PREDICTABLE RANDOMNESS
JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS finally making sense, scientists have
officially declared life completely chaotic.
For the last decade, researchers in fields from math to meteorology
have been applying chaos theory to explain spontaneous, individualistic,
and virtually unpredictable phenomena. Now psychologists believe it may
also shed light on the complex organization of the brain, human
relationships, and the often baffling progress of psychotherapy.
While there's no universally accepted definition of chaos, chaotic
phenomena generally have three characteristics: They display highly
disordered behavior-like the random branching of a lightening bolt or the
twirling path of a falling leaf, they can change dramatically in response
to insignificant events - a normally functioning heart, for instance, may
suddenly start to beat erratically if a few random neurons fire out of
sync; and chaotic phenomena may actually follow patterns that are
detectable-if you look closely.
Paul Rapp, Ph.D., a physiology professor at the Medical College of
Pennsylvania, has been looking for a while. He's found, for example, that
the human brain becomes more electrically active, or chaotic, when
solving simple arithmetic problems than when at rest. Rapp predicts that
all brain activity-normal and abnormal-produces precise electrical
patterns that can be detected, measured, and correlated with overt
behavior.
By determining the amount of neural "chaos" In a person predisposed
to seizures, for example, doctors my one day be able to better target
medication and dosage before seizures actually happen.
Avoiding the customary after-the-fact analysis of psychological
events may also be possible in individual and family therapy, thanks to
chaos theory. "We know that a certain amount of randomness is bound to
occur in the therapeutic process," says psychologist Judith Johnson,
Ph.D, an associate professor at Villanova University. The seemingly
unpredictable chaos of crisis-prone families, for example, seems to occur
in cycles. Therapists may be able to Intervene and set concrete
structures that help the family regroup.
Meanwhile, physiologist Rapp is applying his measuring techniques
to the chaotic dialogue of therapy sessions, using computers to analyze
transcripts and to detect patterns critical to different therapeutic
methods. So far Rapp has discovered that, despite their training, most
therapists ask very similar questions and direct clients toward the same
goals.
Chaos theory aside, though, psychology will never be completely
predictable.
PHOTO: Electrical activity in a human brain (GREGORY
SAMS\SPL\PHOTORESEARCHERS INC.)
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