Neurobiology and its Applications to Psychotherapy

What is the function of neuropsychoanalyzis in the consulting room?

In this interview, Mark Solms elaborates his concept of neuropsychoanalyzis as a systematic attempt to reconcile psychoanalyzis and neuroscience by drawing one’s understanding from both disciplines simultaneously. He places this discussion into an historical framework, considering, among other works, Freud’s understandings of the human drives. Solms suggests that the subjective psychoanalytic method can be combined with the objective stance of the neuroscientific approach in order to provide us with a much more complete understanding of the mind. Rather than seeing the scientific and conceptual frameworks as dichotomous, he proposes that neuroscience gives us a series of methods whereby we can test psychoanalytic hypotheses. (Interviewer, Jane Ryan)