Meeting of the Neuropsychoanalysis Ireland Study Group

Dr. Aonghus Ryan –

Neuropathological inertia and re-mobilisation of libidinisation / SEEKING system through rage and working through: Brief psychodynamic therapy with a survivor of bilateral globus pallidus (basal ganglia) lesions.

Background

Libidnisation, the fusing of affect with cognition (objects, ideas) is understood in neuropsychoanalysis to be the core of learning. However, for libinisation to occur, there a need for some impetus to explore the world. An organism must be able to (or somehow be rewarded to) go out into the world in the first place so that it can experience external reality, get what it needs, feel and learn its way through the problems it encounters. A key theory from affective neuroscience which can help us to conceptualise this impetus to explore is Panksepp’s SEEKING system. Aonghus’s presentation aims to use an unusual case, a case not best served by traditional cognitive neuropsychology explanations, to explore the interplay between post-injury neuropathological apathy and inertia, libidinistion and Panksepp’s SEEKING system, in the context of a brief psychodynamic intervention. 

Biography

Dr Aonghus Ryan is a clinical psychologist specialising in clinical neuropsychology in the UK. In over 10 years working in a variety of clinical and mental health settings, Dr Ryan has acquired a breadth of experience in research and clinical practice. He has presented at several international conferences on a range of clinical topics, including at the 16th International Neuropsychoanalysis Congress in Amsterdam. It was during his elective placement at Oxford, supervised by Dr Giles Yeates, that Dr Ryan was afforded the opportunity to engage in brief psychodynamic approaches to treatment with neurological patients, an experience which has informed his ongoing interest in the area of neuropsychoanalysis. Dr Ryan is currently completing a 3-year core training in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy and continues to apply neuropsychoanalytic theory in the treatment of neurological patients.

We look forward to seeing many of you there and of course afterwards in Kennedy’s.  

Best wishes
Paul and Aonghus