Meehan Crist reviews Catherine Malabou's recent book, The New Wounded, which attempts to bridge the old Cartesian divide between brain and mind by bringing them together "under a conceptual framework that merges the disciplines of neuroscience and psychoanalysis." Crist describes Malabou's project this way:
Malabou's "new wounded" are those who suffer the kinds of wounds that psychoanalysis tends to avoid: ones resulting from brain lesions, battleground trauma, or Alzheimer's. While Freud disregarded cases of obvious brain damage and focused his considerable attention on wounds he saw as originating from a damaged psyche, Malabou, in contrast, forces an investigation of the mechanisms by which brain and psyche are linked. Since Freud's time, neurology has proved useful for both understanding and treating brain disorders, but it has not offered a conceptual framework for understanding the everyday workings of the mind. At the same time, many have argued that psychoanalysis is looking a bit rickety in the light of modern neuroscience. In order to move forward, Malabou argues, we need to reconcile these two disciplines: "nothing less would be required today than the complete theoretical reinvention of psychopathology." While Malabou carefully avoids exploring "new therapeutic possibilities," this is the rare work of philosophy that may have clinical implications.
The Dish 