Neuropsychodynamic Psychiatry

This book presents a comprehensive neuropsychodynamic strategy for treating psychiatric disorders. Rather than pursuing an exclusively biological, psychological, or psychodynamic approach, it offers a methodology that links all three aspects in a unifying, integrative model. Central to this approach is the view of the brain as a bio-psychosocial organ in a neuro-ecological model, rather than the purely neuronal model often presupposed in current neuroscience and psychiatry. Moreover, the book views psychopathological symptoms as spatiotemporal disorders of the altered spatiotemporal structure spanning the brain and its surrounding world. The relation between one of the core symptoms and altered neuronal activity calls for the development of integrated, circular neuropsychodynamic models of psychopathological symptoms in severe psychiatric disorders and their treatment.

Boeker, Heinz, MD, Prof. Dr. med. studied medicine at the Universities of Freiburg (Br.) and Giessen, Germany. He completed his doctoral thesis in psychosomatic medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Giessen. He was trained in paediatric and adolescent psychiatry, neural-paediatrics, neurology, psychiatry and psychotherapy/psychoanalysis in Hamburg, Giessen and Frankfurt/Main, Germany. He completed his habilitation thesis at the University of Zurich. From 1996 till 2015 he worked at the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, Head of the Centre of Depression, Anxiety Disorders and Psychotherapy. Heinz Boeker is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of Zurich. He is member of the International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA). Since 2016 he works in a private psychiatric practice in Zurich. His scientific work focuses on qualitative research of the personality of depressed patients, therapy research, and combined neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies in depression. He heads the research group “Therapy and Process Research”. More than 170 articles in peer reviewed journals and book contributions, twelve monographs, eleven editorships. Member of several boards of reviewers and editors. He is one of the leading advocates of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in psychiatry and neuropsychodynamic psychiatry.

Website link: www.heinzboeker.com

Hartwich, Peter, Prof. Dr. med. psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, neurologist, forensic psychiatrist, works in clinical field with all kinds and especially severe psychiatric inpatients and outpatients for more than 38 years. Coeditor European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences for 10 years, Habilitation (qualification as a university lecturer) Subject of scientific investigation: Schizophrenia and cognitive disturbances, an empirical investigation, published by Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York 1980, apl. Professor University of Aachen. Director and head doctor of the specialist clinic and department for psychiatry, psychotherapy- psychosomatic at the general hospital of Frankfurt, teaching hospital of the University of Frankfurt am Main. Scientific work: more than 150 papers and chapters in books; selection of books: Hartwich, P. (1980) Cognitive disturbances in schizophrenia. Springer,Heidelberg-New York. Hartwich, P. (Germany), Fryrear, J.L. (USA) (2002, eds.) Creativity: The Third Therapeutic Principle in Psychiatry. Wissenschaft & Praxis, Sternenfels , Hartwich, P. Grube, M. (2015) Psychotherapie bei Psychosen (Psychotherapy on Psychoses). 3. ed. Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg ; Boker, H., Hartwich, P., Northoff, G. (eds.) (2016) Neuropsychodynamische Psychiatrie (Neuropsychodynamic psychiatry). Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg. As author and co-author: 10 chapters. Supervisor in psychodynamic psychotherapy in Frankfurt/M, Berlin, Munich, Dresden.

Georg Northoff, MD, PhD, FRCP is psychiatrist, neuroscientist and philosophers and works on the neuronal and neuropsychodynamic correlates of mental features like self and consciousness and psychopathological symptoms. He is a well-recognized expert in brain imaging of mental features and psychiatric disorders and one of the leading advocates of neuropsychoanalysis and neurophilosophy. His main focus these days is on resting state activity and its spatiotemporal structure and how that links to mental features including psychopathological symptoms. He is author of over 200 articles in neuroscience, psychiatry, and philosophy, published 14 academic books, and also 4 books for the wider audience including most recently “Neurophilosophy and the healthy mind. Learning from the unknown brain” (Norton 2016).

Website link: www.georgnorthoff.com