It is impossible to rigorously prove or substantiate the existence of a Soul, a psyche. Numerous explanations have been hitherto offered: That what we, humans, call a soul is the way that we experience the workings of our brain (introspection experienced). This often leads to infinite regressions. That the soul is an epiphenomenon, the software result of a hardware complexity (much the same way as temperature, volume and pressure are the epiphenomena of a large number of gas molecules).
That the soul does exist and that it is distinct from the body in substance (or lack of it), in form (or lack of it) and in the set of laws that it obeys (“spiritual” rather than physical). The supporters of this camp say that correlation is not causation. In other words, the electrochemical activity in the brain, which corresponds to mental phenomena does not mean that it IS the mental phenomena. Mental phenomena do have brain (hardware) correlates – but these correlates need not be confused with the mental phenomena themselves. Still, very few will dispute the strong connection between body and soul.
The psychic activity was attributed to the heart, the liver, even to some glands. Nowadays it is attributed to the brain, apparently with better reasons. Since the body is a physical object, subject to physical laws, it follows that at least the connection between the two (body and soul) must obey the laws of physics. Another question is what is the currency used by the two in their communication. Physical forces are mediated by subatomic particles. What serves to mediate between body and soul ? Language could be the medium and the mediating currency.
It has both an internal, psychic representation and an objective, external one. It serves as a bridge between our inner emotions and cognition and the outside, physical world. It originates almost non-physically (a mere thought) and has profound physical impacts and effects. It has quantum aspects combined with classical determinism. We propose that what we call the Subconscious and the Pre-Conscious (Threshold of Consciousness) are but Fields of Potentials organized in Lattices. Potentials of what? To represent realities (internal and external alike), we use language.
Language seems to be the only thing able to consistently link our internal world with our physical surroundings. Thus, the potentials ought to be Lingual Energy Potentials. When one of the potentials is charged with Lingual Energy – in Freud’s language, when cathexis happens – it becomes a Structure. The “atoms” of the Structures, their most basic units, are the Clusters. The Cluster constitutes a full cross cut of the soul : instinct, affect and cognition. It is hologramic and fractalic in that it reflects – though only a part – the whole.
It is charged with the lingual energy which created it in the first place. The cluster is highly unstable (excited) and its lingual energy must be discharged. This lingual energy can be released only in certain levels of energy (excitation) according to an Exclusion Principle. This is reminiscent of the rules governing the world of subatomic particles. The release of the lingual energy is Freud’s anti-cathexis. The lingual energy being what it is – it can be discharged only as language elements (its excitation levels are lingual).
Put differently: the cluster will lose energy to the environment (=to the soul) in the shape of language (images, words, associations). The defence mechanisms, known to us from classical psychology – projection, identification, projective identification, regression, denial, conversion reaction, displacement, rationalization, intellectualization, sublimation, repression, inhibition, anxiety and a host of other defensive reactions – are but sentences in the language (valid strings or theorems). Projection, for instance, is the sentence : “It is not my trait – it is his trait”.
Some mechanisms – the notable examples are rationalization and intellectualization – make conscious use of language. Whereas the levels of excitation (lingual discharge) are discrete (highly specific) – the discharged energy is limited to certain, specific, language representation. These are the “Allowed Representations”. They are the only ones allowed (or enabled, to borrow from computers) in the “Allowed Levels of Excitation”. This is the reason for the principles of Disguise (camouflage) and Substitution.
An excitation is achieved only through specific (visual or verbal) representations (the Allowed Representations). If two potentials occupy the same Representational levels – they will be interchangeable. Thus, one lingual potential will be able to assume the role of another. Each cluster can be described by its own function (Eigenfunktion). This explains the variance between humans and among the intra-psychic representations. When a cluster is realized – when its energy has been discharged in the form of an allowed lingual representation – it reverts to the state of a lingual potential.
This is a constant, bi-directional flow : from potential to cluster and from cluster to potential. The initial source of energy, as we said, is what we absorbed together with lingual representations from the outside. Lingual representations ARE energy and they are thus assimilated by us. An exogenic event, for this purpose, is also a language element (consisting of a visual, three dimensional representation). So, everything around us infuses us with energy which is converted into allowed representations.
On the other hand, language potentials are charged with energy, become clusters, discharge the lingual energy through an allowed representation of the specific lingual energy that they possess and become potentials once more. When a potential materializes – that is, when it becomes a cluster after being charged with lingual energy – a “Potential Singularity” remains where once the materialized potential “existed”. The person experiences this singularity as an anxiety and does his utmost to convert the cluster back into a potential.
This effort is the Repression Defence Mechanism. So, the energy used during repression is also the lingual kind. When the energy with which the cluster is charged is discharged, at the allowed levels of representation (that is to say, through the allowed lingual representations), the cluster is turned back into a potential. This, in effect, is repression. The anxiety signifies a state of schism in the field of potentials. It, therefore, deserves the name : Signal Anxiety, used in the professional literature.
The signal anxiety designates not only a hole in the field of potentials but also a Conflict. How come ? The materialization of the potential (its transformation into a cluster) creates a change in the Language Field. Such a change can lead to a conflict with a social norm, for instance, or with a norm, a personal value, or with an inhibition – all being lingual representations. Such a conflict ostensibly violates the conditions of the field and leads to anxiety and to repression. Freud’s Id, Ego and Superego are now easily recognizable as various states of the language field.
The Id represents all the potentials in the field. It is the principle by which the potentials are charged with lingual energy. Id is, in other words, a field equation which dictates the potential in every point of the field. The Ego is the interaction between the language field and the world. This interaction sometimes assumes the form of a conscious dialogue. The Superego is the interaction between the language field and the representations of the world in the language field (that is to say, the consequences of repression).