Some Implications for Psychoanalysis of Modern Concepts of the Organization of the Brain

This paper is an attempt to describe a number of converging streams of recent research on the central nervous system, from the points of view of clinical neurology, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and neurosurgery. My purpose is to indicate a few ways in which these may illuminate psychoanalytic techniques of exploration and therapy as well as psychoanalytic theory. Within the compass of this paper I can sketch these converging streams only briefly.

In June 1951, Dr. Wilder Penfield did me the honor of asking me to discuss his presidential address at the annual meeting of the American Neurological Association. Dr. Penfield's paper (41) entitled, Memory Mechanisms, dealt primarily with the results which he obtained in patients with psychomotor epilepsy when he stimulated electrically certain areas of the temporal lobe during operations under local anesthesia. The work fascinated me for many reasons, but especially because of its implications for psychoanalysis. I discussed it in detail at the time and sent copies of this discussion to a few of our colleagues for their criticism (24). They too found it of interest. Dr. Kris wrote me: 'For years I have been saying that one should start all over on a neurophysiological quest, and here is the first