The Refrain and the Brain: Repetition, emergence, and nonlinear dynamics in neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and ecology. Neuropsychoanalysis Congress, Amsterdam, 9-12 July 2015

I will be presenting a paper at the 16th International Neuropsychoanalysis Congress, Plasticity and Repetition, Amsterdam, 9-12 July 2015 

The Refrain and the Brain: 
Repetition, emergence, and nonlinear dynamics in neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and ecology

Dr Joseph Dodds, PhD

The theory of the ‘refrain’ (ritournelle) is an important part of Deleuze and Guattari’s (2003) psycho-philosophical project, and provides a crucial conceptual approach to dealing with themes of repetition and plasticity. When connected with the mathematical approaches of nonlinear dynamical systems theory, the refrain provides a crucial way to explore dynamics of various systems, from the brain’s neural dynamics of perception, emotion, consciousness and the self; to the repetitions, spirals, and sudden shifts of the clinical psychoanalytic encounter over time scales from milliseconds to decades, from to the calls of songbirds and social collectivities, to the wider dynamics of social and ecological systems. The refrain creates, and marks a ‘territory’ in whichever register it is emerging from the flux of chaos, establishes links, including both ‘rhythm’ (horizontal) and ‘melody’ (vertical). The paper seeks to advance the project of ecopsychoanalysis began with the authors book Psychoanalysis and Ecology at the Edge of Chaos, (Dodds 2011) and seeks a mutually beneficial encounter between this important aspect of Deleuzo-Guattarian thought with modern neuropsychoanalysis and mathematics.