Quantum Psychodynamics

DEAR SIR,

As a theoretical physicist seeking the broader ramifications of physical science, I discovered that the Freudian concept of psychic determinism is undermined by the quantum theory of modern physics. This can be seen from a comparison of the introductory text by Charles Brenner (1973) with the particularly good physics popularization by Harald Fritzsch (1984).

Freud was influenced by classical physics, which is completely deterministic. Quantum physics, on the other hand, is completely probabilistic at atomic and molecular levels, and implies that classical determinism is an approximation to reality. The implication for Darwinism is that mutations can occur as quantum jumps in genetic structure, even in the complete absence of external disturbances. The implication for Freudianism is that there can be non-Freudian mutations in human thought, such as the one which Brenner (1973, p. 248) ascribes to George Washington. Perhaps it is the mutations which set us free!

Psychoanalysis, based on Freudian psychodynamics, is an exquisite symmetry which Freud and his followers crystallized from human nature; but it turns out that the symmetry is not exact, and the way in which it is broken is as important and as interesting as the symmetry itself. The same phenomenon occurs in basic physics, where there is great emphasis on symmetry, and even greater emphasis on symmetry breaking. Washington's act of 'free will' was a fortunate symmetry breaking in the mind, whose quantum structure makes it impossible to predict human behaviour with certainty—a ramification of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle emphasized by Fritzsch (1984). As Ross Skelton (IJPA, 66: 504–506) and Ignacio Matte Blanco (IJPA, 67: 251–254) emphasize, symmetry is nothing new in psychoanalysis, and in the final analysis (no pun intended) there is every reason to believe that the symmetries observed by Freud should be derivable from the laws of physics. Symmetry breaking, however, is a novelty ad