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This scientific meeting marked the final presentation of the series, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis. A capacity crowd was on hand to welcome Dr. Margaret Zellner, psychoanalyst and neuroscientist known for her extensive work on the connection between the mind and brain. Dr. Zellner is the Executive Director of the Neuropsychoanalysis Foundation in New York City, a member of the Adjunct Faculty at The Rockefeller University in the Laboratory of Neurobiology and Behavior, and a member of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis. She was also co-curator of the popular exhibit Brain: The Inside Story, which is now traveling internationally. Dr. Zellner's presentation demonstrated her unique ability to convey the complex concepts involved in intrapsychic processes and the underlying brain mechanisms.
Zellner began her presentation with an overview of the brain and its systems. She offered a simplified picture of the brain, emphasized an appreciation for its major functions, and discussed how various parts of the brain are connected to each other in numerous ways. Distinct brain areas exist for motivation, emotion trigger, and emotion generation. Brain areas are also mapped for reward value (orbitofrontal cortex), planning and inhibition (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), body and object location (parietal cortex and temporo-parietal junction), object recognition (posteromedial temporal cortex and lateral temporal cortex), autobiographical memory (anterior temporal cortex), behavioral control (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex), emotional control (ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)), and agency integration (posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus, and retrosplenial cortex).
The macro architecture of the brain networks corresponds to psychodynamic processes and she outlined three specific neuro/psychoanalytic convergences. One, the macro architecture follows the basic tripartite model of the psychoanalytic mind (id