Our Self Organizing Psyche
Never underestimate the power of mind.
Easy physics essential for understanding ourselves.
Can a concept be simple and not so simple simultaneously? Absolutely. Welcome to the world of psychology. And, I might add, welcome to the world of science transformed by the not-so-new physics aka quantum physics.
We each have a mind. We know that. Do you also know that mind may not be well understood, nor much explained by biology?
A bit of your mind reveals itself as you ‘hear yourself think.’ I imagine you know that your thoughts do not occur in a vacuum. Each thought is ‘derivative.’ That is to say, it is derived from a system. I have a system that gives rise to my thoughts. You have a system that gives rise to your thoughts.
Sigmund Freud set for himself the task of conceptualizing mind systems. Can you imagine? The scale of that task boggles… the mind. :)
Here at Homecooked Psychoanalysis, posts will help you create a base from which you can embark upon a process of psychoanalysis informed by the best of social psychological thinking. You will get a handle on the system that gives rise to your thoughts and, notably, gives rise to the color of your emotional life.
There are a few principles absolutely essential for embarking upon your own psychoanalysis today. One is understanding that:
Your mind is a self organizing system,
Self-organization, is a process whereby some form of order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. It is often triggered by seemingly random fluctuations, amplified by positive feedback. The organization is typically robust and able to survive and/or self-repair.
It will help if you stop and smell the roses along the way. By that I mean, engage with each new concept that you learn here in every way that you can; play with it, contemplate it, experiment with it, live with the reality of it.
That said, pause today to learn about self organizing systems. Below are just three short paragraphs about self organizing systems. Unlike most posts here, reading them will be a challenge. Bear with me and work your way through them to glimpse the profound importance of understanding that indeed, self organization ‘is a thing.’
Self organizing systems can be found underpinning much, if not all, of reality.
Biology- Self-organization can be observed in the spontaneous folding of proteins and other bio-macro-molecules, the self-assembly of lipid bilayer membranes, the coordination of human movement, the social behaviour of insects and mammals, and the flocking behaviour of birds and fish.
Chemistry- Self-organization in chemistry can be seen in drying-induced self-assembly, reaction–diffusion systems and oscillating reactions and colloidal crystals.
Computer Science- We see self organization in cellular automata, random graphs, and also some instances of evolutionary computation and artificial life. In swarm robotics, self-organization is used to produce emergent behavior.
I am in awe of self organization as a process And, to think, my mind and your mind is self organizing 1) records of your experience, 2) interpretations of your experience and 3) your unique adaptive strategies and tactics as we speak, as you go about your business and as you sleep.
Sigmund Freud developed a process to allow us to learn to take the witness position to regard our own mentation aka mental activity, the fruit of the self organization of mind.
He listened for patterns. He identified many patterns that characterize all of us and some of us. Some patterns well serve us in real time and some may have well served us in the past but no longer do.
With the benefit of his analysis and with the benefit of modern deveopments in cognitive psychology and the social sciences, Home Cooked Psychoanalysis will guide you through a process of interior exploration guaranteed to shed light upon how your mind system evolved, how it operates and how you can work with it to thrive.
You may wonder how this particular post suits our purpose. Consider it rather like ‘Gesso,’ that nice base coat you apply to a fresh canvas before you sketch out the form of the oil painting you intend to create.