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Neuroscientists believe that brain structure and function determine our perception and experience of the world. As psychoanalysts, we believe that perception and affective processing are critical for the development of the representational world and inner psychological life. These are not contradictory positions; they are just different perspectives. Indeed, what neuroscientists have demonstrated is something that psychoanalysts have always believed, namely, that not only do brain structures influence experience but experience also shapes brain structures. Plasticity of the brain is a capacity that exists in order for the individual to respond and adapt to the environment. This bidirectionality is probably most prominent in early life but continues throughout the life span. As Bruce Wexler states in Brain and Culture, “as a neuroscienctist and a psychiatrist, I draw on both experimental research and clinical experience as I explore the nature and implications of the rich, lifelong, and biologically mandated interaction between the individual and his or her physical and social environment. My conceptual starting point and foundation, however, are biological …” (p. 8). The circle of brain structure, perception, experience, and brain structure is a paradigm accepted by both neuroscientists and psychoanalysts. As we will see, this becomes problematic only when the author tries to extend this paradigm from the individual to society and culture.
The first chapter is a review of brain function; it is informative, well-written, and accessible to psychoanalysts not immersed in neuroscience. The next three chapters focus on illustrating “the great increase in functional variability among individuals that results from environmental influences on development of the brain” (p. 3) and the fact that human beings alter the environment that shapes their brains to a degree without precedent among animals. These chapters present concise and cogent summaries of several fascinating exper