Editors' introduction

Neuropsychoanalysis, being a point of contact between wide-ranging disciplines, takes on many topics, and takes a number of forms. Psychodynamic neuroscience investigates the brain mechanisms of intrapsychic or intersubjective processes, or uses psychoanalytic concepts to enrich brain research. Clinical neuropsychoanalysis includes working with neurological patients in psychodynamically-informed ways, or using observations from such work to inform neuropsychoanalytic theory. Theory-building integrates neuroscience findings and models with psychoanalytic constructs, in order to move towards a more complete understanding of the mental apparatus. (For overviews of the development of neuropsychoanalysis, see Fotopoulou 2012a, 2012b; Solms & Turnbull, 2011.)

Neuropsychoanalysis also tends to operate at two different scales. On the one hand, we are deeply engaged with “big-picture,” theoretical perspectives on models of the mind and social relationships. On the other, we are also attuned to the nuances of the person, valuing the complexity of each individual. This issue presents excellent examples of two of the “tendencies” in neuropsychoanalytic work: two pieces of clinical neuropsychoanalysis and one of theory-building. In addition, they all demonstrate that neuropsychoanalytic work can be both big-picture and individually relevant at the same time.

First, representing theory-building at its best, Myron Hofer offers a truly breathtaking, big-picture piece: a Target Article on development and its role in evolution. This is an important work by a pioneering developmental psychobiologist and psychiatrist, whose long and illustrious career has been devoted to opening a window into the development of mammals as they progress from birth to maturity. In this paper, a rich account of his journey in the exploration of the physiological underpinnings of the attachment bond is woven into a discussion of the emergence of development in evolution, creating the conditions by which evol