Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of Mind

Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of Mind is a celebration of breakthroughs in neural science, the biology of the mind. The book highlights author Eric R. Kandel’s role as chief architect and laborer in the construction of a casual link between molecular biology and psychiatry.

[Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of the Mind] will open your eyes to the impressive advances made at the molecular, cellular and systemic level in understanding one of the salient functions of the brain. Kandel writes clearly and with a generous use of illustrations.

The chapters and commentaries reveal how much has happened in neuroscience during the last 50 years. Those unfamiliar with the discoveries could use this book as a text, and those with a passing acquaintance with modern neuroscience will find out how much they have missed.

This book should facilitate an excitement about understanding brain and behavior. College students, residents, and graduate students would all benefit from reading and discussion Kandel’s ideas. It is obvious that Kandel is a good therapist; his writings make us all feel good about our own work and the work of our colleagues!

This is an outstanding new book containing a collection of essays written by Eric Kandel, M. D., the Nobel Prize-winning psychiatrist-neurobiologist. He has been an instrumental figure in the paradigm shift that has occurred in psychiatry over the past 20 to 30 years, from being based on psychoanalytic theory to, now, neuroscience. . . . If you were going to read only one book on the current thinking in psychiatry, I recommend this one. Thank you, Dr. Kandel!

This Nobel laureate’s scientific path through the structures of the mind intrigues, entices, and rewards the explorer-reader much as clinical complexities of the mind demand our attention and draw patients to make changes. Dr. Kandel’s path, though, uniquely teaches us the (currently) absolute neurological truths about how our mentation changes. . . . To miss this volume is to wander in the dark. The reader will find the pleasure of discovery on every page, with outstanding illustrations and explanations that make this path irresistible. An exhaustive and helpful index spans all 8 lectures as one whole. This reader can’t wait to go back and walk that whole path with Dr. Kandel again. Everyone in our profession should share this experience.

Brought together for the first time in a single volume, these eight important and fascinating essays by Nobel Prize-winning psychiatrist Eric Kandel provide a breakthrough perspective on how biology has influenced modern psychiatric thought. Complete with commentaries by experts in the field, Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of Mind reflects the author’s evolving view of how biology has revolutionized psychiatry and psychology and how it potentially could alter modern psychoanalytic thought.

The author’s unique perspective on both psychoanalysis and biological research has led to breakthroughs in our thinking about neurobiology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis — all driven by the central idea that a fuller understanding of the biological processes of learning and memory can illuminate our understanding of behavior and its disorders.

Fascinating reading for psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, social workers, residents in psychiatry, and trainees in psychoanalysis, Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and the New Biology of Mind records with elegant precision the monumental changes taking place in psychiatric thinking and the research that has led us there. It is an invaluable reference work and a treasured resource for thinking about the future.