Review of neo-psychoanalysis and its contributions to clinical psychology

Since its inception Psychoanalysis has been widely studied. It was initially created by Freud and throughout history it has been one of the most influential models for explaining human behavior through unconscious processes. Freud had several disciples, some of them (Adler, Jung) had differences with him and decided to create their own model of Psychoanalysis. The contributions of these and others of the followers of Freud like Horney, Sullivan and Erikson formed the bases of what today is known as neo-psychoanalysis. The founders of neo-psychoanalysis in general renounce the sexual theory of neurosis proposed by Freud and concentrate on other aspects of the person. In PsicologíaOnline, with the present work, we make a review on neo-psychoanalysis and its founders, we also present the contributions of neo-psychoanalysts to the field of psychology clinic. Keep reading and discover a wide review of neo-psychoanalysis and its contributions to clinical psychology.

Index

1. Introduction to the contributions of neo-psychoanalysis to clinical psychology
2. Psychoanalysis and neopsychoanalysis and their authors
3. Other authors of neopsicoanálsis and therapeutic strategies
4. Fundamental principles of psychoanalysis
5. Discussion
6. Conclusions

The purpose of this work is to expose to the scientific community the main features of the Neopsicoanalyst perspectives since the information on Neo-psychoanalysis is scarce, sometimes being excluded from the literature and the scientific field, despite the fact that the structure of current psychology has psychoanalytic foundations and aspects of the personality that were originally designed by Neopsicoanalysts. Which are the Contributions of Neopsicoanalysis to Clinical Psychology?, in this work it is pointed out that there are several aspects in the work of Neopsicoanalysts that can be considered as contributions relevant to Clinical Psychology, that is why this work emphasizes such aspects and we intend to make them visible for their analysis.

Freud's contradictions with some of his disciples were the first historical step for the emergence of Neo-psychoanalysis. Among the first analysts to break with Freud and develop their own schools of thought are Alfred Adler and Carl G. Jung. Both were first important followers of Freud, Adler was president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and Jung president of the International Psychoanalytic Society. Both parted ways Freud because they felt there was an overemphasis on sexual drives. For 10 years Adler was an active member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. However, in 1911, when he presented his ideas to the other members of this group, his response was so hostile that he had to leave it to form his own school of Individual Psychology. Adler placed greater emphasis on social urges and conscious thoughts rather than instinctual sexual urges and unconscious processes. He later became interested in psychological inferiority feelings and compensatory efforts to mask or reduce these painful feelings. Adler viewed defenses as manifestations of compensatory efforts against feelings of inferiority associated with a childhood weakness, how the person tries to cope with those feelings becomes part of their style of life. Adler spoke of the will to power as an expression of a person's efforts to cope with feelings of weakness stemming from childhood. Adler's theory emphasizes the way in which people respond to feelings about themselves, how they respond to goals that guide their behavior toward the future and how sibling birth order can influence development psychological.

Jung separated from Freud in 1914, a few years after Adler, and developed his own school of thought called Analytical Psychology. Like Adler, Jung disagreed with what he felt was an overemphasis on sexuality. In fact, Jung viewed libido as a generalized life energy. Although sexuality is part of this basic energy, libido also includes other impulses for pleasure and creativity. Jung accepted Freud's emphasis on the unconscious but added the concept of the collective unconscious. According to Jung, people have stored inside their collective unconscious the cumulative experiences of previous generations. The collective unconscious, unlike the personal unconscious, is shared by all human beings as a result of common race. Jung points out that an important part of the collective unconscious is the universal images or symbols, known as archetypes. Jung emphasized the way in which people fight against the opposing forces within. He also claimed that there was a struggle between the male part (animus) and a female part (anima) of human beings.

