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Heisenberg shows (Physics and Philosophy, p. 89) that a set of concepts has a limitation that is not obvious from the set of concepts itself. The ‘set’ of relativity and the ‘set’ of Newtonian mechanics approached each other within the limit where velocities in the system are very small compared with the speed of light.
Similarly it may be true that a scientific deductive system is valid in a certain limited system that is not deductive from the scientific deductive system itself; moreover, that two separate scientific deductive systems approximate to each other in a certain limited system whose limits are not deducible from the concepts of either of the two scientific deductive systems.
In Freud's work the social field in which the individual works is taken as ‘given’, but now it is essential that the environment must become the object of further theoretical studies. Only in this way can narcissism and the narcissistic psychoses be understood.
I am, therefore I think: I think, therefore I am. If α is destroyed, thought becomes impossible and the personality ceases to exist. The schizophrenic's fear of annihilation may be associated with an experiencing of his non-existence as a personality. It raises the question: what is the personality? What is the limiting field for the concept of personality? There can be no personality if there is no thinking, no self consciousness. There may be persons, but not personality unless there is a function of self consciousness. Self consciousness, the function, is the sine qua non of personality. To say someone has personality is to mean that he is aware of himself, not sporadically but permanently as a continuous phenomenon.