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

(Paperback)

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ncreasing 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 Schr dinger, 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.

Reviews

This brilliant, wise, and profound book is a masterwork by one of the worlds leading psychologists. Drawing on a vast array of sources and a lifetimes experience, Nathan Schwartz-Salant reveals a great truth hidden at the heart of the worlds authentic mystical traditions: that all new order also creates disorder. This extraordinary work is a must-read for all those who want to understand the rhythms of life and the meanings of our contemporary chaos.
Andrew Harvey, author of The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism

The Order-Disorder Paradox is the result of five decades of devoted investigation in the domains of mathematics, engineering, psychology, and mysticism. It is not only a cogent, elegant, and highly original theory but also an eminently practical way to understand the seemingly unpredictable oscillations of psychological healing and personal transformation. This book calls for powerful and immediate shifts in how we approach the clinical encounter as well as the life of the soul.
Lorie Eve Dechar, author ofFive Spirits: Alchemical Acupuncture for Psychological and Spiritual Healing

Schwartz-Salant offers a far-reaching and profound exploration of the dialectical interplay between order and disorder. Moving beyond the contemporary rationalist worldview that seeks to repress disorder in favor of order, he points us to a trans-rational alternative well suited to our tumultuous timesan alternative that, in harking back to our pre-rational origins in myth, does not merely regress to those origins but carries us forward into new territory. The Order-Disorder Paradox is a highly significant, compelling work that deserves the rapt attention of theorists, psychoanalysts, and laypeople alike.
Steven Rosen, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, College of Staten Island, City University of New York; author of Dreams, Death, Rebirth

This long-awaited book comes at just the right timenot only for psychotherapists, who will benefit greatly from its clinical insights, but also for scholars of politics and culture. This is a deeply thought-out work, the fruit of many years of reflection and patient observation.
Murray Stein, PhD, author of Soul: Treatment and Recovery

Author Bio

Trained in Jungian psychology at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zu rich, Switzerland, NATHAN SCHWARTZ-SALANT has been a psychoanalyst in private practice since 1968. He is the author of several books on Jungian analysis, including Narcissism and Character Transformation and The Mystery of Human Relationship- Alchemy and the Transformation of the Self.