Thinking Here and Now –
Conversation with Innovators in Psychotherapy (zoom)
Aner Govrin and Sharon Ziv-Beiman hosting
a conversation with
Mark Solms
What do therapists need to know about the brain to better help their patients?
Sunday, May 29th, 2022
7:30pm - 9:15 pm (Israel Time; UTC+2) (12:30pm, New York Time)
Prof. Mark Solms is one of the most innovative and prolific psychoanalysts that lives today. He has invested his entire career and vast energies to integrate neuroscientific studies within psychoanalytic theory. Neuropsychoanalysis has led under his leadership to discoveries in the fields of dreams, trauma, memory, affect, and motivation as well as theories of the mind that can shed new light on clinical work. Study groups in dozens of countries work together to discuss how brain research can be used in clinical practice (Irith Barzel-Raveh is the founder and chairperson of the Israeli Neuropsychoanalysis Society).
Solms' clear message is that findings from brain research enhance the growth of therapeutic options and enable psychoanalysis to work more successfully. This message was welcomed by many psychoanalysts across the world but, also raised objections and criticism.
Solms is not just a gifted theoretician. He has developed a vision of psychoanalytic treatment based on neuroscience and he recommends a particular way of working with patients. Solms is also the authorized editor and translator of the forthcoming Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 volumes) and Complete Neuroscientific Works of Sigmund Freud (4 volumes).
In this conversation, Aner Govrin and Sharon Ziv-Beiman will discuss with Mark Solms his unique therapeutic method informed by neuroscience. Topics that will be discussed: What are neuropsychoanalytically informed psychotherapy approaches, what psychoanalytic ideas have been validated from neuroscience and which were refuted? Is the use of interpretations of unconscious conflict consistent with neuropsychoanalytic studies? We will also discuss Solms' project of translating Sigmund Freud's writings into English: Why do we need a new Freud's English translation and what will be the main differences between Strachey's translation and his?
Professor Mark Solms is a member of the British Psychoanalytical Society and of the American and South African Psychoanalytic Associations. He is the Director of Neuropsychology at the Neuroscience Institute of the 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 papers and eight books, the latest being The Hidden Spring (Norton, 2021). He is the authorized editor and 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).