Editors
Maggie Zellner, Editor: mzellner@npsafoundation.org
David Olds, Target Articles Editor: ddolds@msn.com
Description
Our journal creates an ongoing dialogue with the aim of reconciling psychoanalytic and neuroscientific perspectives on the mind. This goal is based on the assumption that these two historically divided disciplines are ultimately pursuing the same task, namely, ‘attempt[ing] to make the complications of mental functioning intelligible by dissecting the function and assigning its different constituents to different component parts of the [mental] apparatus’ (Freud, 1900a, p. 536). Notwithstanding the fact that psychoanalysis and neuroscience have approached this important scientific task from radically different perspectives, the underlying unity of purpose has become increasingly evident in recent years as neuroscientists have begun to investigate those ‘complications of mental functioning’ that were traditionally the preserve of psychoanalysts. This has produced an explosion of new insights into problems of vital interest to psychoanalysis, but these insights have only begun to be reconciled with existing psychoanalytic theories and models. Likewise, neuroscientists tackling these complex problems of human subjectivity for the first time have much to learn from a century of psychoanalytic inquiry.
Neuropsychoanalysis publishes unsolicited original articles on any topic that can facilitate consilience between psychoanalysis and neuroscience. Scientific (i.e., clinical or experimental) contributions are especially welcome, but space is also provided for submissions on scholarly topics of relevant interdisciplinary interest (e.g., history of medicine, philosophy of mind). All papers are subject to peer review before they are accepted for publication.
In addition, target papers on selected themes or topics are solicited from leading researchers, and published together with invited commentaries from both psychoanalytic and neuroscientific peers. For example, in the first issue, a leading neuroscientist working on the neurobiology of emotion was asked to critically evaluate Freudian affect theory in the light of his own research, and a group of distinguished psychoanalysts and neuroscientists were asked to consider Freud’s theory and the neuroscientific commentary from their different points of view. A similar, extended dialogue on the subject of dreaming appeared in the second issue of the journal. Subsequent issues have included dialogues on consciousness, confabulation, anosognosia and neglect, schizophrenia, and memory.
Conventional ‘letters to the editors’ – on any subject, submitted by regular or electronic mail – are also welcome. Other regular features include book reviews, a research digest containing brief descriptions of recent scientific papers of interest, and regional bulletins which report news from neuropsychoanalytic study groups, research centers, and the like, around the world.
Submission guidelines
Neuropsychoanalysis uses a peer-review system based around electronic submission. Authors are requested to send their manuscripts to the Journal Administrator (journal@neuropsa.org) or to Maggie Zellner, Editor (mzellner@npsafoundation.org). The physical address for contacting the journal is: c/o The International Neuropsychoanalysis Centre, 13 Prowse Place, London, NW1 9PN, U.K.
Submitted manuscripts should include on the title page the author’s full name, affiliation, address, telephone number, facsimile number, and email address, as well as a 200-word abstract of the paper. For more details on formatting and other submission guidelines, please visit the journal’s website at www.neuropsa.org.uk/journal/guidelines-for-authors.