25/02/2026
“It was Freud's hope”, neurologist David A. Scola observed, “that a neural basis for his clinical observations and psychological explanations of the human mind would eventually be established”. A hundred years after Freud’s pioneering work into the nature and structure of the human mind, and perhaps appropriately following in the tradition of his own early interest in neurology and neuropathology, we are finally beginning to glimpse the outlines of this exciting new topography.
“Throughout Freud’s writings,” psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist Mark Solms notes, “again and again he said that he was eagerly looking forward to the day when it would be possible to reunite his observations from the psychological perspective with neuroscientific ones." In this pursuit, Solms emphasizes that Freud envisioned a future in which brain science would one day be sophisticated enough to expand upon psychoanalytic ideas, like the power of the unconscious, the profound importance of early childhood experience and the significance of dreams. Solms argues that the day Freud awaited is now here.
Thanks to recent advances in interpersonal neurobiology, affective neuroscience, developmental neuropsychiatry, and psychoanalytic theory - much of which is presented in the recent book 'The Divided Therapist: Hemispheric Difference and Contemporary Psychotherapy' (Routledge) - we are now near to establishing the ‘neural basis’ - the biological substrate - for the processes and mechanisms of the mind that Freud once dreamed of.
Indeed, far from being at odds with Freud’s original psychological speculations regarding mental processes and functions, many of his theories are finding surprising corroboration in contemporary neuroscience. These are especially evident with regard to his prescient observations concerning the nature of the unconscious, and how unconscious processes map onto what we now know about the structure and function of the right hemisphere.
As psychologist Allan Schore strikingly notes, there is now widespread agreement that “the right brain is the biological substrate of the unconscious” - a remarkable finding that will have profound implications for our conceptualisation of psychotherapy, and is already transforming both the theoretical and practical aspects of therapeutic practice.
Disconnections and chronic imbalances between the hemispheres underlie many of our most prevalent forms of mental distress and disturbance, as a number of authors in 'The Divided Therapist' demonstrate - from autism, anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia to issues of addiction, anorexia, alexithymia, and trauma, as well as a number of relational and dissociative pathologies including borderline, narcissistic, schizoid and paranoid personality disorders. A contemporary understanding of the nature of the divided brain is therefore essential in engaging with and treating these conditions. As Cozolino observes, “psychotherapy can serve as a means to reintegrate the patient’s disconnected hemispheres”, noting that “the integration of dissociated processing systems is often a central focus of treatment”.
Pointing to the increasing recognition of the role of the right hemisphere in particular in our modern understanding of the relational foundation of therapy and the underlying change mechanism of therapy, Schore acutely observes that “right brain processes that are reciprocally activated on both sides of the therapeutic alliance lie at the core of the psychotherapeutic change process” (Schore, in 'The Divided Therapist').
This growing recognition of the contribution that the right hemisphere plays is part of what has aptly been called a “paradigm shift” that is currently happening in neuroscience, and indeed across the disciplines - a transition “from left brain conscious cognition to right brain unconscious affect”. It’s a paradigm shift that is happening, Schore notes, across a number of fields, “including developmental psychology, biological psychiatry, affective neuroscience, and psychoanalysis”, which is what makes this particular period of history so exciting, transforming our understanding of both neuroscience and psychoanalysis in the process.
Freud’s “evenly suspended attention”, for example, correlates closely with the radically open-minded stance that McGilchrist identifies as the right hemisphere form of attention. “Freud’s concept of the state of receptive readiness as ‘evenly suspended attention’ can also be identified as a function of the right hemisphere, which uses an expansive broad attention mechanism that focuses on global features (as opposed to the left that narrowly focuses on local detail)”. Freud made the recognition of this state central to his technique. Indeed, he calls cultivating this mode of attention “the fundamental rule of psychoanalysis”.
'The Divided Therapist' also reveals how the hemispheric relationship lies at the heart of the therapeutic process itself, and shows how a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms that enable integration between the left and right brain will help to transform the practice of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in the twenty-first century.
As Schore notes, “after a century of disconnection, psychoanalysis is returning to its psychological and biological sources, and this re-integration is generating a palpable surge of energy and revitalization of the field”. - from the Introduction to 'The Divided Therapist'.
To find out more about the book please click here: https://www.karnacbooks.com/product/the-divided-therapist-hemispheric-difference-and-contemporary-psychotherapy/95303/
