This article addresses some of the problems we confront when we apply the concepts of systems theory and complexity science to psychoanalytic developmental theories. It begins with a summary of the major features of General Systems Theory, Chaos theory, and the characteristics of complex adaptive systems. Utilizing some of these concepts, there follows a critique of Freud's use of the Newtonian linear view of causality in his metapsychology and developmental theory and an application of this critique to other psychodynamic developmental theories. The goal of this project is to provide the foundation for a developmental theory that is based on principles from self psychology but that also permits the incorporation of some of the recent finding from neuroscience.