ABSTRACT
In this section we highlight a number of ideas that are key to an integrative psychotherapy. First, we focus on certain developments in neuroscience that offer a powerful integrative perspective, involving different aspects of human development and highlighting the holistic nature of the human being in terms of the integration of the physiological, the psychological and social relational exchange. We then draw attention to particular writers who make a signi®cant contribution to an integrative approach by developing this holistic aspect of human functioning. Affective neuroscience, in particular, has emerged as a specialist scienti®c ®eld which has enabled us to understand much more precisely the key role that affect plays in the developmental trajectory of the human being. However, interest in affect is not new ± for centuries there has been debate and argument on the role of affect, and although Descartes is generally highlighted as focusing on cognition through his famous dictum `I think, therefore I am', his work The Passions of the Soul was very much concerned with affective experience. A key issue in the different debates concerns the extent to which affect is viewed as separate from cognition, and if so which mode predominates. There is also the issue as to whether cognition is being viewed as rational thought. Antonio Damasio regards `affect' as denoting a combination of emotions, moods and feelings; also, he does not separate emotions from cognitions, holding that emotions are intimately involved in the capacity to reason (Damasio, 1994). This view is based on his research with patients who have experienced severe brain injuries, enabling him to demonstrate the integrated nature of human functioning.
