Space, Symmetry, and Psychosis

Our current model of the physical universe rests on two major premises. The first is that time and space are complementary and interchangeable elements of a universal field and that matter and energy are intense, transient condensations of that field. Mach, for example, believes that inertia (resistance to acceleration), once thought to be an inherent characteristic of mass, is not an intrinsic property at all, but a measure of its interaction with the rest of the universe. Davies goes so far as to suggest that material objects are no more than minor disturbances on the underlying structure of space-time. The second premise states that there is a reciprocal relationship between the form and content of the universe, the shape of which is a positive curve whose arc is determined by the concentration of matter within it. It bends back on itself, resembling the surface of a sphere, and is thus finite and unbounded. Barnett, in The Universe and Dr. Einstein, writes, “A sunbeam setting out through space at the rate of 186,000 miles a second would, in this universe, describe a great cosmic circle and return to its source in a little more than 200 billion terrestial years.”

In a previous communication, I proposed that inner space mirrors this spherical and symmetrical model of the universe, being composed of both finite (left, temporal) and unbounded (right, spatial) hemispheres. In this article, I would like to relate this idea to the major psychoses, schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness.

Normal mental activity reflects a symmetrical internal organization, a complementarity between the left verbo-temporal, and the right visuo-spatial hemispheres. The major psychoses, then, may be characterized as primary disturbances in space-time configuration. For example, we can describe schizophrenia as a disorder of the left hemisphere, where thought is disorganized, dimensionality is reduced, and objects and affects become concrete and closely packed. A sense of space disappears