1.4.0
The Second Polyvagal Circle
The first circle was about bringing the body back into therapy – with the help of the Polyvagal Theory. The second circle is rooted in Interpersonal Neurobiology, an idea introduced in 1999 by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., with The Developing Mind (foreword by Allan Schore). Three years later, Siegel launched The Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology with a book he prefaced, The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy by Cozolino (2002). Siegel, Cozolino, and Alan Shore, became the directors of this series belonging to W.W. Norton & Company. In the last two decades, the publishing house became the absolute leader in psychotraumatology. Here are a few of the most successful publications in the series:
Healing Trauma (Solomon, Siegel, 2003) (with contributions by Diana Fosha, Alan Shore, Francine Shapiro, Bessel van der Kolk, and more)
Affect dysregulation & disorders of the self (Schore, 2003) (praise by van der Kolk et al.)
Affect regulation & the repair of the self (Schore, 2003) (praise by Panksepp et al.)
The Haunted Self (Hart, 2006) (van der Hart, Nijenhuis, and Steele)
Trauma and the Body (Ogden, 2006) (foreword by Daniel J. Siegel and Bessel van der Kolk)
The Archeology of Mind (Panksepp, Given, 2012) (Foreword by Daniel J. Siegel)
The Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 2012) (Foreword by van der Kolk, praise by Paul Ekman, Daniel Spiegel, Norman Doidge, and Pat Ogden.
Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory (Porges, Dana, 2018) with van der Kolk, Ogden, Robert Schwarz, and more contributions.
Polyvagal Safety (Porges, 2021) (with « advance praise » by Norman Doidge, Pat Ogden, and more).
The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 2017)
The Practitioner’s Guide to the Science of Psychotherapy (Hill, Dahlitz, 2022)
Our Polyvagal World: How Safety and Trauma Change Us (Porges, 2023)
Outside the series, but by W. W. Norton:
The Body Remembers (Rotschild, 2000) and 8 keys to safe trauma recovery (Rotschild, 2010)
The Trauma Spectrum (Scaer, 2005) (foreword by Peter Levine)
The Polyvagal Theory in Therapy (Dana, 2018) (foreword by Porges).
If one takes the trouble to check all the books' texts, a recurring reference to MacLean appears — from van der Kolk through Schore, Porges, Panksepp, Scaer, to Ogden. Later, Porges and Panksepp will be the next authors to be quoted (e.g., Ogden, Rotschild, Maté, Fisher, Paulsen, Doidge, Lanius, and many more). This collaborative network, fostered by W.W. Norton, has led to a system of mutual praise and citation-akin of “Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours!”
As highlighted in the previous chapter, the Norton Interpersonal Collection has played a pivotal role in the success of the Polyvagal Theory. With the Interpersonal Neurobiology series, Daniel J. Siegel, a fervent advocate of the Polyvagal Theory, had the platform to share his ideas. The cross-recommendation between authors was effective, with Porges building on MacLean's work, providing them all with neurobiological support, and in turn, they gave him the large audience he needed for his work.
Narrative science
You have to admit that all these polyvagal-friendly books are, first and foremost, well-written non-fiction. But that has a tradition. Freud won the Goethe Prize for Literature in 1930. Gabor Maté won the Hubert Evans Prize for literary nonfiction for his book on addiction. Peter Levine and van der Kolk are very successful because they are so pleasant to read, simple, and full of exciting cases. Norman Doidge is even more addictive with his feel-good stories. Porges is a particular case, as the content is challenging to read for anyone outside the field of physiology-biology-anatomy. But his style is so smooth, well-constructed, and logical. It is hard to resist the mermaid's song, whether he speaks or writes. For Netflix or any other publisher, the primary goal of the work is the same: to produce compelling texts or scenarios so that readers and viewers won't put down the book or laptop before the end.
1.4.1
Daniel Siegel
Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the executive director of the Mindsight Institute-the founder of the Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology. Dr. Siegel is a renowned neuropsychiatrist, speaker, and author who has written extensively on mindfulness, attachment, interpersonal neurobiology, and mental health. He is a key figure in the editorial success of Porges.
