ABSTRACT
Psychoanalytic and neuroscientific frameworks are thus potentially complementary in the following ways. First, psychoanalysis has the power to identify the connecting linkages that have gotten "lost" between affective responses and the situations which gave birth to them, thus facilitating the mastery of trauma. Second, neuroscience can specify the nature of the "memory" disturbance system involved in particular illnesses, giving important clues to the analyst regarding potentially useful insights and interventions. The amygdala and hippocampus are bilateral structures that connect to the ventral medial frontal lobe, and a problem has been to differentiate the functional contributions of the amygdala's and hippocampuses from that of the frontal lobe itself. The sensory cortex along with the sensory thalamus sends information to the amygdala regarding object identification. And the prefrontal cortex is responsible for sending extinction signals to the amygdala which allow for the possibility of aborting an initial reaction to what is judged to be a fearful situation.
