Istanbul Neuropsychoanalysis Study Group

Our group has accelerated the building of intercity and international contacts and continued to organize neuropsychoanalysis conferences in Istanbul. Here is a progress report on our activities:

1. Between Istanbul and Izmir, we have established a collaboration with Celal Odağ, the founder of İzmir Halime Odağ Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy Association (halimeodagvakfi.com). In December 2011, Gökçe Özkarar, the representative of the Istanbul NPSA Group, interviewed Dr. Odağ—one of the founders of the Düsseldorf Psychoanalysis Institute in Germany—about “The Future of Analysis and Neuropsychoanalysis.” The interview including valuable elaborations on the developmental phases of psychoanalytic theory, emphasizing the importance of “neuropsychoanalysis” as an inevitable phase in the maturation of psychoanalysis. Celal Odağ highlighted the most recognized authors in neuropsychoanalysis and called other psychoanalysts to be open-minded to other disciplines and neuropsychoanalysis. The interview was released to all specialist e-mail groups in Turkey. For the collaborative neuropsychoanalytic studies between Istanbul and Izmir, Celal Odağ initiated the “Little Prince” study group, whose emphasis will be on the biopsychological study of the “limbic system” and affective neuroscience.

2. In January 2012, the Istanbul NPSA Study Group founded the “Circle of Affective Neuroscience (CAN),” which will undertake national and international projects utilizing the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (ANPS; Davis, Panksepp, & Normansell, 2003). CAN will be supervised by Jaak Panksepp and Kenneth Davis. CAN is in contact with several ANPS researchers from both Eastern and Western countries and looks forward to functioning as an interactive portal for the growth of the global ANPS research family. With our announcement in this international bulletin, CAN makes a call for the “Initiation of Cross-cultural Affective Neuroscience (ICAN).” ICAN aims to integrate social psychology, cr