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By recasting the mind as a nonlinear dynamic system (NDS) and reviewing concepts from the study of deterministic chaos, the aim of this paper is to bring our theoretical models of the mind, and character specifically, more closely in line with clinical experience. Traditional psychoanalytic models of character have been limited by their adherence to linear and equilibrium-seeking dynamics, dynamics which have been misleading in terms of the status of the mind during periods of relative stability and have made it difficult to account for the kind and quality of change individuals make during the course of development and psychotherapeutic treatment. Alternatively, the phenomena observed through the study of open, nonlinear dynamic systems more closely approximate our clinical experience with patients. For instance, NDS explains the conditions under which the mind can become locked into repetitive patterns, as well as the
Acknowledgment. I am grateful to the talented and thoughtful clinical staff at the Austen Riggs Center who on countless occasions gave generously of their time to puzzle over these ideas with me. I would also like to thank Drs. John P. Muller and Jeffrey Goldstein for their unwavering enthusiasm, encouragement, and assistance in relation to my interest in nonlinear dynamic systems and deterministic chaos.
Dr. Piers is Assistant Director of Admissions, Erik H. Erikson Institute for Education and Research, Austen Riggs Center, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
conditions under which the mind can demonstrate the simultaneous and seemingly paradoxical capacity for both continuity and qualitative change.