The overlapping phenomenology of REM sleep, early and acute psychosis, the temporal lobe aura and the hallucinogenic drug state.
All these states have been independently compared with each other previously and described independently as conducive to primary process thinking.
The neurophysiology of these non-ordinary states is remarkably consistent both empirically and with Freud’s descriptions of the ‘free-flowing’ energy of the primary process.
LSD given immediately prior to or during sleep promotes REM sleep.
The overlap between Freud’s descriptions of the give-and-take relationship between ego–libido and object–libido and the give-and-take relationship between the DMN and its anti-correlated networks.
The concordance between Freud’s descriptions of the secondary process working to minimize free-energy and the free-energy account of the hierarchical organization of intrinsic networks working to minimize prediction errors.
The integrated, compound nature of the DMN and Freud’s descriptions of the integrated, compound nature of the ego.
The development of functional connectivity between the nodes of the DMN during ontogeny, a process that parallels the emergence of ego-functions.
Freud’s account of the ego as a recipient and product of regular endogenous activity concerned with drive, memory and affect and the functional and structural connectivity of the DMN’s cortical nodes with limbic structures concerned with drive, memory and affect.
Freud’s description of the ego as a tonic reservoir of activity and the high resting-state metabolism of the DMN.
Freud’s account of the ego as the seat of the sense-of-self and studies showing increased activity in the DMN during self-referential processing and a failure to deactivate the DMN in pathology characterized by withdrawal.
