We want to help motivated students and post-docs to find exciting opportunities to engage in research, and to help principal investigators recruit enthusiastic new members for their labs. Here is a directory of labs that welcome volunteers, postdoctoral fellows and other collaborators on research that integrates neuroscience methods with psychoanalytic perspectives. If your lab does research that integrates neuroscience and psychoanalysis in any way, we would like to include you in this list! Please send your information to Dr. Ross Balchin at rbalchin@npsa-association.org.
Labs by Location
Scroll down for description and links
The Turnbull Lab
Location: Bangor, Wales
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Location: Brussels, Belgium
University of Cape Town
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Location: Bochum, Germany
Social Neuroscience and Psychopathology (SNAP) Lab
Location: New York, United States of America
The Cognitive and Social Neuroscience Lab
Location: Santiago, Chile
Bulgarian Neuropsychoanalytic Lab
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria
Please scroll down for further details about each specific institution.
The Turnbull Lab (Wales)
Professor Oliver Turnbull
Area/s of research
Anosognosia, confabulation, laterality, the neuroscience of psychotherapy, visuo-spatial cognition, emotion (including emotion-based learning and the experience of ‘intuition’), the role of emotion in delusional beliefs, the management and control of emotion (emotion regulation); and emotional memory (and its preservation even in profound amnesia).
Neuroanatomy is another area of interest and a residential Summer School is run on this particular topic. For further information, please click here.
Overview
The Turnbull Lab conducts research with Ph.D. students on various aspects of human neuropsychology.
Paid positions
There are no paid positions at this point in time.
Relevant links
http://turnbull-lab.bangor.ac.uk
https://www.bangor.ac.uk/psychology/people/profiles/oliver_turnbull.php.en
https://www.bangor.ac.uk/psychology/publications.php?id=8937
Université Libre de Bruxelles (Brussels, Belgium)
Professor Ariane Bazan
Area/s of research
Clinical, theoretical and empirical research is undertaken. Topics including, but not limited to, the following:
- Primary and secondary process mentation: with the so-called GeoCat instrument (Brakel et al., 2000), both supra- and subliminal;
- The signifier: research involving palindromes, rebuses, phonological associations etc., both supra- and subliminal;
- Repression: research involving measures of inhibition, social desirability, and defensiveness;
- Jouissance: research involving approach bias measures.
Studies are being conducted on both clinical and non-clinical populations. Research can also cover the epistemological and ethical implementation of neuropsychoanalysis.
Overview
Research opportunities are available to students at Ph.D. level.
Paid positions
There are no systematic paid positions.
Privileged agreements do exist with several universities, and funding is available for Ph.D. students from specific countries (e.g. various African countries, and Brazil, etc.) who are supervised by academics at the University.
Relevant links
https://www.ulb.ac.be/rech/inventaire/unites/ULB101.html
University of Cape Town (Cape Town, South Africa)
Professor Mark Solms
Area/s of research
Sleep and dreams, affect, complex neuropsychiatric disorders, clinical assessment and rehabilitation, autism.
Overview
Enrollment is open to students at undergraduate, Honours, Masters and Ph.D. level. The Honours and Masters degrees involve research components, while the Ph.D. is entirely research based. The Honours degree is a BSocSc (Hons), while four different Masters degrees are on offer: MA in Clinical Psychology, MA in Psychological Research, MA in Neuropsychology, and an MSocSc in Psychology.
The University also has a new Clinical Neurosciences Institute, which includes the Department of Psychology, the Division of Neurosurgery, the Department of Neurology and the Division of Neuropsychiatry. This new initiative will be bringing exciting new research possibilities to the University.
The Department of Psychology also has an active autism research group (UCT Autism Research).
Paid positions
No direct funding is available, but funding applications from various sources can be facilitated.
Relevant links
http://www.psychology.uct.ac.za
Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit
(Ottawa, Canada)
Professor Georg Northoff
Area/s of research
A broad array of topics of interest and expertise is covered at the Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit. The key research themes include: brain imaging, psychiatry, self, defense mechanisms, consciousness, Freud and neuropsychoanalysis, schizophrenia, depression, cultural neuroscience, and neuroethics.
Overview
Based at the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR), the Mind, Brain Imaging and Neuroethics Research Unit conducts research in a number of key areas related to the brain and mind. The central focus is exploring the link between mental and neural states, along with how the brain constitutes the experience of a self. The Unit’s research integrates neuroscientific, neuropsychiatric and neurophilosophical approaches.
