The Interface Function

Interfaces connect spaces that must both be sufficiently similar and different. The differences are the driving force for an exchange between the spaces. In doing so, interfaces control the quantity and quality of the exchange that takes place through them. In terms of spatial and temporal dimensions, interfaces are highly complex, self-organising, and finitely extended. The interface-function is a highly specialised process that enables difference-based exchange. At the driving end, it requires energy from outside, which reduces entropy and increases information, and in this way creates and maintains difference. The interface-function as a basic principle is being employed here metaphorically to develop the hypothesis that there is an analogous basic function in the psyche since interfaces are ubiquitous in the entire organism, i.e. brain and body, and function simultaneously. Transferring the assumption of the interface-function to mental processes postulates difference as a basic principle. We will illustrate our reflections here with the help of clinical vignettes from psychoanalytic treatments thus illuminating the interface-function’s various properties and some aspects of its disruption and restoration.