PSYCHOANALYSIS AS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE: FROM 19th CENTURY NEUROPSYCHOLOGY TO MODERN NEUROPSYCHOANALYSIS KATHERINE A. HARPER A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN PSYCHOLOGY YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO APRIL 2017 © KATHERINE A. HARPER, 2017 Abstract This dissertation explores interdisciplinarity from three perspectives. It emphasizes the intellectual foundations of Sigmund Freud’s Project for a Scientific Psychology (1895) and Alexander Bain’s Mind and Body (1872). It argues that these neural networks were similar and created via borrowed and integrated knowledge. This thesis contributes to the scholarship on Bain and Freud by presenting an analysis of their models, thus, providing a qualitative comparative analysis to make explicit the continuities and discontinuities in their ideas. In comparing their works, this study finds that there is no evidence that Freud borrowed directly from Bain when he created the Project; the similarities in their models are likely due the common academic milieus they emerged from. The discontinuities, however, were due to the neuron doctrine and the new scientific methods that emerged between 1872 and 1895. Part two of this thesis posits that psychoanalysis began as an interdisciplinary field founded on the Project, and that this interdisciplinarity continues today in the field of neuropsychoanalysis. This study finds that psychoanalysis has had a long history of interaction with the various psy-disciplines, particularly experimental psychology, and that the connection between the creation of the Project and the emergence of the field of neuropsychoanalysis was not a linear one. A conceptual bibliometric citation analysis demonstrates that, while experimental academic psychologists were testing the validity of Freudian concepts via empirical methods, they were actually borrowing knowledge from psychoanalysis. This analysis expands on the work of Hornstein (1992) and presents the first quantitative analysis of the intense relationship between psychology and psychoanalysis as psychologists were testing Freudian concepts. ii This thesis ends with an exploration of the recently created field of neuropsychoanalysis and provides the literature with the first bibliometric citation analysis of the field. In so doing, this portrait of the discipline presents an analysis of the psychological concepts this field is interested in studying, the methods used, and an examination of the extent of collaboration between psychoanalysts and neuroscientists. This is followed with a brief discussion on the clinical and theoretical relevance of neuroscience to psychoanalysis and the increasing concern regarding the validity of imaging techniques. iii Acknowledgements I would first and foremost like to thank Dr. Raymond Fancher for his assistance and enduring kindness and patience as I worked toward the completion of this project. He also supported me during my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees and none of this would have been possible had it not been for his guidance and direction along the way. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee, Dr. Mark Solms, Dr. Raymond Mar, Dr. Kenton Kroker, and Dr. Alexandra Rutherford and Dr. Thomas Teo, in particular, for their help and support with this dissertation, but also during my undergraduate and graduate years at York. Thanks also to Dr. Christopher Green, who encouraged me to enter the H/T grad program so many years ago, and for giving me the opportunity to work with him as editorial assistant at the JHBS; thanks for your teachings and encouragement along the way. I also very much appreciate the guidance I received from Dr. Michael Pettit, and I was also very privileged to have received financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, for which I am very thankful. I am also grateful for the support I received from my friends and colleagues at York University. Cathy Faye, Nikki Tonon (Mann), Lisa Fiksenbaum, Marissa Barnes, Jennifer Bazar, Jeremy Burman, Laura Ball, Jason Goertzen, Jacy Young, Kelli Vaughn-Johnson, and David Clark; you all kept me moving forward and laughing, particularly during the tough times, and I will never forget the many road trips I took with many of you to conferences. The completion of this dissertation would have never happened without the amazing and enduring support from all of my colleagues and friends at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. They were with me during the last few trying years and, even when I worried I could not do this, they never doubted I could finish this thesis. iv My heartfelt thanks and love to my friends and family without whom none of this would have been possible. To my two best friends, Karen Underwood and Diane Hartlin, for whom there are no words to express how lucky I am to have you both in my life. To Gord and Nancy Gardiner, whom I have known you my entire life, I thank you so much for always being there for the Harper family – you are my family. To my sister Suzie, who reminds me of the important things in life, and my brother Glen, who constantly makes me laugh and reminds me to never take myself to seriously, I offer my sincere thanks for being by my side through this process, and while growing up in a crazy family. Finally to my mom, Doreen, and my dad, Bob, who passed away in 2000, I thank you for teaching me about resilience, determination, and the importance of having a sense of humour when life becomes stressful, difficult, and uncertain. v Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iv Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Alexander Bain’s Mind and Body (1872) as a Case Study in Key Concepts and Borrowed Knowledge ................................................................................................................... 14 Alexander Bain ......................................................................................................................... 15 Bain’s Borrowing: A Case Study in Important Figures and Theories ...................................... 17 Bain’s Borrowing: Physiology .................................................................................................. 21 Mind and Body (1872): Bain’s “Objects” and Objectives ............................................................ 26 The Manuscript: A 19th Century Context ................................................................................. 26 Mind and Body (1872): A New Direction for Associationism ................................................. 27 Mind and Body (1872): The Key Concepts (Objects) Explored by Bain ..................................... 29 Bain on the Concept of Emotion ............................................................................................... 30 Bain on the Concept of Consciousness ..................................................................................... 31 Bain on the Concept of Memory ............................................................................................... 38 Bain on the Concept of Will (Volition) – An Energy Model ................................................... 41 Bain on Unconscious Processes, Sleep, and Dreams ................................................................ 42 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 43 Chapter Two: Sigmund Freud’s Project for a Scientific Psychology (1895) as a Case Study in Key Concepts and Borrowed Knowledge ..................................................................................... 44 History of the Manuscript ......................................................................................................... 45 Wilhelm Fliess (1858-1928) ..................................................................................................... 46 Fliess, Bonaparte, and Freud ..................................................................................................... 47 Freud’s Borrowing: Important Figures and Theories ............................................................... 49 Project for a Scientific Psychology: Freud’s “Objects” and Objectives ....................................... 54 The Manuscript ......................................................................................................................... 54 The Manuscript: Objectives ...................................................................................................... 55 The Manuscript: Theories ......................................................................................................... 56 Freud on the Concepts of Emotion and Hysteria ...................................................................... 71 Freud on Sleep and Dreams ...................................................................................................... 72 Dreams and Hysteria ................................................................................................................. 75 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................