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The Japanese translation of The Brain and the Inner World, an introductory text to neuropsychoanalysis by Mark Solms and Oliver Turnbull, was published in July 2007. Our group, the Japanese Neuro-Psychoanalytic Study Group in Kyoto, was established on this occasion. This monumental book has now been published in seven languages. Currently there is a great distance between psychological (subjective) and biological (objective) perspectives in Japan, as there is elsewhere, which can be seen, for example, in the discrepancy between trends in biological psychiatry strongly promoting pharmacotherapy and traditional schools of psychotherapy. Quite a few people involved in the field of psychiatry and psychotherapy have voiced concerns about this state of affairs. We hope that this book and the field of neuropsychoanalysis itself will be able to help the Japanese people who are interested in bridging the gulf between those perspectives.
The activities of our group are as follows:
Clinical work. We are currently studying Clinical Studies in Neuro-Psychoanalysis by Mark Solms and Karen Kaplan-Solms and discussing clinical methods integrating neuroscience and psychoanalysis/psychotherapy, from both objective and subjective perspectives. Since most of us are psychiatrists/physicians and psychotherapists, we try to practice what we learn in our daily clinical work from this dual perspective.
Research. Most of us are engaged in studies of patients with psychiatric disorders from the viewpoint of affective and social neuroscience. We have recently investigated the relationships between brain and social cognition, such as mentalizing or empathy, using MRI. These mental functions are intimately associated with interpersonal relationships in psychotherapy—for example, transference. Thus we believe that these studies will help us to understand how psychotherapy works. We also plan a clinical study designed for the combination of pharmacotherapy (modulation of serotonin or dopamine) and ps