Neurorehabiltiation

"Maria Pachalska and Michel Weber (eds.), Neuropsychology and Philosophy of Mind in Process. Essays in honor of Jason W. Brown, Frankfurt / Lancaster, ontos verlag, Process Thought XVIII, 2008. (443 p. ; 978-3-86838-010-1 ; 139 €)
This volume celebrates the life achievement of Jason W. Brown, who, along with Jean Piaget, Heinz Werner, Alexander Luria and the Würzburg school, has significantly contributed to the development of microgenetic theory as an intellectual paradigm capable of application in both clinical practice (behavioral neurology, neuropsychology) and theoretical speculations (psychoanalysis, philosophy of mind). Essays with a range of focus as wide as Brown's expertise have been collected in three major divisions: neuropsychology (microstructure of action, symptomatology, neuro-rehabilitation, neurolinguistics, locationism), theoretical psychology (consciousness, hypnosis, morphogenesis, personality development, psychoanalysis, Buddhist psychology), and philosophy of mind (evolutionary epistemology, emergence/novelty/creativity, subjectivity, will and action, Whiteheadian process philosophy).
Table of contents
Foreword
Maria Pachalska & Michel Weber
Preface
Jason W. Brown
Part I. Papers in honor of Jason W. Brown
Chapter 1. An authentic life for process thinking
Harold Atmanspacher & Jack Martin
Chapter 2. How does microgenetic theory square with evidence from cognitive
neuroscience?
Talis Bachmann
Chapter 3. Microgenesis of mystical awareness
David T. Bradford
Chapter 4. Sublexical phonological processing and paraphasia: Recent topics
in the neurolinguistics of production in aphasia
Hugh W. Buckingham & Sarah Christman
Chapter 5. The scope of relevance of process thought
John B. Cobb, Jr.
Chapter 6. The microgenesis of antisociality: A process-relational perspective
Mark Germine
Chapter 7. The brain and the mind
Bożydar L.J. Kaczmarek & Katarzyna Markiewicz
Chapter 8. Moral values in focus: knowledge and values in the embodied mind
George Kurian
Chapter 9. Identity, autobiography, and the microgenesis of the self
Bruce Duncan MacQueen
Chapter 10. Neuropsychology of creativity
Nikolay N. Nikolaenko
Chapter 11. Re-membering: the recovery of artistic vision after right-
hemisphere stroke
Maria Pachalska
Chapter 12. Let’s face it! Phonagnosia happens, and voice recognition is fi-
nally familiar
Diana Sidtis & Jody Kreiman
Chapter 13. Process unveiled in the laboratory
Gudmund Smith
Chapter 14. Reality: outside there or inside here?
Kobi Tiberg & Avraham Schweiger
Chapter 15. On microgenesis and psychoanalysis
Michael Trupp
Chapter 16. Self-organizing ontogenesis on the phyletic frame
Don M.Tucker
Chapter 17. Process and individuality
Michel Weber
Part II. Biography
Chapter 18. Jason Walter Brown: an authentic life
Maria Pachalska
Author index
Subject index
"

The main features of early rehabilitation after severe brain damage are discussed in the article. The most important component for the entire rehabilitation process and the subsequent life of the patient is considered restoration of consciousness. Team seems to be a key factor in regaining consciousness along with the restoration of vital functions, movement, cognition, and behavior in these patients. The basic working principle is feedback to any minimal movement, or vegetative signal of a patient, beyond specific professional targets. A network of feedbacks with a patient and between professionals, that is, free flow of information, can be built only through work in a transdisciplinary team mode. The net of feedbacks with the patient and inter-professional ones builds up the team as Non-linear Complex System. Characteristics of "Team-Patient" system status are energy, entropy, and complexity. Teamwork techniques are individualized for resulting optimization of system condition. Increase of complexity is a powerful tool for propulsion of recovery process. Then consciousness may appear as a result of system self-organization. The article reflects the authors' view on interdisciplinary studies of the phenomenon of consciousness through its impairment and recovery. It focuses on the work of the "proper rehabilitation team", the mechanisms of its action and methods for researching the occurring phenomena.

Background It is increasingly recognized that treating pain is crucial for an effective care of the person in the setting of the neurological rehabilitation. The Italian Consensus Conference on Pain in Neurorehabilitation was constituted with the purpose to identify the best practices that can be used in this context. Along with drug therapies and physical interventions, psychological treatments have been proven to be some of the most valuable tools that can be used within a multidisciplinary approach for fostering a reduction in pain intensity. However, there is the need to elucidate what forms of psychotherapy could be matched with the specific pathologies that are taken in charge Provisional by the neurorehabilitation teams. Objectives To extensively assess the available evidence which supports the use of psychological therapies for pain reduction in neurological diseases. Methods A systematic review of the studies evaluating the effect of psychotherapies on pain intensity in neu...