The structure of neuropsychoanalytic explanations

ABSTRACT The “mechanism approach” to scientific explanation is to explain a phenomenon by showing how it is generated through the interactions among its constituents; that is, the explanation elucidates the internal causal structures of what is to be explained. The paper argues that the mechanism approach to explanation may function as a framework for constructing neuropsychoanalytic explanations. One important virtue of the mechanism approach is that it helps us see how different levels, such as the neuroscientific and psychoanalytic levels, are integrated with each other. It is argued that the mechanism approach does not entail reductionism or do away with meaning and understanding. Based on the preceding discussion, the paper touches briefly upon some challenges facing neuropsychoanalysis, such as its supposed clinical irrelevance, the relation between neuropsychoanalysis and psychology, and the future of psychoanalysis in view of the continuously growing knowledge about mind–brain processes.