Mortal Secrets

Freud was a modern alchemist who reformulated medieval demons as complexes and Darwinian imperatives. He translated all things devilish - lust, violence, cruelty - into terms that were compatible with twentieth-century thinking.

The relevance of the death instinct isn't restricted to behaviour that is manifestly self-destructive. The death instinct is also expressed across a spectrum of mental states characterised by passivity and inertia. These states can be construed as small resistances and oppositions to vitality, and they seem particularly prevalent in the modern worl

By exposing himself to the overwhelming majesty of Nature, the Romantic enters an altered state of consciousness that facilitates connection with the deeper truth behind appearances.

The human mind perceives, forms concepts, learns, makes judgements, feels emotions, uses language, remembers, invents, dreams, desires. How can so much complexity be captured in a single image? Clearly, some aspects of mental life must be prioritised at the expense of others. But which ones? And after those choices have been made, does the 'picture

The fact that Freud's structural model of the mind provides psychological fuel for narratives as different as The Iliad and Forbidden Planet strongly suggests that it captures essences, core dispositions, deep truths. And it continues to be relevant in an ever-changing, modern context.

The predictive brain has much in common with Freud's general understanding of how the mind functions. Predictions are comparable to desires (or wishes), and desires encounter limitations imposed by reality. Behaviour is a compromise, a middle way negotiated between internal drives and the environment. These compromises are, in effect, revised 'pred

The legend of Theseus and the Minotaur is full of imagery and incident that lends itself to psychoanalytic interpretation: the minotaur - half man, half animal - embodies the essential conflict between ego and id; the labyrinth, which coincidentally resembles the sulci of the cortex, suggests the complexities of the mind. In 1927, Freud told an int

Robin Carhart-Harris and colleagues have argued that the Freudian primary process is characterised by high levels of entropy. The primal, infant brain state is disorganised; however, as the infant matures, organisation is the inevitable by-product of a system in which free energy is minimised. The ensuing (low entropy) 'structure' that emerges equa

Creating a useful, accurate picture of something complex and abstract is very difficult. And there is nothing more complex and abstract than the human mind.