ABSTRACT
What makes it desirable to bring to psychoanalysis the latest findings of neurophysiology for a reconsideration of the centuries-old question of how to understand mental functions in the context of those of the central nervous system? Surely, it is not to be expected that members of either discipline have more than an outsider's familiarity with the methods and findings of the other, particularly their aspects at the cutting edge of scientific progress. If interdisciplinary dialogues are to succeed, participants have to take for granted each others’ expertise and find those topics within their own discipline that might be answered by putting relevant questions to the other field. This kind of feedback should be feasible at the frontier between neuroscience and psychoanalysis because one of the fundamental aims of each scientific domain is shared: both disciplines seek to understand the regulation of human behavior.
