Neuropsychoanalysis

Neuropsychoanalysis is an approach to psychotherapy and research that attempts to bridge the gap between neuroscience and psychoanalysis. It strives to bring into accord neurological findings with Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis. Neuropsychoanalysis aims to integrate brain research by mapping subjective experience such as thoughts, feelings, and motivation onto neural correlates, specific physiological states and functions of the brain.

Neuropsychoanalysis rests in the intersection of philosophy, neuroscience, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and psychology and draws on an understanding of how neurological processes are turned into psychological processes. Through the use of psychodynamic principles, such as object relations and conflict theory, the process explores what “lies beneath the surface” by exploring the client’s unconscious conflicts that interfere with everyday functioning. The influence of the unconscious is applied to underlying ...