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The unconscious as infinite sets: An essay in bi-logic
A systematic effort to rethink Freud's theory of the unconscious, aiming to separate out the different forms of unconsciousness. The logico-mathematical treatment of the subject is made easy because every concept used is simple and simply explained from first principles. Each renewed explanation of the facts brings the emergence of new knowledge from old material of truly great importance to the clinician and the theorist alike. A highly original book that ought to be read by everyone interested in psychiatry or in Freudian psychology.
472 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1975
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November 27, 2022
This is an extraordinary (out of the ordinary) book in many ways. The theory of infinite sets from Cantor, is taken to an unexpected application in the psychology field. It is an exceptional attempt to reformulate the Freud psychoanalysis in terms of logic-mathematical concepts, following a scientific method procedure as much as possible. In that sense it is also an epistemological effort to integrate so different science disciplines into a coherent scientific method procedure to explain one of the most elusive concepts in science: the unconscious. (Popper objection against psychoanalysis would probably have changed if this kind of approach had existed before). It comes to my mind that Carl Jung also tried to integrate the psychology with the scientific method, as described in his extraordinary essay: “The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious”, where surprisingly I found some of the Jung´s formulations very similar to the Matte´s statements.
What Matte Blanco proposes is that there are two co-existing modes of being, one homogeneous indivisible mode and another heterogeneous dividing one. So we human beings live two realities at once, merged in one being, which in turn produces the actual behaviors going from normal, neurotic, schizophrenic, psychotic and so on. Matte Blanco describes along the book, some interesting psychotherapeutic cases to explain and demonstrate its assertions.
Matte Blanco profound insights arrive at unexpected hypothesis to explain the unconscious as infinite sets, which could resemble some mystical or metaphysical dissertations, but which he cleverly demonstrate, always using a scientific method and mathematical approach. There are many interesting and provocative ideas that challenge the current assumptions about the mind and the psyche, as a result of the merging of set theory and psychology. For example: is it possible to find some logical structures involved in emotions and the unconscious? Matte Blanco explain in detail how it is possible. Matte Blanco is really convinced that “a reformulation of psycho-analysis in terms of logical-mathematical concepts will profoundly revolutionize philosophical thinking and greatly change some of the basic tenets upon which Western philosophy and science rest”.
If science benefits from the use of mathematics to firmly establish and describe the phenomena that conforms the reality, then why not psychology too? It is very well known the dichotomy between the objective and subjective phenomena, and why the mathematics is adequate for the objective reality, but not necessarily for the subjective facts.
One possible concern or objection to this extraordinary book, is that sometimes it penetrates into some philosophical or I would rather say metaphysical arguments, that could scare more than one rigorous scientist-minded. Whereas in some part Matte Blanco asserts that Parmenides started from purely logical-metaphysical considerations, then in other part Matte affirms that psycho-analysis has contributed to a re-assessment of Parmenides’ and Zeno's apparently fantastic and apparently highly metaphysical conceptions. Well, I have to admit that although it is very risky to combine: psychology, set theory, scientific method, metaphysics, philosophy of science, at the end the result of Matte Blanco work, results in a challenging proposal to approach the subjective realm of mind and its related functions: emotions, cognitive process, perception, with a new and revolutionary perspective, which was somewhat anticipated by Freud as Matte explains.
Some of the most interesting statements is that the classical models of mind are reformulated in terms of a multidimensional space. How can this be demonstrated?. Well, Matte present various cases, where the interpretations in five- or six-dimensional analogy, would be seen in a quite different light, and the various interrelations that are so far invisible, would then become evident resulting in a new understanding of the patient. Matte says that it is extremely improbable that psychical phenomena can be described in terms of only three dimensions. The main hypothesis is that the mind can be better understood and explained by using a multidimensional model which relies on a logical-set formulation known as infinite sets which in turn produces a bi-logic relationship between conscious and unconscious, the duality unconscious-conscious or symmetrical-asymmetrical. So the paradoxical and unsolvable findings that arise in the psychical phenomena in both normal and mental disorders, can better be explained in the lighting of the unconscious as infinite sets. A multiple dimension model is then a more adequate metaphor to describe some mental phenomena.
Although Matte starts with some basic explanation of Set Theory to help the reader to understand the rest of the book, and makes a good effort at explaining it, it is convenient if you first go and read some introductory book of set theory. It is not easy to understand some axioms or statements that defies the intuition or common sense. For example, some key argument affirms that “The system Unconscious treats the converse of any relation as identical with the relation. In other words, it treats asymmetrical relations as if they were symmetrical”. “When the principle of symmetry is applied, all members of a set or of a class are treated as identical to one another and to the whole set or class and are therefore interchangeable with respect both to the propositional function which determines or defines the class and also with respect to all the propositional functions which differentiate them”. It really mix up you when you don't carefully follow the argument.
Some stimulating thoughts arrives from this arguments, producing philosophy echoes, as when Matte disserts about the religious thinking that confronts two beliefs: in one part the people who believes Good as a supreme being who is only good and on the other the people who believes Good as a supreme being who is both good and bad. On an everyday basis we are constantly struggling with opposite thoughts and beliefs, which according to an Aristotelian logic, cannot exist at the same time. In our normal reality, things are either true or false. But not both at the same time. Here is where Matte comes with an unexpected insight. Reality can accommodate and defy the usual Aristotelian logic where we are used to live, if we reformulate the reality and mind with the Matte´s model of bi-logic, the unconscious as infinite sets. The realm of asymmetry (or Aristotelian logic) is the conscious, whereas the real of symmetry is the unconscious, both producing the bi-logic process in the mind.
