Beyond the death drive: Entropy and free energy

ABSTRACT

In this paper I offer an overview of the possible links between psychoanalytical metapsychology and contemporary work in neuroscience concerning entropy and the free energy principle. After briefly describing the theory of living systems put forward by the neuroscientist Karl Friston based on the notion of entropy, we sum up the use of the notion of free energy by Friston and Freud. I then analyze how these notions improve the intelligibility of psychic functioning and can be associated with several psychoanalytical concepts, in particular the death drive. I approach from the same perspective the regulation of free energy associated with psychic envelopes and early intersubjectivity. It thus appears that the psychic apparatus can be considered at its different levels, from the most primary to the most secondary, as having the essential function of reducing entropy and free energy. Various forms of “failure” of this process of linking, regulation and transformation of energy within the psychic apparatus could be considered as the origin of different psychopathological manifestations as suggested in the last part of this paper.

Nous proposons dans ce travail une vue d'ensemble de l'articulation possible entre la métapsychologie psychanalytique et les travaux contemporains en neurosciences portant sur l'entropie et le principe de l'énergie libre. Après avoir brièvement décrit la théorie du vivant proposée par le neuroscientifique Karl Friston à partir de la notion d'entropie, nous reprenons l'utilisation de la notion d'énergie libre chez Friston et Freud. Nous analysons ensuite comment ces notions favorisent l'intelligibilité du fonctionnement psychique et s'avèrent articulables avec plusieurs notions psychanalytiques, en particulier la pulsion de mort. Nous abordons selon les mêmes perspectives la régulation de l'énergie libre à partir de l'émergence des enveloppes psychiques et de l'intersubjectivité précoce. Il apparait ainsi que l'appareil psychique peut être considéré à ses différents niveaux, des plus primaires aux plus secondarisés, comme ayant pour fonction de réduire l'entropie et l'énergie libre. Différentes formes de « ratés » de ce processus de liaison, de régulation et de transformation de l'énergie libre au sein de l'appareil psychique se traduiront par différentes formes d'expressions psychopathologiques analysées selon ce prisme théorique en dernière partie de ce travail.

In diesem Beitrag gebe ich einen Überblick über mögliche Verbindungen zwischen der psychoanalytischen Metapsychologie und dem derzeitigen Wirken der Neurowissenschaften in Bezug auf Entropie und das Prinzip der freien Energie. Nach einer kurzen Beschreibung der durch den Neurowissenschaftler Karl Friston vorgestellten Theorie lebender Systeme auf der Grundlage des Begriffs der Entropie fassen wir die Verwendung des Begriffs der freien Energie bei Friston und Freud zusammen. Anschließend analysiere ich, auf welche Weise diese Begriffe für eine bessere Verständlichkeit des psychischen Funktionierens sorgen und mit mehreren psychoanalytischen Konzepten – insbesondere dem Todestrieb – assoziiert werden können. Aus derselben Perspektive nähere ich mich der Steuerung der freien Energie, die mit psychischen Hüllen und früher Intersubjektivität assoziiert wird. Es hat also den Anschein, als sei die wesentliche Funktion des psychische Apparats auf seinen verschiedenen Ebenen – von der elementarsten Primärebene zur äußersten Sekundärebene – die Reduzierung von Entropie und freier Energie. Verschiedene Formen des „Scheiterns“ dieses Prozesses der Verknüpfung, Steuerung und Transformation von Energie innerhalb des psychischen Apparats könnten als Ursprung unterschiedlicher psychopathologischer Erscheinungsbilder angesehen werden, wie im letzten Teil dieses Beitrags nahegelegt wird.

Nel presente articolo propongo uno sguardo d'insieme sulle possibili connessioni tra la metapsicologia psicoanalitica e i più recenti lavori neuroscientifici sull'entropia e sul principio dell'energia libera. Dopo una breve descrizione della teoria dei sistemi viventi, avanzata dal neuroscienziato Karl Friston a partire dalla nozione di entropia, riprenderò l'uso della nozione di energia libera in Friston e in Freud per poi analizzare come tali concetti favoriscano la comprensione del funzionamento psichico e possano inoltre venire associati a diversi costrutti psicoanalitici - segnatamente, a quello di pulsione di morte. Adottando questa medesima prospettiva prenderò poi in esame la regolazione dell'energia libera resa possibile dal formarsi degli involucri psichici e di una precoce intersoggettività. Da questo vertice si può guardare alla psiche e ai suoi vari livelli, dai più primari ai più secondari, come a un apparato la cui funzione essenziale sarebbe quella di ridurre l'entropia e l'energia libera. L'ultima parte del lavoro suggerisce che le diverse forme in cui questo processo di collegamento, regolazione e trasformazione dell'energia all'interno dell'apparato psichico può fallire corrisponderebbero ad altrettanti tipi di manifestazioni psicopatologiche.

