RE: Is Information a Disease?The myth of Psyche

Dear John,

>Thanks Terry for your remarks.

My pleasure. I'm happy to be able to contribute to the discussion in some
way and gather I'm the only clinician in the group.

>I think 'compulsive information gathering' is a symptom of our times.
>Infomania is a new syndrome - the neurotic search for informational
>gratification.

I agree with this and like the term "infomania;" compulsive information
gathering does seem a kind of manic condition, an endless search without a
"find" or natural termination point.

Pedro wondered if my example of neurotic mothers not trusting their own
instincts also applies to fathers and men. I've never seen this, but have
seen a similar process in men in relationship to financial markets, e.g.,
day trading, where anxiety about the market's unpredictability becomes
converted into the search for more and more information, as if somehow
prediction would be possible.

>Yes, a small amount of 'information' can be homeopathic - an excess toxic.
>I agree with Karl and Edwina that there is a complex relationship between
>'too/much and 'not enough'.
>
>Re psychodynamics - why has the concept of information not found fertile
>ground in modern psychology (apart from the behaviourist 'processing'
>model)?

Perhaps because emotion and relationship dominate contemporary
psychoanalytic paradigms, and "information" traditionally has been equated
with intellectual defenses, such as intellectualization, rationalization and
justification, which while "higher" order are defenses nonetheless.

Also, Aristotelian logic dominates the thinking. Not many people within my
field realize the value of non-Aristotelian logic for modeling psycho-logic.
The one exception is Ignacio Monte Blanco, who equates properties of
infinite sets with primitive, highly emotional and instinct-driven thinking
of the unconscious.

>I have had many discussions with one of Australia's leading psychoanalysts
>about this. She works with mothers of premature babies (and also
>psychotics)
>using methods developed from Bion and Chaos Theory.
>
>I recently explained to her the thin IS perspective of information as
>contextualised data:
>
>"Two degrees" is data, "two degrees outside" is information
>("It's two degrees outside so you will need to wear your coat"
>is presumably knowledge).
>
>Her response: "That's the other end of the spectrum. I want to know
>how you feel about going outside at all. Information (memory, emotion)
>is so often hidden inside the body in a pathological form. The information
>presented to the psychoanalyst/patient is generally displaced, getting
>to the emotional truth can be obstructed by the informing process itself.
>Just identifying the valid psychic data is the major problem -
>particularly in psychosis."

Not only in psychosis, within the psychoanalytic framework itself. For
example, in "The Art of Unknowing", by a New York psychoanalyst, Stephen
Kurtz, ego psychology is described in terms of "strengthening the eg's
capacity to recognize and negotiate reality", i.e., as it exists
objectively, apart from our subjectivity. Such a framework necessarily
biases/distorts the nature of the information collected.
>
>As we move from data to sense data we encounter the problem of 'psychic
>energy'.
>This is possibly why the model of a 'psyche' as an energy/meaning
>structure which somehow 'processes' information remains a scientific
>mystery.
>
>Perhaps your next FIS paper could examine the myth of Psyche?

A very interesting idea. I'll give it some thought.
Best,
Terry

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Received on Wed Sep 25 23:36:23 2002