Neural Implementation of Memory as a Dynamic Constructive Process

Working out the biological basis of categorization in the real world is precisely one of the main goals of Edelman . Edelman’s ideas are of interest not only because of his focus on processes of self-organization which provide the organism with the required adaptive potential, but...

The Developmental Perspective

A third important aspect of the methodology of embodied cognitive science is the developmental perspective. When conceptualizing memory processes, embodied cognitive scientists do not primarily attempt to directly model the internal processes of memory. The goal of their modeling is to define the developmental and learning processes and to explain...

The Frame-of-Reference Problem

The frame-of-reference problem states that in explaining memory functions we must make a clear distinction between observable behavior and the internal brain mechanisms that, in the interaction with the real world, lead to a particular behavior. This implies that behavior cannot...

Memory as a Theoretical Construct

As we will illustrate, the ideas developed in this section naturally connect to clinically relevant concepts, although the mode of argumentation might at first seem unfamiliar or strange for readers unacquainted with this research tradition (see Introduction). Cognitive scientists...

Models of Memory in Embodied Cognitive Science: Memory as a Dynamic and Constructive Process of the Whole Organism

The classical conceptualization of memory leads to many theoretical problems, as has been discussed extensively in the cognitive science literature 6 and in the psychoanalytic literature . It cannot, for example, be used to give a plausible explanation of how knowledge can be...

Models of Memory in “Classical Cognitive Science”

Fifteen years ago we discussed these questions in a paper in the International Review of Psychoanalysis, analyzing three key scenes of a psychoanalysis . In these analyses we tried to start an interdisciplinary dialogue between “classical cognitive science” and psychoanalysis...

Recollecting the Past in the Present: Remembering in the “Transference”

The question if and how such early traumatizations can be remembered and then be understood in the transference have been debated at length and in great detail within the psychoanalytic community during the last few years–an interesting discourse that we can do no more than mention...

Hypotheses Concerning the Biographical Roots of Psychosomatic Symptoms of a Young Man

A 30-year-old computer science student (Mr. X) was looking for psychotherapeutic help in a desperate life situation. Because of heavy psychosomatic symptoms (eating and sleeping disorder, migraine, attacks of dizziness, skin irritation) he had not been able to pursue his studies...

Psychoanalysis and the Neurosciences: Cognitive Sciences in Dialogue

In the last 20 or 30 years a vision of Sigmund Freud has been seeming to become reality: It is well known that Freud never gave up his hope that some day developments in the neurosciences might contribute to a “scientific foundation” of psychoanalysis in terms of the natural...