Program & Abstract Book - EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009

EPFL Latsis Symposium 2009: Understanding Violence
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Abstracts for Speakers
ne u r o n a l p l a s t i c i t y, h o m e o s t a s i s a n D
v i o l e n c e
Ansermet, François1 ; Magistretti, Pierre2 1Service of psychiatry of children and adolescents Geneva
University Hospital
2Laboratory of Neuroenergetics and Cellular Dynamics,
Brain Mind Institute, EPFL
In this presentation, we will address the issue of violence through a theoretical
model in which experience, traces left by experience through the mechanisms
of neuronal plasticity and the associated somatic states are dynamically
connected. Another related issue will be the notion of homeostasis and
in particular the homeostatic function of the trace left by experience. Thus,
as we previously discussed in our writings (e.g. Biology of Freedom, Other
Press, NY, 2007) we propose a model through which the subject constitutes
from experience an internal reality both conscious and unconscious. This
internal reality associates somatic states (S) with representations (R). The
prototypical model for the homeostatic role of the trace is the experience
of satisfaction during the perinatal stages. Here the newborn is exposed
not only to a new environment after leaving the homeostatic intra-uterine
condition but also to a considerable set of stimulations originating from his/
her body, through the interoceptive system which generates a considerable
perturbation of the homeostasis. The newborn can only re-establish
the homeostatic status through the intervention of the Other. This process
generates a set of traces which inscribes this homeostatic experience in the
neuronal network.
It appears justified to consider that most of these interoceptive stimulations
are associated with unpleasure which cannot be related to meaningful
representations. In other words, the newborn is passive in front of these internally-derived
unpleasant sensations which leave traces of somatic states
(S) that cannot be related with meaningful representations (R). Thus, one
can view this condition of the newborn as a state of chronic stress. With
the intervention of the Other, these internal states which are enigmatic to
the subject as they are not associated with a representation, progressively
become meaningful. Thus the somatic states (S) become buffered by the
representations (R) through a process generated by the action of the Other.
If this action of the Other does not take place, for example as consequence
of maternal deprivation, the homeostatic function of the trace does not occur.
This sustains an absence of association between somatic states (S) and
representations (R) leading to a state of chronic stress which requires an
action to create a representation (R). We posit that violence, by generating
a response from the external environment following the violent action of the
subject, has a paradoxical homeostatic function, as under these conditions
the somatic states become associated with a “meaningful” representation.
Thus, a chronic state of stress due to the absence of association between
somatic states and meaningful representations due to the absence of response
or interactions with the Other at the early stages of life, generates a
need for a discharge which can take place as a violent act.
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