Paid positions
Paid positions are available at either Doctoral- or Postdoctoral level for those who wish to work as part of the Unit’s group. Application details are available through the website (see below).
Relevant links
Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Bochum, Germany)
Professor Nikolai Axmacher
Area/s of research
A number of research topics related to cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and cognitive science are addressed through research at this lab. The key interests include: how experiences are represented in the brain and transformed into memory traces; how these experiences shape personality; and how memory is compromised by trauma, innerpsychic conflicts and Alzheimer’s dementia. Another particular interest is the processing of specific contents by the brain and how the resulting stimulus-specific representations can be decoded using pattern classification algorithms.
Overview
Based in Bochum, Germany, at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Professor Axmacher’s research group has a particular focus on memory and the neural foundations of its functions and dysfunctions. A range of cognitive neuroscience methods are utilized at this lab, namely EEG, fMRI, simultaneous EEG/fMRI, fMRI at 7T, and intracranial EEG. The group investigates a wide range of memory processes (working memory, long-term memory, memory consolidation during resting state and sleep, autobiographical memory, social memory, repression).
Paid positions
There are no paid positions available. Volunteers from all levels can apply for internships.
Relevant links
http://www.rd.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/neuro/wiss/pi/axmacher/index.html.en
Social Neuroscience and Psychopathology (SNAP) Lab
(New York, United States of America)
Associate Professor Eric Fertuck
Area/s of research
A major area of interest is borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Overview
As part of the Psychology Department at the City College of New York, the Social Neuroscience and Psychopathology (SNAP) Lab conducts research related to psychopathology, social cognition, psychotherapy, and social neuroscience. The focus is on the mechanisms of psychological disturbance and on treatment. A multifaceted approach is adopted that integrates the social, emotional, cognitive, neurobiological and genetic factors that underly psychological disturbance.
Paid positions
There are currently no paid positions, but opportunities may be available for volunteers.
Relevant links
https://sites.google.com/site/snaplabatccny/home
The Cognitive and Social Neuroscience Lab (Santiago, Chile)
Professor Christian Salas
Area/s of research
Brain injury and social isolation, emotion and brain injury, neuropsychology of emotion regulation strategies, psychotherapy in patients with acquired brain damage, psychoanalysis and neuropsychological rehabilitation, Bangor Gambling Task, identity and brain injury, return to work after brain injury, emotion and amnesia, case studies in neuropsychoanalysis.
Overview
The Cognitive and Social Neuroscience Lab belongs to the Faculty of Psychology (Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago Chile). Three more researchers (Prof Francisco Parada, Prof Alejandra Rossi and Prof Daniel Rojas) are part of this lab allowing a diverse range of collaborations on basic and clinical neuroscience/neuropsychology research. The Lab houses the Clinical Neuropsychology Unit, which offers diagnostic and rehabilitation services to brain injured individuals from the community. We have two PhD students and there there is a Masters program in Social Neuroscience that belongs to the Lab as well as a Diploma in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.
Paid positions
There are research opportunities at PhD and postdoctoral level that require applying for Chilean funds via CONICYT (http://www.conicyt.cl)
Relevant links
http://neurociencia.udp.cl/unidad-de-neuropsicologia-clinica/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christian_Salas
Bulgarian Neuropsychoanalytic Lab (Sofia, Bulgaria)
Dr Martin Kolev and Mrs Antonia Borisova-Radoslavova
Area/s of research
Clinical assessment and diagnostics, case studies in neuropsychoanalysis, neuropsychology of emotional processing and regulation, brain imaging, psychopathology, trauma, mentalization.
Overview
Based at the Institute of Mental Health and Development and in close collaboration with three units at different universities and their respective hospitals (Sofia University, Sofia Medical University and Plovdiv Medical University), the Bulgarian Neuropsychoanalytic Lab focuses on research, clinical diagnostics and assessment of personality and self disorders, childhood development and trauma, mood disorders and their brain correlates, attachment, clinical ethics. The lab is inclusive approach-wise with main focus on psychoanalytic psychotherapy and mentalization-based treatment.
Paid positions
There are no paid positions available. Volunteers from all levels can apply for internships.
Relevant links