De l’entropie au principe de l’énergie libre : métapsychologie de la pulsion de mort et des enveloppes psychiques. Première partie

Abstract

ContextWe propose in this paper an overview of the possible articulation between psychoanalytic metapsychology and contemporary work in cognitive neurosciences concerning entropy and the free energy principle. ObjectiveThe objective is to bring these two disciplines into dialogue in order to clarify the fundamental principles of psychoanalytical metapsychology and to better understand the development of the psychic apparatus. MethodsAfter describing the theory of life proposed by the neuroscientist Karl Friston based on the free energy principle, we also describe the notion of free energy in Freud's writings. We then analyze how entropy and free energy help to understand in an original manner the death drive. ResultsIt appears that the psychic apparatus can be considered at its different levels, from the most primary to the most secondarized, as trying to reduce entropy and free energy. InterpretationsDifferent forms of “failures” of this process of regulation and transformation of the free energy within the psychic apparatus will led to the emergence of psychopathological expressions that can be analyzed with such a theoretical framework.