[lbo-talk] Freud's Back

snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com snitilicious at tampabay.rr.com
Tue Apr 27 17:01:14 PDT 2004


I just had a chance to look at the May issue of Scientific American. There's a pretty nifty article, "Freud Returns," by Mark Solms. Solms looks at neuroscientific work that "validates the general sketch Freud made almost a century ago. A growing group of scientists are eager to reconcile neurology and psychiatry into a unified theory." He also argues that "Freud's broad brush stroke organization of the mind is destined to play a role similar to the one Darwin's theory of evolution served for molecular genetics--a template on which emerging details can be coherently arranged. At the same time, neuroscientists are uncovering proof for some of Freud's theory and are testing out the mechanisms behind the mental processes he described."

More quotes from the article, which is only available by subscription. I'bve transcribed some, so excuse typos:

*) Unconscious Motivation

Neuroscientists (NS) have outlined different memory systems that process information "explicitly" (consciously) and "implicitly (unconsciously).

NSs have discovered "unconscious memory systems that mediate emotional learning. ...LeDoux demonstrated the existence under the conscious cortex of neuronal pathway that connects perceptual information with the primitive brain structures responsible for generating fear responses. Because this pathway bypasses the hippocampus--which generates conscious memories--current events routinely trigger unconscious remembrances of emotionally important past events, causing conscious feelings that seem irrational..."

"NS has also shown that the major brain structures essential for forming conscious (explicit) memories are not functional during the first two years of life, providing an elegant explanation of what Freud called infantile amnesia. As Freud surmised, it's not that we forget our earliest memories; we simply cannot recall them to consciousness. But this inability does not preclude them from affecting adult feelings and behavior."

*) The Pleasure Principle

If Freud was right, then damage to the inhibitory structures of the brain (the seat of the repressing ego') should release wishful, irrational modes of mental functioning. This is precisely what has been observed in patients with damage to the frontal limbic region, which controls critical aspects of self-awareness. Subjects display a striking syndrome known as Korsakoff's psychosis: they are unaware that they are amnesic and fill the gaps in their memory with fabricated stories known as confabulations." ..

"What strikes the observer is the wishful quality of these false notions, an impression that Fotopoulou confirmed objectively through quantitative analysis of a consecutive series of 155 of his confabulations. The patient's false beliefs were not random noise--they were generated by the "pleasure principle" that Freud maintained was central to unconscious thought. ... (D)amage to the frontal limbic region that produces confabulations impairs cognitive control mechanisms that underpin normal reality monitoring and releases from inhibition the implicit wishful influences on perception, memory, and judgement."

*) Animal Within

"Modern neuroscientists do not accept Freud's classification of human instinctual life as a simple dichotomy between sexuality and aggression, however. Instead, through studies of lesions and the effects of drugs and artificial stimulation on the brain, they have identified at least four basic mammalian instinctual circuits, some of which overlap.

They are the "seeking" or "reward" system (which motivates the pursuit of pleasure); the "anger-rage" system (which governs angry aggression) but not predatory aggression); the "fear anxiety" system; and the "panic" system (which includes complex instincts such as those that govern social bonding.)

...

The seeking system, regulated by the neurotransmitter dopamine, bears a remarkable resemblance to the Freudian "libido." Modern research shows that is neural equivalent is heavily implicated in almost all forms of craving and addiction.



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