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It seems appropriate to review some recent research on the limbic system, particularly the amygdala and the hippocampus (and some closely related structures) since these appear to contribute decisively to our processing of emotions, a subject near and dear to psychoanalysis. One issue to be aware of, however, is that neuroscience scholars currently differ on what is properly included in the limbic system anatomically; moreover, some even question the degree to which there is limbic system mediation of emotion. (See J. LeDoux, “Remembering the Past: Two Facets of Episodic Memory Explored with PET,” presented to the American College of Psychoanalysts, May 3, 1996.) Considering this climate of neuroscientific reappraisal, psychoanalysts need not worry excessively about their own theoretical disagreements.
I begin with a fascinating article, “The Return of Phineas Gage” (H. Damasio, et al., Science, 1994, 264:1102-1105), concerning the colorful railroad worker of the last century who was unlucky enough to have an explosion blow a hole in his head and survive. Since Gage's damaged skull was donated posthumously to Harvard Medical School, Damasio, et al., used computers and MRI scanning technology to study its anatomy and confirm that Gage's injury most certainly involved damage to the ventral medial frontal lobe of his brain. This damage played a role in Gage's postinjury personality changes, including attention difficulties and his tendency toward socially inappropriate behavior. Such behavioral- anatomical correlations can prove decisive in verifying hypotheses regarding neurological functional units.
In separate articles, one in the New York Times (S. Blakeslee, “Brain Study Examines a Rare Woman,” December 18, 1994) reporting on work originally appearing in Nature by John Allman of the California Institute of Technology and another in Science by the Damasio group of the University of Iowa (A. Bechara, et al., 1995, 269:1115-1118), patients are described who have sustai