Mark Solms, neuroscientist and psychoanalyst, has substantially altered contemporary understanding of both Consciousness and Self-Experience. Solms is a clear and personable writer, but his understanding draws on science largely unfamiliar to psychotherapists.

In preparation for his appearance at next Spring’s NCP Manifest Mind conference, we are offering an introductory course (5 monthly sessions over Zoom) in which we will study Solms’ important 2021 book: The Hidden Spring. The final session will review a recent paper by Dana Sawyer, who will also be presenting at the May 2025 Manifest Mind Conference.

The following is a partial list of the topics and concepts to be covered in this course.

Affect is the fundamental form of consciousness;
Feeling by an organism of fluctuations in its own needs enables choice and thereby supports survival in unpredicted contexts. This is the biological function of experience;
Consciousness is seated in the midbrain, not the Cortex;
The cerebral cortex provides context, “memory of the future”, to consciousness;
Consciousness is part of nature and it is mathematically tractable;
Perception is applied uncertainty;
Action is an ongoing process of hypothesis-testing and error correction;
Affect is an extended form of homeostasis, bringing choice into LIFE’s fight against ENTROPY;
Affect hedonically valences biological needs… Each category of need—of which there is a great variety—has an affective quality of its own;
Needs cannot all be felt at once. They are prioritized in midbrain and ranked on a “saliency map”. The actions that are generated by prioritized affects are voluntary, which means they are subject to here-and-now choices rather than pre-established algorithms;
All mammals share midbrain seated MOTIVATIONAL SYSTEMS described by Jaak Panksepp;
The default drive (when all goes well) is SEEKING—proactive engagement with uncertainty, with the aim of resolving uncertainty in advance. When this affect is prioritized, it is felt as curiosity and interest in the world.
*Course has a limited space for participants and will be held over Zoom only.*
Course Sessions & Learning Objectives:
Regarding Session Learning Objectives (below): These objectives aim to connect Solms’ work in “The Hidden Spring” to practical applications in psychodynamic education and clinical practice, focusing on its relevance to psychiatry, neurology, and psychoanalysis. They encourage learners to critically engage with the material and consider its implications for patient care and clinical decision-making.

SESSION 1 – Oct. 9, 2024
Topic: Feelings

Reading: Chapters 1-6 (to page 148)

Learning Objectives:

Explain the role of the brainstem in generating consciousness, emotions, and the core of self- experience;
List the seven Panksepp motivational systems that define mammalian behavior;
SESSION 2 – Nov. 13, 2024
Topic: Friston Free Energy

Reading: Chapters 7-8 (pages 148-189)

Learning Objectives:

Define the terms “Friston Free Energy” and “predictive priors”;
Explain the importance of the terms “Friston Free Energy” and “predictive priors” to neuro-psychoanalytic analysis of brain function;
SESSION 3 – Jan. 8, 2025
Topic: Consciousness

Reading: Chapters 9-10 (pages 190-237)

Learning Objectives:

Describe the key neurobiological mechanisms underlying consciousness as presented by Solms, and their implications promoting adaptive, creative, and pathological behavioral consequences;
Analyze the relationship between affect and consciousness outlined in “The Hidden Spring” to understand the demands on the mind for action;
Summarize Solms’ critique of consciousness as a cerebral cortex function;
SESSION 4 – Feb. 12, 2025
Topic: Mind

Reading: Chapters 11+post (pages 238-305)

Learning Objectives:

Explain how Solms’ integration of psychoanalytic concepts with neuroscience can be applied to improve psychodynamic formulations in psychiatric evaluations;
Discuss the psychological importance of Solms’ characterization of the function of the Cortex is to provide “memory of the future”;
SESSION 5 – Mar. 12, 2025
Topic: Perennial Philosophy in relation to Solms work and topics presented in Manifest Mind

Reading: Sawyer, D. W. (2024). Redressing a Straw Man: Correcting Critical Misunderstandings of Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 64(4), 535-563. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678211024399

Learning Objectives:

Discuss the ethical implications of Solms’ views on consciousness and free will in the context of psychotherapeutic process and change, particularly regarding patient autonomy and informed consent;
Prepare a case presentation that integrates Solms’ neuropsychoanalytic approach emphasizing the seven drives studied by Panksepp with traditional psychodynamic assessment, demonstrating its potential to enhance clinical understanding of motivational systems.
Course Readings:
Solms, M. (2022). The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness. National Geographic Books.

Sawyer, D. W. (2024). Redressing a Straw Man: Correcting Critical Misunderstandings of Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 64(4), 535-563. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678211024399

Faculty:
Barton J. Blinder MD, PhD, is an active member of the NPC Senior Faculty in Adult and Child Psychoanalysis and Chair of the NPC Research Committee. He is an active member of APsA and IPA and a Distinguished Life Fellow of APA and AAPAC. He is a Clinical Professor and past Director of Eating Disorder Treatment Research at UC Irvine and additionally on the teaching faculty at the University of Washington and USC. At APA, in addition to leadership, Dr. Blinder participated in the establishment of Practice Guidelines, Commission and Caucus on Psychotherapy in Psychiatry, and editing a major text on Integrating Psychotherapy and Pharmacotherapy. His active research interests include Autobiographical memory, Neuropsychoanalysis, Spontaneous Thought, and Free Association in Psychoanalysis and relation to Neuroscience Contributions, and Treatment Resistant Depression and Early Life Trauma, Response to psychoanalytic/psychodynamic treatment, psychodevelopmental and neurobiologic roots of somatization, embodiment and eating disorders. He is in private practice of Adult and Child Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis in Newport Beach.

Thomas M. Brod MD, Coordinator of the NCP Manifest Mind Series, is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has been an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine. He is a senior faculty member at NCP, the co-coordinator of the Film and Mind Series, and is psychoanalyst in private practice.

Recording:
Even though all sessions will be held on Zoom, this presentation will not be recorded.