Conferences on neuroscience and analysis being held around the country are proving both a sign of interest in neuroscience and a means by which interest in the neurosciences is generated. At some conferences, local talent is used; at others, heavy hitters both in the neurosciences and in the interface between psychoanalysis and the neurosciences are invited. Sometimes an existing study group organizes the conference; other times a study group is a result of the conference. Descriptions of several such conferences follow.
More than 270 people attended the 65th Anniversary of the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis Conference, whose theme was “Psychoanalysis, Neurobiology, and Therapeutic Change.” The conference was co-sponsored by the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society and supported by the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago. The conference sought to bring psychoanalysts up to date on significant neuroscientific perspectives.
Nobel Laureate Gerald Edelman and his colleagues Evan Balaban and Giulio Tononi from the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego delivered neuroscientific papers. Virginia Barry, Arnold Cooper, Barbara Fajardo, Fred Levin, and Arnold Modell gave psychoanalytic presentations and/or discussions aimed at bridging the two fields of study.
In organizing the conference, the Chicago society prepared a “starter” bibliographic packet and reading list for the local psychoanalytic community. The society also forged a liaison with the University of Illinois Medical School's Division of Neuropsychiatry, which led to the development of a series of workshops in which psychoanalysts could study Edelman's ideas and other relevant topics in the neurosciences. The first workshop was conducted by psychoanalysts Virginia Barry, Robert Galatzer-Levy, and Eric Plaut. Two other workshops offered presentations and discussions led by neuroscientists Erminio Costa and Thomas Jobe. In a fourth workshop, participants viewed a video in which Edelman described his ideas and his Neurosciences Institute. Among many issues raised in workshop discussions was the relationship of consciousness to ideas involving neural networks and neural transmission.
Barry and Fajardo participated in a local public radio discussion informing the public at large about the significance of the conference.
Additional preparation for the annual conference had been provided in psychoanalytic presentations and discussions at two of the monthly society meetings. For Galatzer-Levy's presentation on “Chaos Theory and Non-linear Systems,” Levin was the discussant; Barry's presentation on “Self-Organization and Consciousness,” was discussed by Charles Jaffe.
The conference itself was an outstanding success. Those who attended came away with an increased understanding of and interest in neuroscience.
While the Chicago Institute's curriculum does not yet include work in the neurosciences as it relates to psychoanalysis, such course-work is under consideration. Two faculty members are participating in a recently hatched study group with neuropsychiatrists at the University of Illinois School of Medicine, and a number of other faculty members are considering forming a study group on the topic.
Robert A. Fajardo
The scientific program of the annual retreat of the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis addressed “The Interface Between Psychoanalysis and the Cognitive Neurosciences.” All faculty members, analytic candidates, and psychotherapy students were invited to attend. Two groups of papers were pre-distributed: a chapter from a book by James Grigsby and David Stevens (coming out next year) that outlines a cognitive neuroscience–based theory of personality functioning, and a report by Barbara Unger on analytic material, which lent itself to a discussion of some of the concepts in the chapter. Stevens and Unger led a discussion on the analytic issues raised by the case presented — the dynamics, transference issues, and technique — and how they might be conceptualized in cognitive neuroscientific terms. The second group of papers included a pre-distributed article by Fred Levin, “Integrating Mind and Brain Views of Psychoanalysis,” from a recent issue of JAPA, and case material by Gary Martin. Mike Moran led a discussion of the Levin paper; then Moran and Martin led a discussion on how cognitive neuroscientific concepts could be used to understand analytic process in the case material.
Pre-distribution of the materials helped the participants acquaint themselves with often dense neuroscientific language and concepts, and a brief summary of the material helped people organize their thinking and their questions. The carefully selected analytic material enabled participants to discuss whether or how these new concepts might inform our thinking about the clinical process.
Grigsby, a neuroscientist, is a graduate of the psychoanalytic scholarship track of the Center for Psychology and Psychoanalysis in Denver. Stevens, Unger, Moran, and Martin are graduates of the Denver Institute for Psychoanalysis. Although none of these individuals would call themselves psychoanalytic neuroscientists, all would agree that the data and ideas emerging from this field of study hold considerable promise for psychoanalysis. Research data are beginning to come in from neuroscience that corroborates many of the assumptions underlying such fundamental psychoanalytic notions as the unconscious, transference, free association, and the mutative function of interpretations that link cognitive and affective schema to transference phenomena.
