Sigmund Freud has been influenced as a neurologist by the work of Hughlings-Jackson and Herbert Spencer, thus the metapsychological theories of psychoanalysis also includes hierarchical aspects. In addition to the models of the psychic apparatus, the concepts of psychic functioning—the so-called primary and secondary process—or the phenomenon of regression are based on hierarchical principles. The onto- and phylogenetic references in psychoanalytical theory also contain hierarchical ideas. The research area of neuropsychoanalysis attempts to investigate and test metapsychological theories using neuroscientific methods. The data of evolutionary neuroethology provide numerous concepts that could be associated with psychoanalytical theory. MacLean’s concept of emotomentation and ratiomentation shows some striking parallels with the principles of primary and secondary process mentation discovered by Freud. Likewise, the pictorial and drive-determined contents of the dream event can be associated with the activity of the limbic system decoupled from the cortex.