The Only Cure: Freud and the Neuroscience of Mental Healing

About the Book

'A scholarly masterpiece, written by the world's greatest living authority on Freud . . . There is so much to be learned in these pages'

KARL J. FRISTON, the world's most cited neuroscientist

Once dismissed as unscientific, psychoanalytic therapy is proving to be among our most effective medical treatments of any kind - outperforming psychiatric drugs and rivalling vaccines in its power to prevent and heal. Why does it work so well?

Perhaps because one of the most controversial figures in psychology was right all along. Neuroscience now confirms much of what Sigmund Freud conjectured over a century ago: our deepest struggles stem, not from chemical imbalances, but from buried memories and unconscious conflicts that no pill can touch.

Using enthralling case studies and cutting-edge brain science, pioneering neuroscientist Mark Solms makes the case that psychoanalysis should resume its position as our master theory of the mind. Yet modern research also reveals where Freud got important things wrong. Could correcting these errors make therapy even more effective?

As psychiatric diagnoses soar and standard treatments continue to fail many patients, The Only Cure offers a revolutionary hope: a real science of healing, rooted in the radical idea that our suffering arises from truths we haven't yet faced.

About the Author :
Mark Solms discovered the brain mechanisms of dreaming, transforming our understanding of the sleeping mind. A world-leading pioneer in neuropsychoanalysis, he has spent decades bridging Freudian theory and cutting-edge neuroscience. His acclaimed book The Hidden Spring (2021) established him as one of the most important voices in contemporary psychology. As translator of The Revised Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (2024) and science director of the American Psychoanalytic Association, he is the foremost authority on psychoanalytic science today.

Review :
This is an extraordinary book on so many different levels. It's a dramatic history of psychoanalysis, a reassessment of Freud, a fascinating and moving autobiography, and a compelling argument for rethinking the place of feelings and subjectivity within the framework of science. And hence it's also about caring, and nurture - and love. How minds change is the question at the centre of this book. It's changing mine A scholarly masterpiece, written by the world's greatest living authority on Freud - the Editor of the Revised Standard Edition, and founder of the Neuropsychoanalysis movement. The origin story of Freudian ideas is introduced in forensic and fascinating detail and developed carefully in light of - evidence-based - 21st-century insights into mind and brain. It is also a deeply personal narrative, reflecting the author's good citizenship, clinical compassion and capacity to critique the fundamentals of psychoanalysis. There is so much to be learned in these pages The Only Cure illuminates the deeper origins of our symptoms - how they arise, why they persist, and the protective purpose behind them. With clarity and compassion, Dr. Solms weaves neuroscience with lived experience to show that real healing begins with insight into our earliest emotional patterns Because of the author's unusual combination of expertise, The Only Cure provides many insights that are unique. The case descriptions are interesting and engaging. The science behind them is vast. It's an awesome book - a must-read for anyone involved in or interested in mental health Solms shows how Freud's deepest insights are being vindicated by modern brain science. Bridging neuroscience and psychotherapy, he argues that psychoanalysis remains the only truly curative treatment for many mental disorders. Really an inspiring read Solms appears to have literally brought Freud back to life in this page-turner of a book . . . A must-read for every beginning and senior psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist, neurologist, psychologist, therapist, and psychoanalyst Anyone paying close attention to the field of psychoanalysis will be aware of the breathtakingly revolutionary contributions of Mark Solms. Moving deftly between personal narrative and psychoanalytic and neuroscientific knowledge, The Only Cure makes these groundbreaking discoveries accessible while also placing them in a historical context. An impressive feat Provides nothing less than an empirical basis for the reenchantment of psychology - upending decades of scientific reductionism and returning human emotion to where it should always have been: at the very heart of the matter. It has the rare quality of being both an act of scholarship and an act of love Solms's arguments feel intensely personal, and are born of both essential human compassion and a lifetime's work. The result is a deeply thought-provoking book, written with the kind of care he advocates for his patients Sigmund Freud invented psychotherapy, a treatment that now has global reach, but why and how does the talking cure work? Mark Solms mingles the poignant, fascinating, sometimes harrowing stories of his psychoanalytic patients, as well as stories from his own life, with scientific research, past and present, which together illuminate Freud's original insights into the workings of brain and mind. Lucid, confiding, incisive, erudite, and often funny, Solms is the perfect guide for any reader curious about what it means to heal the ailing self Mark Solms has shifted something irrevocably with his profound and enlightening book, revealing Freud's work in a thrilling - and moving - new way. Vital for anyone interested in how a mind is made, and will be a comfort to those of us who have felt forced into one or another defining camp What begins as a rehabilitation of Freud from the perspective of neuroscience becomes a quietly radical statement of the need both to give and to receive care. It's that rare thing: a book that's actually necessary A fascinating psychoanalytical and neuroscientific journey . . . Solms deserves great thanks for this clinically and theoretically profound positioning of psychoanalysis in the canon of contemporary science An authoritative and surprisingly personable account of the neuroscience behind the talking cure. This is a book I've been waiting to read for years A brave book, that explains the complex dance between what we're aware of and all the things that move below consciousness. It describes the choreography both from inside the mind, with the language of psychoanalysis, and also from the outside, in the language of neuroscience. Solms draws us wonderfully into this heady swirl Offers a candidly argued defense of a regrettably overlooked idea: that in dealing with the universe of the human mind, sane and well as sick, a subjective perspective is indispensable. But Solms quietly achieves something no less important: he reminds us that Freud was a biologist and, wonder of wonders, that his ideas are part of the foundation of neuroscience Mark Solms brings his magisterial mind to Freud and those who followed in the quest to understand us human subjects. What Freud was arguing in the late 19th century is now the preoccupation of much neuroscience, albeit, often unacknowledged. Great thinkers need great explicators and Solms does an excellent job of linking developments in neuroscience, philosophy and psychoanalysis enabling us to more deeply understand human subjectivity. It is a great achievement A tour de force, that weaves philosophical, scientific, and personal history into a powerful case for the value of Sigmund Freud's seminal scientific and clinical work for modern neuroscience and psychiatric care. Moving through and beyond anti-psychoanalytic Freud-bashing rhetoric, Solms offers an astonishing account of relevant brain science that exposes the limits of psychopharmacology and points toward a research methodology and mental health approach that incorporates subjectivity. A clinical case bookends the work and demonstrates the enduring truth that the only cure for mental suffering is the one that discovers and addresses its subjective causes