Investigating merger: subliminal psychodynamic activation and oneness motivation research

Two programs of empirical research have endeavored to explicate some of the unconscious processes involved in adult phenomena of merger, symbiosis, or oneness. Starting in the 1960s under the leadership of Lloyd Silverman (see, e.g., Silverman, Lachmann, and Milich 1982), subliminal psychodynamic activation (SPA) has used subliminal methods to prime and manipulate these processes. Later research into what was termed oneness motivation (OM) posited the existence of a chronic personality variable and explored it independently of priming (see, e.g., Siegel and Weinberger 1998). These lines of research have established links between unconscious processes of oneness and a range of clinical and nonclinical outcomes.