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Psychoanalysis and neuroscience investigate the human subject from different vertices and with different methods, and can cooperate in full consideration of their respective specificities and contributions. Following explanatory pluralism, theories at different levels of description can co-evolve, without this implying the reduction or replacement of the “higher” level theory by the “basic” one. The analysis of reactions to environmental trauma shows the extent to which the neurophysiological parameters highlighted can be advantageously complemented by the first-person descriptions of psychoanalysis. Indeed, these allow such data to be interpreted considering the coordinated operation of a number of defence mechanisms. This contribution enables a deeper understanding of the examined subjects’ behaviour, as well as the attribution of subjective meaning to the third-person observed neurophysiological alterations.
KEY WORDS: Attachment, body, bodily defences, dissociation, identification with the aggressor, intersubjectivity, explanatory pluralism, reductionist or eliminative models, emotional-motivational systems, trauma.