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In this section, we offer two reviews that examine the nature of consciousness, the unconscious, and the often nebulous line between them.
In their book review essay, Mark Fisher and his colleagues explore two recently published books which provide intriguing and sometimes contradictory insights into the nature of consciousness. Fisher and his coauthors elegantly spotlight the argument that Mark Solms, neuropsychologist and leader of the neuropsychoanalysis movement, offers in his book The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness and bring this work into conversation with the concepts put forth by neurologist and neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, in his volume Feeling and Knowing: Making Minds Conscious. Fisher et al. show how these two neuroscientist authors diverge on the fundamental neuroanatomic substrates of consciousness, with Solms prioritizing subcortical structures and Damasio advocating for a combined cortical-brain stem approach.
Ellman's thoughtful review of Femininity, Desire and Sublimation in Psychoanalysis by Elda Abrevaya shows how Abrevaya, by integrating English and French theoretical perspectives, deepens the discourse on female identity by examining “sublimation,” reproductive technology, and the separation of sexual acts from conception and motherhood. According to Ellman, Abrevaya challenges traditional views of women's fulfillment being tied to motherhood, advocating for a broader recognition of women's intellectual passions and creative endeavors. In her review, Ellman writes that “Abrevaya brings us to current times with her revisiting of gender and motherhood, demanding a revision of our psychoanalytic theories as she interrogates our phallocentric conceptions.”