It is important to recognise that the symmetric realm is the realm of necessities/possibilities and so includes all parts out of context and all 'laws' in the form of instincts/habits. As such, symmetric thinking etc is an essential SUPPORT mechanism that can create problems if allowed to take a lead role in dealing with actuality (brings out confusion of the surreal/romantic with the real); habits and instincts are always GENERALS and confusion of CLASS with INSTANCE can lead to serious issues in dealing with reality.
Thus the dynamics of mediation and parts distinction aid in the operation of a life form dealing with a context from a symmetric position. Developmentally we see the determinism of genetics eliciting a symmetric form at the global level that is then customised locally (aspects dynamics, parts focus) where the customisation includes specialist language creations for social communication and storing material 'off line'. Thus we see a development hierarchy of symmetry->anti-symmetry->asymmetry with the latter allowing for feedback to the symmetric in the form of instinct/habit refinements etc and so energy conservation in the long run. The overall focus of asymmetry gives a sense of direction and location to symmetry and in doing so allows for a symmetric form to re-configure itself due to a changing environment.
"Remember, too, that symmetrized logic is endemic not only in unconscious processes but also in emotional states generally" p28 Rayner, E., (2003)"Unconscious Logic : an introduction to Matte Blanco's bi-logic and its uses" Brunner-Routledge
"The whole realm of emotional communication, useful or not, is imbued with symmetrizations or identicalizations. This could be in intimate love, anger or pain; in gossip, politics, poetry or literature - in any rhetorical expressions" p34 Rayner, E., (2003)"Unconscious Logic : an introduction to Matte Blanco's bi-logic and its uses" Brunner-Routledge
Thus focus is validated independently through the focus on precision issues and integration. That said, more work is needed in covering secondary emotions where they depend on a strong sense of self for their definition.
The IDM focus on recursion in meaning generation covers the apparent propensity for the psyche to dichotomise, or 'split'. In early infancy there is a strong tendency for gross either/or behaviours that become more refined over time - this refinement reflecting the recursion activity applied to dichotomies that elicit finer distinctions and communication of such. An addition to this dynamic is the IDM-identified 'phase transition' in meaning generation where mechanistic recursion passes into organic recursion and the genesis of languages.
Together with the development of richer communication skills is the development of the two paths of meaning generation, that of emotional highs and lows and so of magnitudes, and that of date/time stamps and so of sequencies - the former, through amygdala development, preceding by some time the development of the latter, through hippocampus development. Implicit in this is differences in early forms of communication grounded in magnitudes and the immediate when compared to a delay element, and finer syntactic communications, grounded in sequencing.
We see here emerge different classes of dichotomy where the original A/NOT-A format is more representative of aspectual analysis and the anti-symmetry of the XOR operator, but symmetric and asymmetric forms also exist - the latter being a compressed form of trichotomy - there is a mediation arm present that is withdrawn once mediation is completed. This mediation format covers language generation at work across asymmetric dichotomies such as parts/whole.
empathy -> symmetrisation of selves. 'merging of selves' -> spacial symmetrisation.
"A thought about a whole ohject 'B' and a part of it 'b' involves a space or time relation between then such that B INCLUDES b, while b IS INCLUDED in B. Such thoughts or propositions naturally use asymmetric logic. But when symmetrized, thinking will be in the form of 'B includes b - b includes B'. Space within object 'B' will have disappeared. Thus where symmetry rules, whole objects are experienced as identical to their parts." pp32 Rayner, E., (2003)"Unconscious Logic : an introduction to Matte Blanco's bi-logic and its uses" Brunner-Routledge
Positive feedback dynamics can elicit part=whole issues where that which is discretised/amplified takes on the form of a whole when it is a part. "This equation is most obvious in psychosis when, say, someone may feel that the whjole spirit of evil is emerging through a boil on the nose" pp32 Rayner, E., (2003)"Unconscious Logic : an introduction to Matte Blanco's bi-logic and its uses" Brunner-Routledge
This covers the nature of amplification and concentration - it gets into issues of object formation and compaction of content such that what is within this part is a copy of the whole - we see this in, for example, genetics, but the confusion is in the CODE for a whole vs the AMPLIFIED code for that part - IOW we see confusion of instance with class, part with whole.
in relation to an exam result:
normal asymmetry - "I have failed this time"
neurotic - "I am an utter failure"
psychotic - "I am failure" - hard core symmetrisation - the whole that is "I" has become "Failure" - there is no differentiation of the two but there is still differentiation of the sense of "I".
