London NPSA Study Group

Finally, after many years of a notable absence, a neuropsychoanalysis group was set up in London in 2009. The group's main aim is to foster a dialogue between clinicians and researchers and provide a platform for them to communicate their work, share useful therapeutic adaptations, develop a common psychoanalytic and neuroscientific knowledge base, and stay in touch with the most recent developments in research. The group also functions as a base for exchanging professional news, enhancing interdisciplinary careers, and forming clinical and research collaborations. The membership of this group covers several regions of the UK, and many of the members make it down to London on a regular basis.

The group meets monthly, on the evening of the first Thursday in the month. One of the members presents a piece of work, which is then extensively discussed by the group. Following a number of presentations on clinical work with neuropsychological patients and on basic neuroscientific research, it was decided at the start of 2010 that the main meetings of the group will focus on presentations of psychoanalytically informed clinical work with neurological clients. More basic neuroscientific research presentations will be organized in parallel research-focused days. The first of these will take place in 2011, and details will be announced soon.

Presentations to date have included: (1) Samantha Brooks, on recent neuroscientific findings in anorexia nervosa. (2) Katerina Fotopoulou, on evidence of regression to narcissistic modes of relating to one's body in right-hemisphere patients (based on a dissociation between allocentric vs. egocentric perspectives on the body). (3) Diana Caine, on psychoanalytic formulations of frontotemporal dementia patients, including symptoms of mirror-misidentification and behavioral disinhibition, as well as reflections of potential psychoanalytic interventions with such patients. (4) Giles Yeates, on integrating Kleinian and social neuroscience concept