Cogprints

The Landscape of Possibility: A Dynamic Systems Perspective on Archetype and Change

McDowell, Maxson J. (2000) The Landscape of Possibility: A Dynamic Systems Perspective on Archetype and Change. [Journal (On-line/Unpaginated)] (Unpublished)

Warning

There is a more recent version of this eprint available. Click here to view it.

Full text available as:

[img] HTML
69Kb

Abstract

<p>Pre-existing possibility is recognized in complexity theory (for example, by John Holland: 1995, 27-28) and in cognitive science (for example, by Jeffrey Elman et. al.: 1998, 111-113). A self-organized dynamic system makes manifest a pre-existing possibility. The whirlpool is an example. The human personality must also be a dynamic system. In the personality, however, a pre-existing possibility (archetype) may enter consciousness. It then plays a double role. It had always acted as an unconscious organizing principle; when it reaches consciousness it challenges the conscious identity and may stimulate new development. Clinical evidence is given, together with evidence from biology and from cognitive neuroscience.</p> <p>Current psychoanalytic theory recognizes that the personality can only exist (and can only change) within an intersubjective field of other personalities. But the personality is a dynamic system. Complexity theory shows that such systems change by co-evolving within a field of mutually interacting dynamic systems.</p> <p>These two concepts (of pre-existing possibility and of change within an intersubjective field of co-evolving dynamic systems) are integrated. Their relevance to mythology and to clinical work is discussed.</p>

Item Type:Journal (On-line/Unpaginated)
Keywords:complex dynamic system, self organization, emergent, representational redescription, cognitive psychology, cognitive science, implicit memory, a priori, co-evolution, fitness landscape, Daniel Stern, intersubjective, heterochrony, Plato, Jungian analysis, personification, archetype, image, evolutionary psychology, dream analysis, mythology, spiritual.
Subjects:Psychology > Clinical Psychology
ID Code:1084
Deposited By: McDowell, Doctor Maxson J.
Deposited On:13 Nov 2000
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:54

Available Versions of this Item

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

Alberts, B., D. Bray, J. Lewis, M. Raff, K. Roberts, and J. D. Watson (1994).<i> The Molecular Biology of the Cell.</i> New York: Garland.<br><br>

Arlow, J. (1968). 'Unconscious fantasy and disturbances of conscious experience'.<i> Psychoanalytic Quarterly,</i> 38: 1-27.

<br><br>

Beebe, B. and F. M. Lachman (1988). 'The contribution of mother-infant mutual influence to the origins of self- and object representations'. <i>Psychoanalytic Psychology,</i> 5: 305-337.

<br><br>

Bion, W. (1962/83).<i> Learning from Experience.</i> New York: Basic Books.

<br><br>

Bowlby, J. (1960). Grief and mourning in infancy and early childhood. <i>Psychoanalytic study of the child,</i> 15: 43-52.

<br><br>

Calow, P. (1976).<i> Biological Machines: A Cybernetic Approach to Life.</i> London: Edward Arnold.

<br><br>

Conforti, M. (1999).<i> Field, Form, and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature, and Psyche.</i> Woodstock, CT: Spring.

<br><br>

Edinger, E. F. (1994).<i> The Eternal Drama: The Inner Meaning of Greek Mythology.</i> Boston: Shambhala.

<br><br>

Elman, J. L., E. A. Bates, M. H. Johnson, A. Karmiloff-Smith, D. Parisi and K. Plunkett (1998).<i> Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Perspective on Development.</i> Cambridge: MIT Press.

<br><br>

Emde, R. N. (1988). 'Development terminable and interminable.' <i>International Journal of Psycho-Analysis,</i> 69: 23-42.

<br><br>

Fonagy, P. (1999). 'Memory and Therapeutic Action'. <i>International Journal of Psychoanalysis,</i> 80: 215-223.

<br><br>

Hart, G. (1986). <i>A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. </i>London: Routledge.

<br><br>

Hildebrandt, S. and A. Tromba (1996). <i>The Parsimonious Universe: Shape and Form in the Natural World.</i> New York: Springer-Verlag.

<br><br>

Hogenson, G. B. (1998). 'Response to Pietikainen and Stevens'. <i> Journal of Analytical Psychology,</i> 43, 3: 357-372.

<br><br>

Holland, J. H. (1995).<i> Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity.</i> Reading, MA: Perseus.

<br><br>

Ibid. (1998). <i>Emergence: from Chaos to Order.</i> Reading, MA: Perseus.

<br><br>

Hopkins, K. (1999). 'The Greatest Apes'.<i> New Scientist</i> 162, 2186: 26-30.

<br><br>

Jansen, E. R. (1993).<i> The Book of Hindu Imagery.</i> Diever, The Netherlands: Binkey Kok.

<br><br>

Jung, C. G. (1917/66). 'Two essays on analytical psychology'.<i> CW</i> 7.

<br><br>

Ibid. (1919/60). 'The structure of the psyche'.<i> CW</i> 8.

<br><br>

Ibid. (1921/71). 'Definitions'.<i> CW</i> 6.

<br><br>

Ibid. (1936/68). 'The concept of the collective unconscious'.<i> CW</i> 9,1.

<br><br>

Ibid. (1938/68). 'Psychological aspects of the mother archetype'.<i> CW</i> 9, 1

<br><br>

Ibid. (1940/84). 'Transformation symbolism in the mass'.<i> CW</i> 11.

