Eric Kandel is the first American psychiatrist to win the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. His book consists of eight chapters. Each chapter includes a previously published article by Kandel with a commentary on the article by one of eight commentators, only one of whom is a psychoanalyst. The theme of the book is the research done by Kandel and how his research can improve the training and practice of psychoanalysis. His research focuses on the molecular basis of synaptic plasticity in the central nervous system and on the relationship of this plasticity to cognitive function. He opened up the study of long-term synaptic plasticity and its relationship to learning and memory storage.

In Chapter 1, Psychotherapy and the Single Synapse: The Impact of Psychiatric Thought on Neurobiologic Research, Kandel explains that the