"Ordinary conscious logical reasoning, which includes scientific and everyday thought about the physical world, consistantly entertains propositions about asymmetrical relations. Here the mind is conceiving of relations whose converses are not identical to them. This naturally involves the discrimination of difference relations.At the same time symmetrical relations will no doubt be entertained but, if thought is ordinarily logical, they will remain constently interwoven with and do not oblitorate the asymmetrical ones." pp24-25 Rayner, E., (2003)"Unconscious Logic : an introduction to Matte Blanco's bi-logic and its uses" Brunner-Routledge
"The system unconscious selectively treats the converse of any relation as identical to it. It treats logically asymmetrical relations as if they were symmetrical...Note that it is said that the unconscious *selectively* treats asymmetrical relations as symmetrical. Thus some aspects of unconscious process can still behave asymmetrically and with due regard to two-valued logic while, in other aspects, symmetry and sameness of converses may hold sway. Thus certain asymmetrical elements, in dreams for instance, can still retain ckear logical discrimination. The process of selectively ignoring certain asymmetrical or difference relations is called symmetrization. ... symmetrization suggests a move into greater simplicity. It can thus be thought of as a slippage or regression into crudity which can then suggest an evasive or avoidant activity. There was no doubt in Matte Blanco's mind that symmetrization very often works in this way as a defence; but this is not its primary function, which is just to experience sameness. It has been suggested that symmetrization basically functions in the service of recognition." p25 Rayner, E., (2003)"Unconscious Logic : an introduction to Matte Blanco's bi-logic and its uses" Brunner-Routledge
"When there is an engulfment or insertion of symmetry...a relationship can only be known as symmetrical where full consciousness would have conceived of it as also having asymmetrical elements. The mind is said to be operating at that point according to symmetrized or symmetric logic rather than in an ordinary logical two-valued or 'Aristotelian' way." p25 Rayner, E., (2003)"Unconscious Logic : an introduction to Matte Blanco's bi-logic and its uses" Brunner-Routledge
"...one may, at a conscious level, be quite clear that self and other are different people, but at a level where symmetrisation has occured there could be a diffuse objectless feeling. This would be akin to 'there is goodness' or 'there is hate', 'love is between us', or 'it's nice'... these experiences [are] close to 'just being' rather than something 'happening'.
In this instance the seperate subject and object of each 'proposition' have slipped into the background; they are interchangable or undifferentiated - even disappeared. Only the *predicate* of the proposition remains clear. This has been called predicate thinking" p27 Rayner, E., (2003)"Unconscious Logic : an introduction to Matte Blanco's bi-logic and its uses" Brunner-Routledge
What is noticable in the above from an IDM perspective is the more symmetric a perspective the more we lose multiple object differentiation and all meaning is left to relational space dynamics operating within the one object, the closed symmetric system - this only leaves the space 'inbetween' objects and so the space of bonding and binding - the world of predicates takes over meaning but in doing so we have lost precision.
In work on savants and on chicks, an observation has emerged of these having issues with object recognition beyond the 'symmetric whole' - all meaning is tied with sensory system secondary harmonics used in the creation of an associative memory:
"Associative Memory : Memory that is addressed by content rather than by address; content addressable is often used synonymously. An AssociativeMemory permits its users to specify part of a pattern or key and retrieve the values associated with that pattern.
Thus this form of memory has only one 'object', the symmetric whole, and all meaning is in the relationships WITHIN that whole. Thus savant skills and those of chicks share a common theme in depending on, working with, secondary harmonics and so relational space as 'meaning' - this means some issues in dealing with multiple objects (and detection of sameness/difference across such). ("Dwelling only upon the attribute of a class...is an act of abstraction")
"Another useful way of conceiving this has been suggested ... that in less differentiated or symmetrized experiences *abstract conceptions*, attributes or intuitions (e.g. loveliness, niceness, hatefulness etc) are floating free of specific relations. The effect of such an omnipresent idea is the same as symmetrization" p27 Rayner, E., (2003)"Unconscious Logic : an introduction to Matte Blanco's bi-logic and its uses" Brunner-Routledge
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