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email page print page All Topic Reviews A Basic Theory of NeuropsychoanalysisA Cursing Brain?A Dream of Undying FameA Map of the MindAfter LacanAgainst AdaptationAgainst FreudAn Anatomy of AddictionAnalytic FreudAndré Green at the Squiggle FoundationAnger, Madness, and the DaimonicAnna FreudAnna Freud: A BiographyApproaching PsychoanalysisAttachment and PsychoanalysisBadiouBecoming a SubjectBefore ForgivingBerlin PsychoanalyticBetween Emotion and CognitionBeyond GenderBeyond SexualityBeyond the Pleasure PrincipleBiology of FreedomBoundaries and Boundary Violations in PsychoanalysisBuilding on BionCare of the PsycheCarl JungCassandra's DaughterCherishmentConfusion of TonguesContemporary Psychoanalysis and the Legacy of the Third ReichCrucial Choices, Crucial ChangesCulture and Conflict in Child and Adolescent Mental HealthDarwin's WormsDesert Islands and Other Texts (1953-1974)Dispatches from the Freud WarsDoes the Woman Exist?Doing Psychoanalysis in TehranDreaming and Other Involuntary MentationDreaming by the BookEnergy Psychology InteractiveEqualsErrant SelvesEthics and the Discovery of the UnconsciousEthics Case Book of the American Psychoanalytic AssociationFairbairn's Object Relations Theory in the Clinical SettingFed with Tears -- Poisoned with MilkFeminism and Its DiscontentsForms of Intersubjectivity in Infant Reasearch and Adult TreatmentFour Lessons of PsychoanalysisFratricide in the Holy LandFreudFreudFreudFreudFreudFreudFreud and the Question of PseudoscienceFreud As PhilosopherFreud at 150Freud's AnswerFreud's WizardFreud, the Reluctant PhilosopherFrom Classical to Contemporary PsychoanalysisFundamentals of Psychoanalytic TechniqueGenes on the CouchGoing SaneHans BellmerHappiness, Death, and the Remainder of LifeHate and Love in Psychoanalytical InstitutionsHatred and ForgivenessHealing the Soul in the Age of the BrainHeinz KohutHeinz KohutHidden MindsHistory of ShitHope and Dread in PsychoanalysisImagination and Its PathologiesImagine There's No WomanIn Freud's TracksIn SessionIn the Floyd ArchivesIntimaciesIntimate RevoltIrrationalityIs Oedipus Online?Jacques LacanJacques Lacan and the Freudian Practice of PsychoanalysisJung and the Making of Modern PsychologyJung Stripped BareKilling FreudLacanLacanLacanLacan and Contemporary FilmLacan at the SceneLacan For BeginnersLacan in AmericaLacan TodayLacan's Seminar on AnxietyLawLearning from Our MistakesLove's ExecutionerMad Men and MedusasMale Female EmailMelanie KleinMemoirs of My Nervous IllnessMental SlaveryMind to MindMixing MindsMoral StealthMourning and ModernityMovies and the MindMurder in ByzantiumNew Studies of Old VillainsNocturnesNoir AnxietyOn Being Normal and Other DisordersOn BeliefOn IncestOn Not Being Able to SleepOn the Freud WatchOn the Way HomeOpen MindedOpera's Second DeathOvercoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and BehaviorsPhenomology & Lacan on Schizophrenia, After the Decade of the BrainPhilosophical Counselling and the UnconsciousPractical Psychoanalysis for Therapists and PatientsPsychiatry, Psychoanalysis, And The New Biology Of MindPsychoanalysisPsychoanalysisPsychoanalysis and Narrative MedicinePsychoanalysis and NeurosciencePsychoanalysis and the Philosophy of SciencePsychoanalysis as Biological SciencePsychoanalysis at the MarginsPsychoanalysis at the MarginsPsychoanalysis in a New LightPsychoanalysis in FocusPsychology, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis, and the Politics of Human RelationshipsPsychotherapy As PraxisPutnam CampQuestions for FreudRe-Inventing the SymptomReading Seminar XXReinventing the SoulRelational Theory and the Practice of PsychotherapyRelationalityRepressed SpacesRevolt, She SaidSecrets of the SoulSerious ShoppingSex on the CouchSexuationSigmund FreudSoul Murder RevisitedSpectral EvidenceSpirit, Mind, and BrainStrangers to OurselvesSubjective Experience and the Logic of the OtherSubjectivity and OthernessSubstance Abuse As SymptomSurrealist Painters and PoetsTaboo SubjectsTalk is Not EnoughThe Arabic FreudThe Art of the SubjectThe Brain and the Inner WorldThe Brain, the Mind and the SelfThe Cambridge Companion to LacanThe Challenge for Psychoanalysis and PsychotherapyThe Clinical LacanThe Colonization Of Psychic SpaceThe Condition of MadnessThe Couch and the TreeThe Cruelty of DepressionThe Dissociative Mind in PsychoanalysisThe Dreams of InterpretationThe Examined LifeThe Fall Of An IconThe Freud EncyclopediaThe Freud FilesThe Freud WarsThe Fright of Real TearsThe Future of PsychoanalysisThe Gift of TherapyThe