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In its short lifetime, neuropsychoanalyis has been successful in promoting healthy dialogue between psychoanalysis and neighboring disciplines. We have taken on numerous theoretical issues of great consequence – for example, about dreams, drive theory, and the nature of both consciousness and the unconscious. Questions about the clinical applications of this dialogue, in contrast, have proceeded a bit more modestly; caution has guided any suggestions about changes in technique that might be suggested by neuropsychoanalytic developments. Similarly, any models of the processes underlying therapeutic action are understandably tentative, bounded by the constraints of good science. However, an energetic literature in clinical neuropsychoanalysis has indeed been emerging, both in our pages and in other venues.
In this issue, the generative exploration of the clinical applications of neuropsychoanalysis continues. We have observations from clinical neuropsychoanalysis, which entails working psychodynamically with patients with brain injury, or thinking about the sequelae of brain injury from a psychoanalytic perspective. We also have some suggestions of how neuropsychoanalytic insights may be used to illuminate “ordinary” psychoanalytic process with non-neurological patients.
First, Rudy Coetzer, Cathryn Roberts, Oliver Turnbull, and Frances Vaughan have contributed a thorough survey of the highly productive neuropsychoanalytic clinical work and research that has emerged from their service in Bangor, Wales. Their piece, entitled “Neuropsychoanalytically informed psychotherapy approaches to rehabilitation: The North Wales Brain Injury Service–Bangor University experience 1998–2018,” reviews a wealth of material that they and many colleagues have generated in the past 20 years. As readers will see, these clinicians and researchers are making an important contribution to the world of clinical neuropsychology, as they advocate for the importance of extended treatment for patient