A Neuro-psychoanalytical Dialogue for Bridging Freud and the Neurosciences

The book presents an overview of the term neuropsychoanalysis and traces its historical and scientific foundations as well as its cultural implications. It also turns its attention to some blind spots, open questions, and to what the future may hold. It examines the cooperative and conflicted relationship between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Articles from different fields investigate the neurological basis of psychoanalysis as well as the psychological terms of neurology. They also discuss what psychoanalysis has to offer neuroscience. In addition, the emerging neuro-psychoanalytical dialogue is enriched here by the voice of a culturally informed history of science. The book brings leading authorities on these topics into conversation with each other, creating an unprecedented opportunity to better understand the ‘language’ of the psyche. Specific concerns include the discussion of corporeality, how the body figures into psychoanalysis, the meaning of the unconscious in connection with dreams, unconscious fantasies, and the field of epigenetics. Following a historical perspective the book provides a re-reading of Freud's drive theory, exploring his concept of ‘life’ at the threshold of science and culture as well as the relationship between various representations, somatic states and the origin of drive. Overall, the book argues that if the different methodological approaches of psychoanalysis and neuroscience are acknowledged not only for their individual uniqueness but also as a dialectic, then the resulting epistemological and methodological dialogue might open up a fascinating body of neuropsychoanalytical knowledge.

Sigrid Weigel, born 25 March 1950, is Director of the Center for Literary and Cultural Research in Berlin. She has held professorships at the universities of Hamburg, Zurich, and TU Berlin, and acted as director of Einstein Forum (Potsdam); she is a regular visiting professor in Princeton. Her research focuses on the dialectics of secularization, Jewish-German intellectual history (Heine, Freud, Warburg, Benjamin, Scholem, Arendt), and a cultural approach to the history of sciences (esp. genealogy, generation, memory).

Prof. Dr. Christine Kirchhoff currently holds a Juniorprofessorship for ?Psychoanalytische Kulturwissenschaften/Psychoanalytical Cultural Studies“ at the International Psychoanalytic University Berlin (IPU) and she is a Candidate at Berliner Psychoanalytisches Institut, Karl-Abraham-Institut (BPI). She studied Psychology, Philosophy and Cultural Studies at Bremen University, where she obtained her Diploma (2003) and PhD in Psychology (2007). From 2008-2010 she held a Postdoc Position at Zentrum fur Literatur- und Kulturforschung Berlin (ZfL) working on the Project: ?Freud and Science: from 1900-2000“. From 2011-2013 she was a member of the DFG-Network ?On the Intersection between Language and Political Theory: German-Jewish Thinkers from 18th and 20th Century“. She is a is a founding member of the Gesellschaft fur psychoanalytische Sozialpsychologie, GfPS ( Society for psychoanalytic Socialpsychology). Her main research interests are: Psychoanalytical Theories of Culture and Subjectivity, Psychoanalysis and Neurosciences, Psychoanalysis as ?Bildersprache“, Critical Theory, Psychodynamic of Procrastination.

Dr. phil., M.A. Studied Linguistics, Literature, Philosophy, History of science, and Kulturwissenschaft in Freiburg im Breisgau and Berlin. Lecturer for Kulturwissenschaft and Aesthetics at the Humboldt-Universitat, Berlin. 2007-2011 Member of the Centre for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL) Berlin. 2002-2006 he worked as a scientific coordinator for LIS e. V. Berlin (Locked-in Syndrome Society). Research fields include: literature and science; language, literature and neurology/neuroscience and cultural bases of philology and poetics. Latest publications include Freuds Referenzen Berlin, Kadmos-Verlag, 2012 (ed. together with Ch. Kirchhoff); Dichterwahn. Uber die Pathologisierung von Modernitat Munchen, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2010; Das Locked-in Syndrom. Geschichte, Erscheinungsbild, Diagnose und Chancen der Rehabilitation Frankfurt am Main, Mabuse Verlag, 2010 (ed. together with K.-H. Pantke, Ch. Kuhn, G. Mrosack); "Psychologus nemo, nisi Physiologus“ – Johannes Muller und die Perspektiven einer medecine philosophique: Eine Entdeckung aus dem Universitatsarchiv, in: Wurzburger medizinhistorische Mitteilungen 29 (2010), pp. 213-227, and Freud and Evolution in: Hist. Phil. Life Sci., 31 (2009), pp. 295-312.