An Interview with Wilma Bucci, Ph.D. on Psychoanalysis and Cognitive Science

An Interview with Wilma Bucci, Ph.D. on Psychoanalysis and Cognitive Science. Bucci views the fundamental nature of the mind to be revealed in the partial interaction of the various brain systems. Another way to say this to note that the most fundamental thing about consciousness is dissociation, which can be adaptive or dysfunctional, depending on its causes and how it plays out. Adaptive dissociation occurs when we are having a peak experience that we cannot put into words (stuff that poets try to capture), or when we are driving a car and able to operate the stick shift. If we try to narrate what we need to do to ourselves (e.g., to understand the motor memory in verbal terms), we are likely to mess up our ability to function on this subsymbolic level. Dysfunctional dissociation happens when the various parts of the brain which should be talking to one another so as to support our ability to function become, for whatever reason unable to talk to one another, resulting in emotional dysfunction and avoidance.