Precursors of the affective neuroscience project in the writings of Melanie Klein

ABSTRACT

The primary process affective neuroscience (AN) paradigm provides psychobiological grounding to emotion systems, which may prove significant in improving our understanding of psychological and psychiatric difficulties. Because most of the research supporting this project involves pre-clinical evidence, it is vital that the field of neuropsychoanalysis address the relationship between this important project and a wide array of psychoanalytic concepts. Toward that end, the current paper seeks to address areas of congruence between AN and core concepts of Melanie Klein. Thus far, there has been a little research investigating the utility of Kleinian concepts for AN. The current paper makes the case that key concepts in Klein's work demonstrate a rough approximation to each of the primary process affect systems and that her theory has more in common with AN than would be apparent. Understanding the relationship between Klein's work and that of the AN paradigm could expand the application of understanding the role of primary process affect systems in different psychological disorders, especially disorders involving borderline levels of personality organization and psychotic states. Utilizing AN to better understand psychological disorders was a clearly stated aim of Jaak Panksepp. Furthermore, the AN paradigm might enable us to root Klein's work more convincingly in psychobiology and potentially open new avenues for clinical theory and therapeutic work.

KEYWORDS:

• Affective Neuroscience
• Klein
• Precursor Concepts
• psychoanalysis

Disclosure statement

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Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.