En este artículo, el autor ofrece un panorama de posibles vínculos entre la metapsicología psicoanalítica y el trabajo contemporáneo en las neurociencias sobre la entropía y el principio de energía libre. Tras una breve descripción de la teoría de los sistemas vivos propuesta por el neurocientífico Karl Friston a partir de la noción de entropía, se retoma el uso del concepto de energía libre en Friston y Freud. Luego se analiza cómo estos conceptos mejoran la inteligibilidad del funcionamiento psíquico y pueden ser asociados con otros conceptos psicoanalíticos, especialmente la pulsión de muerte. Desde la misma perspectiva, se aborda la regulación de la energía libre asociada con la envoltura psíquica y la intersubjetividad temprana. De ese modo, parece que se podría considerar que la función esencial del aparato psíquico en sus diferentes niveles, desde el más primario hasta el más secundario, sería la reducción de la entropía y la energía libre. En la última parte del artículo, se sugiere que las diversas formas de “falla” en este proceso de vinculación, regulación y transformación de la energía en el aparato psíquico podrían ser el origen de diferentes manifestaciones psicopatológicas.

KEYWORDS:

• Free energy
• entropy
• death drive
• psychic envelopes
• free association
• dream

Notes

1 Friston is currently the most cited neuroscientist on the international level, with a citation impact h-index of 242 (242 articles cited 242 times) and more than 270,000 citations. Incidentally, Freud remains at the forefront of this indicator with an h-index of 283 and more than 550,000 citations from his work.

2 We will describe this principle, enunciated by Carnot in 1824, in more detail when it comes to the death drive in the fourth part.

3 In this regard, the reflections developed by Friston also evoke the “dissipative structures” described by Prigogine and Lefever (1968). Dissipative structures are structures that appear within the disorder. They bear witness to the fact that matter itself, independently of biological matter, can self-organize. This notion, as well as that of self-organization, was taken up by the Pragier and Faure-Pragier (1990), who consider them as “new metaphors” in the psychoanalytic field. Friston (Friston, Kilner, and Harrison 2006) nevertheless considers that the principle of free energy is more fundamental than the dissipative structure, which would therefore be an insufficient notion to explain the emergence of life.

4 For example, some researchers approach addiction as a strictly neurobiological disorder. They are therefore looking for biological markers of predisposition to addictions, but it is also necessary to consider non-biological super-ordered factors. Thus, researchers have been able to demonstrate that the addictive behaviour of rats with regard to cocaine is dependent on relationships with others of their species (Fritz et al. 2011). A super-ordered principle (relational dynamics) therefore represents a factor that escapes neurobiological reading. This idea is also valid for most research in humans concerning the origin of psychiatric disorders and leads one to consider reductionist approaches in this area with great caution.

5 The reader may also consult the critical comments on Bernfeld and Feitelberg’s article by Kapp (1931) and Spring (1934). Almost 40 years later, Lacan (1978) also made a reference in Seminar II, on 9 February 1955, to this article in a presentation by Pierre Kaufmann, who takes up the theory of these authors (Cléro 2017). Lacan sees this as an example of an analogy between physics and psychoanalysis that extends Freud’s biologizing deviation. He describes this article as “very curious to read, if only because it demonstrates the aberrations of taking a theoretical metaphor literally”. Thus, again for Lacan, “to take this analogy literally, to translate it into the precise terms that are in use in physics, is a misunderstanding as absurd as the operations of Borel's typing monkeys. We will have occasion to denounce this typing monkey operation all too often among analysts”. The use of metaphors or analogies from physics indeed questions the epistemological nature of psychoanalytic knowledge. However, Lacan's position seems too clear-cut. It seems possible, and necessary, to identify analogies between disciplines if they promote the intelligibility of phenomena and the articulation of knowledge according to a coherent epistemological framework. I will come back to this question concerning the links between the energetic dimension of the psyche and its relationship with language at the end of the article.

6 Friston (2009) also concludes that free energy can be discharged externally − especially through movement − in order to regulate free energy.

7 Friston shows more precisely that internal states can be subdivided into sensory states and active states. Sensory states are the result of the direct influence of the environment (for example, the impact of visual perception on visual processing areas). Active states are states of the organism that induce an action on the environment (for example, a movement).

8 The terms entropy, energy and excitation are closely linked. Remember that entropy is a measure of the organization of energy within a system; free energy is psychic energy that is unbound by the mental apparatus; excitation is a transitory state resulting from an increase in psychic energy.

9 Devereux (1980, 253) stated a similar principle on the basis of his studies in the field of ethnopsychoanalysis with this famous formulation: “the person being observed observes the observer who is observing him”.

10 It could therefore prove essential to respect the stereotypies of the autistic child at the risk otherwise of causing an increase in their anxieties. A recent study in Autism (Kapp et al. 2019) points out, moreover, the pertinence of respecting these stereotypies, and another study suggests that behavioural approaches could even induce PTSD (Kupferstein 2018).

11 It could be assumed that there is a disjunction between pre-linguistic entropic biological levels and logics organized by the signifier, as Lacan suggests. However, the emergence of a supplementary level of organization − language − does not do away with the principles of the preceding levels of organization, because language cannot free itself from the principle of free energy. Pragier and Faure-Pragier (1990) have offered, moreover, an excellent synthesis on this question and point out that Freud had to deal with an epistemological knot that associates energetics and hermeneutics. Thus, Pragier and Faure-Pragier (1990) state that, “whether the accent is placed on force or on signification, it can be seen that the difficulty lies in the relations between these two dimensions” and note that “meaning could be formed from energetic tension, in the same way as structures in biology” (1459).