Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Might psychoanalysis, so often dismissed as speculative or outdated, still offer one of the most profound ways of understanding mental suffering? What happens when Freud meets modern neuroscience? Can the unconscious be studied through the brain?
Who still lies on the couch? Once, psychoanalysis was a widely recognized and popular form of therapy. But this pioneering therapy developed by Sigmund Freud at the end of the nineteenth century, is now often regarded with suspicion by modern science, or even considered outdated: unproven, inefficient, and expensive. More solution-focused forms of treatment, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and medication, have displaced the talking sessions of psychoanalysis.
But did we perhaps dismiss psychoanalysis too quickly? According to South African neuropsychologist Mark Solms, the answer is yes. More than any other form of therapy, psychoanalysis approaches human experience as something greater than brain activity alone, and mental well-being as more than merely the chemistry of the brain that can be altered with a pill. At the same time, evidence from neuropsychology itself suggests that psychoanalysis can have positive and lasting effects, Solms argues in his new book, The Only Cure.
Psychiatrist Damian Denys will engage in conversation with Solms: was Freud right all along?
About the speakers:
Mark Solms is an globally acclaimed psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist, known for the integration of contemporary neuroscience with psychoanalytic methods and theories, and for his discovery of the forebrain mechanisms of dreaming. He is the Director of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, the Science Director of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the Co-Chair of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society.
Damiaan Denys is professor of psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam UMC. His work brings together clinical psychiatry, philosophy and neuroscience. Denys pioneered the development and resarch of deep brain stimulation for psychiatric disorders. As a psychiatrist, philosopher and psychotherapist, he is known for exploring mental suffering not only as a clinical phenomenon, but also as an existential, cultural and philosophical question. He currently leads the Lemon Tree center, an interdicisplinary center for psychiatry, philosophy and psychotherapy at the UVA.
Might psychoanalysis, so often dismissed as speculative or outdated, still offer one of the most profound ways of understanding mental suffering? What happens when Freud meets modern neuroscience? Can the unconscious be studied through the brain?
Who still lies on the couch? Once, psychoanalysis was a widely recognized and popular form of therapy. But this pioneering therapy developed by Sigmund Freud at the end of the nineteenth century, is now often regarded with suspicion by modern science, or even considered outdated: unproven, inefficient, and expensive. More solution-focused forms of treatment, such as cognitive behavioral therapy and medication, have displaced the talking sessions of psychoanalysis.
But did we perhaps dismiss psychoanalysis too quickly? According to South African neuropsychologist Mark Solms, the answer is yes. More than any other form of therapy, psychoanalysis approaches human experience as something greater than brain activity alone, and mental well-being as more than merely the chemistry of the brain that can be altered with a pill. At the same time, evidence from neuropsychology itself suggests that psychoanalysis can have positive and lasting effects, Solms argues in his new book, The Only Cure.
Psychiatrist Damian Denys will engage in conversation with Solms: was Freud right all along?
About the speakers:
Mark Solms is an globally acclaimed psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist, known for the integration of contemporary neuroscience with psychoanalytic methods and theories, and for his discovery of the forebrain mechanisms of dreaming. He is the Director of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, the Science Director of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and the Co-Chair of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society.
Damiaan Denys is professor of psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam UMC. His work brings together clinical psychiatry, philosophy and neuroscience. Denys pioneered the development and resarch of deep brain stimulation for psychiatric disorders. As a psychiatrist, philosopher and psychotherapist, he is known for exploring mental suffering not only as a clinical phenomenon, but also as an existential, cultural and philosophical question. He currently leads the Lemon Tree center, an interdicisplinary center for psychiatry, philosophy and psychotherapy at the UVA.
