You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The general aim of this paper is to present some idea of the meaningfulness of an information and systems theoretical frame of reference for psychoanalysis. After a brief sketch of the introduction of information and systems concepts into psychoanalytic theory, the concepts of information and the transformation and processing of information are discussed. The usefulness of these concepts for conceptualizing motivation, meaning and conflict is emphasized. Several specific examples are presented to illustrate an information and systems explanatory approach. It is emphasized that information and systems models offer a theory only for the condition of occurrence of psychological phenomena and not for the intrinsic nature of the phenomena themselves. Finally, suggestions are offered for an information approach to the mind-body issue. In general, it is suggested that information and systems models offer psychoanalysis the beginning of a theory which is consistent with, and intimately related to, contemporary scientific thought and which also has greater explanatory power than current psychoanalytic metapsychology.