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In order to better understand why psychoanalytic principles and techniques are effective, know how they work, and reliably develop their therapeutic power, Fred Levin studies the mechanistic details of psychological functions such as learning, memory, and cognition, implicating the interdisciplinary sciences. While this correlational approach to mind/brain activities may produce writings that are “dense,” it is a way to get factual information to greatly strengthen psychoanalysis, both as a body of knowledge and therapeutic discipline.
In general, psychoanalytic treatment illustrates well how learning is an emotional occurrence triggered by the patient's vital emotional needs and by the emotional importance of contemporary events, processed neurophysiologically by various structures of the brain with affective origins.
From clinical observation during psychoanalysis, it is known that learning readiness is created by a holding environment where the patient's sense of safety and emotional spontaneity are facilitated. Levin's view of the interdisciplinary rationale for the therapeutic value of spontaneity is among the most fascinating and compelling contributions of his neuropsychoanalytic approach.
In psychoanalysis, spontaneity is interconnected with various psychological phenomena including free associations and dreams, as well as transference enactments; these are encouraged throughout treatment by the analyst's overall effort to promote progressive emotional communication. This role of the analyst to encourage progressive emotional communication is also referred to as “priming,” since the analyst's activity in this respect stimulates explicit