New Psychoanalytic Theories and other Mind Sciences: The “Theory of the Protomental”

It represents the most original part of the author’s thinking: a criticism of traditional psychoanalytic theories and the formulation of new theories which might be compared and correspond to the theories of mind originated in neuroscience. By making a clear distinction between method, discovery and theory, the author supports the scientific value of the psychoanalytic method in its progressive and current evolution and emphasises the stability of some considerable understandings that can be considered as true discoveries on mental functioning. At the same time, though, he indicates the provisional and instrumental characteristics of psychoanalytic theories that have mistakenly been regarded as discoveries, in fact almost as doctrinaire truths.
By his “Theory of the Protomental” the author outlines a global theory on the constructing of personality, which can explain how the human mind is originated and formed and how it functions. The mind results from a progressive construction of functional structures, these being the product of gradually processing experiences, beginning from the neonatal and fetal stages.
The resulting structure which in this way is constructed, is able to “read”, in an increasingly progressive and organised manner, both the outer and the inner worlds and it therefore increases its learning capacity and enriches its subsequent processing capacity. Affects are identified as being a primary form of knowledge processes. The multifaceted variability of human behaviours can be understood in the light of cognitive and affective “mental operations” –mostly unaware (=unconscious)– which the progressive developmental construction (specifically unique to every individual) and its consequent functional structure can gradually reach. The Theory of the Protomental aims to have an “explanatory” value: it does not only describe and understand, but also explains how human mind originates and why it functions. In this framework this theory could replace the Drive Theory hypothesized by Freud, which has been criticised and rejected for many years now.