Suggested Readings in Psychodynamic Neuroscience
Building on the groundwork of the relatively new field of neuropsychoanalysis, the emergence of psychodynamic neuroscience as a discipline has provided a logical further extension of the dialogue between the neurosciences and psychoanalysis. Focusing on experimental research, psychodynamic neuroscience is allowing for exciting work into how metapsychological models can be understood in relation to empirical neuroscientific knowledge. This reading list highlights a variety of exciting studies that have investigated the brain mechanisms that underly subjective processes.
Last updated: 15/11/2022
Note: the links provided in this list go to the “version of record,” and may require subscriptions in many cases. Due to copyright rules, we are unable to provide the PDFs of most of these papers. If you would like to recommend additional readings, have PDFs that are authorized for public sharing, or wish to make any suggestions for revisions, please email Dr Ross Balchin at rbalchin@npsa-association.org.
Books
Fotopoulou, A., Pfaff, D., & Conway, M.A. (2012). From the couch to the lab: Trends in psychodynamic neuroscience. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Giacolini, T., Pirrongelli, C. (Ed.). (2021). Neuropsychoanalysis of the inner mind: A biological Understanding of human mental function. Routledge.
Northoff, G. (2011). Neuropsychoanalysis in Practice: Brain, Self and Objects. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Journal articles and book chapters
Experimental studies
Arminjon, M., Preissmann, D., Chmetz, F., Duraku, A., Ansermet, F., & Magistretti, P.J. (2015). Embodied memory: unconscious smiling modulates emotional evaluation of episodic memories. Front Psychol, 6, 650. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00650
Fotopoulou, A., Jenkinson, P.M., Tsakiris, M., Haggard, P., Rudd, A., & Kopelman M. (2011). Mirror-view reverses somatoparaphrenia: Dissociation between first- and third-person perspectives on body ownership. Neuropsychologia, 49, 3946-3955. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.10.011
Shevrin, H., Snodgrass, M., Brakel, L.A., Kushwaha, R., Kalaida, N.L., & Bazan, A. (2013). Subliminal unconscious conflict alpha power inhibits supraliminal conscious symptom experience. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 544. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2Ffnhum.2013.00544
Steinig, J., Bazan, A., Happe, S., Antonetti, S., & Shevrin, H. (2017). Processing of a subliminal rebus during sleep: Idiosyncratic primary versus secondary process associations upon awakening of REM- versus non-REM-sleep. Frontiers in Psychology, 8,1995. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01955
Villa, K.K., Shevrin, H., Snodgrass, M., Bazan, A., & Brakel, L.A.W. (2006). Testing Freud’s hypothesis that word forms and word meaning are functionally distinct: Subliminal primary-process cognition and its link to personality. Neuropsychoanalysis, 8, 117-138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2006.10773521
Society members with subscriptions to Neuropsychoanalysis can click below to get journal access. (Note: This is a different username and password than the one for this website. Need a reminder? Email us at society@npsa-association.org.)
Case studies
Bazan, A. (2012). From sensorimotor inhibition to Freudian repression: insights from psychosis applied to neurosis. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 452. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00452
Society members with subscriptions to Neuropsychoanalysis can click below to get journal access. (Note: This is a different username and password than the one for this website. Need a reminder? Email us at society@npsa-association.org.)
Brain imaging studies
Anderson, M.C., Ochsner, K.N., Kuhl, B., Cooper, J., Robertson, E., Gabrieli, S.W., Glover, G.H., & Gabrieli, J.D. (2004). Neural systems underlying the suppression of unwanted memories. Science, 303(5655), 232-235. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/303/5655/232
Besharati, S., Forkel, S. J., Kopelman, M., Solms, M., Jenkinson, P.M., & Fotopoulou, A. (2014). The affective modulation of motor awareness in anosognosia for hemiplegia: Behavioural and lesion evidence. Cortex, 61, 127-140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2014.08.016
Buchheim, A., Labek, K., Walter, S., & Viviani, R. (2013). A clinical case study of a psychoanalytic psychotherapy monitored with functional neuroimaging. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 677. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3805951/
Buchheim, A., Viviani, R., Kessler, H., Kächele, H., Cierpka, M., Roth, G., George, C., Kernberg, O., Bruns, G., & Taubner, S. (2012). Changes in prefrontal-limbic function in major depression after 15 months of long-term psychotherapy. PLoS ONE, 7(3), e33745. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0033745
Decety, J., Chen, C., Harenski, C.L., & Kiehl, K.A. (2013). An fMRI study of affective perspective taking in individuals with psychopathy: imagining another in pain does not evoke empathy. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 489-501. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2Ffnhum.2013.00489
Eres, R., Decety, J., Louis, W.R., & Molenberghs, P. (2015). Individual differences in local gray matter density are associated with differences in affective and cognitive empathy. NeuroImage, 117, 305-310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.05.038
Huang, Z., Dai, R., Wu, X., Yang, Z., Liu, D., Hu, J., Gao, L., Tang, W., Mao, Y., Jin, Y., Wu, X., Liu, B., Zhang, Y., Lu, L., Laureys, S., Weng, X., & Northoff, G. (2014). The self and its resting state in consciousness: an investigation of the vegetative state. Hum Brain Mapp, 35, 1997–2008. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/exportCitation/doi/10.1002/hbm.22308
Kessler, H., Taubner, S., Buchheim, A., Münte, T.F., Stasch, M., Kachele, H., Roth, G., Heinecke, A., Erhard, P., Cirpka, M., & Wiswede, D. (2011). Individualized and clinically derived stimuli activate limbic structures in depression: an fMRI study. PLoS ONE, 6(1), e15712. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015712.t002
Kim, S., Fonagy, P., Allen, J., & Strathearn, L. (2014). Mothers’ unresolved trauma blunts amygdala response to infant distress. Soc Neurosci, 9, 352-363. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2014.896287
Nolte, T., Bolling, D.Z., Hudac, C.M., Fonagy, P., Mayes, L., & Pelphrey, K.A. (2013). Brain mechanisms underlying the impact of attachment-related stress on social cognition. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 816. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00816
Schmeing, J.B., Kehyayan, A., Kessler, H., Do Lam, A.T., Fell, J., Schmidt, A.C., & Axmacher, N. (2013). Can the neural basis of repression be studied in the MRI scanner? New insights from two free association paradigms. PLoS One, 8(4), e62358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0062358
Thiel, A., Thiel, J., Oddo, S., Langnickel, R., Brand, M., Markowitsch, H.J., & Stirn, A. (2014). Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients with washing symptoms show a specific brain network when confronted with aggressive, sexual, and disgusting stimuli. Neuropsychoanalysis, 16, 83-96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2014.976649
Society members with subscriptions to Neuropsychoanalysis can click below to get journal access. (Note: This is a different username and password than the one for this website. Need a reminder? Email us at society@npsa-association.org.)
Reviews
Bazan, A. (2017). Alpha synchronization as a brain model for unconscious defense: An overview of the work of Howard Shevrin and team. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 98, 1443-1473. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-8315.12629
Gander, M., & Buchheim, A. (2015). Attachment classification, psychophysiology and frontal EEG asymmetry across the lifespan: A review. Front Hum Neurosci., 9, 79. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389%2Ffnhum.2015.00079
Hanslmayr, S., Axmacher N. and Inman, C. S. (2019). Modulating Human Memory via Entrainment of Brain Oscillations. Trends in Neurosciences 42 (7), 485-499. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2019.04.004
Society members with subscriptions to Neuropsychoanalysis can click below to get journal access. Note: This is a different username and password than the one for this website.) Need a reminder? Email us at society@npsa-association.org.