Reflections on the neuroscientific legacy of Jaak Panksepp (1943–2017)

Abstract

Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure … they govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. ***Needs not behavour **On a fundamental, intrinsic relationship between consciousness and emotion* ** On understanding emotion in terms of interactive but partially discrete prototype states, energized by an overarching, precedent and integrative SEEKING system** **An affective neuroscience foundation for clinical psychiatry, psychology and the mental health sciences** ***And last but not least, a true scientific theory of “instincts” (AKA prototype emotional systems) to update psychoanalytic metapsychology and further the integration of psychodynamic and psychoanalytic ideas with neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology)** **Some closing and more personal thoughts**