Quantum field theory and its relation to Psychology
Hi,
going through some of the research papers and some more information on psychology i found something that's worth sharing with you all considering the fact the it might be an important link towards the theory of everything.
It's widely accepted that consciousness or, more generally the mental activity is in some way correlated to the behavior of the material brain. Since quantum theory is the most fundamental theory of matter currently available, it is a legitimate question to ask whether quantum theory can help us understand the consciousness?
The problem of how mind and matter are correlated to each other has many facets,and it can be approached from different starting points. Of course, historically the leading disciplines in this respect are philosophy and psychology,which were later joined by behavioral science, cognitive science and neuroscience.
Brain is one of the most complex systems we know.
As regards to quantum physics, there can be no reasonable doubt that quantum events occur and are as efficacious in the brain as elsewhere in the material world. But whether these events are relevant for those aspects of brain activity that are correlated with mental activity, is still a very important question of research.
The original motivation ,in the early 20th century, for relating quantum theory to consciousness was essentially philosophical. It is possible that conscious free decisions,ie , free will , are problematic in a perfectly deterministic world , so quantum randomness might open up novel possibilities for free will!
Firstly, lets discuss some basic principles of Quantum physics.
The fundamentals of Quantum theory were discovered independently by Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrodinger in response to puzzling experimental evidence that contradicted the fundamental concepts of classical physics.For example, electrons were found to exhibit the properties of waves.
Conversely, light (which was previously thought of just as a wave) was found to exhibit particle nature. This confusion of classical distinctions between particles and waves was resolved by Niels Bohr's principle of complimentarity , according to which the wave and particle concepts are understood to be mutually exclusive but both are necessary for the complete description of quantum phenomenon.
A consequence of this wave particle duality is that all matter ,including everyone of us , has a wave aspect associated with the particle aspect. Another consequence of this theory is corresponding duality between the unobserved and the observed.
A deeper understanding of these subtle issues requires some basic understanding of the way quantum physics describes phenomenon.
According to the quantum theory, the state of an unobserved quantum of matter or light is represented by a solution to Schrodinger's wave equation. This solution is a quantum wave function Y(x) whose intensity |Y(x)| at any particular position x represents the probability of observing the quantum at that position.
When quantum is unobserved, it is a non local wave of probable positions ; and when quantum is observed, it is a particle having definite localized position. Hence both particle and wave concepts are termed as complimentary because both are needed to characterize the observed and unobserved aspects of any quantum.
Now , moving on , lets discuss some basics of psychology or more specifically Jungian psychology.
The notion of psychological unconscious was first extensively developed in Freud's 'The Interpretation of Dreams' and further developed in his 3 essays on the Theory of Sexuality, published in 1905. In addition to the contents of out conscious awareness,Freud considered psyche to also contain an unconscious region whose contents are hidden and cannot be directly observed. These unconscious events, according to Freud, consist of previously conscious events that have been repressed and forgotten. The unconscious is thus a kind of 'Skeleton Closet' containing personal psychic contents that were conscious in the past but then hidden away.
After studying Freud, Carl Jung deepened and expanded Freud's notion of the unconscious, most notably in his 'Psychology Of The Unconscious' in 1912. According to Jung, the unconscious contains, in addition to repressed personal contents, a deep and vast region of collective psychic contents called the collective unconscious. In contrast to the personal unconscious contents that were previously conscious, the collective unconscious contents are not derived from previously conscious personal contents. Instead collective contents are innate and universal. The collective unconscious is common to all individuals, it is objective in the sense that all individuals share these same deep psychic structures. Between personal and collective regions of the psyche there are various intermediate levels of depth,each having its share of universality and particularity.
Having discussed these two seemingly distinct concepts, its very interesting that there is a strong correlation among them.
Quantum physics is feeling its way into the unknown side of matter , just as complex psychology is pushing forward into the unknown side of psyche. Both have developed concepts which display remarkable analogies.
Progress in the conceptual understanding of nature was accomplished using the principle of complimentarity, which states that mutually exclusive sets of concepts must be used to completely explain quantum phenomenon. Bohr's this idea is very interesting to psychologists, especially Jung.
He saw that the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious mind also forms a complimentary pair of opposites.
Therefore wave-particle duality in quantum physics parallels the unconscious-conscious complimentarity in psychology.
As the wave is the observed aspect of the quantum and the particle is the unobserved aspect, So the unconscious is the unobserved aspect of psyche and the conscious the observed aspect.
Equivalent to a wave, the area of the unconscious is enormous and always continuous, while the area of consciousness is a restricted field of momentary vision.
As stated earlier , the quantum wave function represents probabilities, similarly archetypal structures of the unconscious represent fundamental potentialities of psychic manifestation, while the conscious contents are the actualization of these potentialities.
The common background of quantum physics and psychology is as much physical as psychic. Any attempt to determine the nature of the unconscious state runs up against the same difficulties as atomic physics : the very act of observation alters the object observed.
There's much more analogy. Much more to discuss the wonders of quantum theory in psychology. We , as of right now, don't know what lies ahead of us! Due to so many analogies ,the possibility can't be ignored that these two fields might merge. You never know!!
For now its a keen area of research and definitely with a bright future.
No wonder its awesomeness is ineffable!!
