Biology and the Future of Psychoanalysis: A New Intellectual Framework for Psychiatry Revisited

Abstract

The American Journal of Psychiatry has received a number of letters in re sponse to my earlier "Framework" article (1). Some of these are reprinted else where in this issue, and I have answered them briefly there. However, one issue raised by some letters deserves a more detailed answer, and that relates to whether biology is at all relevant to psychoanaly sis. To my mind, this issue is so central to the future of psychoanalysis that it cannot be ad dressed with a brief comment. I therefore have written this article in an attempt to outlinethe impor tance of biology for the future of psychoanalysis.(Am J Psychiatry 1999; 156:505-524)We must recollect that all of our provisional ideas in psychology will presumably one day be based on an or ganic substructure.-Sigmund Freud, "On Narcissism" (2) The deficiencies in our description would probably vanish if we were already in a position to replace the psychological terms with physiological or chemical ones.… We may expect [physiology and chemistry] to give the most surprising information and we cannot guess what answers it will return in a few dozen years of questions we have put to it. They may be of a kind that will blow away the whole of our artificial structure of hypothesis.-Sigmund Freud, "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" (3) During the first half of the twentieth century, psy choanalysis revolutionized our understanding of men tal life. It provided a remarkable set of new insights about unconscious mental processes, psychic deter minism, infantile sexuality, and, perhaps most impor tant of all, about the irrationality of human motiva tion.

The emerging synthesis of development and evolution: A new biology for psychoanalysis

“…His implication was that behavior is often the best clue to the content of the unconscious mind. Increasing evidence now shows that the brain circuits responsible for subjective feelings and even for abstract thinking in humans are clearly linked functionally to (and probably evolved from) far older circuitry that analyzes and processes our sensory experiences and motor acts at the behavioral level of organization (Panksepp, 2003;Kandel, 2012). The current concept of "embodied cognition" (Overton et al, 2008), Freud's concept of the body ego (Freud, 1923), Damasio's views on the role of the body in the origin of consciousness (Damasio, 1999), and the recently discovered "mirror" neurons which provide a means of concretizing (and oversimplifying) how empathy may be registered in the brain (Rizzolati & Sinigaglia, 2008), all illustrate different ways in which the many connections between body, behavior, and mind have played central roles in theorywhile admitting our complete failure to conceive of how the physical processes of the brain can give rise to the subjective experiences of the mind.…”

“…That is to imply that psychoanalysts, working so long in relative isolation from biologists since the end of the nineteenth century, have been presented with a rapid narrowing of the conceptual gap between the two disciplines, primarily through advances in biologists' understanding of evolution and development. This could be seen as a "gift" from biologists in the form of a new theoretical framework in their field within which psychoanalysts can venture further into the world of the new molecular neuroscience so elegantly prescribed for the field of psychoanalysis by Eric Kandel (2012).…”

Psykiatrien – hvor står du, hvor går du?

“…Tankene var blant annet inspirert av nobelprisvinner Eric R. Kandels funn av molekylaere mekanismer for laering og hans artikler om biologi og psykoanalyse i American Journal of Psychiatry (2).…”

A Legitimidade Do Método Psicanalítico

“…Apesar da abrangência do termo, vamos nos restringir a algumas ideias que ajudarão a sustentar a nossa crítica à posição de Eric Kandel (1999) de que a Psicanálise não desenvolveu um método adequado para testar suas teorias. Posição esta contra a qual pretendemos nos posicionar neste primeiro capítulo a partir do aprofundamento do que venha a ser método propriamente dito, restringindo-nos ao método científico.…”

“…É importante lembrar que o autor central contra o qual argumentamos é Eric Kandel (1999), já que este prêmio Nobel da Ciência é porta-voz de uma forma de pensar que não legitima a especificidade da Psicanálise no que se refere ao seu modo de investigar e produzir conhecimento. Para Kandel (1999), a…”