The New York Body Image Study Group, which meets under the auspices of the Arnold Pfeffer Center for Neuro-Psychoanalysis, is devoting the 2011-2012 academic year to the study of affect and emotion and the brain.

We started with meetings on cellular neurophysiology, the organization of the nervous system, and the history of the limbic system. The group is now embarking on reading LeDoux on fear circuits in the brain, Panksepp on the evolution of emotional systems in the brain, Damasio on the neurobiology of affect and its influence on thought, Schore on brain regulation of affect, and Solms on affect, analytic theory, and the brain. The arc of study is loosely organized from the strictly neurobiological theory through to clinical studies.

Larry Kunstadt