Those articles can be interesting:
Humphrey, N.K. (1976). The social function of intellect. In: Bateson, P., Hinde, R.A. (Eds.), Growing Points in Ethology. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, pp. 303–321.
Whiten, A., Byrne, R.W., 1997. Machiavellian Intelligence 2 Evaluations and Extensions. Cambridge Univ. Press.
Tomasello M., Carpenter M., Call J., Behne T., Moll H. (2005). Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2005) 28, 675–735.
fascinating thread. Walter, could you perhaps send me the Tomasello article backchannel if you have it. I can seem to get access to it.
Please consider Colyn Trevartheen work for the developmemtal field; it's of interest for topoc related to the importance of rythm attunement, music use in therapy and early forms of intersubjectivity
Sure, Karin. Give me your e-mail, please, I'll send You the article in few minutes.
Kestenberg Movement Profiling offers a differentiated perspective on attunement in nonverbal behavior / movement of the entire body (for self-synchrony / Self-containment as well as interpersonal synchrony / environmental-containment).
Happy to discuss more...
I agree with you that Stern's work has been inspirational from a theoretical and descriptive point of view. I am impressed with what Beebe and Lachman have managed to do in terms of operationalizing these processes in quantitative studies. Fonagy, Target and Gergely's work also goes in the same general direction but the focus is on evidence of the mentalizing stance, rather than attunement per se. I would really appreciate it if you send me your article about the BCPSG
Hi Alessandro, I would recommend to review the attachment theory from John Bowlby for infants, although some information on adults has been published as part of George Kohlriesser work in the title "Care to Dare". The last approach is applied to working environments but I have found it particularly interesting and deep.
...this is very interesting
https://www.facebook.com/BenlaxerOfficial/videos/870944726347249/
...this is very interesting
https://www.facebook.com/BenlaxerOfficial/videos/870944726347249/
This is a great question, attunement is such a fascinating phenomenon! While thinking about the main theories/concepts of the "gut feeling" of being attuned, I am thinking that Stern (1985) has referred to vitality affects, Damasio and Dolan (1999) background emotions, Siegel (2001) primary emotional processes, while Feldman (2012) has used the term bio-behavioral synchrony, and Porges (2007) has introduced the polyvagal theory to advocate the role of neural mechanisms in the regulation of biobehavioral processes. Different terms to describe essentially quite the same phenomenon of being attuned? I would be interested to hear about any quantitative methods to assess synchrony in time-series data between more than two persons, in addition to the theories behind attunement.
Just to let you know, in our "Relational mind" project we are studying synchrony/attunement in actual live couple therapy (therapists also as participants). The aim is to understand synchrony/attunement in many levels: dialogue, autonomic nervous system reactions, body movement, facial expressions, prosody etc. etc... If you want to see our latest article "Sympathetic nervous system synchrony in couple therapy", which is in press (Journal of Marital and Family Therapy) I can send the final draft if you request it from me. We got quite interesting results (co-therapists had the highest synchrony, whereas couples had the lowest synchrony).
It is important consider the french school, particularly Didier Anzieu work about the Skin ego, there he says that mirroring is posible thanks to a common skin fantasy that envelops the mother-infant couple. He contrast his founds with Brazelton investigations about feedback in the mother- child relationship. Also see Rousillion paper about primary symbolization. You cand find it at the international journal of Psychoanalysis, there he expose how some patients demand this function of the analyst, in order to achieve symbolization.
Through sociometric techniques one can find the most common values in the groups of children, adolescents, youths and even adults in communities and, from such psycho-emotional, affective and cultural platforms, should create values, attitudes and behaviors more noble, more humane and more transcendent that connect and interconnect such generations and intergenerations.
I think you would be very interested in Georg Gergely's empirical work in Budapest and Peter Fonagy in London. Much more specific than theorists mentioned above.
Also check out Beatrice Beebe's work on microanalyses of mother infant interactions
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