Karen horney she was educated as a traditional analyst in Germany and came to the United States in 1932. She soon after she broke away from traditional psychoanalytic thought and developed her own theoretical orientation and psychoanalytic training program. Freud's statements regarding women made Horney think about the importance of cultural influence on neuroses. Horney's emphasis on neurotic functioning is on the way individuals attempt to cope basic anxiety, a child's feeling of being isolated and weak in a potentially hostile. According to her theory of neurosis, in the neurotic person there is a conflict between the three ways of responding to this basic anxiety. These three types, or neurotic tendencies, are known as approaching, confronting, withdrawing. In the approach, the person tries to cope with anxiety by being overly interested in being accepted, needed, and approved of. In confrontation, the person assumes that all people are hostile and that life is a fight against everyone. In withdrawal, the third component of conflict, the person withdraws from other people in a neurotic act of separation. Although each neurotic person shows one or another tendency as a special aspect of his personality, the The problem is actually that there is a conflict between the three tendencies in their effort to manage anxiety basic.

Harry sullivan he never had direct contact with Freud and was the one who most emphasized the role of social and interpersonal forces in human development. In fact, his theory is known as the Theory of Interpersonal Psychiatry. Sullivan placed great importance on the early relationships between the child and the mother, as well as the development of anxiety and a sense of self. The mother can communicate anxiety in the first interactions with the child. For Sullivan the "self" has a social origin and develops from the feelings experienced in contact with others and reflected appreciations or perceptions that the child makes of the way in which he is valued or appreciated by the the rest. The self is in relation to the experience of anxiety as opposed to security, therefore there is the good self that is associated with pleasant experiences, the bad self, which is associated with pain and security threats, and not self, or the part of the self that is rejected because it is associated with anxiety intolerable.

Erik erikson one of the leading psychoanalysts of the ego, he describes development in psychosocial terms rather than merely sexual, Erikson emphasized the psychosocial as well as the instinctual bases for personality development; he extended the stages of development to include the entire life cycle and articulated the major psychological problems faced in those later stages; He recognized that people look to the future as well as the past and the way they build their Future can be as significant a part of the personality as the way in which they interpret their past. Erikson developed a psychosocial theory that emphasizes the mutual adaptation between the individual and the environment, underlining the role that Freud, assigned to the self, but provides it with other qualities such as the need for trust, hope, skill, intimacy, love and integrity. He viewed the self as a creative force that allows one to handle problems effectively. Erikson believes that development is a life-long process, his point of view reflects his concern for the interpersonal and cultural needs of the developing individual. He describes a life cycle of stages, each of which presents the individual with the tasks that he must carry out. Failure to resolve conflicts in a particular stage makes coping more difficult in later stages. Erikson's stages range from gaining a sense of trust towards others to being satisfied with oneself. himself and his own achievements, as well as a sense of order and meaning in life that unfolds in recent years. years. He was more optimistic than Freud in his belief that the ego could dominate both instinctual drives and environmental challenges, resulting in a life of relative satisfaction. Erikson was particularly interested in a person's ability to achieve mastery as well as creativity.

Among the most followed reworkings of psychoanalysis today is that of Jacques lacan who bases his theory on structuralist linguistics by stating that the unconscious is constructed as a language. With Lacan a new bridge is built between psychoanalysis and linguistics that revolutionizes psychological theory and practice, especially psychotherapy; which is why some theorists regard him as the most important psychoanalyst after Freud. Wilhelm Reich also requires special mention, among his contributions to a new psychoanalytic vision of the psyche are: his interpretation of neurosis as derived from a reactivation of libido in his theory of the vital energy of orgone or bions and the use of psychophysical experiments and the creation of teams to demonstrate his theories and transform the mental states of the subjects in substitution of the traditional psychoanalytic verbal therapies, as well as, for example, their so-called "Vegetable therapy". It is also necessary to mention because of its importance for a psychoanalytic interpretation of children's psychic development, the work of Ana Freud who can be considered as the founder of the child psychoanalysis and Melanie Klein who stressed the importance of play for the knowledge of the infantile unconscious and the determining role of the mother in the psyche of children. minors. Subsequently, a strong Neopsicoanalytic movement develops that reaches our days in multiple schools and theories that carry out their own elaborations from Freudian notions about the psyche such as the unconscious, instincts, sexuality, individual experience and traumatic experiences (particularly in early childhood), personality dynamics, normal and pathological, psychoanalytic method, etc.

