Unconscious as Infinite Sets

Ignacio Matte Blanco was a Chilean psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who developed a rule-based structure for the unconscious which allows us to make sense of the non-logical aspects of thought. Born in Santiago, Chile, Matte Blanco was educated in Chile, and before leaving Chile for London, was in analysis with Fernando Allende Navarro, Latin America's first qualified psychoanalyst. He trained [in psychiatry] at the Maudsley Hospital and in psychoanalysis at the London Institute, where he was in supervision with Anna Freud and James Strachey, becoming a member of the British Society in 1938. He subsequently worked in the United States, Chile, and Italy, where his family now lives. He died in Rome at the age of 86.

'Perhaps the first systematic effort to rethink Freud's theory of the unconscious, aiming to separate the different forms of unconsciousness (many of which Freud lumped into the concept of the "primary process") has been undertaken by Ignacio Matte Blanco in The Unconscious as Infinite Sets. Matte Blanco's work is of truly profound significance.'- Christopher Bollas'Those [who have not read] The Unconscious as Infinite Sets are in for a very great treat.'- James S. Grotstein, M.D.'A large volume probing the deeper aspects of psychology. Its charts of terra incognita are as good as any we yet have available.'- Karl Pribram, Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases'The logical-mathematical treatment of the subject is made easy because every logical-mathematical concept used is simply explained from first principles. Each renewed explanation of the facts brings the emergence of new knowledge from old material of truly great importance to the clinician and the theorist alike.'- Henri Rey, International Journal of Psychoanalysis'This is a highly original book. The author, a professor of psychiatry who is a practicing psycho-analyst, feels that psycho-analysis needs a new theoretical frame of reference, without which it is proving impossible to see new facts in clinical reality. This book ought to be read by everyone interested in psychiatry or Freudian psychology.'- British Book News

• Foreword , Preface , Introduction , Scope, Outline and Meaning of this Book , Indispensable Notions , Some Logico-Mathematical Concepts 1 , A Reference to My Previous Work , From the Unrepressed Unconscious to the Symmetrical Mode of Being , A Formulation of the Question , Freud’s Development of the Concept of Unrepressed Unconscious (a Historical Survey) , The Interrelations between Repressed, Unrepressed, Symmetrical, Asymmetrical, Id, Ego, Super-Ego , The Two Modes of Being in Man , The Interrelations between the Two Modes of Being. The Translating or Unfolding Function , The Place of the Primary and Secondary Processes in the Present Conception , The Crisis of the Threefold Conception in the Light of the Conception of Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Being. The Place of the Notion of Object , A Short Summary , Symmetrical Being (Unrepressed Unconscious) as Infinite Sets , The Problem , A Discussion of Analytical Findings in Terms of the Notion of Infinite Set , Infinite Sets and Levels of (Unconscious) Depth , Omnipotence, Omniscience and Idealisation , Emotion and the Infinite Sets , The Infinite Sets and the Question of Measurement of Unconscious Processes , The Notions of Measurement Employed in this Study , Measurement in the Psychical World , Towards the Measurement of the Unconscious Mental Processes , On the Nature of Emotion , A Phenomenological Psycho-Analytical-Logical Approach , A Closer Study of Sensation-Feeling , The Second Component of Emotion: Thinking (Establishment of Relations) , The Question of the Measurability of Emotion: a General Formulation. Sensation - Feeling and Measurement , The Question of the Measurability of Emotion. Emotions as Infinite Sets , The Translating Function and the Quantum of Intellect-Emotion , The Place of Emotion in the Psycho-Analytical Conception , The General Laws of the Bipolarity Symmetrical-Asymmetrical or Unconscious-Conscious , A Perspective of the Interaction Unconscious- Conscious (Symmetrical-Asymmetrical) , An Alternative Formulation of the Bipolarity Symmetrical - Asymmetrical (Unconscious - Conscious) , A Retrospective Look and a General Perspective , The Meaning and Potentialities of the Approach Put Forward in this Book , Summing-Up , Space and Mind , Formulation of the Problem , Brief Notions about Geometrical Space 1 , Multidimensional Space, the Unconscious and Dreams , The Paradox Part-Whole. The Unfolding Function , Mental Tension as Seen in Terms of the Present Approach , Pre-Orgastic Experiences and Fantasies of Sexual Intercourse , Miscellanea , Possibility of a Geometrical Representation of the Principle of Symmetry. Need for Multidimensional Space , Emotion, Magic, the ‘Numinosum’ and the Infinite. A Comment on Sartre