In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind

by Eric R. Kandel

These are fascinating results. First, they show that in the realm of emotion, as in the realm of perception, a stimulus can be perceived both unconsciously and consciously. They also support Crick and Koch’s idea that in perception, distinct areas of the brain are correlated with conscious and unconscious awareness of a stimulus. Second, these studies confirm biologically the importance of the psychoanalytic idea of unconscious emotion. They suggest that the effects of anxiety are exerted most dramatically in the brain when the stimulus is left to the imagination rather than when it is perceived consciously. Once the image of a frightened face is confronted consciously, even anxious people can accurately appraise whether it truly poses a threat. A century after Freud suggested that psychopathology arises from conflict occurring on an unconscious level and that it can be regulated if the source of the conflict is confronted consciously, our imaging studies suggest ways in which such conflicting processes may be mediated in the brain. Moreover, the discovery of a correlation between volunteers’ background anxiety and their unconscious neural processes validates biologically the Freudian idea that unconscious mental processes are part of the brain’s system of information processing. While Freud’s ideas have existed for more than one hundred years, no previous

Bases de la psicopatología