Good day..
going through some of the research papers and some more information on psychology i found something that's worth sharing with you all considering the fact the it might be an important link towards the theory of everything.
It's widely accepted that consciousness or, more generally the mental activity is in some way correlated to the behavior of the material brain. Since quantum theory is the most fundamental theory of matter currently available, it is a legitimate question to ask whether quantum theory can help us understand the consciousness?
The problem of how mind and matter are correlated to each other has many facets,and it can be approached from different starting points. Of course, historically the leading disciplines in this respect are philosophy and psychology,which were later joined by behavioral science, cognitive science and neuroscience.
Brain is one of the most complex systems we know.
As regards to quantum physics, there can be no reasonable doubt that quantum events occur and are as efficacious in the brain as elsewhere in the material world. But whether these events are relevant for those aspects of brain activity that are correlated with mental activity, is still a very important question of research.
The original motivation ,in the early 20th century, for relating quantum theory to consciousness was essentially philosophical. It is possible that conscious free decisions,ie , free will , are problematic in a perfectly deterministic world , so quantum randomness might open up novel possibilities for free will!
Firstly, lets discuss some basic principles of Quantum physics.
The fundamentals of Quantum theory were discovered independently by Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrodinger in response to puzzling experimental evidence that contradicted the fundamental concepts of classical physics.For example, electrons were found to exhibit the properties of waves.
Conversely, light (which was previously thought of just as a wave) was found to exhibit particle nature. This confusion of classical distinctions between particles and waves was resolved by Niels Bohr's principle of complimentarity , according to which the wave and particle concepts are understood to be mutually exclusive but both are necessary for the complete description of quantum phenomenon.
A consequence of this wave particle duality is that all matter ,including everyone of us , has a wave aspect associated with the particle aspect. Another consequence of this theory is corresponding duality between the unobserved and the observed.
A deeper understanding of these subtle issues requires some basic understanding of the way quantum physics describes phenomenon.
According to the quantum theory, the state of an unobserved quantum of matter or light is represented by a solution to Schrodinger's wave equation. This solution is a quantum wave function Y(x) whose intensity |Y(x)| at any particular position x represents the probability of observing the quantum at that position.
When quantum is unobserved, it is a non local wave of probable positions ; and when quantum is observed, it is a particle having definite localized position. Hence both particle and wave concepts are termed as complimentary because both are needed to characterize the observed and unobserved aspects of any quantum.
Now , moving on , lets discuss some basics of psychology or more specifically Jungian psychology.
The notion of psychological unconscious was first extensively developed in Freud's 'The Interpretation of Dreams' and further developed in his 3 essays on the Theory of Sexuality, published in 1905. In addition to the contents of out conscious awareness,Freud considered psyche to also contain an unconscious region whose contents are hidden and cannot be directly observed. These unconscious events, according to Freud, consist of previously conscious events that have been repressed and forgotten. The unconscious is thus a kind of 'Skeleton Closet' containing personal psychic contents that were conscious in the past but then hidden away.
After studying Freud, Carl Jung deepened and expanded Freud's notion of the unconscious, most notably in his 'Psychology Of The Unconscious' in 1912. According to Jung, the unconscious contains, in addition to repressed personal contents, a deep and vast region of collective psychic contents called the collective unconscious. In contrast to the personal unconscious contents that were previously conscious, the collective unconscious contents are not derived from previously conscious personal contents. Instead collective contents are innate and universal. The collective unconscious is common to all individuals, it is objective in the sense that all individuals share these same deep psychic structures. Between personal and collective regions of the psyche there are various intermediate levels of depth,each having its share of universality and particularity.
Having discussed these two seemingly distinct concepts, its very interesting that there is a strong correlation among them.
Quantum physics is feeling its way into the unknown side of matter , just as complex psychology is pushing forward into the unknown side of psyche. Both have developed concepts which display remarkable analogies.
Progress in the conceptual understanding of nature was accomplished using the principle of complimentarity, which states that mutually exclusive sets of concepts must be used to completely explain quantum phenomenon. Bohr's this idea is very interesting to psychologists, especially Jung.
He saw that the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious mind also forms a complimentary pair of opposites.
Therefore wave-particle duality in quantum physics parallels the unconscious-conscious complimentarity in psychology.
As the wave is the observed aspect of the quantum and the particle is the unobserved aspect, So the unconscious is the unobserved aspect of psyche and the conscious the observed aspect.
Equivalent to a wave, the area of the unconscious is enormous and always continuous, while the area of consciousness is a restricted field of momentary vision.
As stated earlier , the quantum wave function represents probabilities, similarly archetypal structures of the unconscious represent fundamental potentialities of psychic manifestation, while the conscious contents are the actualization of these potentialities.
The common background of quantum physics and psychology is as much physical as psychic. Any attempt to determine the nature of the unconscious state runs up against the same difficulties as atomic physics : the very act of observation alters the object observed.
There's much more analogy. Much more to discuss the wonders of quantum theory in psychology. We , as of right now, don't know what lies ahead of us! Due to so many analogies ,the possibility can't be ignored that these two fields might merge. You never know!!
For now its a keen area of research and definitely with a bright future.
No wonder its awesomeness is ineffable!!
Good day..
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