A Lacanian Neuropsychoanalysis: Consciousness Enjoying Uncertainty

This book brings together Lacanian psychoanalysis, neuropsychoanalytic work by Mark Solms and Ariane Bazan, Jaak Panksepp’s affective neuroscience, Karl Friston’s free energy principle, Adrian Johnston’s transcendental materialist philosophy, and Darian Leader’s critique of jouissance in Lacanian theory. In doing so, it articulates a philosophical and scientific basis for Lacanian neuropsychoanalysis. A Lacanian perspective on Solms’s recent neuropsychoanalytic developments in affective consciousness and predictive coding furnishes an immanent critique that advances both Lacanian psychoanalysis and neuropsychoanalysis.

Dall’Aglio develops novel propositions for conceptualizing the Lacanian real, symbolic, and imaginary registers in the brain, treating affect systems like signifiers, viewing jouissance as surplus prediction error, and conceiving the brain as structurally antagonistic. It presents fresh theoretical and clinical insights in a manner that will be accessible to the interdisciplinary fields it draws upon. It will appeal to those working in neuropsychoanalysis, clinical psychology, neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and critical theory.