ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of the findings of neuroscientific research, with a special emphasis on findings focusing on trauma, and its relevance for the concepts of Analytical Psychology. Beginning in 2010, Professor Ruth Lanius at the University of Western Ontario conducted a neuroscientific study of direct versus avert gaze in individuals suffering from complex trauma involving fMRI studies. In brief, the perception of more threatening approaches produces an excess coupling between the amygdala and insula which tend to disable the switching function of the salience network, leaving the trauma survivor trapped in unmentalizable states. In this chapter the relevance of this research to the general field of trauma will be discussed along with specific insights for Jungian psychology that can be extracted from the findings. Elliptical forms of communication when these individuals are in distress will be explored. In particular, the role of anomalous or synchronistic experiences in clinical treatments will be compared with neuroscientific findings.
