Chaos theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences [Hardcover]

Robin Robertson (Editor), Allan Combs (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0805817360 | ISBN-13: 978-0805817362 | Publication Date: July 1, 1995 | Edition: 1

This book represents the best of the first three years of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology conferences. While chaos theory has been a topic of considerable interest in the physical and biological sciences, its applications in psychology and related fields have been obscured until recently by its complexity. Nevertheless, a small but rapidly growing community of psychologists, neurobiologists, sociologists, mathematicians, and philosophers have been coming together to discuss its implications and explore its research possibilities.

Chaos theory has been termed the first authentic paradigm shift since the advent of quantum physics. Whether this is true or not, it unquestionably bears profound implications for many fields of thought. These include the cognitive analysis of the mind, the nature of personality, the dynamics of psychotherapy and counseling, understanding brain events and behavioral records, the dynamics of social organization, and the psychology of prediction. To each of these topics, chaos theory brings the perspective of dynamic self-organizing processes of exquisite complexity. Behavior, the nervous system, and social processes exhibit many of the classical characteristics of chaotic systems -- they are deterministic and globally predictable and yet do not submit to precise predictability.

This volume is the first to explore ideas from chaos theory in a broad, psychological perspective. Its introduction, by the prominent neuroscientist Walter Freeman, sets the tone for diverse discussions of the role of chaos theory in behavioral research, the study of personality, psychotherapy and counseling, mathematical cognitive psychology, social organization, systems philosophy, and the understanding of the brain.

Editorial Reviews

Review

It provides interesting metaphors, particularly with reference to philosophy and psychology. This book is a starting point for those interested in the metaphor and methods of chaos theory in psychology.
—American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Psychology Press; 1 edition (July 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805817360
• ISBN-13: 978-0805817362
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,922,923 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robin Robertson has spent a life-time bridging the worlds of psychology, science, business and the arts. He's a clinical psychologist, university professor and writer who has published sixteen books and more than a hundred articles in either psychology or his hobby field of magic. He teaches psychology on-line to graduate level students as an Associate Professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Before becoming a psychologist, he was a vice-president of software development for a large insurance company, and for the last twenty years, he's been a consultant to a multi-employer pension plan. He has separate undergraduate degrees in mathematics and English literature, as well as an M.A. in counseling psychology, and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

Robin's books, often on Jungian psychology or the relationship between psychology and science, have gone through multiple printings, new editions, and foreign translations. Since 1986, he's been a writer, editor, columnist and editorial board member of the Jungian journal Psychological Perspectives (a beautiful journal that speaks not merely to specialists, but to everyone who loves Jung.)

He has also been heavily involved with the applications of chaos theory in psychology as a writer, editor, speaker, and officer of the "Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences." And, in more recent years, he's been a consulting editor and contributor for the cybernetics journal Cybernetics & Human Knowing (a journal that looks at deep issues about the nature of reality).

He is a life-time amateur magician, and a member of the Order of Merlin of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, who has published six magic books and many original effects, in recent years often collaborating with the clever Scottish magician, Peter Duffie.