Compulsion to predict: the development of self and its disorders

The 18th annual NPSA Congress brings together leading neuroscientists; psychoanalysts; psychiatrists; psychologists and philosophers to discuss implications of the insight that our psychological past predicts our future. Recent neuroscientific models have demonstrated that the human brain is not a passive; stimulus-driven organ that constructs complex percepts from current sensory inputs; but rather an active prediction machine; using previous experiences to anticipate and shape our current and future states in the world. Various questions will be addressed; including: ‘What are the implications of this insight for psychoanalysis; psychiatry and psychology?’; and ‘Are we doomed to repeat old conflicts and traumas?’.