There are many details explained throughout the book, which are impossible to condense in a review. Matte goes step by step, following a rigorous logical mathematical approach, sometimes it becomes very obscure and repetitive, going in circles, sometimes diverting from the line of thought. However it is an excellent and interesting book, for those who are interested in the concurrence and integration of such a diverse fields of knowledge, in order to produce new thoughts, new findings, and new insights about one the most elusive and not well understood subjects: Our mind.
What Matte Blanco proposes is that there are two co-existing modes of being, one homogeneous indivisible mode and another heterogeneous dividing one. So we human beings live two realities at once, merged in one being, which in turn produces the actual behaviors going from normal, neurotic, schizophrenic, psychotic and so on. Matte Blanco describes along the book, some interesting psychotherapeutic cases to explain and demonstrate its assertions.
Matte Blanco profound insights arrive at unexpected hypothesis to explain the unconscious as infinite sets, which could resemble some mystical or metaphysical dissertations, but which he cleverly demonstrate, always using a scientific method and mathematical approach. There are many interesting and provocative ideas that challenge the current assumptions about the mind and the psyche, as a result of the merging of set theory and psychology. For example: is it possible to find some logical structures involved in emotions and the unconscious? Matte Blanco explain in detail how it is possible. Matte Blanco is really convinced that “a reformulation of psycho-analysis in terms of logical-mathematical concepts will profoundly revolutionize philosophical thinking and greatly change some of the basic tenets upon which Western philosophy and science rest”.
If science benefits from the use of mathematics to firmly establish and describe the phenomena that conforms the reality, then why not psychology too? It is very well known the dichotomy between the objective and subjective phenomena, and why the mathematics is adequate for the objective reality, but not necessarily for the subjective facts.
One possible concern or objection to this extraordinary book, is that sometimes it penetrates into some philosophical or I would rather say metaphysical arguments, that could scare more than one rigorous scientist-minded. Whereas in some part Matte Blanco asserts that Parmenides started from purely logical-metaphysical considerations, then in other part Matte affirms that psycho-analysis has contributed to a re-assessment of Parmenides’ and Zeno's apparently fantastic and apparently highly metaphysical conceptions. Well, I have to admit that although it is very risky to combine: psychology, set theory, scientific method, metaphysics, philosophy of science, at the end the result of Matte Blanco work, results in a challenging proposal to approach the subjective realm of mind and its related functions: emotions, cognitive process, perception, with a new and revolutionary perspective, which was somewhat anticipated by Freud as Matte explains.
Some of the most interesting statements is that the classical models of mind are reformulated in terms of a multidimensional space. How can this be demonstrated?. Well, Matte present various cases, where the interpretations in five- or six-dimensional analogy, would be seen in a quite different light, and the various interrelations that are so far invisible, would then become evident resulting in a new understanding of the patient. Matte says that it is extremely improbable that psychical phenomena can be described in terms of only three dimensions. The main hypothesis is that the mind can be better understood and explained by using a multidimensional model which relies on a logical-set formulation known as infinite sets which in turn produces a bi-logic relationship between conscious and unconscious, the duality unconscious-conscious or symmetrical-asymmetrical. So the paradoxical and unsolvable findings that arise in the psychical phenomena in both normal and mental disorders, can better be explained in the lighting of the unconscious as infinite sets. A multiple dimension model is then a more adequate metaphor to describe some mental phenomena.
Although Matte starts with some basic explanation of Set Theory to help the reader to understand the rest of the book, and makes a good effort at explaining it, it is convenient if you first go and read some introductory book of set theory. It is not easy to understand some axioms or statements that defies the intuition or common sense. For example, some key argument affirms that “The system Unconscious treats the converse of any relation as identical with the relation. In other words, it treats asymmetrical relations as if they were symmetrical”. “When the principle of symmetry is applied, all members of a set or of a class are treated as identical to one another and to the whole set or class and are therefore interchangeable with respect both to the propositional function which determines or defines the class and also with respect to all the propositional functions which differentiate them”. It really mix up you when you don't carefully follow the argument.
Some stimulating thoughts arrives from this arguments, producing philosophy echoes, as when Matte disserts about the religious thinking that confronts two beliefs: in one part the people who believes Good as a supreme being who is only good and on the other the people who believes Good as a supreme being who is both good and bad. On an everyday basis we are constantly struggling with opposite thoughts and beliefs, which according to an Aristotelian logic, cannot exist at the same time. In our normal reality, things are either true or false. But not both at the same time. Here is where Matte comes with an unexpected insight. Reality can accommodate and defy the usual Aristotelian logic where we are used to live, if we reformulate the reality and mind with the Matte´s model of bi-logic, the unconscious as infinite sets. The realm of asymmetry (or Aristotelian logic) is the conscious, whereas the real of symmetry is the unconscious, both producing the bi-logic process in the mind.
There are many details explained throughout the book, which are impossible to condense in a review. Matte goes step by step, following a rigorous logical mathematical approach, sometimes it becomes very obscure and repetitive, going in circles, sometimes diverting from the line of thought. However it is an excellent and interesting book, for those who are interested in the concurrence and integration of such a diverse fields of knowledge, in order to produce new thoughts, new findings, and new insights about one the most elusive and not well understood subjects: Our mind.
Displaying 1 of 1 review