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As early as 3000 years ago (Blofeld, 1968), Chinese scholars conceived of change as resulting from the dual nature of all things, and the interaction of their two complementary aspects, the Yin (feminine, dark, receptive), and the Yang (masculine, light, assertive). Each aspect needs the other for its own definition, and fulfills itself in fulfilling the other: only together can the light and the dark see what the darkness holds. The individual who pursues enlightenment by trying to be one with the light becomes disconnected from the darkness within, resistant to exposure and to true enlightenment. Lao Tse noted the defensiveness and stagnation involved in holding on to only the Yin or the Yang: “it becomes useless to be able to do what one cannot stop doing” (Blofeld, 1968, p. 24). The individual attains wholeness by engaging both aspects of the self in becoming one with a task outside: the artist with the picture and the process of painting, the lover with the beloved and with love making. There is no distinction then between doing and being done to, and the creator is created by the creation.
In a manner reminiscent of the ancient Chinese, quantum physics explains change (Zohar, 1990) as the result of shifts between the two aspects that constitute being at its most elemental, subatomic level: the particle and the wave. The particle aspect is solid and has shape, identity, and position, whereas the wave aspect is potential, or an indefinite number of possibilities for actualization. Although the two aspects always coexist, they can never be simultaneously observed. About change in individuals, Zohar writes:
It is only through the wave aspect and the creation of new individuals to which it leads that the universe evolves. The tension between the particle/
* Faculty and Supervisor, Suffolk Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.
I wish to thank Drs. Irwin Hirsch and James McCarthy for their unfailing encouragement, and for their thoughtful and challenging comments
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* Faculty and Supervisor, Suffolk Institute for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy.
I wish to thank Drs. Irwin Hirsch and James McCarthy for their unfailing encouragement, and for their thoughtful and challenging comments