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Mark Solms, Ph.D.

Mark Solms is best known for his discovery of the forebrain mechanisms of dreaming, and for his pioneering integration of psychoanalytic theories and methods with those of modern neuroscience. Born in 1961, he was educated at Pretoria Boys’ School and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He emigrated to London in 1988, where he worked academically at University College London (Psychology Department) and clinically at the Royal London Hospital (Neurosurgery Department), while he undertook specialist training at the Institute of Psychoanalysis. He returned to South Africa in 2002, and now commutes monthly to London and New York.

Currently he holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schur Hospital (Departments of Psychology and Neurology). His other current positions include: Honorary Lecturer in Neurosurgery at St. Bartholomew's & Royal London School of Medicine, Director of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Centre, London, and Director of the Arnold Pfeffer Center for Neuropsychoanalysis at the New York Psychoanalytic Institute.

He was awarded Honorary Membership of the New York Psychoanalytic Society in 1998, the American College of Psychoanalysts in 2004 and the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis in 2006. Other awards include the George Sarton Medal of the Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Belgium (1996) and the International Psychiatrist award of the American Psychiatric Association (2001).

He founded the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society in 2000 and was Founding Editor of the journal Neuropsychoanalysis. He is on the editorial boards of several other neuropsychological and psychoanalytical journals. He has published widely in scientific journals, including Cortex, Neuropsychologia, and Behavioral & Brain Sciences. He is also frequently writes for general-interest journals, such as Scientific American. He has published more than 250 scientific and scholarly journal articles and book chapters, and five books. His second book, The Neuropsychology of Dreams (1997), was a landmark contribution to both fields. His book Clinical Studies in Neuro-Psychoanalysis (with Karen Kaplan-Solms) won the Gradiva Award (Best Book, Science Category) in 2001. His latest book (with Oliver Turnbull), The Brain and the Inner World (2002), is a best-seller. He is the authorized editor and translator of the forthcoming Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (24 vols) and the Complete Neuroscientific Works of Sigmund Freud (4 vols).

His work has attracted wide public attention and has been featured repeatedly by the New York Times, Newsweek, Der Spiegel, CNN, BBC and NPR.

He is a member of the following professional and learned societies: British Neuropsychological Society, British Psychological Society (Clinical Neuropsychology Division), British Psychoanalytical Society, South African Clinical Neuropsychology Association, Psychological Society of South Africa (Research Division), South African Psychoanalytic Association (of which he is President) and the International Psychoanalytical Association.

He is current Research Co-Director of HDRF, along with Dr. Jaak Panksepp, helping to cultivate novel approaches to the understanding and treatment of depression.

Publications: Click here for PubMed