Mark Solmes is among the most innovative and prolific psychoanalysts alive today. He has devoted his best years and inexhaustible energies to integrating brain research with psychoanalytic theory. Under his leadership, neuropsychoanalysis has led to discoveries in the fields of dreams, trauma, memory, affect, and motivation, which shed new light on clinical work. Research groups in dozens of countries are working together to discuss how brain research can be used in clinical practice (Irit Barzel Raveh founded and heads the Israeli Neuropsychoanalytic Society).

Solmes's clear message is that findings from brain research improve therapeutic understanding and clinical interventions. This message has been welcomed by many psychoanalysts around the world, but has also provoked objections and criticism.

Solmes is not only a gifted theorist. He developed a vision of psychoanalytic therapy based on neuroscience and he recommends a particular way of working with patients. Solmes is also the editor and authorized translator of the revised standard edition of the writings of Sigmund Freud (24 volumes) together with Freud's neurological writings (4 volumes).

In this conversation, Aner Govrin and Sharon Ziv-Beiman will discuss with Mark Solmes the unique psychoanalytic method he developed under the influence of brain research. Topics to be discussed: How do brain studies contribute to patient diagnosis? What are the approaches to psychotherapy that are guided by brain research? Which psychoanalytic ideas have been validated by neuroscience and which have been refuted? Is the use of interpretations to raise awareness of unconscious conflict consistent with neuropsychological research? We will also discuss Solmes' project to translate Sigmund Freud's writings into English: Why do we need a new English translation of Freud and what will be the main differences between James Strachey's translation and Solmes' translation?

Professor Mark Solmes is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Association and the American and South African Psychoanalytic Associations. He is Director of Neuropsychology at the Institute of Neuroscience, University of Cape Town. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Sigourney Prize. He has published 350 scientific articles, and eight books, the latest of which is The Hidden Spring ( Norton, 2021). He is the editor and authorized translator of the forthcoming revised standard edition of The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 volumes) and The Complete Neuroscientific Works of Sigmund Freud (4 volumes).