Constructing a Mind

Can the Protomental System provide a new foundation for psychoanalytic theory? "Constructing a Mind" draws on psychoanalytic theories of mind and recent developments in cognitive science to present the Protomental System, a new and original explanatory theory of the development of the human mind. This book aims to move psychoanalytic theory away from its origins in Freud's theory, towards a model which gives priority to cognition and memory. This, Antonio Imbasciati argues, will make possible a successful and productive integration of psychoanalysis with other areas of psychology. Subjects covered include: the mind as an information-processing system; constructing the system: from fetus to baby, child, and finally adult; the caregiver relationship as a decoding system for information processing; the paranoid-schizoid metabolism of information; memory of functions and memory traces of affects; internal information generated by the system; the depressive position and learning to know; and, reparation and thought.This thoughtful and thorough account of cognitive development provides a conceptual framework that succeeds in making some of the more complex areas of psychoanalytic theory more intelligible. "Constructing a Mind" will be of great interest to psychoanalysts, psychotherapists and cognitive psychologists, especially those with an interest in neuropsychology and neonatal development.