Northoff Georg, Bermpohl Felix, Schoeneich Frank, Boeker Heinz
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
Psychother Psychosom. 2007;76(3):141-53. doi: 10.1159/000099841.
Current progress in the cognitive and affective neurosciences is constantly influencing the development of psychoanalytic theory and practice. However, despite the emerging dialogue between neuroscience and psychoanalysis, the neuronal processes underlying psychoanalytic constructs such as defense mechanisms remain unclear. One of the main problems in investigating the psychodynamic-neuronal relationship consists in systematically linking the individual contents of first-person subjective experience to third-person observation of neuronal states. We therefore introduced an appropriate methodological strategy, 'first-person neuroscience', which aims at developing methods for systematically linking first- and third-person data. The utility of first-person neuroscience can be demonstrated by the example of the defense mechanism of sensorimotor regression as paradigmatically observed in catatonia. Combined psychodynamic and imaging studies suggest that sensorimotor regression might be associated with dysfunction in the neural network including the orbitofrontal, the medial prefrontal and the premotor cortices. In general sensorimotor regression and other defense mechanisms are psychoanalytic constructs that are hypothesized to be complex emotional-cognitive constellations. In this paper we suggest that specific functional mechanisms which integrate neuronal activity across several brain regions (i.e. neuronal integration) are the physiological substrates of defense mechanisms. We conclude that first-person neuroscience could be an appropriate methodological strategy for opening the door to a better understanding of the neuronal processes of defense mechanisms and their modulation in psychoanalytic psychotherapy.
认知神经科学和情感神经科学的当前进展不断影响着精神分析理论与实践的发展。然而，尽管神经科学与精神分析之间正在展开对话，但诸如防御机制等精神分析概念背后的神经过程仍不清楚。研究心理动力学与神经关系的主要问题之一在于，如何将第一人称主观体验的个体内容与对神经状态的第三人称观察系统地联系起来。因此，我们引入了一种合适的方法论策略——“第一人称神经科学”，其旨在开发将第一人称和第三人称数据系统联系起来的方法。第一人称神经科学的效用可以通过紧张症中典型观察到的感觉运动退行防御机制的例子来证明。综合心理动力学和影像学研究表明，感觉运动退行可能与包括眶额皮质、内侧前额叶皮质和运动前皮质在内的神经网络功能障碍有关。一般来说，感觉运动退行和其他防御机制是精神分析概念，被假设为复杂的情绪 - 认知组合。在本文中，我们认为整合多个脑区神经元活动的特定功能机制（即神经元整合）是防御机制的生理基础。我们得出结论，第一人称神经科学可能是一种合适的方法论策略，有助于更好地理解防御机制的神经过程及其在精神分析心理治疗中的调节作用。
