From Physics to Psychotherapy: Phase Transitions and Adaptations, Diagnosis and Treatment*

The following abstract and its accompanying 34 pp manuscript have been submitted for publication.

Abstract

"Chaos," "stasis," and "phase transition" apply broadly in statistical physics and suggest a platform in biology for Darwinian natural and sexual selection. Chaos, and stasis also describe biases in human individual and group behavior, the social gambits of males and females, and our moral strategies of selfishness and cooperation. Furthermore, it is possible to predict altruism and selfishness on the basis of physical systems and to derive a requirement that biological mechanisms will exist to assure both of them. Our developmental course as individuals and as a species is steered within a phase transition by genes, executive functions, family, and culture. The strategies of "simplify" and "complicate" describe human emotional responses, alliances, and hierarchies. These concepts, when combined with phylogenetic models, allow a unified approach to the diagnosis and treatment of human emotional disorders.

copyright, 2000, James Brody, Ph.D., All rights reserved

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