Those who attended this year's scientific program at the retreat were stimulated by the ideas, the case material, and the ensuing discussions. No doubt more interest will follow as a core of informed colleagues continues to generate interest and enthusiasm.
Gary C. Martin
The Psychoanalytic Institute at New York University Medical Center has had an ongoing study group on Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience since 1992. The core group numbers seven and consists of two candidates, four faculty members, and one graduate from the non-clinical program. The fact that one member is a Ph.D. in biology and another holds a full-time research position in addiction neurophysiology guarantees a multifaceted interchange. Lawrence Kunstadt and Richard J. Kessler chair the group.
We began work on conceptualizing models of brain functioning that we thought could be integrated with psychoanalytic thought. A 1992 issue of Psychoanalytic Inquiry, especially David Olds' article “Consciousness: A Brain-Centered, Informational Approach,” was a good beginning. Soon we came upon Gerald Edelman's “neural Darwinism” and devoted a year reading his book The Remembered Present: A Biological Theory of Consciousness. Our “field trip” to his discussion group at the 1993 Fall Meeting of The American was memorable.
The following year we studied transcripts of Mark Solm's presentations to the New York Psychoanalytic Neuroscience study group on the integration of psychoanalytic metapsychology and the methods and findings of the “dynamic school of neurology” epitomized by A. R. Luria. The beginning of Solm's excellent work can be found in his and Michael Salings 1986 article “On Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience: Freud's Attitude to the Localizationist Tradition” in the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis.
An attempt to explore the topic of motivation led to the study of the physiology of pleasure-unpleasure mechanisms. We read several articles about the neural substrate of reward. The encyclopedic volume The Cognitive Neurosciences, edited by Michael Gazzaniga, represented our foray into cognitive psychology. Discussing models of consciousness and the question of serial or parallel brain processing was especially rewarding. We supplemented these readings with articles in experimental psychology and research on affect and cerebral lateralization. New findings in the genetics of anxiety dovetailed nicely with readings on temperament.
At present we are reading Mark Solm's 1997 article “What Is Consciousness?” and the 10 illuminating commentaries that followed it in JAPA. Next year we are tackling the neuropsychology of dreams. It has been an exhilarating ride, and I have no hesitation in recommending such excursions to other analysts.
Currently, there are no specific courses on neuroscience at our institute. The curriculum committee is working on achieving greater integration of psychoanalysis and neuroscience in the curriculum.
Richard J. Kessler
Interest in the neurosciences runs high in Seattle, in good part as a result of the work of Carol A. Kusché and Werner H. Schimmelbusch. They have been pioneers in returning attention to the importance of the biological foundations of psychoanalysis.
Kusché recently remarked, “We should expect that successful psychoanalytic treatment actually influences and alters neurological organization and structuralization in the brains of our patients.” She developed the PATHS (for Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) Curriculum to teach “emotional literacy” to primary-school children. She described this work as follows: “We used psychoanalytic, psychobiological, developmental, and other theories to form a powerful, integrated model for emotional and social education for children. We were then able to document its effectiveness.”
Schimmelbusch's interest in neurobiology led to the implementation of a new elective class at the Seattle Institute that focuses on integrating psychoanalytic understanding with modern knowledge of brain functioning. His enthusiasm and encouragement led the Seattle Institute and Society to become one of the first in the country to sponsor a major symposium on psychobiology and psychotherapy, “Meetings of the Mind,” organized in 1996 by Randall Riggs.
The symposium was a groundbreaking series of four weekend programs on psychobiology and psychotherapy presented by the Seattle Institute in conjunction with the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry. Featured speakers were Geraldine Dawson, Daniel Dorsa, William Graf, Kusché, Allan N. Schore, Daniel J. Siegel, Phyllis Tyson, and Alan Unis, with introductions by Gary Tucker and Schimmelbusch — a heady mix of psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, psychologists, and neuroscientists.
Graf and Kusché correlated the development of the nervous system with psychological development. Dawson discussed her research documenting the impact of early social experiences on children's biological and emotional development and their risk for psychopathology. Siegel presented a developmental view of the neurophysiology of subjective experience (including an overview of cognitive processes; the developmental biology of memory; psychological trauma, emotions, relationships, and narrative processes; attachment theory and its clinical implications; a cognitive neuroscience approach to psychotherapy; and a new understanding of the effect of anxiety on cognitive functioning). Unis described the theory of biological origin of attention deficits and its implications for parenting and therapy. Dorsa and Tyson discussed the neurobiological and psychological development of sexual identity. Schore presented his biological and clinical concepts of how mother-infant interactions during the first years influence structural development in some areas of the brain and form a template for emotions and social interactions later in life. Kusché presented her research on neuropsychological and cognitive deficits in children with anxiety, externalizing, and comorbid psychopathology.
