Lecture 3 Neuropsychoanalysis Dreams PDF

PERSONALITY PSYU/X2234 Lecture 3: Neuropsychoanalysis & dreams A/Prof Simon Boag email: [email protected] 1 Readings (suggested) Solms, M. & Turnbull, O. H. (2011). What is neuropsychoanalysis? Neuropsychoanalysis, 13, 133-145 Blass, R. B., &...

PERSONALITY PSYU/X2234 Lecture 3: Neuropsychoanalysis & dreams A/Prof Simon Boag email: [email protected] 1 Readings (suggested) Solms, M. & Turnbull, O. H. (2011). What is neuropsychoanalysis? Neuropsychoanalysis, 13, 133-145 Blass, R. B., & Carmeli, Z. (2007). The case against Neuropsychoanalysis. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 88, 19-40 2 Outline 1. Freud & neuroscience 2. Freudian dream theory & the brain Dreams as wish-fulfilment Dreams & REM sleep Dreams & dopamine 3. Emergence of neuropsychoanalysis Revision of psychoanalytic theory: the conscious id 4. Criticisms of neuropsychoanalysis 3 1. Background Freud trained in neurology Nerve cells; lesions & aphasia Project for a Scientific Psychology (1895/1950) “The intention is to furnish a psychology that shall be a natural science: that is, to represent psychical processes as quantitatively determinate states of specifiable material particles” Neural mechanisms underlying psychodynamic concepts 4 Background “… the Project, or rather its invisible ghost, haunts the whole series of Freud's theoretical writings to the very end” (Stratchey, 1950) “We must recollect that our provisional ideas in psychology will presumably some day be based on an organic substructure” (Freud, 1914) Freud (1938/1940): pharmacological therapy for psychological disorders? 5 Personality: the conscious ego & the unconscious id Id: unconscious drives & the repressed Pleasure principle Ego: consciousness Reality principle Superego: morality Freud: the conscious ego & the brain The conscious ego & the cortex: “The ego is first and foremost a bodily ego; it is not merely a surface entity, but is itself the projection of a surface. If we wish to find an anatomical analogy for it [the ego] we can best identify it with the “cortical homunculus” of the anatomists, which stands on its head in the cortex, sticks up its heels, faces backwards &, as we know, has its speech-area on the left-hand side (Freud 1923) The id & subcortical structures 2. The interpretation of dreams (Freud, 1900) “Royal road to the Unconscious” (Freud, 1900) Id-drives & motivational states (desires) Desires, waking fantasy & sleeping fantasy Undisguised wish-fulfilment Adults: repression & censorship Regression to primary process DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY 8 “… there is a dream that I can produce in myself as often as I like—experimentally, as it were. If I eat anchovies or olives or any other highly salted food in the evening, I develop thirst during the night which wakes me up. But my waking is preceded by a dream; & this always has the same content, namely, that I am drinking. I dream I am swallowing down water in great gulps, & it has the delicious taste that nothing can equal but a cool drink when one is parched with thirst” (Freud, 1900) 9 Freud’s analysis: biological frustration & dreaming Salty foods cause dehydration Dehydration causes a ‘desire’ (or wish) to drink during sleep Dream of drinking is an imaginary (hallucinatory) satisfaction ‘Guardians of sleep’ Evidence? 10  Indirect evidence Minnesota Starvation Experiment (1944-5): “Hunger made the men obsessed with food. They would dream & fantasize about food, read & talk about food …” http://www.apa.org/monitor/201 3/10/hunger.aspx 11 How are nightmares wish-fulfilling? Psychical Conflict: “… the dreamer fighting against his own wishes is to be compared with a summation of two separate, though in some way intimately connected, people…” (Freud, 1916-17) Id-ego conflict Superego: Repression, censorship & ‘disguise’ 12 Interpreting dreams Latent content Primary process Censorship Manifest content Freud’s basic point: Dreams are meaningful & reflect our id-desires 13 Dreams & REM sleep Aserinsky & Kleitman (1953): 4 stages of non-REM sleep Rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep REM sleep occurs in 90-100 minute cycles REM associated with brainstem activation (pons) Paradoxical sleep: highly active brain (almost as if awake) 14 Dreams & REM sleep 70-95% of normal Ss report dreaming if awoken during REM sleep NREM sleep: 5-10% dreaming reports NREM sleep dreams are often impoverished (less vivid/non-visual) compared to REM dreams REM in utero Mammals & REM states 15 REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder 16 Dreams & REM sleep Allan Hobson & Robert McCarley (1977) Activation-synthesis