1. Linking Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis.
- Author
-
Habicht, Manuela H.
- Abstract
This review discusses the relationship between neuroscience and psychoanalysis and introduces a new scientific method called neuro-psychoanalysis, a combination of the two phenomena. A significant difference between the two is that psychoanalysis has not evolved scientifically since it has not developed objective methods for testing ideas that it had formulated earlier. In contrast, neuroscience includes a range of subsidiary disciplines, each having its own specific methods used to study different aspects of the nervous system. The review specifically discusses the neurodynamics of dreaming and provides evidence that dreams are motivated by certain phenomena. It reviews information on Broca's aphasia to demonstrate that not all brain-injured patients are alike. The review assists in explaining why patients with right-hemisphere lesions who have only access to the intact positive emotions of the left hemisphere often feel inappropriately positive about their condition, whereas depression is much more common in patients who have only access to the negative emotions generated by the intact right hemisphere. It concludes that both sciences can make a contribution to each other, and that the predictive gap between neural and psychoanalysis processes can best be narrowed through the development of a conciliatory framework. (Contains 30 references.) (JDM)
- Published
- 2001