It is a challenge because we have so much to lose that is worthwhile and irreplaceable. But interaction with other disciplines should be a two-way street. From my knowledge of the neurosciences and cognitive psychology, I am convinced that there is much these disciplines can learn from an accurate knowledge of psychoanalysis. My work, and that of my colleagues, draws upon cognitive and neurophysiological approaches to studying unconscious processes, in parti cular the investigation of unconscious conflict a topic not dealt with at all in the neurosciences and cognitive psychology. A neurophysiological method, for example, in concert with the two other methods can answer a psychoanalytic theoretical question.
Some psychoanalysts believe that only psychoanalytic data can answer psychoanalytic questions.
This position hamstrings psychoanalysis as a science, leaves it without support from neighboring sciences, and aborts what we can offer other sciences. Our findings provide support for the existence of unconscious conflict and its role in psychopathology. Based on a psychodynamic formulation, we selected words and short phrases that captured the patient's conscious experience of the symptom and the underlying unconscious conflict. These stimuli were presented both subliminally and supraliminally. When the same words were presented supraliminally, the patients brain responses failed to put the conflict words in the same categories.