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The second issue of volume 27 of Neuropsychoanalysis features a target article by William Singletary and Timothy Rice entitled “Two Diverging Paths in Psychological and Neurobiological Organization: Using or Refusing Love” (Singletary & Rice, 2025). The authors examine the impact of adverse childhood experiences and the child’s role in coping with their consequences. They contrast open-system functioning, characterized by basic trust and secure attachment, with closed-system functioning, defined by the rejection of love when it becomes available. The article emphasizes the mechanisms through which persistent stress responses contribute to maladaptive developmental trajectories, often resulting in chronic feelings of loneliness that compromise both mental and physical health. Singletary and Rice review psychological and neurobiological research to describe the two diverging pathways. They highlight the significance of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis as well as a hypothesis of the interactions between the oxytocin and the vasopressin systems. Additionally, the authors review the effects of adverse childhood experiences on different brain regions including the amygdala, insula, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Brief case vignettes illustrate instances of closed-system functioning. The paper concludes with a discussion on therapeutic approaches aimed at facilitating the transition from closed-system functioning to open-system functioning in children who reject available love.
This comprehensive target article is followed by commentaries from several authors whose work relates to the topic of the paper. The initial commentary was authored by Gregory Rizzolo, who praises the inclusion of neurobiological literature to explore a long-standing issue within psychoanalytic theories. Rizzolo (2025) questions whether closed – and open-system functioning should be conceptualized as points along a continuum of openness and closedness rather than as extreme categori