Neuropsychoanalysis

Adult Psychoanalytic Training (APT)
2019-20, 2nd Trimester — Fridays, 1:45-3:15pm

Introduction

This course will focus primarily on the recent work of Mark Solms, and his perhaps paradigm-shifting view that the Id is Conscious and the Ego is Unconscious.   It took me months to understand this pivotal paper available on PEP “The Conscious Id” Neuropsychoanalysis (2013) which then became the basis for a chapter in my book The Wisdom of Lived Experience (2016) Karnac.

In this brief course, then, we will attempt in the first 2 weeks to study Solms’ pivotal work, first by reading that chapter of mine (to be distributed), which I hope presents his (and related others’) ideas in a somewhat digested form.  The 3 subsequent weeks we will try to tackle Solms’ article “The Conscious Id” (2013), in hopes of gaining greater depth; again, that article is in the journal Neuropsychoanalysis available, of course, on PEP.  Out of interest, there are several discussion articles related to Solms’ article “The Conscious Id,” immediately following his article in the relevant issue of Neuropsychoanalysis

A bonus paper by Mark Solms will be handed out at the beginning of the course.  Mark’s breadth of understanding of psychoanalysis (he also recently re-translated the Standard Edition) is illustrated in a paper “The Scientific Standing of Psychoanalysis”.  It may enrich our discussions.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course the participant will have clarity about:

  1. Mark Solms’ paradigm shift regarding the primacy of consciousness vs the century-long assumptions of consciousness residing in the cerebral cortex?
  2. How Solms’ revision impacts current understandings about psychoanalytic process and technique?
  3. The concepts of "free" and "bound energy" in terms of affective and cognitive consciousness.
  4. The contributions of the left and the right hemispheres to "lived experience".

December 6, 2019

[19 pages]

Solms, M (2019) The Scientific Standing of Psychoanalysis

Anderson, M. (2016) Ch2, “Neuroscience emphases on Lived Experience” in The Wisdom of Lived Experience. pp25-43.

Read only pages 25-36. Following are the sections of the chapter:

  • Schore, Feinberg, Salas, and Turnbull on the primacy of the right hemisphere
  • Solms: the Right Hemisphere and Whole Object Relatedness
  • Solms: affect precedes and empowers all cognition and the cerebral cortex is unconscious while the brainstem is both conscious and intentional – paradigm shift.

December 13, 2019

[19 pages]

Anderson, M. (2016) Ch2, “Neuroscience emphases on Lived Experience” in The Wisdom of Lived Experience. pp25-43.

Read only pages 36-43. Following are the sections of the chapter:

  • Friston: unconscious inference counters destabilizing surprise
  • Jill Bolte Taylor: a personal experience of left-hemispheric stroke

More complete biblio for Dec 6 and Dec 13 (but not to be covered in these seminars)

Bolte Taylor, J. (2008) My stroke of Insight. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Jill Bolte Taylor, “My stroke of insight”. TED Talk, February 2008.

Harris, R., & Friston, K. (2010) The default-mode, ego functions and free energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas.  Brain, 133 (4): 1265-1283.

Friston, K. (2010) The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory?  Nature Reviews.  Neuroscience, 11: 127-138.

January 10, 2020

[15 pages]
For this Friday, 10th, let’s try to read Section 1 and 2:
  1. “Neuroanatomical Representations of the Body”
  2. “Metapsychological Representations of the Body”

Solms, M. (2013). The Conscious Id. Neuropsychoanalysis, 15(1):5-19.

January 17, 2020

[15 pages]

Solms, M. (2013). The Conscious Id. Neuropsychoanalysis, 15(1):5-19.

Sections 1-5:

  1. Neuroananatomical Representations of the Body
  2. Metapsychological Representations of the Body
  3. The Corticocentric Fallacy
  4. Consciousness without Cortex
  5. All Consciousness is Endogenous

January 24, 2020

[15 pages]

Solms, M. (2013). The Conscious Id. Neuropsychoanalysis, 15(1):5-19.

Sections 6-11:

  1. Mental Solids
  2. A Surprise
  3. Words and Things
  4. The Reflexive Edo, the Superego
  5. If the Id is Conscious…
  6. The Deepest Insight

January 31, 2020

Integrative discussion of both articles.

Course evaluation