The Conscious Id, Revisited:
A Panel Discussion

Based on neuroscientific evidence that consciousness depends on brainstem nuclei, and that these nuclei are centrally involved with the primary emotional and motivational processes that we associate with the id, Mark Solms has proposed that the id is fundamentally conscious. He also argues that the neuroscientific evidence suggests that the ego processes which mediate learning, automatization, and prediction are fundamentally unconscious (and derive their consciousness from the id).

In this panel, Jaak Panksepp will review some of the key neuroscientific findings which support the central role of subcortical brain circuits for consciousness and affect; Mark Solms will reprise his main arguments and explore some of the implications for psychoanalytic theory; and Heather Berlin will provide additional commentary integrating neuroscientific findings on the “cognitive and affective unconscious” and the dynamic unconscious. A discussion between the three presenters will be followed by Q&A from the audience.

In preparation, attendees are encouraged to read a recent article by Solms and Panksepp entitled “The ‘id’ knows more than the ‘ego’ admits: Neuropsychoanalytic and primal consciousness perspectives on the interface between affective and cognitive neuroscience” appearing in Brain Sciences.