Regarding Freud's contributions to psychology, Antonio Damasio states: “As the years go by and we accumulate more data on the functioning of the brain, people will increasingly realize that neurology confirms many of the ideas of Freud ”. (cited in Paniagua, 2004). In 1958, Geoffrey Gorer wrote about the “diluted influence” of psychoanalysis in our culture: “Thanks to Freud's work the weak and the disinherited are commonly treated with solicitude and compassion, and with an attempt at understanding that constitutes one of the few changes that we need not be ashamed of in the climate of opinion of the present century ”(quoted in Waelder, 1960). By "diluted influence", this British anthropologist was referring precisely to the repercussions of Freud's ideas in fields other than the clinical application of psychoanalysis. There has been a debate over the years about Neopsicoanalytic theories, and according to Ramirez, J. (2006), most texts that are produced by parts of some analysts, reflects an attitude very close to the devaluation that many theorists of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies attribute to the psychoanalytic clinic for not throw empirically demonstrable data.

Ramirez J. (2006) also point out that over time psychoanalysis it has been taken as an antagonist of the scientific procedure, since its main substrate is on the side of the immaterial and away from the conscience linked to reason.

It is difficult to summarize the advances that have been made in psychoanalytic therapy in recent years because they are so many and so varied that many times they have come to constitute theoretical and therapeutic systems by themselves. It does not refer to those who from the beginning did not agree with its basic postulates of Freudian psychoanalysis (Jung, Adler, Rank) Explicitly, today it is accepted that the term "psychoanalysis" is reserved for those models that are based on the discoveries of Sigmund Freud. With this consideration in mind, a certain (very arbitrary) classification of the advances and extensions that psychoanalysis has had can be attempted, depending on:

• The age of the patient and the type of pathology: regarding the first, psychoanalysis is currently applied to practically the entire age range: children (A. Freud, Jelin) adolescents (Bos), adults and young people (who has always been the main group) and even the elderly. Regarding the type of pathology, it has already been indicated that, today, psychoanalysis is carried out with the majority of psychopathology, apart from neuroses: psychotic (Rosenfeld, Searles), borderline personality disorders (Kernberg), narcissistic disorders (Kohut, Kernberg), psychopathic personalities, sexual dysfunctions, psychosomatic disorders and even some addictions (as a complement to other treatments), among others.
• The treatment modality: in addition to individual therapy, psychoanalysis is applied to couples (Dicks, Willi, Laemaire), groups (Bion, Foulkes, Anzieu, Kaës, Yalom), families, educational systems (Pichón Reviére, Bleger), institutions (Schavartein), etc.
• The element of theory that stands out: ego psychology (Hartmann, Lowenstein, Kris), object relations theory (Klei, Fairbasir, Balint, Kernberg), narcissism (Kohut, the process of separation-individuation (Mahler), language and the signifier (Lacan), among others.

Making a review on the contributions of Neo-psychoanalysis to the field of clinical psychology, we can start from the investigations of Alfred Adler and William Glasser, Adler (1870-1937), Neo-Freudian Austrian psychoanalyst, known for his approach to Individual Psychology and William Glasser (1925-), American psychiatrist, humanist creator of Reality Therapy and Reality Therapy Choice. These two theorists made proposals on the explanations of criminal conduct and the aspects to be taken into account by psychologists and other researchers in order to understand this threat world. Both Adler and Glasser made observations from jails and mental hospitals. Adler has been considered as a forerunner of humanism in European psychology, while Glasser became famous with his controversial views on the criminal personality. Adler is one of the first theorists to raise the particularity of conscious decision of the self and to postulate conscious responsibility for decisions. Adler's vision was of a composite but functionally unitary personality. He gave great importance to the social processes of the person and where the human being is born with a great feeling of inferiority that motivates you consciously or unconsciously to fight for your overcoming.

Feist and Feist (cited in Vásquez, 2008) show a longitudinal study by Douglas Daugherty, Michael Murphy and Justin Paugh (2001), who confirms the relationship between low levels of social interest and behavior criminal. Although the researchers differentiate between two types of criminals found in the prisons they studied, those of low social interest and those of normal social interest, found that those with low social interest, upon being released, tended to reoffend more frequently while those who showed good level of social interest showed better adaptive tendencies, reintegrating into society (work, family, community) and avoiding falling back into the jails. An interesting and detailed study on the crime of the seventies in Guadalajara, Mexico (Jiménez, 2006), coincides with the demographic characteristics indicated by Adler related to the effect of the failed sense of community. It was found that most of the incarcerated people resided in areas with few resources and services, many of them came from other States and were living temporarily (residents, migrants) in Guadalajara with difficulties of community integration, and most had very low schooling (48% did not exceeded primary education, only 16% started, but did not finish, secondary school education, 20% had no schooling, and only 8% had degree).

