Will neurobiology influence psychoanalysis?

Neurobiologic research has begun to elucidate brain mechanisms of affective states and behavioral patterns. Discussions of anxiety and sexual identity demonstrate how these researches lead the psychoanalyst to broader views of behaviors that were previously considered entirely psychological in origin. While introspection and extrospection are distinct realms of investigation and conceptualization, they share common boundaries and areas of interpenetration. Psychoanalytic theory is challenged to accord with newer findings in biology and to provide important questions for further research. Neurobiologic advances will continue a centuries-old process of confining the realm of psyche, but there is no danger that mind will disappear.