PART 2

The Complex Dynamic Psyche

Psychic Complexity:  A Summary

            The psyche, like the physical body, is a complex macrosystem of interacting subsystems. The two interrelated concepts of chaos and order describe the complex nature of our physical universe as one of orderly disorder. The psyche also embodies chaotic order. It undergoes bifurcations, encounters sensitive decisions points, is drawn to attractors, is dependent on initial conditions, is self-organizing, dissipates entropy, undergoes irreversible processes, contains positive and negative feedback loops, is unpredictable, incorporates symbiotic relationships, and maintains far-from-equilibrium conditions.

            The psyche continually seeks to balance opposing forces within its borders. It seeks equilibrium between the archetypes and the instincts. But the ego not only divides consciousness from the unconscious, it also creates many other polarities such as femininity (anima) and masculinity (animus), right and wrong, like and dislike, and desire (attraction) and hate (repulsion). These result from its environmental interactions; its interface with the body and the outside world. Because of these interactions, both energy and information are exchanged which occasionally disrupt the psyche and induce far-from-equilibrium conditions. The ego, when near an unstable condition, is affected by one or more attractors in the form of constellating archetypes. This produces ordering parameters which bring about changes through entrainment. 

            The primary task of the psyche during the first half of life is ego development in which the ego becomes increasingly independent of the archetypal Self. Its primary task during the second half of life is the ego’s acceptance, assimilation, and conscious integration with the Self. This process of independence and then integration is Jung’s individuation process. All of the chaotic attractors and bifurcations, to which the psyche is subject over time, have this as their ultimate and ideal goal.