Website: Daniel Siegel
The Developing Mind is a reaction to the rise of "biological determinism," a "reductionist" tendency to see "psychiatric disorders as the result of biochemical processes, most of which are genetically determined and little influenced by experience. In short, Siegel proposes to put the mind first, before the brain. This may be reminiscent of Bruce Lipton's attempts to challenge DNA determinism in genetics.
1.4.2.
Allan Schore
Although Allan Schore may not be considered the most ardent supporter of Porges — he focuses on a different part of the brain, the OPFC or orbital prefrontal cortex — he appears regularly as a cheerful voice. As editor of the Norton Interpersonal Series (2007-2014), he probably helped Porges in his editorial career. Norton Press has published all of his major books.
Allan Schore's books are for a select audience. They are difficult to read and require enormous concentration. His most important contribution was the description of the role of the OPFC in the regulation of emotions. One can criticize him for getting lost in this part of the cortex (localization), forgetting that emotions are never the creation of just one part of the brain.
His books Affect dysregulation & disorders of the self and Affect regulation & the repair of the self (both in 2003 ) cite MacLean and Porges several times.
1.4.3
Louis Cozolino
Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine University, Louis Cozolino, PhD, has a private practice in Beverly Hills, CA. He is the author of The Healthy Aging Brain, The Neuroscience of Human Relationships, The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy, and The Making of a Therapist. He is an expert in neuroscience, stress, and trauma and has also researched schizophrenia, child abuse, biobehavioral sciences, and psychotherapy.
Cozolino and Mac Lean
In a short article (December 12, 2013), Cozolino enthusiastically presents the Triune Brain. In the last twenty years, most of the best experts on the subject (Butler and Hodos, Ledoux, Bear) have declared that MacLean's theories are not valid in the light of current scientific knowledge.
1.4.4
Norman Doidge
Dr. Norman Doidge is a Canadian psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Brain that Changes Itself (Doidge, 2007) and The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Cures from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity (Doidge, 2015).
For thirty years, he was on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and on the research faculty of the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York. He is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis.
More: https://www.normandoidge.com/
Norman Doidge declares on the cover of The Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 2011): «You have in your hand one of the most important series of papers written Jon the onerous system in the last fifty years. Porges’s ambitious, meticulous, synthetic theory provides a missing link between mind and the nervous system (…) Suddenly, we understand things novelists have described for centuries: how it is that a facial expression, a gesture, or a certain tone of voice can trigger a radical mental reorganization.» It« represents a major advancement in human knowledge. »
In «The Pocket Guide To the Polyvagal Theory» (Porges, 2017), Doidge proclaims: « Stephen Porges, PhD has not only made one of the most profound and illuminating contributions to our understanding of nervous system in the last 50 years -he’s made one of the most useful ones. »
Again, in 2018, on the cover of Clinical Applications of the Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 2018), he writes: « Stephen Porges has not only made one of the most profound and illuminating contributions to our understanding of the nervous system.» Porges is missing in The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (Doidge, 2007). Eight years later, in The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity (Doidge, 2015), Porges is cited in two different chapters (pages 544-546 and 563-564) about the improvement of the audition and why it might help autistic children. Unfortunately, Doidge sometimes writes too fast, as he seems to confuse the work of Tomatis (a French pioneer of electronic auditory stimulation) and Porges. Without hesitation, he swallows Porges' hypothesis of the indispensable role of the middle ear muscles in mammalian communication.
What can we say? Norman Doidge is a gifted writer who has enhanced the therapeutic work of many therapists with his description of neuroplasticity. He belongs with Levine, van der Kolk, Ogden, and Daniel Siegel in the “five” polyvagal super-spreaders. It's always disconcerting to realize that great writers miss the opportunity to check the facts. Norman Doidge is inspiring, but I believe he may be more of a talented storyteller than a scientific researcher.
The two articles cited below go in the same direction:
The Brain’s Way of Healing: Stories of Remarkable Recoveries and Discoveries by Norman Doidge – review by Jonathan Rée (2015)
Would you Trust This Man? Norman Doidge and the Brains’ Way of… Fooling You by Robert Shepherd (2015)
1.4.5
Ruth Lanius
https://www.nicabm.com/experts/ruth-lanius/
Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, is the Director of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Research Unit at the University of Western Ontario. She established the Traumatic Stress Service and the Traumatic Stress Service Workplace Program, services that specialize in the treatment and research of PTSD and related comorbid disorders. She is the author of 291 publications (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ruth-Lanius-2).