Each weekend of this highly successful program was attended by more than 115 people. The program created valuable links between the organizations and people involved, and gave participants an increased respect for each other's work.
Randall Riggs
Cleveland: More than a hundred people attended the Katan Symposium, presented in September 1997 by the Katan Treatment Center of the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Society. In “Understanding the Emotional Brain: The Neurophysiology of Human Experience,” Daniel Siegel and Allan N. Schore focused on the reciprocal link between relationship-based experience and physical development of brain. Norman Clemens and Kay McKenzie discussed Seigel and Schore's work.
Washington, D.C.: A weekend conference, “Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Remembering,” was held in February 1998 under the sponsorship of the Washington Psychoanalytic Foundation's New Directions program. Directed by Beatrice W. Smirnow, this conference was one in a series of nine offered to participants in the program.
The conference focused on two major areas of memory. Harold Blum and Moisy Shopper presented current thinking on the construction and reconstruction of memories, including false memories. Then the focus shifted to the interface between neuroscience and psychoanalysis. Daniel L. Schacter presented his research on implicit memories, and Fred M. Levin spoke on transference in terms of working memory, priming, and schemas. Robert B. Clyman presented his research on the development of transference in early childhood as a function of procedural memory. John S. Kafka concluded the presentations with a discussion of memory and the Holocaust.
In addition to attending the presentations, the conferees (who included analyst and non-analyst clinicians, a surgeon, an immunologist, and a writer) participated in small groups in which they discussed their own written critiques of pre-circulated articles on memory.
Houston-Galveston: Several society meetings have been devoted to papers on neuroscience.
Los Angeles: The L.A. Child Development Center, an analytic child psychotherapy program, held a conference on development and neuroscience. Speakers included Allan N. Schore, Regina Pally, and Daniel Siegel.
PINE: Marc Solms visited New England in 1997 and presented his pioneering work on analysis of brain-injured patients. Allan N. Schore was invited this year to discuss “Early Trauma and the Development of the Right Brain: The Implications of Neurobiology for Understanding and Treating the Consequences of Early Psychic Trauma.”
St. Louis: A conference on “Memory, Suggestibility, and Seduction in the Clinical Psychotherapeutic Situation” will be co-sponsored by the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Society and the Department of Psychology at Washington University this fall. Presenters will include a psychologist-neuroscientist involved in neuroimaging, Moisy Shopper, Elizabeth Loftus, Henry Roediger, and others. They hope to grapple with the clinical implications of modern research on human memory.
American Psychiatric Association: Drew Clemens, chair of the Commission on Psychotherapy by Psychiatrists, organized a forum to take place during the American Psychiatric Association's Toronto meeting this June.
Presenters at “Toward a Neurobiology of Psychotherapy” included Bernard Beitman, Barton Blinder, Glen Gabbard, and Eva Szigethy. The aims of this forum were (1) to help accelerate concurrent clinical conceptualizing of the brain and mind during psychiatric treatment and (2) to connect psychotherapy theory to brain function.
Yale: In April of this year, the Whitney Humanities Center, under the leadership of Peter Brooks, held a two-day international symposium. “Whose Freud?: Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Culture” was attended by more than 400 people. One panel, “Models of the Mind,” was moderated by Elise Snyder. Arnold Cooper discussed “The Changing Psychoanalytic Model of the Mind,” focusing on the need to alter psychoanalytic models as new data becomes available and to formulate psychoanalytic propositions in ways that make them available to direct the research of neuroscientists.
David Forrest presented material on neuroimaging and computer modeling and their potential for localizing important aspects of psychic life. Using misidentification syndromes (e.g., Capgras) as examples, he explored issues of transference and object relations from a neurobiological point of view. Robert Shulman, a neuroscientist, discussed “Freud's Theory of the Mental and Modern Functional Imaging Experiments.” He pointed out that such studies, often based on cognitive psychology, lead to simplistic interpretations, because they do not take into account the necessity (and actuality) of whole brain functioning during all activities. Morton Reisers paper, “Can Psychoanalysis and Cognitive-Emotional Neuroscience Collaborate in Remodeling our Concept of Mind?,” using dreams as a model and emphasizing emotions in the linkage of memories and the creation of dreams, explored ways for neuroscience and psychoanalysis to develop compatible theories.