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.