Heart & Soul of ChangeThe Knotted SubjectThe Last Good FreudianThe Late Sigmund FreudThe Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto RankThe Mind According to ShakespeareThe Mystery of PersonalityThe Mythological UnconsciousThe Neuropsychology of the UnconsciousThe New PsychoanalysisThe Power of FeelingsThe Psychoanalytic MovementThe Psychoanalytic MysticThe Psychoanalytic Study of the ChildThe Psychoanalytic Study of the ChildThe Psychodynamics of Gender and Gender RoleThe Puppet and the DwarfThe Real World Guide to Psychotherapy PracticeThe Revolt of the PrimitiveThe Seminar of Moustafa SafouanThe Sense and Non-Sense of RevoltThe Shortest ShadowThe Social History of the UnconsciousThe Surface EffectThe Symmetry of GodThe Tragedy of the SelfThe Trainings of the PsychoanalystThe UnsayableThe World of PerversionTherapeutic ActionTherapy's DelusionsThis Incredible Need to BelieveThoughts Without A ThinkerTo Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the WorldTrauma and Human ExistenceTraumatizing TheoryUmbr(a)Unconscious knowing and other essays in psycho-philosophical analysisUnderstanding Dissidence and Controversy in the History of PsychoanalysisUnderstanding PsychoanalysisUnfree AssociationsWalking HeadsWay Beyond FreudWhat Does a Woman Want?What Freud Really MeantWhen the Body SpeaksWhere Do We Fall When We Fall in Love?Whose Freud?Why Psychoanalysis?Wilhelm ReichWinnicottWinnicott On the ChildWisdom Won from IllnessWittgenstein on Freud and FrazerWittgenstein Reads FreudWorld, Affectivity, TraumaZizek
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Review - The Brain and the Inner WorldAn Introduction to the Neuroscience of Subjective Experience by Mark Solms and Oliver Turnbull Other Press, 2002 Review by Dan L. Rose Sep 9th 2002 (Volume 6, Issue 37) Mark Solms seems a driven man. In his eyes (and in
this case, also those of fellow researcher Oliver Turnbull), Psychoanalysis is
dying. In his new text, The Brain
and the Inner World, Solms has examined the patient and his diagnosis calls
for a swift transfusion of hard science, a dose of empirical evidence from
what some might consider an unlikely source and, most importantly of all, a
change in philosophy that, the authors argue, is more in line with Freuds
original intentions. All this, Solms and Turnbull suggest, can be accomplished
by simply embracing neuroscience. As an
aside, he thinks big brother Neuroscience could learn a few things from his
ailing sibling.
Their thesis is presented in a
systematic fashion, carefully describing theoretical areas most familiar to
practitioners and showing how recent advances in the neuroscience have mapped
them physiologically. Simple concepts like how the neuron works are preceded by
a careful instruction on how case studies of individuals with localized
neurological damage reveal the inner workings of the brain. The first chapter
begins with most basic of basics, the aforementioned neuron, types of
neurotransmitters, sensory modalities, etc.
The second chapter moves on to the underlying
basics, the assumptions and philosophy of the authors. Beginning with a short history of the
mind-brain problem, or how what we experience as selfhood arises from neurological
sources, Solms and Turnbull divide the possible solutions to this problem into
easy and hard researches. Easy answers refer to those that just locate
which neurological processes correlate with a specific function. The hard
answer involves telling how it functions. One shows you what parts of the brain
make the mind; the other explains how we come to experience consciousness.
After giving a brief history of past attempts to answer either easy (much
current research is reductive in this sense, they assert) or hard (Descartes
famous dualism), the authors move to the theoretical lynchpin of the text.
Coining their approach dual-aspect monism, Solms and Turnbull assert that the
mind body problem isnt a problem at all, just two different points of view.
There is one thing (the monist part of their philosophy) and two prevailing
ways to see it, as mind or brain (the dualist portion). Both metapsychological
and physical models of the mind are simply conceptual tools limited by their
distinct points of view. Combining the phenomenological, introspective approach
of psychoanalytic theory with the physical grounding of neuroscience solves the
weakness of each. They go further by
clarifying that the mind itself or the underlying systems that compose it are
unconscious. Its only when the mind itself looks inward that we sense the me
of the individual.
