Neurobiology and its Applications to Psychotherapy

The primary process level, emotional affects and the complex social brain

In this lecture for psychotherapists, Professor Jaak Panksepp provides a working understanding of how emotions are created in the brain and how this provides a new understanding of the foundations of consciousness. He focuses on the nature of basic emotional processes as revealed through the study of neuroscience. This provides an effective framework for a better understanding of how feelings of sadness/grief and playfulness/joy are created, and their impact on our understanding of the mind and its disorders. Panksepp proposes that the complex social brain can be categorized into 7 emotional systems (SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC/GRIEF, and PLAY) that are essential for wellbeing and survival. He relates the functioning of these systems to the skills of psychotherapy, for example, in engaging the CARE system. He further emphasizes the importance of connecting with affect before cognition in creating therapeutic change. Panksepp proposes that every emotional system can be changed at its core via our adaptive capacity for neuroplasticity.