Integrating the “Global Workspace” with the “Conscious Id”

Arnold Pfeffer Center for Neuropsychoanalysis
of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute

Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 10 a.m.

Integrating the “Global Workspace” with the “Conscious Id”:  Developing a Neuropsychoanalytic Metapsychology with Implications for the Therapy Process

Maggie Zellner, Ph.D., L.P.

National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis (NPAP)
Executive Director, The Neuropsychoanalysis Foundation

To see part 1 of the lecture, click here.
To see part 2 of the lecture, click here.

In this educational lecture, we will explore the ways in which the “global workspace” theory of Stanislas Dehaene and colleagues might be integrated with recent proposals by Solms and Panksepp on the “conscious id” and the “unconscious ego.”  These proposals have great potential for creating an integrated metapsychology – by looking at the brain networks which mediate consciousness and unconscious processes, self and other, perception and simulation, memory and prediction, we can build ever more solid bridges between the major organizational principles of brain function and our fundamental concepts in psychoanalysis.

We will speculate about ways in which internalized object relations can fit into the “conscious id/unconscious ego” framework, and extend the dialogue about the role of defense and resistance in everyday life and psychotherapy.  We can also extend our discussion about how moments of awareness, within the interpersonal relationship in the psychotherapy process, can facilitate change.  

Bio: Maggie Zellner, Ph.D., L.P., is a psychoanalyst, behavioral neuroscientist, and neuropsychoanalytic educator.  She is the Executive Director of the Neuropsychoanalysis Foundation in New York, and editor of the journal Neuropsychoanalysis.  She has taught introductory neuroscience to the psychoanalytically-minded since 2003, and is in private practice in New York City.