The following chapters tackle the nature of
consciousness with a systematic exploration of current neuroscientific data and
a simultaneous return to Freud. Solms
and Turnbull suggest that, like Freud, most mental processes arent conscious.
Furthermore, they outline consciousness as an evolutionary advantage, the
reflexive ability to apprehend our inner state and use it to act in the
external world. We become conscious of hunger, reflect on the feeling and then
act to seek satiation. Without much strain, the authors suggest, one can see
the Freudian Ego in that conception. With just a bit more concentration, the
authors suggest that Freuds Id can be found in contemporary understanding of
emotion centers. The core sense of self is essentially emotional, Solms and
Turnbull assert. It is the internal signal that is reflected on, that leads to
motivated action. They further pull from neuroscientific data to illustrate
four basic command systems of emotions, suggesting that these are modifiable
through experience (what feels one way to you is different for me) and it is
the work of the ego of consciousness (theoretically linked to the frontal
cortex) to respond to these emotions through action or inhibition. Memory is
tackled next, with the authors giving a brief summary of how memory is
organized across neurological systems and connecting certain aspects of memory
to transference and countertransference.
Solms specialty, dreams, is given a remarkably
detailed account. The authors sketch a concise history of research and current
thinking on dreams. Solms and Turnbull take the dominant dream theory to task
and, with an impressive list of past and recent data, reinstate some of Freuds
concepts. Using the example of sexual development (something that has
significant impact on ones inner world), the authors show how environment
and genetic potential are interwoven, making a case against current trends to
oversimplify such connections. Finally,
a break-neck drive through the left brain/right brain controversy leads the
authors to illustrate, with fascinating examples of two individuals with
differing disorders of language, how psychoanalytic theory illuminates and
assists in negotiating neurological deficit.
The final two chapters offer a summary, a further
reconciliation between psychoanalytic theory and neuroscience, a call to change
or die for the psychoanalytic community and a description of the new discipline
of Neuro-psychoanalysis. Solms and
Turnbull further explore the possible neurobiological support for
psychotherapy, connecting the talking cure with expanding the inhibitory
power of the frontal cortex and giving physiological credence to Freuds notion
that psychopathological cure involves expansion of the ego. The final pages are
devoted to the fledgling disciple the authors have pioneered, with an
impressive listing of luminaries in the field of neuroscience and
psychoanalysis contributing/supporting. Solms and Turnbull conclude with a call
for further testing of psychoanalytic theory, the advances in neuroscience that
make this testing possible and, as a result, psychoanalytic theory restored to
its place in the halls of science.
There is much to admire in this text. The authors
display an uncanny ability to translate the obliquity of brain science into a
user-friendly package. Solms and Turnbulls skill in gathering and distilling
the vast information of current neuroscience, presenting it so as to be
understood by the simplest neophyte and connecting it to psychoanalytic theory
is a near miracle. In fact, the authors ability to simplify extends to
psychoanalytic theory itself. Freud can be no less complicated than
neuroscience and both are made bite sized by Solms and Turnbull. Furthermore,
their opening thesis, that advances in the field of neuroscience beg to be
melded with psychoanalytic tried and true, is so eloquently presented and
supported, even the most jaded critic must take notice.
Frankly, the only criticism applicable,
in this writers view, is their diagnosis of psychoanalytic theorys ill health
and prescription for neuroscientific relief. Certainly, many in the field of
both disciplines would disagree. Some might argue that empirical evidence of
any kind does away with the subjective nature of psychoanalysis, its life
blood. A process rooted in the here and now, flowing between two
subjectivities, can only be harmed by the imposition of experience-distant
facts. Furthermore, the lone practitioner may not find his everyday
therapeutic endeavors altered by anything in this book. Many may be left
feeling It aint broke, so why fix it, since nothing in this text suggest
problems in technique. If psychoanalysis is dying, why doesnt it seem to be
doing anything wrong?
That said, Solms and Turnbull are
good for psychoanalysis. At best they spark debate, offer jaw dropping insights
and poke accepted theory in the eye. In this sense, they follow the best in
Freud. Challenging mainstream thought and blowing a few minds in the process,
this is what psychoanalysis and all of science needs from its heirs to Freud.
© 2002 Dan L. Rose
Dan L. Rose, Psy.D. is a Clinical
Psychologist involved in direct clinical work and training at Columbus State
University and in private practice. His interests include psychoanalysis,
neuroscience, religion and literature.
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