On the other hand, the Dr. Bernardo Kliksberg (2001) in their article entitled The growth of crime in Latin America: An urgent issue, indicates another social condition, also pointed out by Adler as a predisposing factor to criminality and neuroticism, referring to the conditions of job. In his book, The Meaning of Life (1935), Adler identified some specific characteristics of the criminal personality, suggesting a typology of deviant behavior. In summary, the cause of crime in Adler responds to three central postulates of his theory of Psychology Individual: mismanaged feeling of inferiority, misdirected need for power, and failing or weak sense of community. Failure is a disastrous psychological and social experience that produces unhealthy lifestyles. It is useless to continue working with the isolated person in their context without executing models of social transformation.

Glasser For his part, he considers that the human being is responsible for finding appropriate satisfaction of both needs and cannot be considered a victim of anything or anyone, but he assumes this responsibility, is responsible even for its deficiency, a matter that has been very controversial since they contradict the public, judicial and forensic policy of irresponsibility by victimizing the mentally ill. The human being learns to be free to the extent that he learns to exercise his choices and assume the responsibility to find the key person in your life with whom you can channel and meet your needs emotional In general, Adler and Glasser propose the following perspectives: The importance of the processes of awareness, the responsibility approach, the importance of the decision-making process, the humanism.

Méndez, Ibáñez and Ramos (1999) reveal in a study with two patients with depression two paths that the psychoanalytic model can take, both treatments are carried out within the framework of a Mental Health Service of the Community of Madrid with a frame of a weekly session and a duration limited to one year. In one of the patients, the therapeutic objective was to try to understand the patient by working on the specific theme that appears in her speech, this is, seeking to diminish his persecutory guilt by offering a model of a superego mandate that is less demanding or more in line with the sense of reality. In the other patient, the objective was to open a framework in which the symptomatic complaint could be exposed without question, trying to articulate it with the rest of the components of the personality in a double scope: articulation with itself same. This study shows that many patients do not have the ability to represent causes and effects, attribute and experience intentionality to their behavior or feelings, for which Psychoanalytic therapeutic work does not focus in these patients on revealing meanings, but on creating them within the framework of the relationship therapeutic, the therapist's interventions focused on helping the patient to experience the meaning itself, dispelling doubts about the validity of its experience. The current psychotherapeutic work has different therapeutic approaches, however it also defends the implantation of combined or multidimensional treatments necessary the more serious the psychopathological disorders are to try.

Investigations of Margareth Mahler on the early stages of childhood have allowed us to understand in detail the processes of individuation and early identity formation. Her contributions to the clinical field have provided more precise information on the development of object relations. The relevance of Mahler's (1975) studies is due, in large part, to his methodological strategy, in the which direct observation of children was always connected with casuistic inquiry and interpretation theoretical. This allowed him to avoid a limited empiricist model.

The study of Valadez (2006) on the relationship of emotion with cognition in creativity: Carl Gustav Jung's case study reveals some of his contributions to current psychology. Jung was introduced to his own unconscious world and this is how he configures his theory of the collective unconscious, Jung structured his own experience as a scientific project. With this it follows that there is an inseparable process between theory, experience and method, a hallmark that has been characteristic of the Neopsicoanalysts. This extends even beyond cognition and with this it is endorsed that emotions are equally important insofar as they become a way of knowledge; and they can show the process of setting up a new symbolic field.

