Aion Institute

Drawing from Matthew Bennett’s Integrative Analytical model, this course will explore how principles of complexity and chaos theory offer a powerful alternative framework for understanding mental representation and consciousness, moving beyond traditional psychoanalytic and cognitive-behavioral paradigms while incorporating Jungian and post-Jungian sensibilities. Beginning with the notion that mental complexity arises from a breakdown of primordial symmetry, this conversation traces how the human mind responds to these disruptions by creating increasingly complex internal models to assess and shape reality. This perspective draws heavily from the concept of deterministic chaos, where systems governed by clear initial conditions can produce wildly unpredictable outcomes through nonlinear interactions between attractors (forces that promote coherence) and dissipators (forces that introduce change and breakdown), the concept of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS), the philosophical position of Emergentism, and the Bayesian Brain Hypothesis, which frames the brain as a prediction and hypothesis-testing machine, constantly updating its internal models to minimize uncertainty and “free energy.”