While an expert in her field, she regularly inserts« polyvagal contributions.» In a recent article, Ruth Lanius with seven coauthors (a.o., David Spiegel) A Review of the Neurobiological Basis of Trauma-Related Dissociation and Its Relation to Cannabinoid- and Opioid-Mediated Stress Response: a Transdiagnostic, Translational Approach (Lanius, 2018).
In The brain-body disconnect: A somatic sensory basis for trauma-related disorders (Kearney and Lanius, 2022), there is no mention of PVT. Nevertheless, MacLean’s triune brain is well cited, and the whole article is imbued with a spirit of recapitulation, relating ontogeny and pathology to phylogeny. The vestibular system is presented as the first (ontogeny) and oldest (phylogeny) cranial structure — information that is not confirmed by handbooks such as Comparative Vertebrate Neuroanatomy (Butler, 2005). Kearney and Lanius suggest that vestibular disorders — loss of orientation — occur as a result of traumatic dissociation.
The article devoted a paragraph to MacLean's (1985) theories, «suggesting the brain to be a phylogenetically layered system that began with the “reptilian” or subcortical brain. Upon the foundation of subcortical structures developed the limbic system, now nestled within the cortical midline.» This perspective evokes a model of “recapitulation” or dissolution, as we later will see, i.e. a synchronous process of evolution or dissolution on three levels (ontogeny, phylogeny, and behavior).
Sources that contradict the interpretation of Kearney and Lanius
The vestibular system (Day, 2005) underlines how the process of equilibrium is not only linked to the vestibular system, but to the visual system and proprioception.
Early Development of the Cranial Nerves in a Primitive Vertebrate, the Sea Lamprey (Barreiro-Iglesias, 2010) doesn’t mention an earlier development of the octaval (auditory-vestibular) system.
The development of vestibular system and related functions in mammals: impact of gravity by Jamon (Jamon, 2014).
1.4.6
Ulrich Lanius
Dr. Ulrich Lanius, West Vancouver, is a registered psychologist focusing on traumatic stress. He uses the EMDR approach and is a licensed counselor. We don't know if this information is accurate, as his website is unresponsive:
In Neurobiology and Treatment of traumatic dissociation : toward an embodied self (Lanius, 2014), a book co-authored with Sandra Paulson and Frank Corrigan (Lanius, 2014), Lanius takes the most polyvagal position, while Corrigan is the most neutral. In chapter 6, starting with a quote from Porges, Lanius briefly describes the Polyvagal Theory. The rest of the chapter describes the complex roles of oxytocin (associated with ventral vagal engagement) and opioids (associated with immobilization) and suggests the use of naltrexone — an opioid antagonist. Panksepp, MacLean, and Carter are cited. The ventral vagal involvement is presented as a withdrawal from endogenous opioids toward the involvement of oxytocin in relational behaviors. Since opioids control oxytocin, which in turn mediates ventral vagal engagement, they are highly suspected of causing dissociation and loss of social engagement. On page 114, Lanius uses the phrase “opioid-mediated dorsovagal response,” which he attributes to Morphine reduces social cohesion in rats (Panksepp, 1979). Panksepp didn’t use this specific expression.
1.4.7
Gabor Maté
A Hungarian-Canadian physician, author, and speaker born on January 6, 1944, in Budapest, Hungary, Dr. Gabor Maté is best known for his work in addiction, stress, and child development. He immigrated to Canada with his family in 1957 and later received his medical degree from the University of British Columbia. He has worked extensively in family practice and palliative care, but his best-known work is in addiction medicine. Likewise, he spent more than a decade working at the Portland Hotel Society in Vancouver, a facility that helps people struggling with severe drug addiction, mental illness, and homelessness. He is the author of several books, including:
Scattered Minds: A New Look at the Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder (1999)
When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress (2003)
In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction (2008)
Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers (2004,
The Myth of Normal (2022).
His book on addiction received the Hubert Evans Prize for literary non-fiction.
