speak, the unconscious prefiguration of the ego. It is not I who create myself,
rather, I happen to myself.
(Jung 1958)Self and ego are not things, they are concepts, imprecisely linked to anatomical or
neurophysiological correlates. They name two sides of one boundary, the border
between time-bound and time-free experience. Self relates to time-free modes of
perception and experience, ego relates to time-bound modes. They attribute value to
percepts through our feeling function. Feelings become thoughts as we learn names
for them through cultural rituals. Reification of either concept leads to premature
closures in the systems (individual-collective) and (ego-Self).
Closure and non-closure: opening and failing to shutTheory is a heuristic, explanatory device, an explanation of a system, an aid to and
part of helping a person retell their story. In Systems Theory, ‘theory’ is closure round
an episteme, a ‘bit’ of knowledge. To illustrate—Yukio and I have a ‘bit of
knowledge’—‘having a cleft palate means you cannot suck.’
Systems theory examines movements of information within structures. The ‘byte’
is a unit of information. When I understand Yukio’s difficulties using a theory, I am
moving a ‘byte of information’—for instance, amplifying its informational content,
by using active imagination with dream material, or ‘asking for associations’.
Analysis is a ‘theory of system’—the system being the psyche and its structures. A
structure is a model of operations that allows for subsequent transformations while
still conforming to the structure’s rules. A structure may be open or closed, opening
or closing. I’ll show you what this means by using this clinical example.
If I link ‘having cleft palate’ with ‘maternal deprivation’ to get ‘severe narcissistic
injury’ I am using a form, ‘if...then...’ to make meaning. ‘If you couldn’t suck,
then you couldn’t attach to mother: if you couldn’t attach to mother then you
can’t attach to me’...This is a closure.The same ‘byte’ can be ‘spun’ in a narrative about ‘archetype’. ‘An archetype is a
pattern of imprinted behaviour, like suckling. If you could not suckle, the
developmental failure prevented archetypal installation.’ This is also a closure.
Theories are predictions and, systemically, a subset of (myth). Any analytic language
—‘classical’ (‘Self-ish’) or ‘developmental’ (ego-ic)—is a member of the set (myth).
Theories are myths designed to convey meaning and define a range within which
meaning may be made. When we are ‘in a complex’ it is as if we can’t read the script
of the psyche. We live our story the same way every time:
closure. Structuring meaning is formally called gestural praxis. Greimas (1987:27)
says that meaning can be referential or directional. In a referential meaning an
expression (a word or gesture) refers back to a content (an associated set of ideas): the
words ‘This boy is ugly’ refer to a code about facial appearances. In a directional
210 DALE MATHERS