Where psychoanalysis meets the science of the brain.

Neuropsychoanalysis studies mind and brain as one. Our work rests on three pillars: the affective neuroscience of Jaap Panksepp, the free-energy theory of Karl Friston, and the neuropsychoanalytic synthesis of Mark Solms. Together they form a framework in which subjective experience, emotion, and the deep architecture of the brain can be studied as a single, continuous question.

At the centre of our research stands the science of consciousness: how felt experience arises from the living brain, and why affect — the capacity to feel — lies at the very foundation of mental life. From this starting point we develop the theoretical foundations of neuropsychoanalysis — conceptual work in the humanities tradition that takes the brain sciences seriously while doing justice to the complexity of the human mind.

We are equally committed to building a bridge into clinical practice. The insights of neuropsychoanalysis are meant to shape how we understand and treat psychological suffering, connecting foundational research with psychoanalytic theory-building and the realities of the consulting room.

To do this well, the Institute works internationally. We bring together research and ideas across disciplines and borders, and we connect the people who carry them — researchers and clinicians, theorists and practitioners — in a shared effort to understand the feeling, thinking human being.