Consistent with the theme of this newsletter, the research digest will focus on a paper where Dr. Kernberg elaborates on some observations regarding the process of mourning. Our intention is to review some psychoanalytic literature on this complex process, which certainly does not lack heterogeneity.
While some brain regions have been indicated as possible candidates related to mourning (see Chambers J 2023 for a review), we chose not to focus on the neurobiology underlying mourning, given the lack of consensus over the definition, the dynamic and complex nature of the processes, and the different responses to different losses, which, combined with the limitations of biological investigations in humans, exponentially increase the number of variables to account for rigor.
We will, however, mention how circadian rhythms, heart rate, blood pressure, and other homeostatic regulatory mechanisms are impacted by the loss of a close relationship.
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Silvia Bernardi
Silvia Bernardi, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. After graduating from medical school in Florence Italy in 2006, Silvia emigrated to the USA to work intensively in neuroscience research, studying the bases of the interaction between emotions and cognition. Silvia completed her residency in Psychiatry at Columbia and has since practiced privately in New York. She trained in Transference Focused Psychotherapy and continues to see patients for medication management and psychotherapy while conducting her research to unlock further knowledge to support the biological underpinnings of TFP and borderline personality disorder.
Glauco Valdivieso
Glauco Valdivieso is a Peruvian psychiatrist and psychotherapist who lives and works in Lima, Peru. He has been a psychiatrist since 2018, graduated from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and trained at the Hospital Nacional Victor Larco Herrera. He has training in Cognitive Psychotherapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Mentalization Based Therapy and Transference Focused Therapy, currently in clinical supervision. He is the co-founder and medical director of the Peruvian Institute for the Study and Comprehensive Approach to Personality (IPEP) and of the TFP PERU therapeutic division. He is the founder of the Personality Disorders Chapter of the Peruvian Psychiatric Association (APP) and head of the mental health unit at the Villa El Salvador Emergency Hospital. He is also co-founder and member of the editorial team of the Latin American Journal of Personality together with the Argentine Institute for the Study of Personality and its Disorders (IAEPD). His clinical interests are the treatment of personality disorders and mood disorders, and he wishes to contribute to research on TFP.