Psychoneuroscience

The textbook builds a bridge between the "neurosciences" (theoretical and experimental neurobiology, neurology) and the "psychosciences" (psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy) and aims to help provide the other disciplines with the most important and scientifically validated knowledge in an understandable form.

The question of how mental experience and brain processes relate to each other has long been considered mysterious. In this book you will learn, based on the latest scientific findings, that the two areas form an indissoluble unity, even if we experience and study them differently. We present this unity in concrete terms in psychological-neurobiological theory and psychiatric-psychotherapeutic practice. We treat the principles of neurobiological excitation and information processing, the structure and function of the limbic system, the development of the personality and the interaction of genetic-epigenetic factors and prenatal and postnatal environmental influences, which may be favourable or unfavourable. On this basis, the exemplary presentation of important mental disorders such as addictive disorders, schizophrenic disorders, affective disorders and anxiety disorders takes place. Finally, following in the footsteps of the eminent psychotherapist Klaus Grawe, the concept of "neuropsychotherapy" is introduced and it is shown why psychiatry-psychotherapie and neurobiology belong together and can enrich each other. Our psychoneuroscientific approach paints a picture of man that is not based on opposites, but on an integration of psyche, brain, behavior and experience.

The editors

Prof. Dr. phil. Dr. rer. nat Gerhard Roth researches and teaches at the Institute for Brain Research, University of Bremen. "Psyche, personality and brain form an inseparable unit, even if we experience them differently".

Prof. Dr. med. Dr. phil. Andreas Heinz is Clinic Director at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Charité Berlin. "The interplay of neurobiology, behavior and subjective experience is illuminated by new methods and models."

Prof. Dr. med. Dr. phil. Henrik Walter heads the research area "Mind and Brain" at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Charité Berlin and is the deputy medical director of the clinic. "Neuroscience education in the practice of psychiatry and psychotherapy is increasingly becoming a matter of course - and that's a good thing."

This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation.