Freudian Concepts in the Twenty-First Century: A Neuropsychoanalytic Update and Discussion

After a rich collection of articles was published in our 25th volume, we are now ready to start volume 26 with an equally interesting set of papers on topics that focus on the core of neuropsychoanalysis, such as Freudian concepts and clinical work. As old as Freud’s theory is, it is still difficult to find the complexity and quality that his model of the mind offers anywhere else. Updating and discussing some of its core notions is a crucial task of neuropsychoanalysis. The exploration of Freudian concepts, such as primary and secondary processes and the perceptual-conscious system, from a neuropsychoanalytic perspective contribute to our further understanding of Freud’s ideas in the twenty-first century. No less important is our commitment to support the development of the clinical implications of neuropsychoanalysis by presenting a clinical paper that shows the outcome of looking at a case from an integrative point of view to deeply understand the challenges of neurodiversity to our usual techniques. For the target article section, we present Doug Watt’s elaborate response to the commentaries on his recent paper “The Separation Distress Hypothesis of Depression - An Update and Systematic Review” (Watt, 2023), which had commentaries by Paul Badcock and Karl Friston (Badcock & Friston, 2023), Barton Blinder (Blinder, 2023), Otto Kernberg (Kernberg, 2023), Ken Davis and Christian Montag (Davis & Montag, 2023), Stephen Siviy (Siviy, 2023), and Howard Steele (Steele, 2023). Watt’s careful response to each author could be considered another target article due to his thorough elaboration on several topics that will inform the reader interested in depression about further clarifications and potential lines of research. Relevant work from our vibrant neuropsychoanalytic community also contributes to this issue. We report on the research presented at the 22nd Congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society, which particularly addressed the topic of PLAY. Our Book