model of dreams/AIM model Dreams occur due to chaotic brain stem activity associated with REM sleep “Motivationally neutral” Dreams are meaningless: Random images & illogical thinking Dream-bizarreness: “loss of organising capacity” (Hobson & Pace-Schott, 1999) 17 18 REM = Dreams: Problems? Dreaming can occur independently of REM sleep: i) Vivid dreaming can occur prior to REM sleep (Solms, 1999, 2000) ii) Brain-stem lesions which eliminate REM sleep do not eliminate dreaming (Bischof & Bassetti, 2004; Solms, 2000) Loss of dreaming associated with other parts of the brain 19 Dreams & psychosis 1940-1975: Schizophrenia & leucotomies (prefrontal lobotomy) to reduce psychotic symptoms Result: Cessation of dreaming & impoverished fantasy & curiosity in waking life Surgical damage to dopamine pathway 20 Neuropsychoanalysis of dreams Mesolimbic-mesocortical dopamine pathway important for dreaming (Solms, 2000) Damage to dopamine pathway: REM unaffected, but dreaming ceases Anti-psychotics which block dopamine (DA) inhibit dreaming Chemical DA stimulation: increase in frequency & vividness of dreams Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming & REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 23, 843-850 21 The role of dopamine (DA) Dopamine: motivation & reward Dopamine pathway motivates “the subject to seek out & engage with external objects which can satisfy inner biological needs” (Solms, 2000) Damage to dopamine pathway associated with reduction of motivated behaviour Dreaming-dopamine link suggest dreams are associated with desires (‘wishes’) 22 DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY 23 Drug dreams & Freudian theory Biological drive frustration paradigm (Colace, 2014) Drugs of addiction hijack the brain’s natural reward system Test of Freudian theory: do addicted individuals dream of taking drugs when undergoing withdrawal? Drug dreams & Nicotine, Alcohol, Cocaine, Amphetamines, Heroin (Colace, 2004, 2014) Dreams & gambling (Colace, 2020) 24 But what about REM theory? Then: McCarley & Hobson (1977): Dreams are “motivationally neutral” (p. 1219): meaningless, random images & now: “…. the unfettered play of dopamine in REM sleep is in keeping with the assumption that dreaming is “motivated” & that important motivational goals may be revealed in dreams” (Hobson, 2014, p. 41) Hobson (2013): Freudian dream theory is “obsolete & entirely replaceable” (p. 144) 25 3. The emergence of Neuropsychoanalysis Neuropsychoanalysis: “… a link between all of psychoanalysis & the neurosciences” (Solms & Turnbull, 2011) Subjective data alone do not provide a solid foundation for a science of psychoanalysis Can we find neuro-evidence for Freudian theory? Study of instinctual-emotional brain networks Clinical neuroscience Updating & modifying psychoanalysis based on neuroscience 26 Neuropsychoanalysis DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY 27 Neuropsychoanalysis 28 29 Can we find neural evidence for the id? Primary emotional systems Jaak Panksepp (1998, 2015): 7 subcortical ‘basic emotional command systems’ LUST, FEAR (freezing & flight), RAGE, CARE, PANIC/GRIEF (separation distress), & PLAY SEEKING (appetitive foraging): mesolimbic- mesocortical dopamine pathway Evidence: within/cross-species neural circuitry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-admRGFVNM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-84UJpYFRM 30 31  Modifying psychoanalysis Freud localised both consciousness & the ego in the cortex, but…. Problem: evidence of consciousness without the cortex eg. Hydranencephaly Sub-cortical consciousness Solms, M. (2013). The conscious id. Neuropsychoanalysis, 15, 5-19 32 The conscious id “Consciousness is not generated in the cortex; it is generated in the brainstem. Moreover, consciousness is not inherently perceptual; it is inherently affective. And in its primary manifestations, it has less to do with cognition than with instinct” (Solms, 2013) Conclusion: “… consciousness is generated in the id, & the ego is fundamentally unconscious” (Solms, 2013) 33  How has psychoanalysis responded to neuropsychoanalysis? Neuroscience irrelevant to both psychoanalytic theory & practice (Blass & Carmeli, 2007; 2015) Biologistic & reductionistic “[The] biologistic perspective that underlies neuropsychoanalysis runs counter to the essence of a psychoanalytic worldview” (Blass & Carmeli, 2007) Blass, R. B., & Carmeli, Z. V. I. (2007). The case against neuropsychoanalysis: On fallacies underlying psychoanalysis' latest scientific trend & its negative impact on psychoanalytic discourse. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 88, 19-40 34  Questions? 35