Neo-psychoanalysis: a paradigm for the 21st century

Freud's metapsychological assumption, splitting mind from brain, created two major and unsolved problems: the relation of the mind with the brain and with outer reality. Recently neuroscientists have focused on the first problem, often basing their work on a category error (mereological fallacy). The second problem may be avoided by considering the coevolution of mind/brain, and by recognizing a non-dualistic symbiosis. Psychodynamic science, built largely on a century of psychoanalytic progress, is proposed as a coequal partner with traditional science in the effort to better understand the theory of knowledge, a central problem of both disciplines. Group selection and downward causation contribute to the recognition of neo-psychoanalysis, a new paradigm to complement the traditional viewpoint. The new view will permit a reunion between traditional and psychodynamic science. Recent fMRI and other data are presented in support of this view.