Revolutionary Connections

Howard Wilkinson, BA (Cantab), MA, M Psych, is a fellow of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, currently Chair of its Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy Section, with a literary and theological background, out of which thinking in 'The Muse as Therapist' originated. He is also a founding co-director of Scarborough Psychotherapy Training Institute, a member of the UKCP, and was senior editor of the 'International Journal of Psychotherapy' and the journal of the European Association for Psychotherapy.

For many years psychotherapy and neuroscience have been estranged; existing on opposite ends of the spectrum concerned with the investigation of the mind. However in recent years, these two opposing schools of thought have found their paths converging so that now a mutually rewarding relationship is taking its first faltering steps towards greater co-operation and understanding. The UKCP conference was one such step. Leading experts in affective neuroscience and psychotherapy attended and gave lectures that integrated material and theories from a number of fields on diverse subjects such as infant development and the relationship between emotion and consciousness. These talks highlighted the benefit of greater contact between these fields, with practical examples as well as theoretical. This innovative collection is one of the first to emphasise and demonstrate the value of greater unity and is an essential introduction for all to this burgeoning area of research.

• Foreword -- Introduction -- The seventh annual John Bowlby Memorial Lecture -- Neuroscience and intrinsic psychodynamics: current knowledge and potential for therapy -- Psychotherapy in an age of neuroscience: bridges to affective neuroscience -- Early experience, attachment and the brain -- Emotion, false beliefs, and the neurobiology of intuition -- Psychotherapy and neuroscience: how close can they get? -- Constructing a psychobiological context—science, neuroscience, and therapeutic collaboration -- "At the border between chaos and order": what psychotherapy and neuroscience have in common