We can return to the challenges facing John, our legal administrator. As a man in a position of power, he is particularly subject to projections from other people with whom he interacts. These folks will be inclined to project fear of their own power on John—worrying that he might take advantage of them. Alternatively, they split off John and make him all good or all bad, or they look to John to contain all of their anxiety by solving all of their problems, reassure them that everything will work out fine at the office, or simply be that “wonderful” person who will always great them with a caring smile. The splitting of good and bad can lead to a dramatic shift in attitude regarding John if he ends up not be the all-powerful and all-caring leader that they had expected (anticipated) him to be.
Neurobiology and Emotions
In recent years, attention has been directed in the field of neurobiology to processes that closely align with those proposed by psychoanalysts. While the analysts for many years have interwoven their therapy-based observations or (and inferences about) human motives and behavior with speculations regarding the biological origins of these motives and behaviors, it is not until recent years that a neurobiological foundation for their work has been built. Obviously, the neurobiology of Emotions is an area of greatest concern to psychoanalysts; furthermore, this area of neurobiology is closely aligned with our model of Polystasis.
Channel and State
Specifically, attention has been devoted to a distinction regarding what has been called the “channel” and “state” functions of the human brain (Solms and Turnbull, 2002). Most of our cortical functions are dependent on information derived from external sources. This is particularly the case regarding forebrain (prefrontal) functions. Information from the external world is “channeled”:
“. . . the information processed by these [functional] systems comes in discrete bits and is communicated via distinct and specific pathways [channels]. Information transmitted is not widely distributed in the brain as a whole but, rather, is targeted with great accuracy to other discrete regions.” (Solms and Turnbull, 2020, p. 34)
The “state” functions operate in a completely different manner. They are dependent on internal sources of information:
“Here, the means of communication is more gross and involves widespread and global effects that reflect changes in the state of the organism rather than in specific information processing channels.” (Solms and Turnbull, 2020, p. 35)
Given this distinction, I suggest that the somatic template and psychosocial template are closely associated with the “state” functions. Furthermore, most of the internal sources of information are likely to be related directly to our Emotional state. Most importantly, just as our polystatic anticipations are holistic rather than focused on a single element in our environment, it is probably required that our primary source of information on which we base these anticipations is general and holistic in nature.
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