Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of Mind

Brought together for the first time in a single volume, these eight important
and fascinating essays by Nobel Prize-winning psychiatrist Eric Kandel provide a
breakthrough perspective on how biology has influenced modern psychiatric
thought. Complete with commentaries by experts in the field, Psychiatry,
Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of Mind reflects the author's evolving view
of how biology has revolutionized psychiatry and psychology and how potentially
could alter modern psychoanalytic thought.

The author's unique perspective
on both psychoanalysis and biological research has led to breakthroughs in our
thinking about neurobiology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis-all driven by the
central idea that a fuller understanding of the biological processes of learning
and memory can illuminate our understanding of behavior and its disorders. These
wonderful essays cover the mechanisms of psychotherapy and medications,
showing that both work at the same level of neural circuits and synapses, and
the implications of neurobiological research for psychotherapy; the ability to
detect functional changes in the brain after psychotherapy, which enables us,
for the first time, to objectively evaluate the effects of psychotherapy on
individual patients; the need for animal models of mental disorders; for
example, learned fear, to show how molecules and cellular mechanisms for
learning and memory can be combined in various ways to produce a range of
adaptive and maladaptive behaviors; the unification of behavioral psychology,
cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and molecular biology into the new science
of the mind, charted in two seminal reports on neurobiology and molecular
biology given in 1983 and 2000; the critical role of synapses and synaptic
strength in both short- and long-term learning; the biological and social
implications of the mapping of the human genome for medicine in general and for
psychiatry and mental health in particular;

The author concludes by
calling for a revolution in psychiatry, one that can use the power of biology
and cognitive psychology to treat the many mentally ill persons who do not
benefit from drug therapy.

Fascinating reading for psychiatrists,
psychoanalysts, social workers, residents in psychiatry, and trainees in
psychoanalysis, Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of Mind records
with elegant precision the monumental changes taking place in psychiatric
thinking. It is an invaluable reference work and a treasured resource for
thinking about the future.