by William L. Johnson
Cosmologic Triadic Drive Theory: The Physics of the Psyche
Publisher : Ori Academic Press (November 27, 2018)
Language : English
Paperback : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 1942431082
ISBN-13 : 978-1942431084
The Physics of the Psyche is the work of the late Dr. William L. Johnson that introduces the reader to the Triadic Drive Theory (TDT), which explains how the forces of the universe create our mentality. It begins from a different reality – about the nature of human beings – than has been commonly held by psychology and psychoanalysis. TDT’s initial proposition is that the constant forces of physics throughout the universe, and in the operations of subatomic particles in our brain cells, produce the energy of our two most basic life-determining psychic drives: construdo and destrudo.
Construdo is the drive that helps us combine and connect thoughts, ideas, emotions, concepts, attitudes, and beliefs, as well as connect with other cultures, societies, families, and people. The second drive, destrudo, determines why, when, and how such unions are broken apart, damaged, or overthrown. It is proposed that these two drives and their derivatives determine more human behaviors than Freud’s libido drive and its derivatives.
Triadic Drive Theory asserts that the forces of physics that govern and hold the universe together constitute the true universal reality for humans, as well as for all other species. Thus Dr. Johnson proposes an axiom: the universe and humans are governed by the same principles of physics. The focus of this theoretical and psychoanalytic endeavor is how these forces of physics produce our cognitive or mental drives.
In this book, Dr. Johnson offers an application of TDT to clinical practice, including Freud’s “dream work,” psychopathology diagnosis, object relations, and work with couples, while adding the physical dimensions of time and space.
The author of this book, Dr. William L. Johnson (1932-2014) was a psychologist and psychoanalyst. He received a B.A. in Psychology from Queens College, a Master’s Degree in Psychology from The New School for Social Research, an M.S.Ed in Clinical Psychology from City College of New York, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Yeshiva University. He later earned a post-graduate certificate in psychoanalysis from Adelphi University.
During his psychoanalytic training, Dr. Johnson studied with one of Sigmund Freud’s first students, Theodor Reik. In the 80s, Dr. Johnson was an associate professor in the doctoral programs in clinical psychology at both Adelphi University and New York University. After being appointed chief psychologist at Orange County Mental Health Clinic in Goshen, NY, in the early 1960s, Dr. Johnson began private practice in Monroe, NY and Greenwich Village, NY City. He maintained both for nearly 50 years until his death.
Dr. William Johnson has given us a tour de force ─ a bona fide original conception taking Freud’s psychoanalysis to a profound, daring, and significant step further. This Johnson’s work, Triadic Drive Theory, is such an example of what happens when a scientist/clinician opens our eyes to a new and perhaps fantastic idea. Copernicus did it in his heliocentric discovery, by demonstrating that it is the Earth that revolves around the sun, and not the other way around. Darwin did it by demonstrating that evolution ‘evolves, ‘ so that it is characterized by a past, a present, and a future, and therefore that Homo sapiens has a relation even to the amoeba! Freud also gave us this kind of challenging gift, in a nutshell telling us that we may not even know our own minds, and therefore that the meta-psychology of psychoanalysis can give us access to such mentation and to all of its vicissitudes. Similarly, in an important way, Johnson challenges us to see that Freud, in fact, was right to unfold psychoanalysis into biology; but perhaps psychoanalysis must by all means be taken even more fundamentally ─ down to physics! And that is what Johnson has done here.
He has not only opened the door to suggest the connection of psychoanalysis to physics, but has spelled out this connection highly specifically, by offering us the “updated” drive theory. After reading this work, one cannot come away without feeling a cluster of emotions and characterizations. These include characterizations such as “fascinating,” “audacious,” “unprecedented,” “courageous,” “ground-breaking,” and yes, along with all of this, a final epiphany revealed about Dr. William Johnson himself (in his “mad” pursuit for scientific truth) ─ a piece of genius.
How is our mentality created? How does the human mind develop? Are there any natural or super-natural forces present through one’s life that shape this person’s (material) brain and (non-material) mind/ psyche? Are the material brain and non-material mind connected in some way, and do they change each other as they operate, even from before birth? Are both the brain and the mind of one person connected in any way to the minds and brains of others? All these are the fundamental questions that great people of the 19th and 2oth centuries explored, and now, in the 21st century, their followers continue this endeavor. So, this volume, by a brilliant psychoanalyst Dr. William L. Johnson, offers some answers to the above questions, examining them through the lens of the Triadic Drive Theory (TDT), which explains how the forces of the universe create our mentality. Triadic Drive Theory is built on Freud’s dual drive theory, which relies mostly on biological concepts, but in this work, Dr. Johnson uses the laws and the language of physics, cosmos and the universe to explore one’s mental life and one’s relationships.
CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Triadic Drive Theory (p. 3)
CHAPTER 2: Universal Forces of Physics and Biology (p. 17)
CHAPTER 3: The Origins of the Constructive Drive (p. 35)
CHAPTER 4: Developmental Stages of Construdo (p. 45)
CHAPTER 5: Concepts of the Destructive Drive (p. 65)
CHAPTER 6: The Seven Developmental Stages of Self and Object Destrudo (p. 71)
CHAPTER 7: Arousing Destrudo or Construdo (p. 85)
CHAPTER 8: Freud’s Dual Drive Theory Contrasted with Triadic Drive Theory (p. 101)
CHAPTER 9: The Unconscious and the Subatomic Brain Field: Freud’s Dream Discoveries of the Unconscious (p. 111)
CHAPTER 10: Freud’s “Dream Work” and Unconscious Construdo (p. 129)
CHAPTER 11: Psychopathology (p.133)
Chapter 12: Drive Pathology and Health: The Space-Time Dimension (p. 139)
Chapter 13: Biological Libido Drive Contrasted with Drives Derived from Physics (p. 153)
Chapter 14: Parameters of Dreams and Reality (p. 171)
Chapter 15: Psychopathology In the Drives (p. 181)
Chapter 16: The Concept of Character Traits (p. 195)
Chapter 17: Formation of Destrudo Character Traits (p. 203)
Chapter 18: Formation of Construdo Character Traits (p. 215)
Chapter 19: The Drive Ideal (p. 231)
Chapter 20: TDT’s Contribution to Human Self-Understanding: 17 Assumptions and 16 Speculations, A Summary (p. 239)
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