The book presents an overview of the term neuropsychoanalysis and traces its historical and scientific foundations as well as its cultural implications. It also turns its attention to some blind spots, open questions, and to what the future may hold. It examines the cooperative and conflicted relationship between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Articles from different fields investigate the neurological basis of psychoanalysis as well as the psychological terms of neurology. They also discuss what psychoanalysis has to offer neuroscience. In addition, the emerging neuro-psychoanalytical dialogue is enriched here by the voice of a culturally informed history of science. The book brings leading authorities on these topics into conversation with each other, creating an unprecedented opportunity to better understand the ‘language’ of the psyche. Specific concerns include the discussion of corporeality, how the body figures into psychoanalysis, the meaning of the unconscious in connection with dreams, unconscious fantasies, and the field of epigenetics. Following a historical perspective the book provides a re-reading of Freud's drive theory, exploring his concept of ‘life’ at the threshold of science and culture as well as the relationship between various representations, somatic states and the origin of drive. Overall, the book argues that if the different methodological approaches of psychoanalysis and neuroscience are acknowledged not only for their individual uniqueness but also as a dialectic, then the resulting epistemological and methodological dialogue might open up a fascinating body of neuropsychoanalytical knowledge.

The Unconscious explores the critical interdisciplinary dialogue between psychoanalysis and contemporary cognitive neuroscience. Characterised by Freud as ‘the science of the unconscious mind’, psychoanalysis has traditionally been viewed as a solely psychological discipline. However recent developments in neuroscience, such as the use of neuroimaging techniques to investigate the working brain, have stimulated and intensified the dialogue between psychoanalysis and these related mental sciences. This book explores the relevance of these discussions for our understanding of unconscious mental processes. Chapters present clinical case studies of unconscious dynamics, alongside theoretical and scientific papers in key areas of current debate and development. These include discussions of the differences between conceptualisations of ‘the unconscious’ in psychoanalysis and cognitive science, whether the core concepts of psychoanalysis are still plausible in light of recent findings, and how such understandings of the unconscious are still relevant to treating patients in psychotherapy today. These questions are explored by leading interdisciplinary researchers as well as practising psychoanalysts and psychotherapists. This book aims to bridge the gap between psychoanalysis and cognitive neuroscience, to enable a better understanding of researchers’ and clinicians’ engagements with the key topic of the unconscious. It will be of key interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of psychoanalysis, cognitive science, neuroscience and traumatology. It will also appeal to practising psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and clinicians.

There are extraordinarily exciting periods in the history of science which bring new openings on the fringes of a particular field. We are in the midst of one of these periods: a large number of new discoveries regarding the functioning of the mind are published every day. These new findings in neuroscience are revealing unexpected aspects of neuroscience and pushing the entire field toward unexplored regions. Besides the advancement in the understanding of psychic processes, neuroscience offers psychoanalysts the opportunity to enhance the dialogue with psychiatrists, neurologists, and other scientists, expanding the theoretical model. It is clear that the relationship between psychoanalysis, neuroscience, and neuropsychoanalysis is controversial. So, the dialogue between neuroscience and clinical findings is essential. Building a bridge between neuropsychoanalysis and psychoanalysis through the clinical session is the main purpose of the book, which consists of two parts. The first part provides a theoretical view on dream, depression, addiction, panic and how to consider the study of a single case.

This book focuses on the matter of neuropsychoanalysis. It shows how the neuropsychoanalytic approach makes it possible to begin to locate within the tissues of the brain some of the metapsychological abstractions that Sigmund Freud derived from his work with purely psychiatric disorders.

Sigmund Freud was a trained neuroanatomist and wrote his first psychoanalytical theory in neuroscientific terms. Throughout his life, he maintained the belief that at some distant day in the future, all psychoanalytic processes could be tied to a neural basis: "We must recollect that all of our provisional ideas in psychology will presumably one day be based on an organic substructure" (Freud 1914, On Narcissism: An Introduction). Fundamental Freudian concepts reveal their foundation in the physiological science of his time, most importantly among them the concept of libidinous energy and the homeostatic "principle of constancy". However, the subsequent history of psychoanalysis and neuroscience was mainly characterized by mutual ignorance or even opposition; many scientists accused psychoanalytic viewpoints not to be scientifically testable, and many psychoanalysts claimed that their theories did not need empirical support outside of the therapeutic situation. On this historical background, it may appear surprising that the recent years have seen an increasing interest in re-connecting psychoanalysis and neuroscience in various ways: By studying psychodynamic consequences of brain lesions in neurological patients, by investigating how psychoanalytic therapy affects brain structure and function, or even by operationalizing psychoanalytic concepts in well-controlled experiments and exploring their neural correlates. These empirical studies are accompanied by theoretical work on the philosophical status of the "neuropsychoanalytic" endeavour. In this volume, we attempt to provide a state-of-the-art overview of this new exciting field. All types of submissions are welcome, including research in patient populations, healthy human participants and animals, review articles on some empirical or theoretical aspect, and of course also critical accounts of the new field. Despite this welcome variability, we would like to suggest that all contributions attempt to address one (or both) of two main questions, which should motivate the connection between psychoanalysis and neuroscience and that in our opinion still remain exigent: First, from the neuroscientific side, why should researchers in the neurosciences address psychoanalytic ideas, and what is (or will be) the impact of this connection on current neuroscientific theories? Second, from the psychoanalytic side, why should psychoanalysts care about neuroscientific studies, and (how) can current psychoanalytical theory and practice benefit from their results? Of course, contributors are free to provide a critical viewpoint on these two questions as well.

In Derrida and the Legacy of Psychoanalysis, Paul Earlie offers a detailed account of the importance of psychoanalysis in Derrida's thought. Based on close readings of texts from the whole of his career, including less well-known and previously unpublished material, the title sheds new light on the crucial role of psychoanalysis in shaping Derrida's response to a number of key questions. These questions range from the psyche's relationship to technology to the role of fiction and metaphor in scientific discourse, and from the relationship between memory and the archive to the status of the political in deconstruction. Focusing on Freud but proposing new readings of texts by Lacan, Torok and Abraham, Laplanche and Pontalis, amongst other seminal figures in contemporary French thought, Earlie argues that Derrida's writings on psychoanalysis can also provide an important bridge between deconstruction and the recent materialist turn in the humanities. Challenging a still prevalent 'textualist' reading of Derrida's work, he explores the ongoing contribution of deconstruction and psychoanalysis to pressing issues in critical thought today, from the localizing models of the neurosciences and the omnipresence of digital technology to the politics of affect in an age of terror.

Translations of two neuroscientific articles by Freud are presented here for the first time in English. Alongside these, the editors offer convincing arguments for their importance to both psychoanalysis and neuroscience. These articles helped provide the catalyst for the modern activity in the field, and will prove fascinating to anyone interested in the origins of this bold new movement. Between 1877 and 1900, Sigmund Freud published over one hundred neuroscientific works, only seven of which have previously appeared in English translation. Aphasie and Gehirn, the two articles presented in A Moment of Transition, were originally composed in 1888 as dictionary entries for the Handwortebuch der gesamten Medizin edited by Albert Villaret. They therefore date from a pivotal period of Freud's career when a growing interest in psychology had already begun to vie with strictly neurological endeavors; a shift of emphasis reflected in the novel and independent conceptual position adopted in both papers, prefiguring Freud's later work On Aphasia and certain aspects of the Project for a Scientific Psychology.