Neuropsychoanalysis seeks to utilize essential insights provided by psychoanalytic theory as well as philosophical phenomenology to build a bridge between an evolutionarily and phenomenologically sound understanding of social behavior, on the one hand, and basic neurosciences, on the other. The contention is that a synthesis of psychoanalysis--arguably the evolutionarily most sensible framework for understanding the mind--with the neurosciences is unavoidable if we want to understand how the brain has evolved for, and subserves, complex motivational-emotional processes and behavioral phenomena in interpersonal and social contexts. Attempts to relate neuroscience data to psychopathology and sociology, and on a more fundamental level to unify the social and psychological sciences with the physical sciences, are plagued by seemingly insurmountable conceptual problems attributable in part to the continuing dominance of cognitivist frameworks. It is in overcoming these conceptual problems that psychoanalysis will have to play a key role. |