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Revision of Antoni Kępiński's Concept of Information Metabolism

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Revision of Antoni Kępiński's Concept of Information Metabolism Psychiatr. Pol. 2018; 52(1): 165–173 PL ISSN 0033-2674 (PRINT), ISSN 2391-5854 (ONLINE) www.psychiatriapolska.pl DOI: https://doi.org/10.12740/PP/65751 Revision of Antoni Kępiński’s concept of information metabolism Jan Ceklarz Polish Society of Internal Medicine Summary Information metabolism is a key model for describing psychiatric life in the works of a Polish psychiatrist, Antoni Kępiński. Due to the significance of Kępiński’s writings on the psychiatric environment in Poland, and also its influence on the cultural life, a significant interpretative trend of this concept was subject to a critical analysis, a trend which relies on identifying information metabolism with the so-called biological model. The biological model is a postulate appearing in Kępiński’s writings to describe issues concerning psyche in analogy to the somatic structures of an organism, especially the biology of a cell. This fragment of Kępiński’s work was the main reason for his subsequent criticism. This article proves that the concept of information metabolism itself does not include the biological model. Eventually, an example has been provided to show the topicality of the system of Kępiński’s information metabolism in relation to the concept of somatic markers of Antonio Damasio. Key words: Kępiński, information metabolism, biological model, Damasio Introduction The figure of Antoni Kępiński has an established position in the symbolic sphere of Polish psychiatry [1]. This is reflected in the references to his works in numerous publications, also released in the form of thematic collections [2–4]. At the same time there are many misunderstandings concerning his work; the most numerous seem to concern the key concept of information metabolism. The model of information me- tabolism forms the basic system for the description of psychological life in Kępiński’s concept, yet at the same time it is considered the most controversial. This raises the issue of a comprehensive interpretation of his works. The main cause of this state of affairs lies in rendering Kępiński’s marginal idea which refers to the description of psyche based on cellular biology, that is the so-called biological model, as the structural part of information metabolism. 166 Jan Ceklarz The principle of this paper is to present the basic – original way of understanding of information metabolism and its derivative interpretation, i.e., the biological model. Next is the presentation of the ways of dealing with this subject in literature. The subsequent stage is an argumentation against the aggregation of these two concepts. The conceptual separation of information metabolism from the biological model will allow for the increase of heuristic potential of the work of Kępiński, to that end there is provided an example of the similarities with the theses of a neurobiologist Antonio Damasio. Information metabolism in the works of Kępiński Information metabolism was systematically described in Melancholia (Melancholy) [5], but it runs through most of the texts by Kępiński, with substantial fragments in- cluded in Psychopatologia nerwic (Psychopathology of Neuroses) [6] and Lęk (Fear) [7]. The model itself is not uniform and there are noticeable inconsistencies among individual ways of its application. It seems that the concept of information metabolism was more of a tool used with a conviction about the ontological importance of its principles rather than a finished psychological or psychiatric theory. Information metabolism states that the mental life of humans (and also some ani- mals; in certain situations this term is stretched to the whole animated nature) consists in the exchange of information with the environment in a symbolic form. The information exchange forms mental experiences which, according to Kępiński, are subjective, i.e., individual and non-reducible to the physical occurrences, aspects of life (at least at the current stage of scientific development). The basic rules of human functioning in the world (both natural and cultural one) were established through evolution and contain the imperative of personal survival and the survival of the species, put in the so-called biological rules. The first biological rule tells us about the necessity of preserving our own life, the second one about the continuation of a species. Kępiński links two fun- damental attitudes to these rules that a subject adopts in relation to the environment called the indicative attitudes: “from” and “towards”. The “from” attitude is typical of the first biological rule, where the subject acts on a basis of “I’ll destroy you or I shall be destroyed”, and it mainly encompasses situations when a subject satisfies the life’s needs or avoids threats. The “towards” attitude is related to the second biological rule, it defines the relation of closeness and establish- ing interpersonal contacts. For Kępiński this attitude is the appropriate environment for information metabolism because it is possible to exchange information in it. Both these attitudes are essential in life and the balance between them was metaphorically presented as the dialectics of life and death, or the dialectics of variability and invari- ability. Kępiński also singled out the “over” attitude, which is a creative realization of one’s own plans, an intentional and particularly human activity. The “over” attitude is linked to the “under” attitude – that is to comply with the order of the environment. It is worthwhile to pay attention to this characteristic motif, often misunderstood in Kępiński’s works, that the “over” attitude is not aspiring to rule the world, but to fulfill oneself in the area of freedom, and it results from the “towards” attitude. The “over” and “under” attitudes also counterbalance each other, i.e., humans in their fulfillments Revision of Antoni Kępiński’s concept of information metabolism 167 cannot adopt only the “over” attitude, whose domination can lead to the pathology of power. In psychopathology, the lack of restrictions over the “over” attitude is for Kępiński a trait of schizophrenic psychosis. Information metabolism functioning according to the biological conditioning is a comprehensive emotional and rational experience, where Kępiński singled out two phases. The first phase of information metabolism is the emotional choice of the directional attitude, either “from” or “towards” in relation to a given object. It hap- pens subconsciously and independently from the subject. The second phase is the rational choice of a specific action – a functional structure, which is the consequence of knowledge, experience, or intellectual abilities, but always with the background of the emotional choice of the first phase. The biological model In 1970, a short paper titled O biologiczny model w myśleniu psychiatrycznym (On the Biological Model in Psychiatric Thinking) was published by Kępiński – it has less than 9 pages in the book edition of his articles Rytm Życia (The Rhythm of Life) [8]. Most of the text is filled with the ideas about the importance of biological laws, indicative attitudes and self-control systems, presented earlier. At the end of that pa- per, there is a postulate to attempt presenting the psychological and psychiatric issues through their description within the biological model, that is in analogy to somatic morphological and functional structures of a living organism. According to Kępiński, they are closer to the functioning of the psyche than technical models – which rely on the operating principles of machines. Kępiński’s proposal is to take a look at psycho- pathology through the malfunctioning of a cell. A cell is controlled by a nucleus where the genetic plan (DNA) is located. Nucleus is interconnected by “an intricate network of tubules and membranes” [8, p. 272] with the cell membrane which forms a border separating the outside and the inside world. The axial symptoms of schizophrenia – autism and split – in this model rely on the pathology of structures analogous to the cell nucleus and cell membrane. The domi- nating attitude is “from” and a life in “a world of dreams”, what eventually leads to the effacement of the “self” – world border and to the disintegration of the individual order. Pathological oscillation of moods in bipolar disorder corresponds with the dis- turbance of the work of mitochondria which supply energy to the cell, and the neurotic “inability to ‹‹digest›› one’s life issues” [8, p. 273] resembles the disturbance in the functioning of lysosomes. It should be noted that Kępiński, and subsequent authors, also used the term “biological model” to define every analogy between the somatic and mental phenomena. Information metabolism in literature In a review of the published literature on the works of Kępiński, most focus was devoted to the main interpretative trends of the concept of information metabolism, among which prevails treating it as a biological model. What contributed to this was 168 Jan Ceklarz the initial reception of the works of Kępiński within the few years following his death, mainly an article published in 1975 by Andrzej Kowal in a collection of articles devoted to Kępiński [9]. This text is in principle a summary of the selected facets of Kępiński’s thoughts, where the theses of the paper O biologiczny model w myśleniupsychiatrycznym (On the Biological Model in Psychiatric Thinking) [8] were equally emphasized with the fundamental assumptions of the theory. Kowal’s article imposed the manner of how information metabolism would be understood for most
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