Harnessing psychoanalytical methods for a phenomenological neuroscience

Abstract

Psychoanalysis proffers a wealth of phenomenological tools to advance the study of consciousness. Techniques for elucidating the structures of subjective life are sorely lacking in the cognitive sciences; as such, experiential reporting techniques must rise to meet both complex theories of brain function and increasingly sophisticated neuroimaging technologies. Analysis may offer valuable methods for bridging the gap between first-person and third-person accounts of the mind. Using both systematic observational approaches alongside unstructured narrative interactions, psychoanalysts help patients articulate their experience and bring unconscious mental contents into awareness. Similar to seasoned meditators or phenomenologists, individuals who have undergone analysis are experts in discerning and describing their subjective experience, thus making them ideal candidates for neurophenomenology. Moreover, analytic techniques may provide a means of guiding untrained experimental participants to greater awareness of their mental continuum, as well as gathering subjective reports about fundamental yet elusive aspects of experience including selfhood, temporality, and inter-subjectivity. Mining psychoanalysis for its methodological innovations provides a fresh turn for the neuropsychoanalysis movement and cognitive science as a whole – showcasing the integrity of analysis alongside the irreducibility of human experience.

How to Include Patients' Perspectives in the Study of the Mind: A Review of Studies on Depression

“…Research emphasizes that it is important to include experience in the study of the mind, and warns that reductionist approaches interested only in behavioral measure (Hartelius, 2007 , p. 24) strongly affecting the fields of psychiatry (Sass et al, 2011 ), psychology (Hartelius, 2007 ; Weger and Wagemann, 2015 ) and psychoanalysis (Cusumano and Raz, 2014 ; Yovell et al, 2015 ) as this reductionism reflects only a one-sided view on reality (Weger and Wagemann, 2015 ).…”

Editorial: New Generation of Psychotherapies Inspired by Cognitive Neuroscience Development: Emergence of Neurocognitive Therapies

“…However, it may be argued that what psychoanalysts tried to describe, just with their genius minds, can now be examined by the novel methods of cognitive neuroscience. This is evident from the formation and development of neuropsychoanalysis ( Cusumano & Raz, 2014 ; Vaslamatzis, 2007 ). In this context, targeted cognitive interventions on unconscious processes such as memory, habitual behaviors, intuitive decisions, long–term memory, arousal processing, etc.…”

Editorial on psychoanalytical neuroscience: exploring psychoanalytic concepts with neuroscientific methods

“…In addition to empirical work, the Research Topic includes various theoretical articles. One repeating theme among them was the relevance of using individualized stimuli to allow for a neuroscientific investigation of subjective “meaning” that is central to psychodynamic approaches (Boeker et al, 2013 ; Kessler et al, 2013 ; Cusumano and Raz, 2014 ). Other topics involved the investigation of unconscious memory processes (Ruby, 2013 ) and the combination of psychotherapy with EEG neurofeedback (Unterrainer et al, 2013 ).…”

“…” As expected, authors responded differently to this question. Some argued that addressing psychoanalytic concepts is beneficial to advance neuroscientific research: It may allow for an explanation of results which are otherwise difficult to interpret, and enhance the realm of processes that can be investigated using neuroscientific methods (Kehyayan et al, 2013 ; Ruby, 2013 )—in particular, personal meaning (Boeker et al, 2013 ; Kessler et al, 2013 ; Shevrin et al, 2013 ; Cusumano and Raz, 2014 ). Others suggest psychoanalysis as a useful framework to better understand, prevent and treat psychiatric diseases such as addiction (Johnson, 2013 ) or depression (Taubner et al, 2013 ).…”