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One of Jung's basic ideas which receives too little attention is that the psyche is a self-regulating system in which the unconscious functions in a compensatory relationship to consciousness. This concept of the psyche, which is of fundamental importance in Analytical Psychology, deserves wide recognition: for it is closely paralleled by modern ideas in physiology and other fields, and especially in that special field of study which is known as cybernetics.
It is a familiar fact to doctors that the body contains a large number of homeostatic mechanisms which serve to regulate the internal environment in such a way that the optimum conditions for the life of the individual may be maintained, and that this is brought about by a system of negative feedbacks, which, when a change in the internal environment occurs in one direction, tend to encourage a change in the opposite direction. Wiener in his book on Cybernetics gives as examples the regulation of calcium metabolism, of the heart rate and blood pressure, of the hydrogen-ion concentration of the blood, and others. The life of the body is thus conceived as proceeding along a middle course between pairs of opposites; neither too hot nor too cold; neither osteoporotic nor calcified; neither hypertensive nor hypotensive. A self-regulating system, in fact, in which excesses in any direction are barred; or if not barred, at least dearly paid for in illness, discomfort, or death.
Wiener points out that “The conditions under which life, especially healthy life, can continue in the higher animals, are quite narrow. A variation of one half degree centigrade in the body temperature is generally a sign of illness, and a permanent variation of five degrees is scarcely consistent with life…. In short, our inner economy must contain an assembly of thermostats, automatic hydrogen-ion concentration controls, governors and the like, which would be adequate for a great chemical plant. These are what we know collectively as our homeost