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Members of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society founded the Vienna Neuropsychoanalysis Study Group in 1998. The group convenes every 6-8 weeks and consists of psychoanalysts, working either in private practice or at universities (four training analysts, two analysts).
One of the main activities of the group in 2008 was a research project entitled “Emotional Experience during Transient Hemispheric Inactivation: Neuropsychoanalytic Investigations using the Wada-Test,” which is supported by a research grant from the International Psychoanalytical Association. The study investigates unilateral processing of affects in patients undergoing presurgical evaluation for epilepsy surgery. First results of this study were presented at the 10th International Neuropsychoanalysis Congress 2009 in Paris (Wiest et al., 2009).
Two group members (Elisabeth Brainin, Samy Teicher) are also involved in a research project entitled “Simulating the Mind,” in cooperation with the Vienna University of Technology. The main aim of this study is to develop computer models of the human psychic apparatus based on concepts of psychoanalytic metapsychology (Brainin & Zucker, 2008).
There are also some new institutional developments. The Vienna Psychoanalytical Academy (a research department of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society and the Wiener Arbeitskreis für Psychoanalyse) takes a great interest in establishing an institutional framework for future neuropsychoanalytic research and events in Vienna. In this regard, the Vienna Psychoanalytical Academy could serve as a platform for neuropsychoanalytic presentations, lectures, and seminars on a regular basis in the future.
The psychoanalytic treatment and investigation of patients with specific brain lesions has always been one of the main interests of the Vienna Neuropsychoanalysis Study Group. Currently a psychoanalytic report on a patient with bilateral lesions of the amygdala is in preparation (Wiest & Brainin, 2009). Another paper deals with neuropsyc