Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book describes a number of important theories, like those of G. M. Edelman and G. Tononi inform the model, because they focus on the importance of the constructive function of the brainstem in the development of the brain and consciousnes. Edelman/Tononi's theory of re-entries in particular explains in detail how the interaction between mother and child inevitably produces fundamental changes in neural organization, fixing the mother's projective-introjective modulation of the endogenous dynamic in cerebral maps. The endogenous dynamic is regulated by rhythmic properties of internal information flows that serve to modulate surrounding information appropriately so that the organism can interact with it actively. It is an essentially simple dynamic that explains how, during child development, the evolutionary project of the brain produces the rich phylogenetic reorganization that Freud was so interested in and also the relational predisposition of the child.