ABSTRACT
As mentioned in the introduction of the present volume, a growing number of research groups throughout the world have apparently begun to realize that the neurosciences and psychoanalysis could benefit from each other in interesting ways. The neurosciences are now equipped with objective, precise methods for verifying hypotheses on human behavior, while psychoanalysis, based on its rich experience with patients and its unique method of field research, has developed a variety of different models in order to conceptualize the multi-layered and complex observations that derive from the psychoanalytic situation and to test them by means of its specific form of empirical research, namely, clinical psychoanalytical research. The explanatory models and insights developed by psychoanalysis can also be of interest to neuroscientists and raise specific research questions. At the Sigmund Freud Institute, we consider the results of the dialogue
between psychoanalysis and the neurosciences in various ways:
a) As an interdisciplinary framework for reflecting on changes in psychoanalyses and psychoanalytic treatments in clinical papers
b) In theoretical papers discussing different topics of contemporary psychoanalysis (e.g., unconscious fantasies, memory, trauma, symbolization and mentalization)
c) As a theoretical background in the conceptualization of our large empirical studies in the field of psychotherapy research (e.g., the LAC Depression Study) and the projects on early prevention (the EVA Study, the FIRST STEP project etc.)
d) In clinical and empirical studies on the outcome of psychoanalyses and psychoanalytic long-term treatments.
