Metaphor: A Fascinating Philosophic Puzzle Piece With Neuro-Psychoanalytic (NP) Implications

Abstract

In 1980 a number of scholars independently discovered methods for studying “aha” reactions, and the role of metaphorical language in human activities. I see my work as parallel to that of Lester Luborsky, Arnold Model, and Lakoff and Johnson, but with a special interest on my part in bridging psychological and biological perspectives. In my article, I review the history of my own voyage towards such bridging, portrayed in my books, Mapping the Mind (2003a) and Psyche and Brain (2003c), and papers tying together affect theory, learning theory, cognitive theory, and neuroscience insights on how emotion is instantiated in brain (and the role of the cerebellum). Basically, the idea is that mind makes brain makes mind makes brain—ad infinitum. Building on the work of Eric Kandel (on explicit memory) and Masao Ito (on implicit memory), we end up with new ways of understanding emotion and Freud's conscious/unconscious distinction.

Notes

¹Another example of biology trumping everything else is the new finding that autistic individuals lack proper functioning mirror neurons (Theoret et al., 2005; Williams, Whiten, Suddendorf, and Perrett, 2001), and this is why they often fail at being empathic.