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The 2011 International Neuropsychoanalysis Congress, with its theme of exploring the embodiment of the self, was held in Berlin. The city has a divided past, of which there are constant reminders as you walk around, and a present that following reunification is slowly healing together these once separate parts. The congress venue was a splendidly restored Berlin Water Services pumping station, built at the turn of the last century and now converted into an arts and conference centre.
The setting of this once-divided city seemed appropriate, as the conference attempted to address the integration of the mind-body split, with us from Descartes' era and so eloquently described by one of the key speakers in his book, Descartes' Error: “It suggests that thinking, and awareness of thinking, are the real substrates of being. And since we know that Descartes imagined thinking as an activity quite separate from the body, it does celebrate the separation of mind, the ‘thinking thing’ (res cogitans), from the nonthinking body, that which has extension and mechanical parts (res extensa)”(Damasio, 1996, p. 248).
This attempted integration was approached through an exploration of the way that the body is represented in the brain and the mind—how self-other distinctions are made, allowing us to maintain a sense of self that is distinct from our surroundings (human and nonhuman), while allowing us to understand others' perspectives and differentiate between them and our own.
In the International Neuropsychoanalysis Congresses over the years, I have come to understand the value of the Educational Day. This provides the important background information from both neuroscience and psychoanalysis relevant to the topic under investigation, which orientates participants and allows them to take in more from the congress itself. This year was no exception, with four fascinating presentations setting the scene.
Oliver Turnbull gave a very helpful overview of the representation of the body in the