Neurowissenschaften und Psychotherapie

The rapid development of the cognitive neurosciences is based on interdisciplinary efforts and on a broad repertoire of research methods ranging from molecular biological to functional neuroimaging procedures suitable for the study of complex, ongoing intrapsychic processes. Selected recent results that are relevant for psychotherapy are discussed. They are based on genetics, on animal studies about the impact of early relational experience on brain development, further on memory research, on functional neuroimaging (PET, fMRI), and on first studies about the impact of psychotherapy on the brain. Neuroscience studies confirm some major psychoanalytic hypotheses (crucial role of early experience, unconscious processing) and question others (e. g. structural models). They help to overcome the split between “somatic” and “psychological” theories and treatments and open new, interdisciplinary research perspectives for psychotherapy.