The Brain and Conscious Unity Freud's Omega
In this provocative text, a noted neuroscientist reexamines Freud's posthumously published Project of Scientific Psychology in the light of modern neuroscience. This expanded "thermodynamics of the mind" model includes robust conceptions of the cell
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Petr Bob
The Brain and Conscious Unity Freud’s Omega
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Petr Bob Center for Neuropsychiatric Research of Traumatic Stress, First Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry Charles University Prague Czech Republic
ISBN 978-1-4939-2699-2 ISBN 978-1-4939-2700-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-2700-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015936299 Springer New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer Science+Business Media New York is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
At the end of the nineteenth century Sigmund Freud proposed his “Project of scientific psychology” and wrote: “The intention is to furnish a psychology that shall be a natural science.” Freud started this project with the aim to study mental functions and applied general thermodynamic concepts of energy exchange and its distribution in the mental apparatus. In this context he used the term psychodynamics as an analogy to thermodynamics to emphasize the common principles of all phenomena in nature that as its part involve also mind and its rules. In his ‘thermo-dynamics’ of mind Freud postulated that neuronal activities tend to move towards states with minimal energy and lower levels of mental ‘tension’ reflecting intrapsychic ‘potential’ energy. Based on this postulate mind and brain like any other physical or chemical systems that have ‘free’ energy tend to move and create structures with lower levels of energy. If in a thermodynamic process the energy is not bound or used as the moving energy, it is transformed into increased disorder in the system characterized by its entropy. The entropy quantifies a level of disorganization and based on this principle also mind and brain may be disorganized as a consequence of lost ‘intentional’ energy which leads to an increase of the disorder and entropy of the mind manifesting as increased psychological t
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