CHAOS THEORY AND PSYCHOANALYSIS - THE FLU IDIC NATURE OF THE MIND

Progress in the new science of chaos has made it possible for scientis ts of several different disciplines to extend their understanding of c omplex systems and to quantify some phenomena which are called transit ion states. These transitions occur when the nature of system changes noticably, for example when a fluid changes from a laminar to a turbul ent flow. Nonlinear systems (which are best modelled by chaos) are des cribed in this article and are compared to the psychoanalytic model of the soul. Some psychoanalytic phenomena are examined with methods of the chaos principles. The author claims that a sufficient number of in terrelations between operative models in the disciplines which have pr ofited from the application of chaos principles and psychoanalytic mod els of the soul exist in order to justify theoretical and experimental efforts to use these principles. These efforts could enrich our under standing of the soul and suggest a new methodology for psychoanalytic research.