Description
Can the psychodynamics of the mind be correlated with neurodynamic processes in the brain? The book revisits this important question – one that scientists and psychoanalysts have been asking for more than a century. The book revisits a question that scientists and psychoanalysts have been asking for more than a century. Can the psychodynamics of the mind be linked to neurodynamic processes in the brain? Freud envisioned that the separation between the two approaches was a temporary limitation that future scientific progress would overcome; current scientific developments suggest he was right. Recent advances in social, affective and computational neuroscience reveal richer and more dynamic brain-mind relations than those previously sketched by cognitive sciences. Technological and methodological innovations in neuroscience allow unprecedented insight into the neurobiological basis of topics such as empathy, embodiment and emotional conflict. As these domains have traditionally been the preserve of psychoanalysis and other fields within the humanities, rapprochement between disciplines seems more important than ever. Are we thus ready to link some neuroscientific concepts to psychoanalytic ones? Can the two disciplines share a common conceptual framework despite their different epistemological perspectives? The book brings together internationally renowned contributors from the fields of Psychoanalysis, Neuroscience and Neuro-psychoanalysis and aims to address these questions. The volume is organised in five clear sections, Motivation; Emotion; Conscious and Unconscious Processes; Cognitive Control; and Development of the Self. The volume gives the reader a strong flavour of how much has already been achieved between the fields and how much more lies ahead. The volume further reveals the intrinsic challenges and tensions of this interdisciplinary endeavour and emphasises the need for a shared language and new emerging fields such as Psychodynamic Neuroscience.
