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.

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 cofounded the psychoanalytic psychotherapy programme at the University of Exeter, where he is Visiting Professor. His many publications include John Bowlby and Attachment Theory, Introduction to

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