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The 23rd Annual Congress of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society held in 2024 in Trieste, Italy, had as its theme the question: “How do subjective experiences become bodily disorders?” This is seen in conversion disorder (previously called “hysteria,” now called functional neurological disorder, or FND). The body “speaks,” but the speaker is not aware of its meaning. In that year, I reviewed a book by Jean Benjamin Stora on the theme of psychosomatics (Boerboom, 2024). The focus of that book was on the French school of psychosomatics, whereas in this new title by Schultz-Venrath we encounter the modern German school. His approach is based on the mentalization model, as introduced by Bateman and Fonagy. This is a complex theme, one at the heart of our field: neuropsychoanalysis. Additionally, it is the start of psychoanalysis, as the case of Anna O (who was diagnosed with hysteria) was for Freud an important source of inspiration. The way the mind influences the body has kept troubling psychoanalysis. In the six chapters of Schultz-Venrath’s book, we are not only introduced to this complex theme but also get a theoretical foundation for the advice Schultz-Venrath gives on therapy for these patients.
The first chapter introduces the concept of “mentalizing,” a term initially coined by Marty regarding preconscious processes, and more recently used by Fonagy, who conceptualizes mentalizing as a process involved in the development of the brain to infer the mental state of self and others. Schultz-Venrath summarizes the theories on the development of the brain in relation to the development of the affective self. The mentalization model he uses in this book rests on the theory of the formation of representations of affects. It tries to integrate findings by Stern, Damasio, Panksepp, Leikert, and Solms. Schultz-Venrath notes that there is no consensus as to what exactly affects, emotions, and feelings are, and how the self arises from them. He concludes that Pankse