Quantum Paradigms of Psychopathology: From Consciousness to Neuroethics

Abstract

The present work deals with the complexity of the arguments underlying the meaning of the quantum paradigm of psychopathology. In particular, the quantum approach to the understanding of the brain and consciousness, seems to present convergence of thinking of many scientists and also seems to be the most promising way in the approach of future research. The practical potency of classical neuroscience directed toward either beneficial or perverse purposes will prove in the end limited by that orthodox paradigm’s inherently poor explanatory power in linking mind and brain, especially at the basic level of the Hard Problem as Chalmers (1995) has termed. However, if quantum neurobiology should demonstrate greater explanatory power than does its classical counterpart, then an enhanced potential not only for constructive psychiatric application but also for politically motivated abuse will follow with a vengeance. If the mechanistic-reductionist cognitive approaches have been characterised by the metaphor of the “edifice”, of the solid Cartesian rock, all the forms of knowledge founded on complexity theory, have been characterised by the metaphor of the “network”, of thinking in relationships, in a dynamic, fluid, open manner. In the field of mental illness, this means setting aside both the organicist paradigm and the pseudo-phenomenological, “sentimental”, and therefore ideological, paradigm, in order to have an integrated view of biological objectiveness and humanistic psychotherapy. That is to say, an expression of diverse interrelated contributions from the various disciplines (psychiatry, psychology, biochemistry, anthropology, quantum physics, mathematics, philosophy). The observer thus becomes a builder of models, a manager of complexity, giving treatment the character of a truly empathic relationship. This is all the more so where distressing pathologies are involved, such as Major Depression (MD) and Bipolar Disorder (BD), caput mortuum of psychiatry, because the absence of cogent biological markers seriously compromises every form of therapy.