Neuropsychoanalysis: What It Is And How It Studies The Human Mind
Although the general idea of psychoanalysis is that it has nothing to do with neuroscience, the truth is that the subjective aspect of Freud’s current and the scientific study of the brain allow us to have a fairly complete vision of the human being.
Neuropsychoanalysis is a psychological movement that has combined psychoanalysis and neuroscience to have a closer, scientific understanding of the human mind, something that was not believed to be possible for a long time.
Below we will try to explain in more depth what the foundations of this current are, its current lines of research and its historical origins.
Neuropsychoanalysis is a variant of the current of psychoanalysis that integrates neurosciences with psychoanalytic postulates. This current is relatively new, having its conceptual foundation at the end of the 20th century, although it can already be glimpsed since the time of Sigmund Freud. the relationship between scientific study of the brain and psychological theorization of the mind
This current of thought is considered a fairly balanced and equitable proposal, given that it is not extremely subjective with respect to the idea of consciousness and mind nor does it abuse scientificity as some neurosciences do. By combining psychoanalysis and neuroscience, we obtain an approach to the mind and its neurobiological foundation, considered by some to be a fairly reliable description of human reality.
History
neuropsychoanalysis It cannot be understood without paying attention to the figure of Sigmund Freud and his first psychoanalytic theories An aspect that is perhaps little known about the Austrian psychoanalyst is that he was a neuroscientist and neurologist during the first two decades of his professional life. Perhaps not in a way as we understand it today, but certainly his interest in the brain and how it relates to consciousness brings him closer to the premises of neurology than one might think.
The origins of neuropsychoanalysis can be traced back to one of Sigmund Freud’s remains, Project for a Scientific Psychology of 1895. In this text Freud developed his theories on the neurobiological function of memory, stating that it had to be found in the brain, but without knowing exactly what the region would be. Freud speculated that psychodynamic theories and neurobiology would end up joining forces over time, becoming a single field of study in which the biological study of the brain and the psychoanalytic study of the mind would be combined.
The famous psychoanalyst attempted to carry out a scientific mapping program of the human mind (metapsychology), which for him were closely related to the structure and functions of the human brain. Despite his efforts, Freud himself insisted that the brain sciences of his time did not have the conceptual tools or techniques necessary to carry out such mental mapping. As a consequence, Freud adopted a purely psychological method.
In the second half of the 20th century Advances in neuroscience caused the subjective study of the human mind to be put aside In the 1930s, electroencephalography was invented, which made it possible to see the brain as never before, and in vivo. Later it was possible to verify the functioning of the brain by carrying out different types of activities, which areas were activated and how lesions disturbed the neuronal systems.
In 1999, After years of advances in neuroimaging techniques such as computed tomography, electroencephalography and structural magnetic resonance, neuropsychoanalysis was born Thus arose the union of two fields of study of the human mind and brain, considering that one was incomplete without the other. Among its founders we have figures as important to psychology as: Antonio Damasio, Eric Kandel, Joseph LeDoux, Helen Mayberg, Jaak Panksepp, Oliver Sacks and Mark Solms.
Theoretical foundations: dual monism
The first problem that can be discussed when neuropsychoanalysis is mentioned is the problem of how the mind and brain are related, considered the great problem of neuroscience. Basically, cHow is it possible that the brain can establish the mind and consciousness in general terms?
In fact, one of the questions that neuropsychoanalysis asks is whether the mind is being reduced too extreme to the brain. Is the mind being explained convincingly or is the functioning of the mind and brain simply being correlated? If so, what would be the causal basis for this correlation? Would the mind really be found in the brain? where would it be located? Is the mind an emergent property of the brain?
The fundamental conceptualization of neuropsychoanalysis is that of dual aspect monism Freud points out that the real nature of the mind is unconscious, an idea that can be related to Kant’s philosophy. For Kant, the subjective being, the thing that is perceived when we look inside ourselves, is not the mind itself. The mind itself cannot be perceived directly. The mind can only be known via our phenomenal consciousness, which provides an indirect and incomplete representation of the mental apparatus and its functioning.
The actual ontological nature of the mind is something epistemologically unknowable. Its nature can be inferred from our own conscious observations, and thus expand the limits of consciousness, which is the goal of the psychoanalytic method. However, it will never be possible to know the mind directly. You have to resort to abstractions derived from inferences and build figurative models something that Freudian metapsychology has tried to explain with its notions of economic, dynamic and topographical points of view.
Other branches of psychology, regardless of their degree of scientificity, also have epistemological limitations when trying to describe the internal workings of the mind. An example of this are the multiple models that try to explain the functioning of memory, dual-route reading or the models of divergent visual systems involved.
The relationship between neuroscience and psychoanalysis is, as we have mentioned, relating the brain as a biological entity to psychological functions and human behavior. Neuropsychoanalysis aims to do to overcome the classic exclusion of neuroscience with respect to the concept of the mind, seen as something excessively subjective
The mind is an unquestionably subjective entity, since it is made up of sensations, thoughts, consciousness and feelings. This conception can be seen as too contrary to the scientific spirit motivated by the natural sciences, specifically neurobiology and other neurosciences.
However, the idea, now classic, that the brain and mind are related is well established, since the time of Descartes, who defended that they were two different but connected entities. He is the inventor of the dualism of the mind, the dichotomy of the mind and the body. The body is an object, one thing, while the mind, also called spirit or soul in its time, is another, but in one way or another they are related. An injury to the brain implies dysfunction in that mind.
Main lines of research
Currently, neuropsychoanalysis has several lines of research open, especially focused on the more scientific study of the idea of consciousness and what structures make it up
There is also research into what dreams are, what they could mean, how confabulations occur and other types of expressions of thought that, although modern psychology has rejected that they could have any kind of meaning, the truth is that it is difficult to accept. the idea that they appear completely randomly. Among the ideas that have been proposed for its appearance is the loss of executive control in the mesocortical and mesolimbic systems.
The Freudian concept of libido has been related to the dopaminergic system, and, without a doubt, the ideas of instinct and search for pleasure proposed by early psychoanalysis have their neurobiological counterpart. This search for pleasure is related to the instinct of survival and reproduction, which is a fundamental aspect for the continuation of the human species.
