Thomas Elbert – författare

Extensive evidence shows that six to ten sessions of narrative exposure therapy (NET) can be sufficient to provide considerable relief from events such as organized violence, torture, war, rape, and childhood abuse. The new manual is even more clearly structured and easy-to-follow, and includes new figures that help illustrate and guide the reader through the steps of NET. The theoretical sections offer a solid basis for carrying out the therapeutic intervention. The reader is then shown the NET approach step by step, with robust and straightforward practical advice and tools, including how to deal with challenging situations, e.g., how to go deeper when faced with the challenging dynamics of remembering trauma, and how to manage dissociation, avoidance, strong emotions, lost memories, or the sudden emergence of unexpected recollections from the past. NET therapy conversations and resulting narrations from trauma scenes demonstrate the level of narrative exposure details required. Finally, the importance of reading back the testimony to the individual is explained.A new section on the variations of NET details how to offer KIDNET for children and young people, FORNET for victims of trauma who are perpetrators of violence, NETfacts for communities, and ElderNET for older adults as well as online NET (eNET). Experienced therapists also get an idea of how NET is typically trained and how to facilitate NET exercises. Downloadable resources include an informed consent form and checklists for the therapist.This book is an invaluable resource for clinical psychologists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, counsellors, crisis workers, social workers, health workers, and physicians.

How does the brain code and process incoming information, how does it recog­ nize a certain object, how does a certain Gestalt come into our awareness? One of the key issues to conscious realization of an object, of a Gestalt is the attention de­ voted to the corresponding sensory input which evokes the neural pattern underly­ ing the Gestalt. This requires that the attention be devoted to one set of objects at a time. However, the attention may be switched quickly between different objects or ongoing input processes. It is to be expected that such mechanisms are reflected in the neural dynamics: Neurons or neuronal assemblies which pertain to one object may fire, possibly in rapid bursts at a time. Such firing bursts may enhance the synaptic strength in the corresponding cell assembly and thereby form the substrate of short-term memory. However, we may well become aware of two different objects at a time. How can we avoid that the firing patterns which may relate to say a certain type of move­ ment (columns in V5) or to a color (V 4) of one object do not become mixed with those of another object? Such a blend may only happen if the presentation times be­ come very short (below 20-30 ms). One possibility is that neurons pertaining to one cell assembly fire syn­ chronously. Then different cell assemblies firing at different rates may code different information.

How does the brain code and process incoming information, how does it recog­ nize a certain object, how does a certain Gestalt come into our awareness? One of the key issues to conscious realization of an object, of a Gestalt is the attention de­ voted to the corresponding sensory input which evokes the neural pattern underly­ ing the Gestalt. This requires that the attention be devoted to one set of objects at a time. However, the attention may be switched quickly between different objects or ongoing input processes. It is to be expected that such mechanisms are reflected in the neural dynamics: Neurons or neuronal assemblies which pertain to one object may fire, possibly in rapid bursts at a time. Such firing bursts may enhance the synaptic strength in the corresponding cell assembly and thereby form the substrate of short-term memory. However, we may well become aware of two different objects at a time. How can we avoid that the firing patterns which may relate to say a certain type of move­ ment (columns in V5) or to a color (V 4) of one object do not become mixed with those of another object? Such a blend may only happen if the presentation times be­ come very short (below 20-30 ms). One possibility is that neurons pertaining to one cell assembly fire syn­ chronously. Then different cell assemblies firing at different rates may code different information.

Die dramatischen Fortschritte auf dem Gebiet der Botenstoffe des Gehirns erlauben ein neues Verst{ndnis und eine Einord- nugn psychoaktiver Substanzen. Das Buch tr{gt dem erstmals in Form eines einf}hrenden deutschsprachigen Lehrbuchs Rech- nung. Dabei werden parallel die wesentlichen psychiatrischen und klinisch-psychologischen Krankheitsbilder vorgestellt und zugrundeliegende neuronale/biochemische St|rungen er|r- tert.