Empathy and the art of Leonardo da Vinci.

Knowledge about empathy is part of the study of artistic expressions, among which stand out works of personalities such as the Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci, who was concerned with the connection between science and art during his creative research full of imagination and sensitivity to nature and human anatomy. The word empathy emerged among critics of German art as the term einfühlung, which was used within the aesthetic bias by philosophers and art historians. It emphasized the idea that a viewer perceiving an object could establish a link between it and themselves, projecting the object 'into themselves'. That is, the artwork could be experienced by the observer as if the viewer belonged predominantly to the object, in such a way that its characteristics could be actually felt through the expression of emotions, feelings and thoughts. This analysis of art appreciation required a great deal of knowledge and contemplation of nature, as understood by the German Romanticists, who had enormous admiration for da Vinci and his universal and systematic mind-a mind which reacted against formalisms, building his intellectual and sensory systems based on both his observation of nature and his own criteria. In particular, the art of painting for Leonardo was a way to demonstrate a mental discourse, just as the most important aspect of human portraits is to represent-in gestures and facial expressions-the states of mind and emotions. These are facts that German Romanticists tried to explain as the relationship between empathy and a work of art. The present manuscript aims to describe empathy from an artistic view, considering the roots of this word in German Romanticism; to comment about Leonardo da Vinci and the expression of art in the Renaissance; and, finally, to discuss the expression of his art in relation to empathy.

A metapsicologia como palco de diálogo teórico acerca da técnica, clínica, vida psíquica e cultura¹ / Metapsychology as a place for theoretical dialogue about technique, practice, psychic life and culture / Metapsicología como palco de diálogo teórico sobre la técnica, la clínica, la vida psíquica y la cultura

A autora saúda a iniciativa do congresso em iluminar os textos metapsicológicos como palco de diálogo com a clínica, a técnica e a cultura. Examinando o contexto histórico brasileiro, formula hipóteses para avaliar a predominância de alguns conceitos no ensino da metapsicologia. Refere pesquisa que vincula a "virada de 1920" à influência do romantismo germânico no pensamento de Freud, como possibilidade de acesso ao misterioso e irracional dos últimos textos freudianos. Sugere que os conceitos de pulsão de morte, identificação primária, desamparo, masoquismo primário, construções e feminilidade podem escapar ao impasse da racionalidade iluminista quando se convoca a "feiticeira metapsicológica".

The author praises the congress initiative of highlighting the metapsychological writings as a place for dialogues with practice, technique and culture. By examining the Brazilian historical context, the author proposes hypotheses in order to evaluate the predominance of some concepts in the metapsychological teaching. The author refers to a research that relates the "turning point of 1920" to the influence of the German Romanticism in Freud's thinking, as a possible access to the mysterious and irrational ideas in the last Freudian writings. The author also suggests that the concepts of death drive, primary identification, abandonment, primary masochism, constructions and femininity may escape from the impasse of Enlightenment Rationality, when the "metapsychological witch" is called.

La autora acoge con beneplácito la iniciativa del congreso de iluminar los textos metapsicológicos como palco de diálogo con la clínica, la técnica y la cultura. Examinando el contexto histórico brasileño, formula hipótesis para evaluar el predominio de algunos conceptos en la enseñanza de la metapsicología. Hace referencia a una investigación que vincula el "cambio de 1920" con la influencia del romanticismo alemán en el pensamiento de Freud, como posibilidad de acceso a lo misterioso e irracional de los últimos textos freudianos. Sugiere que los conceptos de pulsión de muerte, identificación primaria, desamparo, masoquismo primario, construcciones y feminidad pueden escapar del estancamiento de la racionalidad iluminista cuando se convoca la "hechicera metapsicológica".

Ludwig Edinger: the vertebrate series and comparative neuroanatomy.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Ludwig Edinger completed the first comparative survey of the microscopic anatomy of vertebrate brains. He is regarded as the founder of the field of comparative neuroanatomy. Modern commentators have misunderstood him to have espoused an anti-Darwinian linear view of brain evolution, harkening to the metaphysics of the scala naturae. This understanding arises, in part, from an increasingly contested view of nineteenth-century morphology in Germany. Edinger did espouse a progressionist, though not strictly linear, view of forebrain evolution, but his work also provided carefully documented evidence that brain stem structures vary in complexity independently from one another and across species in a manner that is not compatible with linear progress. This led Edinger to reject progressionism for all brain structures other than the forebrain roof, based on reasoning not too dissimilar from those his successors used to dismiss it for the forebrain roof.