Projects

Starting from a systematic study of relevant theoretical and clinical papers in the field of psychoanalysis we on the one address the problem of figuration of traumatic experience, exploring links with Freud's theories of binding and representation and contemporary studies of attachement, mentalization, and symbolization. On the other hand we examine psychic figuration and representation in psychic mental processes.

Psychotic disorders are amongst the most impairing mental disorders, affecting up to 3% of mostly young people. Both positive symptoms, such as paranoia (the idea that others intend to harm you) and negative symptoms (e.g. the lack of enjoyment from being with others) are typically social in nature. This research proposal will target these alterations in social interaction as a specific and central characteristic of psychosis. Three ...

Negative symptoms have detrimental effects on quality of life of psychotic patients. However, few studies investigate how patients experience this themselves. Our research links the experience of negative symptoms to the phenomenological concept of psychosis as a self-disorder. Therefore, we
use bottom-up and top-down qualitative research strategies applied on interviews and a diary study with currently psychotic and recovered ...

Exposure to severe traumatic events in childhood, such as neglect and abuse, considerably increase the risk to develop a psychiatric disorder. The most common psychiatric symptoms following childhood trauma are depression, anxiety and psychosis. Often these symptoms occur together. It is well-known that adults with a history of childhood trauma have characteristic brain alterations, but very little is known about the functional consequences ...

The project uses a translational and multidisciplinary approach to investigate socio−emotional functions in neurodegeneration. We will first valorize research findings on socio−emotional deficits for use in clinical practice. The output objective is an automated test battery and classification program. The second aim is to phenotype emotion perception abilities in presymptomatic (genetic variants) and symptomatic neurodegeneration. The ...