Each generation finds its own best fit "theory of the mind" using current technology and scientific understanding. When Freud developed his metapsychology he was heavily influenced by recent discoveries in science and technology, especially in regards to the nature of electricity and its behavior. The similarity of electrical flow and hydraulic flow led him to postulate a metapsychology filled with concepts of conflicting pressures (instincts versus repression, for example.)
Someone developing a metapsychology today is much more likely to attempt to integrate cutting edge neuroscience, cybernetics, and information technology. Adam Leonard, in a very readable series of essays does just that in Man by Nature. The subtitle of Adam's book is "The Hidden Programming Controlling Human Behavior" and he does a respectable job, as might be expected of (as described on the book's back cover) an "Engineering Scientist whose vocation has been programming computers to analyze and display engineering data, and whose avocation has been analyzing human behavior based on the research published in the life science fields."
As luck would have it, my particular metapsychology has been heavily influenced by computing science in combination with Psychoanalytic metapsychology. Furthermore, the exponential leaps in our knowledge of neuroscience and the organization of the brain are leading us toward an increasingly sophisticated knowledge of the structure and function of the brain; as we increase our understanding of the brain, our understanding of the mind follows. I have written before (here, here, and here especially) of research in neuroscience which supports some of the basic tenets of Psychoanalysis, especially related to concepts such as the dynamic unconscious, self-object differentiation, and identification. As long time readers of my blog know, I see our conscious, rational minds as existing in a thin and rather friable crust atop a sea of irrationality.
Last Tuesday, in the Science Times, in Who’s Minding the Mind? Benedict Carey reported on more evidence for the existence, if not primacy, of an unconscious mind:
More fundamentally, the new studies reveal a subconscious brain that is far more active, purposeful and independent than previously known. Goals, whether to eat, mate or devour an iced latte, are like neural software programs that can only be run one at a time, and the unconscious is perfectly capable of running the program it chooses.
The give and take between these unconscious choices and our rational, conscious aims can help explain some of the more mystifying realities of behavior, like how we can be generous one moment and petty the next, or act rudely at a dinner party when convinced we are emanating charm.
As the evidence accumulates we will soon reach a point where even those most threatened by Psychoanalytic concepts will have difficulty refuting the power of their unconscious mind. In this, Adam Leonard is in complete agreement:
Once you realize Man is not rational, things begin to make sense. Once you realize Man is programmed to behave in particular, even peculiar ways, impervious to and in defiance of reason, you can begin to understand his behavior.
Starting from this premise, Adam begins to explain what he means by "programmed" and how this programming can be conceptualized. This was particularly salient for my purposes.
He draws the analogy from computer programming to human programming. There are three levels of computer programming:
The terms, tributes to the days when instructions were actually wired rather than etched or written in memory are descriptive of the plasticity associated with each method - how hard or easy it is to change the programming once it's written. Hardwired programming can't be changed - its as permanent as the machine itself; firmwired programming can be changed, but with difficulty - special effort is needed; softwired programming can be changed easily.
He offers a summary of various mental processes which fit in each category and much of the book explores how these programs take effect at levels from the individual to the tribal.
The book offers an easily accessible approach to conceptualizing the organization of the mind. Adam does this in service of his attempt to understand why human beings have such a hard time getting along with each other. He takes an engineering approach to what Psychoanalysts would easily recognize as defenses (projection and externalization, for example.) It is well worth reading for a different approach to behavior that is usually discussed in the MSM with no regard for unconscious forces and effects.
If the book has a shortcoming, it is in Adam Leonard's probably unavoidable tone of certainty. I suspect he would agree with my premise that there are still many surprises yet to come in terms of our neurosciences and our programming. Further, the level of complexity is likely to rise several orders of magnitude before some of his descriptions become more accessible.
As we find ways in which our brains can be more closely approximated by our computers, we should be able to find more effective ways to intervene; this has both good and bad effects, but does hold out promise that our neurosciences and our computer sciences will eventually allow us to gain much greater control of our hidden programming, the products of our unconscious minds which cause so much grief and so much damage.
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