ABSTRACT
To discuss the relationship between neuroscientific studies and psychoanalytic theories we need to understand what we mean by the three words of the title: mind, brain, and between. Neuroscientific theories arise from study of the nervous system and psychoanalytic theories from study of the mind: if one accepts William James "neutral monistic" view, that "there is a common substance of which matter and mind are phenomenal modifications", the two can form a theoretical axis with concepts of brain function at one end and those of mental function at the other. Heisenberg, one of the great founders of quantum physics said: "Physics in the twentieth century undermined not only Classical Newtonian Physics but also common sense." Sigmund Freud began at the brain end of imputed mind-brain axis, with mechanism in mind. His neuroscientific work led him into clinical neurology and as late as 1895 he wrote a sketch of a "Psychology for Neurologists" (1897) in neural terms.
