The Clinical Effectiveness of Psychoanalysis Today: Freud’s Living Legacy, Neuroscience, and the Brain with Dr. Mark Solms #91

Jun 3

In this episode of Doorknob Comments, Fara and Grant are joined by Professor Mark Solms, a psychoanalyst, neuropsychologist, and pioneering figure in neuropsychoanalysis. Professor Solms discusses his new book, The Only Cure: Freud and the Neuroscience of Mental Healing, and explores what it means to translate Freud from the language of early psychoanalysis into the language of contemporary neuroscience. He brings a critical scientific perspective to psychoanalysis while asking what psychoanalysis can still offer modern psychiatry and brain science.

Listeners will learn about Freud’s pioneering work in neuroscience, and what inspired his shift toward psychological methods for understanding mental and brain function. The conversation explores why subjectivity matters, how feelings and emotional drives shape behavior, and how functionalist approaches to the mind can bridge psychoanalysis, neuropsychiatry, and contemporary neuroscience. They also discuss TMS, deep brain stimulation, neuroplasticity, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, and the need for an integrated psychiatry that takes biology, psychology, and lived experience seriously.

We hope you enjoy it.