INFORMATION AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Our current understanding of mental processes in health and disease is limited by the absence of a practical model describing the physiology of the mind as an informational system. The mind is described here as a physical system with four functional dimensions that can be interre lated mathematically on the basis of information theory. These variabl es describe the information processing activities of the mind, and inc lude: a) a state function (g), which is the number of potential states that the system can occupy at a given time and relates to the complex ity and activity of the brain; b) a power function (P), the number of state changes per unit time; c) time (t); and d) the relative entropy of the system (R), which describes the ordering of mental states in ti me. Using these variables, the evolution of states of mind can be desc ribed as a trajectory in a multidimensional phase space representing a ll possible mental states. Ego functions constrain the field of brain states within this space, thereby giving rise to the information conte nt of consciousness and to the individual psyche. Functional mental di sorders, as disorders of the psyche, are dysfunctions in the ordering processes that give rise to conscious information.