ABSTRACT
The orbitofrontal cortex, that is, the central mechanism of affect regulation in the dual hemisphere brain, accesses memory functions by implicit processing. What Sigmund Freud would term “preconscious” functioning is directly influenced by this regulatory activity that from the external becomes a form of internal self-regulation. Mauro Mancia believes that unrepressed unconscious or implicit memory is located in the posterior temporo-parieto-occipital associative cortical areas of the right hemisphere. The chapter looks at Freud’s idea of the “unconscious” and how his views are both accepted and disclaimed by present psychoanalytic and neuropsychological discourse. The right brain, as the site of implicit memory, becomes the psychobiological base of the unconscious in its most comprehensive meaning in terms of “what is not conscious” and, none the less, leads relevant aspects of our life. The traumatic terrain is also the place of one fundamental twist in the theory of self and selflessness, or unconscious state.