<br><br>

Ibid. (1952/60). 'Synchronicity: an acausal connecting principle'.<i> CW</i> 8.

<br><br>

Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1992). <i>Beyond Modularity: a Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science.</i> Cambridge: MIT Press.

<br><br>

Kauffman, S. (1995).<i> At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity.</i> New York: Oxford University Press.

<br><br>

Knox, J. (1999). 'The relevance of attachment theory to a contemporary Jungian view of the internal world: internal working models, implicit memory and internal objects'.<i> Journal of Analytical Psychology,</i> 44: 511-530.

<br><br>

Lichtenberg, J. (1989).<i> Psychoanalysis and Motivation.</i> Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

<br><br>

McConkey, E. H., R. Fouts, M. Goodman, D. Nelson, D. Penny, M. Ruvolo, J. Sikela, C-B. Stewart, A. Varki and S. Wise (2000). 'Proposal for a human genome evolution project'. <i>Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution,</i> 15, 1.

<br><br>

McDowell, M. J. (1999). 'Relating to the mystery: a biological view of analytical psychology'.<i> Quadrant: Journal of the C. G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology</i> (New York) 29, 1: 12-32.<br>

(Available online as 'Jungian Analysis and Biology' at "http://cogprints.soton.ac.uk" and at <A HREF="http://home.earthlink.net/~maxmcdowell/index.html">"http://home.earthlink.net/~maxmcdowell"</A>

<br><br>

McKinney, M. L. and K. J. McNamara (1991).<i> Heterochrony: The Evolution of Ontogeny.</i> New York: Plenum Press.

<br><br>

Neuman, E. (1955/72).<i> The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype.</i> Princeton: Bollingen.

<br><br>

Pietikainen, P. (1998a). 'Archetypes as Symbolic Forms'. <i>Journal of Analytical Psychology,</i> 43, 3: 325-343.

<br><br>

Ibid. (1998b). 'Response to Hester McFarland Solomon, George B. Hogenson and Anthony Stevens'. <i>Journal of Analytical Psychology,</i> 43, 3: 379-388.

<br><br>Pipher, M. (1994). <i>Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls.</i> New York: Ballantine.

<br><br>

Plato.<i> Republic.</i> Trans., B. Jowett (1892/1997). Bristol, England: Thoemmes Press.

<br><br>

Ibid.<i> Philebus.</i>

<br><br>

Rose, H. J. (1946/59).<i> Religion in Greece and Rome.</i> New York: Harper and Row.

<br><br>

Samuels, A. (1985).<i> Jung and the Post-Jungians.</i> London: Routledge.

<br><br>

Sander, L. W. (1985). 'Toward a logic of organization in psychobiological development'. In: <i>Biologic Response Styles,</i> ed. H. Klar and L. Siever, pp. 20-36. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Associaton.

<br><br>

Ibid. (1987). 'Awareness of inner experience: a systems perspective on self-regulatory process in early development.' <i>Child Abuse and Neglect,</i> 11: 339-346.

<br><br>

Schacter, D. L. (1996). <i>Searching for Memory: the Brain, the Mind, and the Past.</i> New York: Basic Books.

<br><br>

Seinfeld, J. (1996).<i> Containing Rage, Terror, and Despair: An Object Relations Approach to Psychotherapy.</i> Northvale NJ: Jason Aronson.

<br><br> Sharma, J., A. Alessandra and M. Sur (2000). 'Induction of visual orientation modules in auditory cortex'. <i>Nature,</i> 404: 841-847.

<br><br>

Slap, J. W. (1987). 'Implications for the structural model of Freud's assumptions about perception'. <i>Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association,</i> 35: 629-645.

<br><br>

Stern, D. N. (1994). 'One way to build a clinically relevant baby'. <i>Infant Mental Health Journal,</i> 15: 36-54.

<br><br>

Ibid. (1985).<i> The Interpersonal World of the Infant.</i> New York: Basic Books.

<br><br>

Stevens, A. (1983).<i> Archetype: A Natural History of the Self.</i> New York: William Morrow.

<br><br>

Ibid. (1998). Personal communication.

<br><br>

Stevens, A. and J. Price (1996).<i> Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning.</i> New York: Routledge.

<br><br>

Stolorow, R. D. and G. E. Atwood (1992).<i> Contexts of Being: the Intersubjective Foundations of Psychological Life.</i> Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

<br><br>

Sutherland, J. D. (1994). 'Fairbairn and the self' In:<i> The Autonomous Self: The Work of John D. Sutherland,</i> ed. J. S. Scharff, pp. 331-349. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.

<br><br>

Ulman, R. B. and D. Brothers (1989).<i> The Shattered Self: a Psychoanalytic Study of Trauma.</i> Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.

<br><br>

Van Eenwyk, J. R. (1997).<i> Archetypes and Strange Attractors: The Chaotic World of Symbols.</i> Toronto: Inner City Books.

<br><br>

Wade, N. (1998). 'Human or chimp? 50 genes are the key'.<i> New York Times,</i> Oct. 20th.

<br><br>

Yalom, I. D. (1975).<i> The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, </i> 2nd ed. New York: Basic Books.

<br><br>

Zug, G. R. (1993).<i> Herpetology: An Introductory Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles.</i> San Diego: Academic Press.

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.