Reshetnikov Mikhail

Reshetnikov Mikhail East-European Psychoanalytic Institute, Russia I n this paper, traditional ideas of the relationship between psychic activity and brain activity are reconsidered and the hypothesis of the brain as the biological interface, which was suggested by the author earlier (2008), is developed. Approaches to research of psyche in psychology, physiology, psychotherapy, psychiatry and social sciences, as well as their applications to treatment of patients with mental disorders, are analyzed and summarized. The author considers two main models of mental disorders with clearer differentiation between organic (brain-related) pathology and mental disorders as such, which result from informational (non-material) influences on psyche as a specific informational system rather than on brain. Differences between nervous and mental functioning of organism and personality are clarified and conscious activity is viewed as an acquired (programmed) function that is formed in social informational environment. The question of the aim of psychopharmacological influence is raised.