You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Drew Clemens, chair of the Commission on Psychotherapy by Psychiatrists, organized a forum to take place during the American Psychiatric Association's Toronto meeting in June 1998.
Presenters at “Toward a Neurobiology of Psychotherapy” included Bernard Beitman, Barton Blinder, Glen Gabbard, and Eva Szigethy. The aims of this forum were (1) to help accelerate concurrent clinical conceptualizing of the brain and mind during psychiatric treatment and (2) to connect psychotherapy theory to brain function.
The psychoanalysis and neuroscience workshop of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute held its inaugural meeting on March 24, 1998. We discussed Dr. Solms' paper, “What Is Consciousness?” ( J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 45: 681-703) along with the many commentaries included in this issue. At our second meeting, Dr. Bonnie Smolens helped to place Dr. Solms' argument in the context of nineteenth-century German idealism, with an emphasis on the distinction between Kantian and post-Kantian philosophy. She focused on the transitions from philosophy to biology and psychology as academic disciplines responsible for the study of mind. Dr. Smolens also helped to clarify the conceptual status of “causation” in Freud's metapsychology to enable the group to have a more nuanced understanding of Dr. Solms' paper.
A planning group was then formed to organize the ongoing agenda. It was felt that we most needed to build a common background before we could fruitfully explore many complex topics. A bibliography of basic neuroscience readings was composed. For example, over the past summer, members read;
(1994), Descartes' Error-Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: Avon Books.
(1996), The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul. Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books.
As we affirmed the need for overviews provided by the