Neurobiologic research has begun to elucidate brain mechanisms of
affective states and behavioral patterns. Discussions of anxiety and sexual
identity demonstrate how these researches lead the psychoanalyst to broader
views of behaviors that were previously considered entirely psychological
in origin. While introspection and extrospection are distinct realms of
investigation and conceptualization, they share common boundaries and areas
of interpenetration. Psychoanalytic theory is challenged to accord with
newer findings in biology and to provide important questions for further
research. Neurobiologic advances will continue a centuries-old process of
confining the realm of psyche, but there is no danger that mind will
disappear.Abstract Teaser