Neuropsychoanalysis: The Epistemological Interface of Lacanian Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience on GAD & SAD

The interface between psychoanalysis and neuroscience is a relatively new research area, with various debated paradigms centred on reductivism and knowledge gaps. However, the interdisciplinary research on Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) has received little attention from previous studies compared to other psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This paper adopts a non-reductive theoretical approach to examine how the similarity and difference between Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) parallel Lacanian anxiety with their essence. The core foundation of Lacanian anxiety, that is, the lack of lack, is philosophically aligned with the brain changes and symptoms of GAD and SAD, with their distinctive features representing different aspects of the same concept, such as the different forms of object a, linked to the lack of lack. This paper addresses the research gap in interdisciplinary studies of Lacanian psychoanalysis and neuroscience concerning anxiety and provides epistemological insights for future research.