The unconscious as an ultrametric set

Abstract

This paper illustrates the recontextualization of a formal theory from the domain of cognitive science to psychoanalysis. Starting from an approach driven by information theory, a description of mental space in terms of a peculiar topographical structure is derived. This "ultrametric" structure can be seen to fit the constraints of primary process thinking as presented by Matte Blanco in his essays on bi-logic. The author's reformulation of the distinction between primary and secondary processes in topological terms leads to a speculative proposal of "quasi-symbols" as possible objects of mental life. The paper also seeks to capture some aspects of the crucial interplay between the phenomenological experience of personal change and the proposed conceptual advance in theorization. © 2008 by The Johns Hopkins University Press.