Toward Building Psychoanalytically Based Mathematical Models of Psychotherapeutic Paradigms

Abstract

Psychoanalysis has long been the stepchild of science. Though its origins include Freud’s (1895) valiant efforts to establish a neurophysiological substrate for both conscious and unconscious mental phenomena, psychoanalysts—including Freud himself—have long since abandoned their own psychophysiological roots. Nonetheless, as psychoanalysts struggle to justify their labors and to provide their efforts with some foundation in research, there is a small but perceptible movement toward developing a truly significant foundation for psychoanalytic observations, clinical practice, and theory. Indeed, these efforts now include some crude but vital first attempts to generate mathematical models in realms pertinent to psychoanalytic investigation. Sashin’s (1985) work with the application of catastrophe theory in understanding the vicissitudes of affect is pioneering in this respect.