In article <000001bde38a$bd2ee100$663e63c3@default>, Chris Burton
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>rather than more smarta*** comments about strange attractors what about a
>serious question. Apart from being fascinating, what can chaos theory teach
>us about medicine?
Ah, that's the 64k dollar question and a few PhDs' worth. Although there
seem to be quite a few papers on Chaos in psychology/biology covering
processes of growth, change and development they all seem to be
qualitative, much to the annoyance of some physicists. Whereas it seems
easy to describe the patterns of chaotic behaviour and organisation,
there is very little in defining the paths involved and hence difficult
to predict and test hypotheses. Little practical use so far.
>The only two occurences I have seen......
Medline will throw up quite a few papers.
>I actually suspect much behavioural illness eg depression,
>physical symptoms no physical cause, develops strange attractors over time
So a few psychologists seem to think, as well as in family systems,
learning, conditioning etc. Self organisation may well be taking place
with development of illness, long term doctor-patient relationships etc.
The trick is to find the rules.
>but it may be a complicated way of explaining common sense.
More than likely I would think.
Regards
George
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|