Psychedelic integration beyond the verbal: participatory-imaginal processing as a hypothesis-generating therapeutic framework

The Creative Transformation Process of Hallucination in Wilfred Bion’s Psychoanalysis

Based on Wilfred Bion’s theories, this study examines how ‘hallucination’, traditionally viewed as a pathological symptom, can be reinterpreted as a creative, therapeutic tool. While early psychoanalysis by Freud and Klein understood hallucination as a product of wish fulfillment or projective identification, Bion expanded it into a creative dimension after discovering its underlying communicative purpose. Pathological hallucination emerges from a failure in the mind’s thinking capacity to represent ‘O’. Consequently, patients become isolated from reality, surrounded by ‘bizarre objects’-the fragmented, projective outcomes of the split self. To integrate these fragments into communicable thought, the ‘analyst’s hallucination is required. This state entails abstaining from realistic perceptions like memory, desire, and understanding, utilizing ‘negative capability’ to remain amid uncertainty. In this state, the analyst unites with the patient’s hallucination to construct a ‘common sense,’ communicate effectively, and ultimately reach ‘O’, the ultimate reality.

Imaginative Vulnerability and Symbolic Mediation: A Phenomenological Analysis in Schizophrenia-Spectrum Conditions.

Memoirs as Mirrors of Experiential Knowledge: Renegotiating Affect in Narrative-Deontology Approaches to Schizophrenia Self-Stories

From Armouring to Awareness: A Somatic Case Study of Emotional Neglect and Meeting the “Black Hole” Within

This article presents a synthesised clinical and theoretical exploration of using touch-based somatic psychotherapy to address the embodied imprints of developmental trauma in adult clients. Specifically, it investigates the subtle, pervasive impact of early emotional neglect characterised by rejection, relinquishment, and abandonment. While overt abuse often commands clinical focus, this paper investigates the unique psychobiological survival strategies and symptoms arising from relational absence. It draws on three sessions with an adult female client, Monica (a pseudonym). Three critical axes of therapeutic focus emerged: the deepening awareness developed around long-standing, body-based protective patterns as she was introduced to the concept of yielding; the progressive integration between her interoceptive experience and psychological insight; and the encounter with a unique psychobiological phenomenon she referred to as a “black hole”. With her written consent, I draw on Monica’s lived experience, the therapeutic processes we engaged in and her responses to treatment—with deep appreciation for her courage and willingness to explore something new. The underlying framework of this synthesis is explicitly reparative in nature and primarily leverages around NeuroAffective Touch®. Ultimately, this paper argues that intentional, attuned physical touch is an essential catalyst for navigating the void of early developmental omission and in supporting the integration of fragmented, preverbal trauma narratives.

Addressing Self-Criticism: The Development of a VR Experience

Self-criticism is a pervasive cognitive pattern that undermines mental health and academic functioning in university students. Current VR-based mental health interventions focus predominantly on anxiety disorders through exposure paradigms, relying on fixed, pre-authored content— an approach that places limited emphasis on cognitive restructuring, which must target each individual’s specific maladaptive thought patterns. In this paper we present a VR system that enables participants to engage in cognitive restructuring of self-critical personalized thoughts, developed through interdisciplinary collaboration between computer science and clinical psychology. The system pairs a web-based clinical interface—where psychologists configure patient-specific self-critical phrases and compassionate alternatives—with an immersive Unity application for Meta Quest 2, in which users confront their own thoughts through the embodied metaphor of a broken mirror. We describe the system architecture, interaction design, and design rationale based on principles from Cognitive–Behavioural Therapy and Compassion-Focused Therapy. We discuss design implications and outline directions for a planned empirical evaluation with university students

The Architecture of Sovereign Narrative Therapy (SNT): A Predictive Processing Framework for Symbolic Reorganization and Narrative Identity Revision

Background Narrative and psychodynamic therapies have long emphasized the therapeutic value of metaphor, imagery, embodiment, and symbolic enactment. However, the mechanisms through which these processes contribute to enduring identity-level change remain incompletely specified. This paper presents Sovereign Narrative Therapy as a predictive processing framework that explains how symbolic interventions may support recursive narrative and identity transformation. Methods The paper develops a conceptual synthesis integrating predictive processing, narrative identity theory, affective neuroscience, psychodynamic perspectives on symbolism, and literature on ritual and symbolic transformation. A mechanistic model is proposed in which symbolic representations function as intermediaries between affective activation and narrative revision. Two clinical illustrations are used to demonstrate the application of the framework. Results The proposed model suggests that emotionally salient symbolic interventions may generate manageable prediction error within maladaptive self-models, enabling the gradual revision of affectively weighted expectations, narrative organization, and behavioural responses through recursive therapeutic processes. The clinical illustrations demonstrate how repeated symbolic enactment may contribute to the stabilization of revised identity positions over time. Conclusions Sovereign Narrative Therapy provides a theoretical account of how symbolic interventions may facilitate identity change within a predictive processing framework. Rather than replacing existing narrative or psychodynamic approaches, the model offers a mechanistic explanation that links symbolic experience, affect regulation, narrative reconstruction, and behavioural reinforcement. The framework generates empirically testable hypotheses and may contribute to future research in psychotherapy, narrative identity, and computational approaches to mental health.