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The pages of Neuropsychoanalysis have witnessed numerous challenges to Freudian propositions, as well as rediscoveries of un- or under-appreciated insights. One of these surely is the role of hallucinatory wish fulfillment in perception. In the first issue of our journal, Barry Opatow (1999) portrayed this proposition as fundamental to psychoanalytic theory. Subsequently, Mark Solms (2013), in a footnote in his “Conscious Id” paper, cited the work of Jan Dirk Blom (2015) documenting the now well-accepted position that all our percepts are “hallucinatory” in nature. And then Schonbachler et al integrated it all in their paper on “wish and wishing” (2016).
And so it is with Michael Michael’s paper in this issue. In “On the Scientific Prospects for Freud’s Theory of Hysteria,” Dr. Michael takes us back to the dawn of psychoanalysis and the Studies on Hysteria (1895). He outlines Freud’s theory about the role of trauma, particularly sexual trauma, in the pathogenesis of conversion reactions, and evaluates how the theory fares (pretty well!) in light of two prominent empirical studies, as well as research attempting to demonstrate the existence of repression. He then offers a new neuropsychoanalytic account of conversion, utilizing a Bayesian model of brain functioning. In conclusion, Michael’s paper suggests that one important issue warranting considerably more research attention is that of our understanding of repression.
In that vein, the wonderfully thorough report by Daniela Flores Mosri of the 19th Congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society, which took place in Mexico City from August 31st to September 2nd, 2018, could not be more timely, as its topic was repression and defense. Flores Mosri provides a summary of the nuanced keynote presentations from Michael Anderson, Cristina Alberini, Nikolai Axmacher, Mark Solms, herself and other speakers; the broad range of talks offered a wealth of empirical data and theoretical formulations related to repressio