In order to Lacan (1966) in "Science and Truth", the subject of the cogito inaugurated the path of modern science, which is why this step has been necessary for the very emergence of psychoanalysis; while the subject on which it operates is the subject of science. Lacan proposes that science itself gives way to the creation of the idea of ​​the unconscious because from the void that it generates through language, the unconscious will speak from that point of view. site, understanding that science by expelling the subject relegates him to a function that only by considering the effect of language will be able to account for its existence as an effect of that empty. Lacan (1964), affirms that psychoanalytic therapy will be understood as a concerted action by the man, who gives him the possibility of treating the real through the symbolic, consisting precisely in making talk. There is a point within the very act of speaking that can evoke the depths of each subject, elucidating a relationship between word and desire, via affect. In contrast, there are the actions of some specialists, who pay little attention to saying about each “patient”.

In more recent research Ramirez (2007) makes an approach on psychoanalysis and special education with children; within his contribution he mentions that for Pernicone (2001), it is essential to know how to listen to the child with special educational needs, since he has a need and own right to express, as a subject, his suffering and to be treated as something more than a mere object-body. That is why there must be a special psychoanalysis for these diagnosed special needs, which adapts its clinic and approaches to the demands of the particular language emitted by the subject who shouts for being attended. Ranieri (2000) mentions that to speak of the intervention of a psychoanalyst within the constitution of the subject, The example given by the analytical clinic with children is enough, which acts from the construction of the scene of the play. This act, which not only accompanies and entertains, constitutes a model of expression (in some cases the only one), since it includes the approach of its close relationship with fantasy. Thus, it is possible to speak of a language that is expressed in such a daily way that it is often neglected.

Melanie Klein he works the game's conception in his article The personification of play in children (1929), where he makes explicit the way in which the game serves as a representation of the child's fantasies, desires and unconscious experiences that he cannot convey with words. This means that the anguish generated in the development process becomes a later symptom that triggers a disturbance in the life of the child. child, so the analysis ready to listen to the language of the game allows a release of this anguish, even when there are problems with the symbolism. For Klein the game is a new expression of an archaic symbolism, a fact that could even explain the problems of expression, language and socialization. This leads to conceiving, together with Aberasturi (2004), a technique within the clinic in which the boy can contribute a part of his expression freely in the game and where the Therapist observes the type of play and the roles where the subject is located, and then perform oral interpretations or within the same play. This, as long as there are repetitive games and the language of each subject is taken into account, so that it can emerge freely as an autonomous individual. All these techniques are currently applied in therapy with children and adolescents in the field of clinical psychology.

Another of the most outstanding authors of recognized Neopsychoanalysis is Heinz Kohut. Kohut's contributions have constituted the so-called School of Self Psychology, which today brings together many followers of various disciplines, including psychoanalysts, psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors and pedagogues, from various parts of the world. world. In 1977 he published his book The analysis of the self, regarding this concept; Kohut defines it as "a psychoanalytic abstraction of the low level (close to experience), that is, as the content of the psychic apparatus". That is, it is something that subjects can describe of themselves as an experience of a feeling and a cognitive representation that encompasses the feeling of being a person in time.

The fundamental pathology of narcissistic personalityIt lies, Kohut tells us, in the fact that neither the self nor the archaic narcissistic objects are sufficiently cathectized that they are exposed to temporary fragmentation. Or, they may be sufficiently well cathectized but not integrated with the rest of their personality, thus depriving the mature self of narcissistic cathexes. In this way, the vulnerability consciousness of the self is what generates the anguish of narcissists. The main source of his discomfort is the psychological inability to regulate self-esteem and keep it at normal levels. This discomfort manifests itself in the therapeutic clinic with the following transitory symptoms: Feelings of emptiness and subtle depression but penetrating, which are alleviated as soon as the narcissistic transference is established or intensify if the relationship with the analyst suffers some disturbance.

The patient sometimes has the impression that it is not completely real or has blunted emotions. He goes about his work without enthusiasm, gets carried away by routine and has no initiative. These problems arise when the narcissistic transference has been broken. The external self-esteem provider self-object has been lost. In these cases it refers to narcissistic transference, to the extent that the sense of self-esteem is established and sustained through the bond with the therapist. Kohut, believed that psychological disorders occur when there are significant deficiencies in the structure of the self. Undesirable early experiences can interfere with self development.

