Describing the neuroscientific basis for effective psychotherapy, Professor Holmes draws on the Free Energy Principle, which holds that, through 'active inference' -- agency and model revision -- the brain minimises discrepancies between incoming experience and its pre-existing picture of the world. Difficulties with these processes underlie clients' need for psychotherapeutic help. Based on his relational 'borrowed brain' model, and deploying his capacity to communicate complex ideas to a wide audience, Holmes shows us how the 'talking cure' reinstates active inference and thus how therapy helps bring about change.

Jeremy Holmes MD was for 35 years a consultant Psychiatrist and Medical Psychotherapist at University College London and North Devon and chaired the psychotherapy faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists from 1998 to 2002. He co-founded the psychoanalytic psychotherapy programme at the University of Exeter, where he is Visiting Professor. His many publications include iJohn Bowlby and Attachment Theory, Introduction to Psychoanalysis and Attachment in Therapeutic Practice.

Introduction 1 The free energy principle 2 Psychoanalytic resonances 3 Relational neuroscience 4 Free energy and psychopathology 5 Uncoupling top-down/bottom-up automaticity 6 FEP and attachment 7 Therapeutic conversations 8 Practical implications for psychotherapists Epilogue Glossary of terms Acknowledgements References Index