Dialogues on Aggression: An Urgent Interdisciplinary Forum

Introducing “Dialogues on Aggression”
Please join us for the launch of “Dialogues on Aggression: An Urgent Interdisciplinary Forum”.  This online series, hosted by the Neuropsychoanalysis Association, will convene experts from a number of disciplines – evolutionary biology, neuroscience, psychodynamic psychiatry, developmental psychology, sociology and criminology, for a fascinating exploration of this timely topic.

Aggression is a fundamental human impulse, and violence an extreme manifestation of it. While aggression is an enduring and universal phenomenon, it has taken different forms throughout history, and in different cultural and societal contexts. The unique challenges we face in the 21st century require more community and global collaboration than ever before. And yet, the stability and harmony of families, communities, and society at large are dangerously undermined by the rise of interpersonal violence, mass shootings, xenophobia, and radicalization.

An Examination of Psychopathy

Friday, December 4th, 3 p.m. Eastern (U.S.)

Start time in selected time zones

The series will begin with three webinars focused on the phenomena of psychopathy. On Friday, December 4th, Professor Yoram Yovell of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem will interview noted UC – Irvine neuroscientist James Fallon. Professor Fallon has been featured on various media outlets including the BBC, the History Channel and CNN due to his remarkable story – through the course of his research into the brain mechanisms of psychopathy, he made the startling discovery that he himself had the neuroanatomical features of psychopathy, and that his family tree included a number of notorious convicted murderers. This interview presents a unique opportunity for our psychoanalytic community to raise some fundamental questions about the nature of psychopathy through Professor Fallon’s both objective and subjective lens.  Members of the audience will also be given the opportunity to engage Professor Fallon in a Q&A session.

James H. Fallon, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. Emeritus Professor Dept Anatomy & Neurobiology. He holds a Sloan Fellowship, Senior Fulbright Fellowship (Africa) and NIH Research Career Award. He was Chair of the UCI Faculty and Academic Senate and Chair of the UCI College of Medicine and Medical Center Faculty. He sits on numerous corporate boards and national think tanks for science, biotechnology, the arts, and the military. He is a Subject Matter Expert to the Pentagon in the field of cognition and war, Vice Chair of the American Land forces Institute, Vatican Arts and Technology Council. He is presently the Chief Scientific Officer of Cognigenics, a gene editing firm developing brain enhancement technologies.

In addition to authoring over 300 papers and books, he has written two personal books, “Virga Tears: The true story of a soldier’s sojourn back to Vietnam” and “The Psychopath Inside: A neuroscientist’s journey into the dark side of the brain” which was an Amazon best seller, including #1 in the psychopathology field, available in 8 languages.

Most recently in the past 12 years, he has appeared in over 370 national and international TV and radio specials on war, dictatorships, psychopathic behavior, murder, violence, and terrorism and future biotechnology and modification of behavior.

University url: UC Irvine – Faculty Profile System
IMDB: James Fallon – IMDB 

Research Interests
His research program has focused on four areas, including adult stem cells, chemical neuroanatomy and circuitry, higher brain functions, and brain imaging, including imaging genetics studies of depression, schizophrenia, addiction, language disorders, personality, intelligence, male-female differences in cognition, AI, consciousness and anesthesia, human cortical development, sleep, emotional memory, and modeling of neural circuits, and law, culture, psychopathy, murder, dictatorships, and the brain. Fallon’s lab was the first to find how to mobilize adult stem cells to reverse the deficits in models of chronic stroke and Parkinson’s disease, which was recently heralded as one of the top seven breakthrough findings of the decade.

Fallon and his colleagues are interested in the neural circuitry and genetics of creativity, artistic talent, extraordinary abilities, paleobiology, and levels of consciousness. At present, his lab group with Fabio Macciardi is reconstructing the brains, genomes, art and culture in paleolithic and Neanderthal hominids.

Yoram Yovell, M.D., Ph.D., is a highly respected psychiatrist, brain researcher, psychoanalyst, TV presenter, author and an international keynote speaker. Born in Jerusalem, he trained at Columbia University in the laboratory of Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel and then worked for a few years as a therapist in Manhattan. He received his Ph.D. in neurobiology from the prestigious Weizmann Institute in 1990. He is currently an associate professor in the Division of Clinical Neuroscience, Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He is the author of two bestsellers that deal with how science may account for some of the puzzling, seemingly illogical workings of the human mind: Brainstorm (2001) and What Is Love (2004). He hosted Sihat Nefesh (Heart-To-Heart talk) for 10 years – the award-winning prime-time interview program on Israeli TV, where he interviewed politicians, writers, and artists about the relationship between their lives and their work. He served as scientific advisor and co-presenter for the Israeli TV mini-series: How to be Happy in Six Lessons, How to Succeed in Six Lessons and A Happy Family in Six Lessons.

Website: http://yovell.co.il/en/

Registration for this event is now closed.
Stay tuned for details about upcoming seminars in this series.