Deterministic Chaos and the Collective Unconscious

Determinism

            Systems that are deterministic follow rigid laws. Many systems appear chaotic or random while actually progressing in a deterministic manner (Abraham, 1994). Ruelle (1991) points out that determinism does not rule out probablity, and says that “chance and determinism are reconciled by long-term unpredictibility” (p. 48). Deterministic chaos comes from classical physics and involves cause-and-effect determinism or reductionism (Briggs & Peat, 1989).  Two primary characteristics of deterministic chaos are sensitive dependence on initial conditions and long-term unpredictibility.

Archetypes as Attractors

            According to Jung (1990), the archetypes are psychic organs. Archetypes are structures, not images. They allow for the periodic creation and dissolution of images. The archetypes have a hierarchical order. The primary archetypes are those that cannot be further reduced. The next in line are the children or secondary archetypes. Then come the grandchildren or tertiary until we come to those which are closest to consciousness and which have the least intensity, meaning, and numinosity or energy charge (Jacobi, 1973).

            When we find ourselves in a grave psychic situation, archetypal dreams will often come to us that will suggest possibilities of progress that would not otherwise have occurred to us (Jacobi, 1973). Activation of an archetype usually is accompanied by an alteration of the conscious situation, a new form of compensation, which in turn, leads to a new distribution of psychic energy and a corresponding reordering of the psychic situation.

            We can look at Figure 13 as an evolutionary trajectory of a human being (one’s life-path over time). Each bifurcation represents a decision point in which our lives change significantly, one way or another, such as college or no college, marry or remain single, if married have a child or not, and so on. Quite often, these decision points are accompanied by encounters with archetypes. The consciousness of every human being is attracted by archetypes in the collective unconscious, at one time or another, else we must pay the penalty in the form of a neurosis (Jacobi, 1973). We can conclude, then, that these psychic attractors are a normal part of life.

            Jung (1976) says, "The archetypes are the numinous, structural elements of the psyche and possess a certain autonomy and specific energy which enables them to attract, out of the conscious mind, those contents which are best suited to themselves." (p. 232). Symbols, not words, are the language or expression or form used by the archetypes to communicate.

            Jung’s eight stages of archetypal activity are:

1.   The archetype is quiet, a structural factor in the collective unconscious.

2.    Through a psychic process called constellation it received energy and its charge increases and it becomes dynamic.

3.    The charge is manifested as a kind of magnetic pull on the conscious mind.

4.    Attracted by the charge, consciousness turns its attention on the archetype until it is perceived.

5.    When touched by consciousness, the archetype either takes the form of an instinct or an image. If an image, it becomes a symbol.

6.     The symbol acquires a degree of autonomy.

7.     The conscious mind must come to terms with the meaning of the symbol either spontaneously or over time.

8.     The symbol may:

a.    Be understood in degree and is owned by the ego in degree but is not fully understood.  It continues living.

b.    Be completely understood and integrated with the ego. It soon dies.

c.    Not be understood at all until it causes a dissociation in the psyche. It becomes an autonomous splinter psyche which is felt in all kinds of neurotic and psychotic symptoms.

            Jung’s eight stages of archetypal activity are shown graphically in Figure 13 below, which could be called a bifurcation map for the psyche.

Figure 13.  A Psychological Bifurcation Map.

            Jung (1990) lists the following possible changes to the personality:

1.                     Diminution

a.                     "Loss of the soul"

2.                     Enlargement

a.                     Through an accretion from without

b.                     Through a rising up from within

3.                     Change to internal structure

a.                     Possession, which “can be formulated as identity of the ego-personality with a complex" (p. 122)

i.                      Possession via identification with the persona

ii.                     Inferior function--possession via identification with the shadow

iii.                    Possession via identification of anima or animus (i.e., homosexuality)

b.                     Identification with a group. 

i.                      "A group experience takes place on a lower level of consciousness than the experience of an individual." (p. 125)

ii.                     Group psyche and mob psychology

iii.                    Participation mystique

c.                     Identification with a cult-hero.

d.                     Magical procedures.  A rite used directly for this purpose. Given a new name, etc.

e.                     Technical transformation. Yoga. These are techniques proscribed in advance and intended to achieve a definite psychic effect.

f.                      Natural transformation. "Nature herself demands a death and rebirth....Natural transformation processes announce themselves mainly in dreams." (p. 130)

            How should these changes come about? By deliberately allowing consciousness to penetrate into the unconscious, a connection can be made with unconscious contents. This may result in a momentous change of personality in either the positive or negative sense.

            Subjective feeling-values or feeling-tones are also subject to periodic changes.  Jung (1978) calls these "value quanta" (p. 29). The contents of the unconscious are not susceptible to change. We can only change what is in our consciousness. So, in order to make changes, we must first raise these unconscious contents to consciousness. Jung (1991) writes, 

In what way, then, can unconscious contents be brought to consciousness? ... The best practical method, though also the most difficult, is the analysis and interpretation of dreams. Dreams are unquestionably products of unconscious psychic activity.  (p. 154).

            By transporting bifurcation theory to psychology, we have developed a simplified bifurcation map of the psyche showing period doubling into either chaos (some form of psychic instability) or integration (psychic stability or order). Our psyche can enter chaos through a process analogous to intermittency as when we undergo large mood swings, with a long period of numerous oscillations of highs and lows in our lives (such as occurs in chronic depression or in mood disorders).

            Our psyche can also enter chaos through a crisis route such as when we experience something that does not fit into our belief system or worldview and for which we have no logical explanation. As shown in Figure 13, when such events occur, we must either assimilate them into our world view or enter chaos (this is discussed in more detail later).

Synergetics and the Unconscious