Abstract
The chapter discusses the role of cultural sciences (Kulturwissenschaften) in bridging the still existing gap between neuroscience and psychoanalysis against the background of the rising interest in mirror mechanisms, mimetic functions, imitation, simulation, embodiment, language and metaphors as well as their proximity to figures that have long belonged to the traditional subjects of the humanities. Knowledge on human expressions within a cultural-historical timeframe may be adduced to bridge the gap between data from empirical research and the evolution of the brain based on speculative knowledge.
Weigel concentrates on certain unsolved epistemological problems to be reconsidered in light of knowledge from cultural science. Drawing on Freud and Walter Benjamin, she examines the quantity-quality-problem and the coding problem in simulation theory with reference to theories of language, gesture and image in the humanities. An example completes the chapter’s presentation of the cultural production of ‘compassion’ in medieval times in relation to the concept of empathy in recent neuroscience.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In nichts offenbart sich die eigentümliche Vieldeutigkeit der Sprache […] deutlicher als in der Metapher. So habe ich zum Beispiel ein Leben lang die Metapher ‘es öffnet sich mir das Herz’ benutzt, ohne je die dazu gehörende physische Sensation erfahren zu haben. Erst seit ich die physische Sensation kenne, weiss ich, wie oft ich gelogen habe, […] Wie aber hätte ich je die Wahrheit der physischen Sensation erfahren, wenn die Sprache mit ihrer Metapher mir nicht bereits eine Ahnung von der Bedeutsamkeit des Vorgangs gegeben hätte? (Arendt 2002, 46).
- 2.
For a more detailed analysis of this role of images see the second chapter on traces and lines in Weigel 2015.
- 3.
Not to be confused with the more established term of semiotics as a theory of signs defined by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914).
References
Arendt, H. (2002). Denktagebuch. München/Zürich: Piper.
Balázs, B. (2010). Early film theory: Visible man and the spirit of film. New York: Berghan Books.
Benjamin, W. (1996). On language as such and on the language of men. In M. Bullock & M. W. Jennings (Eds.), Selected writings (Vol. 1.1913–1926, pp. 62–74). Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press.
Benjamin, W. (1999a). On the mimetic faculty. In M. W. Jennings, H. Eiland, & G. Smith (Eds.), Selected writings (Vol. 2.1927–1934, pp. 720–722) Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press.
Benjamin, W. (1999b). Arcades project (H. Eiland & K. McLaughlin, Trans.). Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press.
Benjamin, W. (2002). Berlin childhood around 1900. In M. W. Jennings & H. Eiland (Eds.), Selected writings (Vol. 3.1935–1938, pp. 344–413). Cambridge, MA/London: Harvard University Press.
Blumenberg, H. (1996). Shipwreck with spectator. Paradigm of a metaphor for existence (S. Rendall, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Blumenberg, H. (2007). Theorie der Unbegrifflichkeit. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Blumenberg, H. (2010). Paradigms for a Metaphorology. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Craig, A. D. “Bud”. (2011). How do you feel? The neuroanatomical basis for human awareness of feelings from the body. Paper at the 12th international npsa-congress, Berlin.
Damasio, A. (1999). The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. London: William Heinemann.
Damasio, A. (2010). Self comes to mind: Constructing the conscious brain. New York: Pantheon Books.
Decety, J., & Ickes, W. (Eds.). (2009). The social neuroscience of empathy. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Dilthey, W. (1990). Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften. Versuch einer Grundlegung für das Studium der Gesellschaft und der Geschichte. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht.
Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (1996). Playing with reality: I. Theory of mind and the normal development of psychic reality. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 77, 217–233.
Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (2007). The rooting of the mind in the body: New links between attachment theory and psychoanalytic thought. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 55(2), 411–456.
Fonagy, P., Gergely, G., Jurist, E., & Target, M. (2002). Affect regulation, mentalization and the development of the self. New York: Other Press.
Foucault, M. (1966). Les Mots et les choses. Une archéologie des sciences humaines. Paris: Gallimard.
Freud, S. (1895). Project for a scientific psychology. S.E. I, 281–397.
Freud, S. (1900). The interpretation of dreams. S.E. IV/V, 1–627.
Freud, S. (1915). Instincts and their Vicissitudes. S.E. XIV, 109–140.
Freud, S. (1920). Beyond the pleasure principle. S.E. XVIII, 1–64.
