Three Dimensional Field Theory: Dramatization and Improvisation in a Psychoanalytic Theory of Change

Abstract

This paper explores the three-dimensional (3D) field of psychoanalytic practice in four parts. It first begins with the radical shift in epistemology from Freud’s energy theory–based metapsychology to one based in information theory. This shift altered the classical theory of change—based on “cause and effect” of energic forces—to a contemporary one based on patterning of information in the field. This latter view posits that change in living systems is constant, though it operates in two distinct manners: (a) change that keeps living systems the same, that is, “1st Order Change,” in relationship to (b) novel change referred to as “2nd Order Change.” The information-based epistemological view argues that all of the information necessary for determining change in any psychotherapy exists in every session of the 3D field of every treatment. This raises the question in the second part of how this information is accessed in the field, the answer of which explores the functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain along with their asymmetrical interdependence. While understanding their asymmetrical operation is necessary, it is not sufficient for discerning what truly matters to the analytic participants. This leads to the third part regarding how the experience of what “rings” true is dependent upon the six axes of truth in every 3D field. The fourth part delves into how dramatization and improvisation provide aesthetically charged ways of considering change in psychoanalytic treatment. Dramatic repetition reflects the constancy of change which keeps the system the same (1st Order), whereas improvisation takes up how the analyst and patient learn how to play with possibility amidst the stasis of their emerging repetitions, therefore capturing 2nd Order Change.