92 Understanding and Healing your Mind through IPNB

Summary:  In this episode, I invite you to explore and understand with me neuropsychiatrist Dr. Dan Siegel's Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) and what IPNB can show us about psychological health.  We review the triangle of well-being, the nature of secure attachments, and the basis for mental health from an IPNB perspective.  We examine the characteristics of a healthy mind and how it functions, and the two signs that reliable indicate all psychological symptoms and mental dysfunction.  We discuss the nine domains of integration, mindsight, and the healthy mind platter, and I share my exchange with Dr. Siegel about whether and how IPNB can be integrated with Catholicism.  Lead in:  Today I want to share with you an approach to understanding ourselves and guiding ourselves toward health that I am really excited about, that I think has great potential to help us in our human formation as Catholics.
 We are together in this great adventure, this podcast, Interior Integration for Catholics, we are journeying together, and I am honored to be able to spend this time with you.  
I am Dr. Peter Malinoski, clinical psychologist and passionate Catholic and together, we are taking on the tough topics that matter to you.  
We bring the best of psychology and human formation and harmonize it with the perennial truths of the Catholic Faith.   
Interior Integration for Catholics is part of our broader outreach, Souls and Hearts bringing the best of psychology and human formation grounded in a Catholic understanding of the human person to you and the rest of the world through our website soulsandhearts.com We are continuing our series on how the best of secular psychological approaches define mental health, psychological well-being.  We started with Episode 89 on Polyvagal Theory and covered Positive Psychology, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Internal Family Systems in Episode 90.  
Today's episode, number 92 is entitled "Understanding and Healing your Mind through IPNB"  and it's released on April 4, 2022. We are going to unpack what IPNB is, what is says about our human condition and I will share with you an exchange I recently had with neuropsychiatrist Dr. Dan Siegel, who brought this whole integrative framework into being, about whether IPNB can be reconciled with Catholicism.  
Stay with me for a really interesting deep dive into this fascinating way of understanding ourselves and others.  Interpersonal Neurobiology or IPNB
 Let's start by understanding what IPNB is.  Interpersonal neurobiology.  
Breaking down the name interpersonal neurobiology
 Inter = between us, among us -- implies relationship.  Relational model.  Not just between you and me, but also between you and you -- inner relationships within you, inner relationships within me.  
Personal -- very relational.  Inter-personal and intrapersonalIPNB is all about the way my deep inner experiences connect with your inner experiences 
Neurobiology -- not just the field of neurobiology, but all the branches of scientifically studying how human development takes place and how we can promote well-being in our lives.  Neurobiology brings in all the embodied, physical dimension of our existence.  Our bodies, our brains, our whole nervous system and all of our embodied biology being, that what the neurobiology part refers to 
Interpersonal neuro-biology or IPNB -- works to be a wholistic approach to the human person.  
IPNB was developed in the 1990s by neuropsychiatrist Daniel J. Siegel who brought together more than 40 professionals, more than 40 experts from a wide range of scientific disciplines to discuss and demonstrate how the mind, brain, and relationships integrate to influence and change each other.  Questions that IPNB asks and addresses these questions, five questions standing out to me:
 What is the human mind? How does the mind develop? What does the human mind look like when it's doing really, really well, when it's functioning optimally? How can we encourage, nurture and cultivate a healthy, strong mind? How can we take what we've learned about the mind and find practical applications that make a real difference in our daily lives? Guidance for how to live our livesPointers for what may need to change in our thinking and behavior to help us live more fully.  Very practical -- not just academic ivory-tower, pie-in-the-sky speculation -- Daniel Siegel really wants IPNB to bring healing, growth and well-being to people.  I like that.  I'm into that. 
What IPNB is Not
 Not a therapy.  Not a way of doing therapy.  Rather, a way of understanding that can inform different schools of therapy. 
IPNB is not a discipline.  It's not a specific branch of knowledge. 
Rather, IPNB is a framework that draws on all the different disciplines with a rigorous and structured approach to studying things – not just science – They all have a place in the framework.
 It's a consilient framework:  Consilience:  E. O. Wilson  Assessing the universal findings discovered and recognized as real or true across fields and disciplines
The fields contributing to IPNB
 Anthropology Art Biology (developmental, evolution, genetics, zoology) Chemistry Cognitive Science Computer Science Contemplative Traditions Developmental Psychopathology Liberal Arts Linguistics Neuroscience
 Affective Cognitive Developmental social 
Mathematics Medicine Mental Health Music Physics Poetry Psychiatry Psychology
 Cognitive developmental Volutionary Experimental of religion Social attachment theory memory 
Sociology Systems Theory (chaos and complexity theory) 
All of these disciplines, all of these fields of inquiriy contribute to IPNB findings IPNB also seeks a common language for these disciplines to be able to share and discuss about these big topics:<...