Goldschmidt, G.-A. (2000). Quand Freud voit la mer. Freud et la langue allemande. Paris: Buchet/Chastel.
Gallese, V. (2009a). Mirror neurons, embodied simulation, and the neural basis of social identification. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 19(5), 519–536.
Gallese, V. (2009b). We-ness, embodied simulation, and psychoanalysis: Reply to commentaries. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 19(5), 580–584.
Gallese, V. (2011). Bodily selves in relation: Embodied Simulation and inter subjectivity. Paper at the 11th international NPSA-congress, New York.
Gallese, V., & Di Dio, C. (2011). Neuroesthetics: The body of esthetic experience. In V. Ramachandran (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human behavior (2nd ed.). San Diego: Academic.
Kaplan-Solms, K., & Solms, M. (2000). Clinical studies in neuro-psychoanalysis: Introduction to a depth neuropsychology. New York: Karnac Books.
Kristeva, J. (1984). Revolution in poetic language. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lakoff, G. (1997). How unconscious metaphorical thought shapes dreams. In D. J. Stein (Ed.), Cognitive science and the unconscious (pp. 89–120). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. New York: Basic Books.
Lux, V. & Weigel, S. (Eds.). (2015). Empathy. A neurobiological capacity and its cultural and conceptual history. London, New York: Palgrave Macmillan (forthcoming)
Mancia, M. (2006). Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience. Berlin: Springer.
Mitchell, W. J. T. (1986). Iconology – Image, text, ideology. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press.
Moritz, K. P. (1968). Über die bildende Nachahmung des Schönen. Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus (Original work published 1888).
Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Papapetros, S. (2012). On the animation of the inorganic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Plessner, H. (1965). Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch. Einleitung in die philosophische Anthropologie. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Plessner, H. (2003). Anthropologie der Sinne. Gesammelte Schriften in zehn Bänden (Vol. 3). Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Rizzolatti, G. & Sinigaglia, C. (2008). Mirrors in the brain. How our minds share actions and emotions (F. Anderson, Trans.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (ital. original 2006: So quel que fai, il cervello che agisce e i neuroni specchio)
Shimada, S., & Hiraki, K. (2006). Infant’s brain responses to live and televised action. NeuroImage, 32(2), 930–939.
Simmel, G. (1992). Soziologie. Untersuchungen über die Formen der Vergesellschaftung. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 843–850.
Solms, M. (2001). The interpretation of dreams and the neurosciences. Psychoanalysis and History, 3, 79–91.
Solms, M., & Saling, M. (1986). On psychoanalysis and neuroscience: Freud’s attitude to the localizationist tradition. The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 67, 397–416.
Solms, M., & Oliver, T. (2002). The brain and the inner world: An introduction to the neuroscience of subjective experience. New York: Other Press/Karnac Books.
Tomasello, M. (1999). Cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Turnbull, O. (2001). The neuropsychology that would have interested Freud most. Neuro-Psychoanalysis, 3(1), 33–38.
Warburg, A. (2010). Werke in einem Band. (M Treml, S. Weigel, & P. Ladwig, Eds.). Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Weigel, S. (2004). Phantombilder zwischen Messen und Deuten. Bilder von Hirn und Gesicht in den Instrumentarien empirischer Forschung von Psychologie und Neurowissenschaft. In B. von Jagow & F. Steger (Eds.), Repräsentationen. Medizin und Ethik in Literatur und Kunst der Moderne (pp. 159–198). Heidelberg: Winter.
Weigel, S. (2006). Genea-Logik. Generation, Tradition und Evolution zwischen Kultur- und Naturwissenschaften. Munich: Wilhelm Fink.
Weigel, S. (2007). The measurement of angels. Images of pure mind as a matter of science in 19th century. European Review, 15(3), 297–320.
Weigel, S. (2013). Tränen im Gesicht. Zur Ikonologie der Tränen in einer vergleichenden Kulturgeschichte von Trauergebärden. In S. Weigel (Ed.), Gesichter. Kulturgeschichtliche Szenen aus der Arbeit am Bildnis des Menschen (pp. 103–126). Munich: Fink.
Weigel, S. (2015). Grammatologie der Bilder. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Weigel, S. (2016). Embodiment in Simulation Theory and Cultural Science, with Remarks on the Coding-Problem of Neuroscience. In: Weigel, S., Scharbert, G. (eds) A Neuro-Psychoanalytical Dialogue for Bridging Freud and the Neurosciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17605-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17605-5_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-17604-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17605-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)