A Neuro-Psychoanalytical Dialogue for Bridging Freud and the Neurosciences

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction

   • Sigrid Weigel

   Pages 1-10

3. The Venture of Neuropsychoanalysis

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11

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   2. What Is Neuropsychoanalysis?

      • Mark Solms, Oliver H. Turnbull

      Pages 13-30

4. Embodiment as Bridge Between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-31

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   2. Enactments in Transference: Embodiment, Trauma and Depression. What Have Psychoanalysis and the Neurosciences to Offer to Each Other

      • Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber

      Pages 33-46

   3. Embodiment in Simulation Theory and Cultural Science, with Remarks on the Coding-Problem of Neuroscience

      • Sigrid Weigel

      Pages 47-71

5. The Unconscious Before Freud and After

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 73-73

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   2. Signs and Souls: The Prehistory of Psychoanalytical Treatment in Nineteenth-Century French Psychiatry

      • Gerhard Scharbert

      Pages 75-89

   3. Dreams, Unconscious Fantasies and Epigenetics

      • Tamara Fischmann

      Pages 91-105

6. ReVisions of the Drive in Freud and Neuroscience

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 107-107

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   2. Beyond the Death Drive: Freud’s Engagement with Cell Biology and the Reconceptualization of His Drive Theory

      • Sigrid Weigel

      Pages 109-125

   3. Drive and Love: Revisiting Freud’s Drive Theory

      • Yoram Yovell

      Pages 127-136

   4. The Island of Drive: Representations, Somatic States and the Origin of Drive

      • Pierre J. Magistretti, François Ansermet

      Pages 137-147

7. Concerns of Psychoanalytical Theory

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 149-149

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   2. Couch Potato: Some Remarks Concerning the Body of Psychoanalysis

      • Ulrike Kadi

      Pages 151-162

   3. “The Medulla Oblongata Is a Very Serious and Lovely Object.” A Comparison of Neuroscientific and Psychoanalytical Theories

      • Edith Seifert

      Pages 163-170

8. Back Matter

   Pages 171-174

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The book presents  an overview of the term neuropsychoanalysis and traces its historical and scientific foundations as well as its cultural implications. It also turns its attention to some blind spots, open questions, and to what the future may hold. It examines the cooperative and conflicted relationship between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Articles from different fields investigate the neurological basis of psychoanalysis as well as the psychological terms of neurology. They also discuss what psychoanalysis has to offer neuroscience. In addition, the emerging neuro-psychoanalytical dialogue is enriched here by the voice of a culturally informed history of science. The book brings leading authorities on these topics into conversation with each other, creating an unprecedented opportunity to better understand the ‘language’ of the psyche. Specific concerns include the discussion of corporeality, how the body figures into psychoanalysis, the meaning of the unconscious in connection with dreams, unconscious fantasies, and the field of epigenetics. Following a historical perspective the book provides a re-reading of Freud's drive theory, exploring his concept of ‘life’ at the threshold of science and culture as well as the relationship between various representations, somatic states and the origin of drive.  Overall, the book argues that if the different methodological approaches of psychoanalysis and neuroscience are acknowledged not only for their individual uniqueness but also as a dialectic, then the resulting epistemological and methodological dialogue might open up a fascinating body of neuropsychoanalytical knowledge.

• Body of Psychoanalysis
• Enactment in Transference
• Meaning of the Unconscious
• Medulla Oblongata
• Neuropsychoanalysis
• Simulation Theory

• Berlin Center for Literary & Cultural Research, Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung (ZfL), Berlin, Germany

  Sigrid Weigel

• Institute for Cultural History and Theory, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

  Gerhard Scharbert

Sigrid Weigel, born 25 March 1950, is Director of the Center for Literary and Cultural Research in Berlin. She has held professorships at the universities of Hamburg, Zurich, and TU Berlin, and acted as director of Einstein Forum (Potsdam); she is a regular visiting professor in Princeton. Her research focuses on the dialectics of secularization, Jewish-German intellectual history (Heine, Freud, Warburg, Benjamin, Scholem, Arendt), and a cultural approach to the history of sciences (esp. genealogy, generation, memory).

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