Archaeology of Mind

Modern psychotherapy often treats the mind like a machine—a puzzle of thoughts and behaviors to be rewired with logic, exposure, talk therapy or medication. But what if we’ve been ignoring the animal side of the human? The primal emotional systems that evolved millions of years before the first DSM diagnosis? This is the blind spot that neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp exposed, and his work in The Archaeology of the Mind isn’t just groundbreaking—it’s a corrective lens for a field that’s forgotten its own foundations.

Modern psychotherapy has made a massive mistake.

Imagine you’re an archaeologist, but instead of digging through layers of earth, you’re excavating the human brain. Your tools of the trade aren’t brushes and shovels, but electrodes and microscopes. The goal? To uncover the origins of emotion - not as abstract ideas, ways to interpret our experience, but as living, neurological forces that shape thought, decision, and relationships. This is what Jaak Panksepp's work was all about. He was a neuroscientist that spent his career mapping the primal emotional systems that define what it means to be human.

Jaak Panksepp (1943–2017) wasn’t your typical lab scientist. Born in Estonia and raised in the U.S., he brought a rare blend of curiosity, empathy, and rigor to his research. While many neuroscientists focused on the brain’s higher functions - memory, language, reasoning - Panksepp was fascinated by the foundations of the mind. He believed that to truly understand human behavior, we had to start not with the cortex (our evolutionary “thinking cap”), but with the ancient neural circuits we share with all mammals. He knew that we had to get to the root of things, and to do so, we had to look at what we grew out of.

His work was revolutionary because it challenged a core assumption of modern psychology: that emotions are byproducts of thinking. Panksepp argued the opposite. Emotions, he said, are primary. They are the foundation upon which our thoughts are built, preceding and fundamentally influencing thought. He argued that emotions create the framework for our cognitive processes to operate within. They are the evolutionary software that allowed our ancestors to survive—to fight, flee, bond, and explore—long before the first human uttered a word.

Panksepp’s main thesis was this: Emotions are not just feelings—they are biological systems, hardwired into the brain. These systems evolved over millions of years to help animals navigate a dangerous and thoroughly unpredictable world. Fear keeps us alert to threats. Joy drives us to connect with others. Curiosity compels us to explore. These aren’t metaphors; they’re neural circuits, as real as the ones controlling your heartbeat or digestion.

These systems don’t just operate in the background. They shape our thoughts, our decisions, even our sense of self. When you feel a surge of anger, it’s not because you’ve “decided” to be angry—it’s because your brain’s RAGE circuit has been triggered. Something in your environment, perhaps even lingering memories within your non-conscious(a "Part" in IFS), has in some way activated this brain system. When you’re gripped by loneliness, it’s your PANIC/Grief system crying out for connection, to make you feel distress - a sort of biological FOMO so that you can maintain safety. Panksepp’s work reveals that much of what we call “mental health” depends on the balance of these ancient systems.

In a world where anxiety, depression, and trauma are at all-time highs, Panksepp’s research offers a radical new way to think about healing. Modern therapies often focus on the “top” of the brain, the cortex - using talk, logic, and medication to address symptoms. But what if the real problem lies deeper? What if we’ve been trying to fix a forest by pruning the leaves while ignoring the roots? Are we making things worse? Perhaps a bottom up approach may do us better.

Panksepp’s work suggests that to truly heal, we need to engage the brain’s emotional core. This means therapies that go beyond words—practices that use touch, movement, play, and connection to calm the primal storms of fear, rage, and despair. It means recognizing that emotions aren’t just “in your head”—they’re in your body, your instincts, your evolutionary heritage.

• SEEKING
• FEAR
• RAGE
• LUST
• CARE
• GRIEF
• PLAY