Mark Solms is a South African psychoanalyst and neuropsychologist, who is known for his discovery of the brain mechanisms of dreaming and his use of psychoanalytic methods in contemporary neuroscience.
He holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital (Departments of Psychology and Neurology) and is the President of the South African Psychoanalytical Association.
He is also Research Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association (since 2013). best known for his discovery of the forebrain mechanisms of dreaming, and for his integration of psychoanalytic theories and methods with those of modern neuroscience. He studies 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 trained at the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
He returned to South Africa in 2002. Currently he holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital (Departments of Psychology and Neurology) and is President of the South African Psychoanalytical Association. He is also currently Research Chair of the International Psyhoanalytical Association.
He was awarded Honorary Membership of the New York Psychoanalytic Society in 1998 and the American College of Psychoanalysts in 2004. Other awards include the George Sarton Medal of the Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Belgium (1996), the Arnold Pfeffer Prize of the New York Psychoanalytic Institute (2008) and the Sigourney Prize of the American Psychoanalytical Association.
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 major journals. He has published widely in both neuroscientific and psychoanalytic journals, including Cortex, Neuropsychologia, Trends in Cognitive Science and Behavioral & Brain Sciences.
He has published more than 250 articles and book chapters, and 6 books. His second book, The Neuropsychology of Dreams (1997), was a landmark contribution to the field. His 2002 book (with Oliver Turnbull), The Brain and the Inner World was a best-seller and has been translated into 13 languages. His latest book, on the hard problem of consciousness, is entitled The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness (2021). He is the authorised 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).
