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The Toronto group is now in its third year. It consists of interested professionals from a number of disciplines and backgrounds, having in common a commitment to continued inquiry into the links between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Difficult clinical cases, with or without clear neurological syndromes, form a focus of discussion, following presentations. The group has shown particular interest in traumatic and depressive syndromes.
Dr. James Deutsch reviewed the 4th International Neuro-Psychoanalysis Congress (“The Unconscious in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis,” July, 2003, New York City) in two sessions. From the vast amount of material, it was chosen to focus on two general approaches to unconscious mental functioning. Dr. Solms' presentation on confabulatory syndromes exemplifying the characteristics of primary process was based on patients who had tragically suffered from brain damage resulting in interference with memory function. Together with the approach of Drs. Shevrin and Brakel, and colleagues, using subliminal (less than 1-msec) stimulation or probing of the mode of categorization of figures, it is apparent that careful neuroscientific study confirms key characteristics of primary-process functioning, a key observation in Freud's early studies of unconscious mentation.
In the group's discussion, cases involving psychological trauma, with or without neurological damage, challenged us in our own attempts to categorize levels of mental functioning. The helpful descriptions and categories of Dowling (1982), along with those of Piaget (1973), affirmed the importance of careful, psychoanalytically informed observation of process in assessment and treatment. In severe psychological trauma, it would appear that there is a “pre-primary process functioning,” which, in metapsychological terms, involves the relatively inactivated ego and is outside the pleasure principle.
Diverging perhaps somewhat from the focus of the International Congress, there was