Gabor Maté presents his movie «The Wisdom of Trauma» on a dedicated website; the site also offers a package including TRAUMA TALKS, June and October 2021 - a series of interviews with more than 50 practitioners in soul healing and psychotraumatology. It includes Peter Levine, Daniel Siegel, Bessel van der Kolk, Richard Schwarz, and Stephen Porges.
A recommendation signed by Gabor Maté adorns the cover of the latest book by Porges, father and son (Porges, 2023): «Essential reading to understand the context of our present day, frantic lives, and a guide toward the safety upon which we all depend.»
More about Gabor Maté.
1.4.8
Babette Rotschild
Babette Rothschild, a well-known figure in the psychotrauma scene, has long resisted the polyvagal wave. There is no mention of PVT in The Body Remembers (Rothschild, 2000) or in 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery : take-charge Strategies to Empower Your Healing (Rothschild, 2010).
But in 2017, The Body Remembers Volume 2: Revolutionizing Trauma Treatment (Rothschild, 2017), which continues the discussion begun in 2000, includes not only various chapters on PVT, but also a colorful laminated chart depicting the various stages of the Autonomic Nervous System Table. Rothschild has landed, at least in the polyvagal world!
John Chitty reviewed Rothschild's latest book and the chart.
1.4.9
Stanley Rosenberg
Rosenberg was the first therapist in Denmark to be trained as a Rolfer© in 1983 and (with Trine) the first craniosacral therapist in 1987: an early bird!
For twenty-five years, he has studied with the French osteopath Alain Gehin. He met Porges for the first time in 2001. He brought Stephen Porges to teach in Copenhagen and has taught with him in four seminars in the USA and Denmark. North Atlantic Books published his book Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism with a foreword by Porges (Rosenberg, 2017). The book was a fantastic success because it suggested practical exercises.
Personal website: stanleyrosenberg.com/
1.4.10
Ronald Siegel
Ron Siegel, Ph.D., is an adjunct assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School; a board member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy; and the author of The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems, and Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy; and co-editor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy, 2nd Edition. He teaches internationally about mind-body medicine and the application of mindfulness and compassion practices in psychotherapy and other fields.
Personal homepage: drronsiegel.com/ and NIBCAM.
1.4.11
Deb Dana
Deb Dana, LCSW, is a clinician, researcher, clinical consultant to Khiron Clinics, and a leading expert on complex trauma. She practices a “polyvagal-informed approach” to trauma work, helping clients calm the nervous system and manage threat responses. She normalizes this process with psychoeducation to help clients reduce feelings of shame.
Furthermore, she has written several books, including:
The polyvagal theory in therapy : engaging the rhythm of regulation (2018)
Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices (2020)
Clinical applications of the polyvagal theory : the emergence of polyvagal-informed therapies (Porges, Dana, 2018).
Dana on NIBCAM.
Polyvagal Theory in Action: 3D Example of the Nervous System with Ventral and Dorsal Vagal Systems on YouTube.
1.4.12
Janina Fisher
Janina Fisher, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, an instructor at the Trauma Center, and a faculty member at the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.
She incorporates body-based techniques, mindfulness strategies, and insight into Polyvagal Theory to help clients and therapists better understand – and heal from – trauma.
She is also the author of several books on the treatment of trauma, including:
Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors: Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation (2017)
Transforming The Living Legacy of Trauma: A Workbook for Survivors and Therapists (2021)
Janina Fisher on NIBCAM.
1.4.13
Sandra Paulsen
She has written and illustrated a valuable guide to dissociation for EMDR therapists and clients: Looking Through The Eyes of Trauma and Dissociation (Paulsen, 2009). On page 68, writing about containment and stabilization, she very briefly cites Porges' Polyvagal Theory and the three parts of the autonomic nervous system — sympathetic, ventral vagal, and dorsal vagal — which refer to three arousal levels. On page 190, she uses these three levels again, describing them as “too hot, just right, and too cold.»
In Neurobiology and Treatment of Traumatic Dissociation (Lanius, 2014), Paulsen is back with more PVT concepts. In this fascinating - but sometimes questionable — book, she takes a neutral position between Ulrich Lanius, an ardent proponent of PVT, and Frank M. Corrigan, a more critical author. Paulsen's only polyvagal example is on p.311 when she writes: “When patients learn about dorsal vagal shutdown.”
>> to the next chapter The Third Polyvagal Circle