Order-Disorder Paradox : Understanding the Hidden Side of Change in Self and Society

Increasing order in a system also creates a degree of disorder: this seemingly paradoxical idea has deep roots in early cultures throughout the world, but it has been largely lost in our modern lives as we push for increasing systematization in our world and in our personal lives. Drawing on nearly five decades of research as well as 45 years working as a psychoanalyst, Nathan Schwartz-Salant explains that, in a world where vast amounts of order is being created through the growing success of science and technology, the concomitant disorder is having devastating effects upon relationships, society, and the environment.

Drawing from sources as disparate as Schrödinger, the second law of thermodynamics, and indigenous Amazonian wisdom, The Order-Disorder Paradox provides readers a means of tapping into conscious awareness and re-attuning to the meaning of our experiences and everyday lives. With degrees in both psychology and engineering science, Schwartz-Salant is uniquely qualified to pay careful attention to scientific conceptions of energy, information, and entropy, along with their mythical antecedents. He analyzes the possible effects of created disorder, from considering ways that such disorder turns upon the ego as the creator of the preceding order, to examining how the disorder can affect other people, and how created disorder can have a functional, transformative
effect. With many examples of the interaction of order and disorder in everyday life and psychotherapy, The Order-Disorder Paradox makes new inroads in our understanding of the wide-ranging consequences of the order we create and its effects on others and the environment.