Aksenchuck (2006) show that in a country like France in current times where campaigns against depression are carried out, the government considers that the best method to counteract this condition is the pharmacological one and that psychoanalysis is the least viable option, since in a world of vertigo and extreme competitiveness; For everything that goes wrong, it is necessary to find hyper-fast recipes. Aksenchuck (2006) compared to behavioral therapies for which the singularity of the subject's condition matters little or nothing, since the recipe to apply is always the same: suggestion; He proposes psychoanalysis as a therapy that: does not settle for non-lasting symptomatic improvements, does not imply a return to a previous state, nor does it consist of forcing the subject to coincide with universal ideals of health, maturation or adaptation to ‘la’ reality.

Blatt (2009) point out that there are different types of patients and that highly self-critical, perfectionist and introjectives show a significantly greater gain in long-term intensive psychotherapy and in the psychoanalysis. Individuals excessively preoccupied with issues of self-definition and self-worth usually have the intellectual resources and the self-reflection capacities necessary to engage constructively in intensive psychoanalytic treatment over the long term. term.

Blatt (1992) suggests that substantially longer and more intensive treatment may be required for introjective patients, highly self-critical to allow them to establish a therapeutic relationship and begin to change deep-rooted negative mental representations of themselves and others. Introjective patients who are preoccupied with issues of autonomy and control are also likely to react negatively to limitations. arbitrary in the therapeutic process and that respond more constructively to a treatment process in which they participate deciding when end up. These findings are consistent with those from a recent survey by Consumer Reports (Seligman 1995) which found that patients reported greater therapeutic gain in a treatment process with final open.

Research carried out in 2004 by Alonso, mentions that psychotherapy is the interaction between theory, technique and practiceHowever, it must be flexible and not standardized for all people, for this reason it is considered that there is no identical therapy for each one of the people, rather Jung proposes an approach in which, through experience, make a contact in which they try to know in each individual case the dreams, the healing tendencies to activate them so that they are used and take the subject to the self-healing.

In the therapy contributed by Jung. Neuroses do not have a negative connotation, as they are perceived as an opportunity to achieve creative transformation. He visualized the following therapeutic strategies (Alonso 2004):

• The process to achieve individuation.- This is achieved by differentiating the self from the shadow, the anima, animus, and the self avoiding identification with them and thereby achieving a "Completion" and a integrity.
• The work with the person and the shadow, the anima and animus.- from which the subject manages to manifest both the accepted parts of him and those not accepted. This phase consists of a moment of painful recognition before which the patient must be helped to learn to use him for self-transformation.
• Dissolution of complexes.- this strategy seeks for the person to avoid identification or projection and to be able to identify and give voice to repressed aspects to integrate the opposites from affective activity that is achieved when the event that originated the complex.
• The interpretation of symbols through dreams.- This interpretation will allow us to know the cause and the purpose of the dream, it will also facilitate knowing aspects of the subject's reality that are being compensated when he dreams. This is achieved through free association of the dream, taking care not to move away from the symbols found in its content.
• The use of auxiliary methods such as active imagination that consists of carrying out a dialogue where the rational is combined with the irrational.
• The didactic analysis.- this of transcendental importance from Jung's perspective, since it implies the need for every analyst to be analyzed before analyzing other people.

The Jungian analysis Although it does not propose stereotyped techniques, it is considered as a process that must be learned and taught to patients so that they can apply it on their own and avoid dependence on the therapist.

The MA (2001) points out that in psychoanalysis the object of study is "the patient's verbal material that expresses his subjective version of the world ", since," what is analyzed is not the patient's life, but his psychism". And the study of psyche, conscious and unconscious, is the task that best distinguishes psychoanalysis from other therapies. Lama (2001) states that research with brain imaging techniques has shown that the cerebellum plays an important role from the birth of the child and throughout the first year of lifetime. The cerebellum constitutes the substrate of the mnemic system more primitive, which preserves and organizes the most archaic memories, especially those related to motor experience, but also those originated from other sensory modalities. With the first experiences, the cerebellum creates maps or planes of the self and the surrounding world that allow the development of a self-in-the-world model. It is important what happens when in the course of the first year the cerebellum connects with the thalamus and the parietal cortex.

