Comments on the “New Project for a Scientific Psychology: General Scheme” by Mark Solms

Abstract

ABSTRACT This review of Mark Solms’ effort to “update” Freud’s original proposal for a scientific psychology considers Solms’ proposal an impressive, pathbreaking, unifying theory that bridges the relationship between neuronal structures and subjective experience. The combination of Panksepp’s affect theory and Friston’s computational information theory proposed in Solms’ model permits us to clarify common principles of organization and functioning of neurobiological structures and intrapsychic processes, and advances significantly our understanding of mental functioning in health and disease. This review includes mentioning aspects of this proposal that may require further elaboration, such as the comprehensive concept of the self, and the relationship between affects and drives.