How Subjectivity can be Investigated in the Post-rationalist Cognitive Approach: Clinical and Psycho-diagnostic Tools

Reciprocity with primary care-givers affects subjects’ adaptive abilities towards the construction of the mostuseful Personal Meaning Organization (PMO) with respect to their developmental environment. Over the last tenyears we analyzed the post-rationalist approach focusing on the construction of a specific framework fordistinguishing immediate experience from explanations of the experience, the slow-motion (“moviola†)technique, and the analysis of awareness and resistance. Neuroimaging (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging,fMRI), genetic polymorphism investigations and new psychodiagnostic post-rationalist tests (Mini Questionnaireof Personal Organization, MQPO, and Post-Rationalist Projective Reactive, PRPR) were used to conduct ascientific in vivo study of PMO. The presence of specific and stable clinical patterns both in inward and outwardsubjects was supported by parallel differences in cerebral activation during emotional tasks at fMRI and in thedifferent expression of some polymorphisms concerning serotonin pathways; Furthermore, validation dataconcerning both a questionnaire (as MQPO) and, crucially, a projective test (as PRPR) allowed to distinguishfour organizational profiles, confirming their adaptive significance in assimilation of experience. Focusing on thePMO promotes the emergence of adaptive individual resources, thereby improving skills needed to controlperturbing emotions and to apply more flexible behaviour strategies.