As these structures mature, activate their own memory systems and are able to create their own maps of experience, the previous cerebellar maps are not destroyed. Not only are they not destroyed, but the information from the maps mapped by the cerebellum the elaboration of the new thalamocortical maps / representations is endured, shared and influenced. In other words, the most archaic memories are going to be transferred to higher centers and almost nothing of our biography is going to be lost. Therefore, the new model of self-in-the-world, let's call it "cortico-limbic", which will house complex representations of the self, the world and the relationships between the two, it will not be created from nothing but under the influence of previous experience cerebellar. In fact, the cerebellum continues to exert some control over the cognitive functions of the adult and, therefore, it is no longer considered a mere organ of movement control. In this sense, the cerebellar mnemic systems are the maps of the CNS necessary to be able to "map".

From the point of view of brain functioning, an event of capital importance occurs during the oedipal stage: interhemispheric myelination begins to be sufficient for a remarkable exchange of information. Although this interhemispheric myelination is still incomplete at 9 or 10 years of life, during the third year the relationships interhemispheric changes drastically and the left hemisphere - the hemisphere of language - becomes dominant with respect to the hemisphere right. Therefore, the beginning of the oedipal stage, a psychologically and neuroanatomically critical evolutionary period, would coincide with a radical change in information processing. The maturation of the CNS would allow the cerebral hemispheres to function in a more coordinated way and would consolidate the functioning of the memory systems related to the achievement of a self cohesive. The success of the transition from the pre-Oedipal to the Oedipal stage would depend on the brain's ability to coordinate various interhemispheric functions, including they, the integration of the functioning according to the primary process -right hemisphere- with the functioning according to the secondary process -left hemisphere.

Another consequence of interhemispheric collaboration would be the implementation of new and more mature -neurotic-defense mechanisms. In fact, repression would only be the result of a certain blockage of interhemispheric exchange, which could be verified using neuroimaging techniques. Psychic conflict would only be possible when the different functional units of the brain were connected, otherwise, archaic patterns or schemes could coexist even if they were mutually incompatible.

Physiological and psychological maturation can have a different rhythm in a particular child with respect to the average, for example in height, without implying pathology. It does not appear that the oedipal drive dynamics can be experienced and elaborated identically. A "bihemispheric" brain would put at the disposal of the psychic apparatus a series of very necessary sublimatory mechanisms in the oedipal setting. In the event of a delay in myelination, interhemispheric collaboration would require that the shared information continue to transit through archaic structures of the CNS. In this way, the risk that primitive cognitions, affects, or behaviors permeate Oedipal object relations and conflicts would seem obvious.

These hypotheses, although based on empirical findings, are still speculative, but they are a sample of the type relationship that can be established between neuroscience and psychoanalysis during the recently begun century XXI.

In many of the great cities of the world, interdisciplinary research networks have been formed that link the fields of neurology and psychoanalysis, and which have given rise to the International Neuropsychoanalytic Society (Founded in London in the year 2000).

Mark Solms, neuropsychologist from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) in a recent article published in the journal Research and science, which is titled Freud returns points out that neurologists are finding evidence to support some of Freud's theories while also connecting the dots about the mechanisms underlying the mental processes he described, he also claims that neurologists are realizing that biological descriptions of the brain they are more coherent if they are integrated into the psychological theories that Freud enunciated a century ago confirming the existence of mental processes unconscious, finally asserts that neurologists believe that the instinctual mechanisms that govern human motivation are even more primitive than what Freud assumed. he imagined when he talked about it,

Over the years, psychoanalysis has developed towards an enormous plurality of different theoretical conceptions and techniques; In 1979, Joseph E. former President of the International Psychoanalytic Association, concluded that although there are different conceptualizations, psychoanalysts remain united around three fundamental principles:

1. There are unconscious psychic processes and barriers that oppose your awareness.
2. There is a continuity in psychic life.
3. There is a psychic energy that comes from somatic sources, but is different from them.

The contributions of Neopsicoanalysis, although due to its variability of approaches, conceptions and its intense historical evolution during more half a century, it is difficult to establish generalizations about the characteristic features, but in summary distinguish:

His contemplation of social and cultural processes, including education as elements personality shapers and / or triggers of intrapersonal conflicts and / or interpersonal.

