Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche—id, ego, and super-ego—is being reexamined through neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience within the interdisciplinary field of neuro-psychoanalysis. In 2010, Robin Carhart-Harris and Karl Friston proposed that the ego correlates with the default-mode network, a large-scale brain network. This article critiques that view and offers an original theoretical hypothesis, supported by a literature review, suggesting that the central-executive network and the salience network are the true brain representatives of the Freudian ego, rather than the default-mode network.
Mental disorders classified in the DSM (third through fifth editions) can be understood as manifestations of a general theory of mental suffering, in which negative life discourses capture the mind. Recent research indicates the psychedelic psilocybin produces safe and effective outcomes for such states. Drawing on brain plasticity, the article explains how a person can move away from subjection to these dominant discourses and intentionally adopt more acceptable, preferred subjectivities. Using depression as an example, it proposes that an innovative form of narrative therapy could be a safe, effective, and meaningful approach for conditions including anxiety, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anorexia nervosa.