MO-6. Three ontologies: Particles, forms, oscillations

For three decades I've juggled three ontologies, or views of reality. 

1. One that is obviously limited or downright wrong: the static, atomistic-materialistic one that holds particles and objects to be the core of reality.

2. A dynamic ontology, like that of Heraclitus, Bergson and Whitehead. It sees reality as a river with stable eddies and whirlpools that channel the flow and make it appear as stable, localized entities (this was the topic of my first book, "Flux"). These appearances of stability I called forms and argued that the forms of the social world (values, norms, roles, institutions) suited humans best when they were stable and flexible at the same time, or flexstable.

3. A more scientifically realistic ontology that starts from string theory and quantum field theory. This view sees physical reality in terms of oscillators that vibrate spontaneously, like strings, in the quantum vacuum, taking the shape of electromagnetic, gravitational and other kinds of field, force and radiation. This frequency or wave description has been part and parcel of quantum mechanics since its inception, but Niels Bohr and the Copenhagen School accorded it only status as "complementary" with the particle view (to which it is clearly superior). Seeing atoms, molecules, cells, organisms, perception, memory, disease and many other complex phenomena in terms of oscillations or waves interacting in standing interference patterns is a view that is breaking through scientifically these current decades, ever so slowly. (I wrote a short, popular account: kronik i Politiken).

Vejen til velstand: Kapitalisme eller pengeskabelse?

Vi er så vant til at tænke, at velstanden i vesten skyldes kapitalismen og dens enestående drivkraft, den frie konkurrence.

Men hvordan forklarer man så den eksplosive velstandsstigning, vi har set i visse lande og perioder uden noget, der bare lignede kapitalisme - fx Nazityskland i 1930'erne, Japan efter 2. verdenskrig og Kina de sidste 30 år? Kan det skyldes, at der har været systematisk pengeskabelse i disse tre tilfælde - af et omfang, som vi ellers kun kender fra bankerne i de kapitalistiske samfund?

 For Nazityskland var jo et klassisk diktatur, Japan 1945-85 var et paternalistisk samfund med "karteller" (keiretsu) af leverandørkæder, og Kina 1990-2020 er en étpartistat. Umiddelbart har der ikke været megen frisk, liberal konkurrence i de lande, ingen usynlig hånd. Snarere en central jernnæve. Lad se nærmere på dem.

SDT og den psykologiske madpyramide

I gamle dage blev flæsk og mjød regnet for et godt måltid. Cirka dér er vi i dag, hvad vores psykologiske behov angår.

Efter mange års ernæringsstudier kunne man i 1900-tallet stille skarpt på de tre primære næringsstoffer: Proteiner, kulhydrater og fedtstof. Dem har alle mennesker brug for. De tre blev den første madpyramide bygget op omkring. Senere kom vitaminer og mineraler til. 

SDT's tre psykologiske behov er lige så fundamentale, men følger først 100 år senere. Hvis småbørn, skoleelever, studerende, medarbejdere, patienter, idrætsudøvere og alle andre mennesker får deres behov for samhørighed, autonomi og kompetence rimeligt opfyldt, vil de trives i sjælen - så basalt godt som en gennemsnitsdansker fik ordentlig næring for 100 år siden og begyndte at trives i legemet.

MO-5. Disease is not a dysfunction. It's the body's healthy way of handling major challenges

In my current work on living systems, a new understanding of disease is up. Disease is traditionally understood as something negative, to be avoided and gotten rid of. 

However, if we see organisms as naturally venturing into the world and encountering challenges from the environment, disease may be seen as the body attempt to deal with challenges that are just too large for regular processing.

Your body wards off bacteria all the time, but if their concentration exceeds a certain threshold, or your threshold has been lowered due to low vitality or suchlike, then the body marshals special resources and puts the body to work, serious work (think inflammation, infection). 

Medium-sized challenges the body can handle, pneumonia it may not, and your good doctor steps in with antibiotics to kill off the large challenger which might otherwise have overcome you.

MO-4. A lost century in psychiatry

An important part of my work on living systems during the present decade will be addressing some issues in psychiatry. Although I'm no expert, I have the strong sense that between the  fairy tales of Freud's psychoanalysis and biological psychiatry, with its focus on chemical imbalances in the brain, we have pretty much a lost century in psychiatry. Little by way of understanding, let alone treating, psychopathology has been achieved over the past hundred years or more.

The French doctor and psychologist Pierre Janet (1859-1947) did pioneering empirical work with thousands of patients and established the attempt to achieve psychological unity as a major driving force of the human mind. Publishing voluminously in French and very little in English, he was eclipsed by Freud, a master of public propaganda and the construction of a movement around himself. 

To Janet, integration towards psychological unity is the hallmark of mental health, while psychological fragmentation takes the mind in the opposite direction, towards ill health and disease. 

MO-3. Håndtering af udfordringer: Perspektivisk integration og subintegration

Mennesker udvikler sig ved at møde og håndtere udfordringer. I bedste fald indoptages udfordringen, personen integrerer den og vokser derved. Lidt mere er klaret, ens verden har udvidet sig og man ser og forstår sammenhænge lidt bedre og handler mere kompetent i dem. Kontekst og helhed erobres, og personen bliver optimalt en tydeligere del af det menneskelige fællesskab.