Deepening the problems of human existence (how man should live and what he should do), moving from this way, from the strictly psychological in its clinical manifestation to the philosophical in its axiological, ethical, etc.

Critical attitude to modern society that dehumanizes man and alienates his personality, producing a repressed, pathological subject, full of conflicts and trauma. It is therefore role of neo-psychoanalysis reform it to in many cases consider this way as the ideal way to modify this society itself, sickly and perverted.

Search for certain vital values ​​that should be the object of psychological attention as a way of harmonizing personal interests with those of society.

Search for individuality and the volitional action of man in overcoming his conflicts and traumas, and for the development of his personality; Hence, in its categorical body, terms such as self-development, self-determination, self-realization, self-reflection, mature personality, developed personality, etc. predominate.

In order to Gottingen (cited in Laverde, 2008) Psychoanalytic Therapy is: “A therapy that includes careful attention to the therapist-patient interaction, operates with a continuous use of interpretation and support interventions, tailored to the needs of the patient". And according to Marzi (Cited in Laverde, 2008) the psychoanalytic clinical method is a condition that is activated through the bond that the analyst-analysand couple sustains, based on the primary concepts of psychoanalysis: dynamic unconscious, fantasy, transference, countertransference, which give reality a three-dimensional dimension psychic.

The Neopsychoanalytic therapies focus on reconstruction and interpretation, the psychoanalyst does not handle reconstructions and interpretations looking for the scientific finding, but tries to originate a series of desirable clinical effects, starting from the metapsychological changes that it sets in motion in the unconscious conflicts of the analyzed.

Psychoanalytic theory and practice maintain that psychoanalytic work, and in particular interpretation, causes the unconscious contents, which keep active conflicts, can pass to the sphere of consciousness, to the secondary process or to the domain of the self, through the elimination of defenses / resistances and the opportune insights.

There are countless detractors of Freud who claim that his theories are nothing more than the end product of his personality self-analysis, Eynseck (2004), for example, compiled and criticized all the studies on the effectiveness of psychoanalysis, reaching the conclusion that psychoanalytic treatment does not imply any improvement on the rate of spontaneous remission of the neurosis. However, in the face of such devastating criticism, scientists of the stature of Antonio Damasio or Eric Kandel, two of the greats of neuroscience today, consider that biology could make great contributions to the understanding of the various unconscious mental processes and the explanation of the therapeutic benefits of psychoanalysis; and that, in turn, psychoanalysis could help advance neuroscientific research; and also, that Freud's main ideas about the emotional world are consonant with the most advanced perspectives of current neuroscience. The debate continues open around the Neopsicoanalysts, who continue to do research incorporating new approaches within the same field.

Freud and his followers were undoubtedly influential figures of the twentieth century, his theories marked the frontiers of a before and after in the understanding of human nature, culture, art, religion. The contributions of Neopsicoanalysis have opened new paths in different spheres of the human behavior and they have been a strong stimulus for research. Psychoanalysis It is the most popular of psychological doctrines, it is part of our culture, it has left its mark in areas as diverse as neurology, psychiatry, psychology, pedagogy, sociology, philosophy, hermeneutics, anthropology, history, religion, literature, art, the cinema, etc.

Neo-psychoanalysis It is also in force more for its controversy than for the amount of contributions. Part of this is because the scientific community has pigeonholed it in pseudosciences, thereby losing its identity and essence. Despite extensive claims to the contrary, it seems clear that Neo-psychoanalysis continues making vital contributions to contemporary understanding of the nature and etiology of various types of psychopathology and in turn these contributions favor a better understanding of the dynamics of the therapeutic process. Taking into account the review that we made of the contributions of Psychoanalysis, we consider that it is necessary to evaluate the stages of the course of therapy in the Neopsicoanalytical approach and do more research in this area so that the techniques are reformulated, thereby reaching a more acceptable level in the field clinical.

And with regard to the therapeutic process, we consider that the application of psychoanalytic knowledge must evolve in different ways. forms of psychotherapy that can be relatively brief and focused, breaking the pattern of the long and arduous treatment of divan. Current Neopsicoanalysts need to focus on establishing a new conceptual framework for current psychology that allows to conclude the task initiated by Freud where the clinical field and Psychoanalysis are reconcile.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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