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The Theme of the Self and the Relationship Between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience

Received: 29 November 2021    Accepted: 23 December 2021    Published: 29 December 2021
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Abstract

The theme of the Self helps to enlighten the relationship «by difference» between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. They in fact investigate human subjectivity by different methods, conceptual and linguistic systems. The psychoanalytical models of the Self as the experience that everyone has of himself and the psychoanalytical models of the Self as a set of representations within the Ego, easily converge towards an unified theory of subjectivity. The comparison with the main neurobiological models of the Self shows that the aim of founding this theory to a neurobiological ground encounters great empirical and logical difficulties. This highlights the limits of the program of the reduction-identification of psychoanalytical with neurobiological concepts, based on finding correlations «point-by-point» between the two disciplines. The «correlationism» driving the comparisons between psychoanalysis and neuroscience subtends the neurobiological foundation of psychoanalysis and its ontological and methodological subordination to neuroscience. The relationship between the two disciplinary areas proposed in this work is based instead on the principle of the difference of perspectives and of the complexity of reality. It substitutes the aim of the reduction-identification of psychoanalytical with neurobiological concepts with an epistemological pluralism promoting their dialectical confrontation in sight of the continuos deepening of the knowledge of human subjectivity.

Published in American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience (Volume 9, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajpn.20210904.19
Page(s) 189-200
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Complexity, Ego, Epistemological Pluralism, Neuroscience, Psychoanalysis, Reduction-Identification, Self, Subjectivity

References
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Giorgio Mattana. (2021). The Theme of the Self and the Relationship Between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience. American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, 9(4), 189-200. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20210904.19

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    ACS Style

    Giorgio Mattana. The Theme of the Self and the Relationship Between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience. Am. J. Psychiatry Neurosci. 2021, 9(4), 189-200. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20210904.19

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    AMA Style

    Giorgio Mattana. The Theme of the Self and the Relationship Between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience. Am J Psychiatry Neurosci. 2021;9(4):189-200. doi: 10.11648/j.ajpn.20210904.19

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajpn.20210904.19,
      author = {Giorgio Mattana},
      title = {The Theme of the Self and the Relationship Between Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience},
      journal = {American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience},
      volume = {9},
      number = {4},
      pages = {189-200},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajpn.20210904.19},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajpn.20210904.19},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajpn.20210904.19},
      abstract = {The theme of the Self helps to enlighten the relationship «by difference» between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. They in fact investigate human subjectivity by different methods, conceptual and linguistic systems. The psychoanalytical models of the Self as the experience that everyone has of himself and the psychoanalytical models of the Self as a set of representations within the Ego, easily converge towards an unified theory of subjectivity. The comparison with the main neurobiological models of the Self shows that the aim of founding this theory to a neurobiological ground encounters great empirical and logical difficulties. This highlights the limits of the program of the reduction-identification of psychoanalytical with neurobiological concepts, based on finding correlations «point-by-point» between the two disciplines. The «correlationism» driving the comparisons between psychoanalysis and neuroscience subtends the neurobiological foundation of psychoanalysis and its ontological and methodological subordination to neuroscience. The relationship between the two disciplinary areas proposed in this work is based instead on the principle of the difference of perspectives and of the complexity of reality. It substitutes the aim of the reduction-identification of psychoanalytical with neurobiological concepts with an epistemological pluralism promoting their dialectical confrontation in sight of the continuos deepening of the knowledge of human subjectivity.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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  • Italian Psychoanalytical Society (SPI), Rome, Italy

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