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It is fair to say Jaak Panksepp’s ghost haunts neuropsychoanalysis, in a most inspiring and creative way. Whether it is Mark Solms dedicating his book The Hidden Spring to him, “a man most wise” (Solms, 2021); or Giacolini and Pirrongelli (2021) putting together a volume that develops some of his ideas in their latest book, Neuropsychoanalysis of the Inner Mind. This is a collection of chapters by renowned authors with a wide range of training, including neurologists, psychiatrists, child and adolescent neuropsychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and psychotherapists, among others. Part One (Chapters 1-6) deals with theoretical aspects and Part Two (Chapters 7-11) with clinical issues. They all have in common their effort to bridge affective neuroscience with different psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic areas.
Chapter one, by Pirrongelli, di Maggio, Fioriello, Riezzo and Giacolini, comprises a series of synoptic tables describing each of Panksepp’s primary-process emotional systems. One by one, their anatomical localization, evolutionary function, neurochemistry, and psychopathology are described. While the exhaustive information is enriching, the extension of the information pertaining to each system makes the tables difficult to read; it may have benefited from being in prose form.
Chapter two, by Giacolini, offers a historical exploration regarding the influence of both Darwin and Lamarck in the development of Freud’s drive theories. It compellingly argues that Freud benefited from the work of Darwin, Romanes, and Jackson in giving a central role to drives because of the particular organization of the brain. This, in turn, would lead to the peculiar Freudian evolutionary psychology found in his essays on sexuality. The chapter also emphasizes the turning points in psychoanalytic history where the field lost interest in maintaining a dialogue with biology, and how recent discoveries in ethology and affective neuroscience have rekindled the century-old affair.
Chapter three