51²è¹Ý

Abstract: This paper develops theory of inter-level explanation by exploring how neuropsychoanalysis draws together psychodynamic and neuroscientific methodological approaches. I reflect on concepts in the philosophy of science to suggest that integration of levels of analysis may be possible without reduction. This scheme is illustrated by describing empirical work on the neuroscience of pleasure and desire in the dopamine motive system. Towards the goal of integrating context into mosaic explanation, I discuss how objects come to carry an affective aura through conditioned learning. This emotional apperception develops into a learned motivating sensitization, which is experienced as liking, or desire to seek. While the neurosciences pursue mechanistic explanations, psychodynamic theory frames these processes through narrative and discourse. These two approaches can be integrated through intra and inter-level constraints. I illustrate pluralistic non-reductionist explanation through the example of affective psychodynamics of pleasure in drug use.

About the Speaker: Rami Gabriel is Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychology and a founding Fellow of the Research Group in Mind, Science and Culture. Trained as a cognitive and perceptual scientist, he has published empirical studies on memory, self, emotion, prosopagnosia, consciousness, and the philosophy of cognitive science in the academic journals Synthese, Cognition & Emotion, Social Cognition, Theory & Psychology, New Ideas in Psychology, and the Journal of Consciousness Studies. He has published three books: A Suspicious Science: The Uses of Psychology (Oxford University Press, 2023), The Emotional Mind: The Affective Roots of Culture and Cognition (Harvard University Press, 2019), and Why I Buy: Self, Taste, and Consumer Society in America (Intellect Press, 2013).

Looking forward to your active participation.