Consciousness

What is consciousness? What is its purpose and its origin? Awareness, wakefulness, metacognition, subjectivity, experience, phenomenal manifestation? All through the development of Western thinking, philosophers and scientists have been investigating what Arthur Schopenhauer defined as the “cosmic knot” (Weltknoten). The debate has since branched out from the domain of philosophy and become central within the neurosciences. Consequently, the 5° IPD/NPSA Conference aims to relate consciousness to contemporary psychoanalysis. Theoretical and clinical psychoanalysis have extensively debated the unconscious over the last century. However, we should also debate the conscious part of psychism – that which the patient openly brings to each session, the basics of the affective, emotional, gestural exchanges within the therapeutic relationship. All this conscious material is woven into the unconscious dimension – into what is procedural, automatic, oneiric and somatic. The “Hard and Easy problem” of consciousness will be tackled from the philosophical as well as the affective and cognitive neuroscientic point of view, in an interdisciplinary dialogue with psychiatry, neurology, neuropsychology and psychoanalysis. The Conference intends to contribute to this contemporary debate as well as investigate qualitative and quantitative disorders – including minimal states – by focusing on the complexity of consciousness. 

Speakers include: Antonio Damasio, Daniel Dennett, Georg Northoff, and Mark Solms.

Please click here for further information and to view the programme.

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Please direct any queries about this event to: infodialogues@gmail.com

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