Neural Models of Psychodynamic Concepts and Treatments: Implications for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Abstract

Psychotherapy and neuroscience have arrived at an historic crossroad. Since the inception of analytic thinking in the late nineteenth century, its proponents have struggled with the question of how psychotherapy influences brain function – and whether this relationship is relevant to the work or effectiveness of therapy. Despite decades of parallel progress in psychodynamic and neuroscientific research, until recently there was little meaningful interaction between these fields of study. Rather, fierce ideologic and methodologic divisions persisted between investigators of ‘‘mind-based’’ and ‘‘brain-based’’ thinking.