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WHILE FREUD RELUCTANTLY ABANDONED the Project for a Scientific Psychology, his attempt to formulate a neural basis for psychic functioning, later psychoanalysts have been more content to work in a purely psychologic realm. The mainstream of thought in psychoanalysis has been shaped by clinical experience, with little appeal made to neurophysiological criteria in judging theoretical developments. The growth of sleep research following the discovery of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, activity which directly addressed a function of central concern to psychoanalysis, has managed to provide only a catwalk between the two disciplines. Data gathered in the laboratory concerning dream content has in fact been cited by opponents of psychoanalysis in order to discredit its theories.
Against this background of mild hostility and greater indifference, the quixotic Jonathan Winson, an accomplished neuroscientist at Rockefeller University, began to formulate in the late 1970's a theory regarding the neurologic substrates of the unconscious, drawing upon both an extensive background in neurophysiology and a respectful reading of Freud. Presenting this theory in Brain and Psyche: The Biology of the Unconscious(1985) Winson proclaims: "The key to understanding the brain mechanisms underlying the psyche lies in elucidating the means by which the hippocampus, limbic system, and prefrontal cortex process information and build a behavioral strategy. The research path has in part been traveled" (p. 241).