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Neuropsychodynamic Psychiatry pp 563–578Cite as

Concepts of Empirical and Clinical Research in Psychoanalysis and Neuropsychoanalysis

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Abstract

Psychoanalysis has a long tradition where different concepts have been developed. The beginnings of psychoanalysis focused on psychic mechanisms of various disorders ranging from melancholia to the various forms of neuroses.

Importantly, Freud himself aimed to develop a psychology on a mechanistic basis. Initially, being a neuroanatomist, he considered the brain and, in his 1895 writing of a scientific psychology, wanted to link it to the psychic level. That, following Freud, failed, for which reason he gave up such neuropsychodynamic approach.

The present chapter sketches Freud’s and subsequent developments in psychoanalysis. It finishes with the most recent development of neuropsychoanalysis where it highlights the different approaches including the cognitive-affective approach (Solms, Panksepp) and relational-spatiotemporal as highlighted in this book.

* The first part of this chapter is based on the research lecture at the celebration of the centenary of the International Psychoanalytical Association in Berlin, 2010.

** This chapter is based on former publications (Leuzinger-Bohleber 2009, 2015).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The literature in the following section is selected illustrating some important historical and contemporary studies. For a more complete overview see Leuzinger-Bohleber and Kaechele (2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sigmund-Freud-Institut, Frankfurt, Germany

    Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber

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  1. Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber
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Correspondence to Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber .

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  1. Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Heinz Boeker

  2. Hospital of Psychiatry-Psychotherapy-Psychosomatic, General Hospital Frankfurt, Teaching Hospital of the University, Frankfurt, Germany

    Peter Hartwich

  3. Mind, Brain Imaging, and Neuroethics, Institute of Mental Health Research, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Georg Northoff

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Leuzinger-Bohleber, M. (2018). Concepts of Empirical and Clinical Research in Psychoanalysis and Neuropsychoanalysis. In: Boeker, H., Hartwich, P., Northoff, G. (eds) Neuropsychodynamic Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75112-2_28

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