Biographical
statement:
Dr. Alberto Varona is Assistant Professor of
clinical psychology at Adler School of Professional Psychology where
he teaches Psychopathology I & II, Psychoanalytic Approaches and
History & Systems. He earned his doctorate from the Wright Institute
in Berkeley, CA, after many years studying religion and philosophy.
His current interests include philosophy of mind, philosophical phenomenology,
process philosophy and psychoanalysis and neuropsychoanalysis.
Abstract:
The use of the concept ‘the unconscious’
and the collapse of spacial metaphors into literal reality has made
accurate theorizing a challenge. However, the phenomena of non-awareness
or partial awareness is crucial to psychoanalytic investigations.
As such, a model of dissociation (and its conceptual partner association)
that articulates the mechanisms of its process may advance our theorizing
significantly.
Dissociation, as a process rather than a structural content, clearly
covers the phenomena of unconsciousness without the use of spatial
metaphors. In order to accurately accomplish this task the relationship
between subjective experience (phenomenal consciousness), awareness
and cognitive notations (first and second-order judgements) will be
explored more fully.
