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Evolutionary view of the Szondian TriebSystem

Dan DEDIU, Software Engineer, Software Development Dept.,

Softwin SRL, Bucharest, Romania; Founding Member of the SRPD (the

Romanian Szondi Association); [email protected]; tel. (+40) 1 772 84 26

Abstract: In this paper we formulate three hypotheses concerning the Szondian drive system, regarded from a evolutionary perspective: The Neural Coding Hypothesis (NCH) concerning the way the drives are neurally coded by the brain, the Genetic Coding Hypothesis (GCH) concerning the way the drives are genetically coded (both a biologically plausible and a computational model) and the Evolutionary Adequacy Hypothesis, regarding the fact that the drives are not simple by-products, but that they are the result of strong selective pressures.

Keywords: Szondi, evolution, genetics, neurobiology, drive, and computational model.

1. Introduction

   Originally, Leopold Szondi founded his drive theory on a genetic background, using the so-called "pulsional genes" (L. Szondi, Diagnostique Experimental des Pulsions, PUF, 1973). But now, it seems that Szondi’s adepts are more inclined to consider its theory from a psychoanalytical point of view.

   In this paper, we propose three hypotheses essential to an evolutionary theory concerning the Szondian drive system. Evolutionary theory means more than a genetic one, because evolution implies genetics and active selection (R. Wesson, Beyond Natural Selection, MIT Press, 1991). For example, having five digits on each hand is surely genetically coded, but doesn’t present any selective advantage, being only an evolutionary by-product.

2. The Genetic Coding Hypothesis (GCH)

This hypothesis can be put it in the following form: there is a genetic basis for the Szondian drive system. That means that it is not learned, but one has inborn capacity for a Szondi type drive dynamics. The followings are reasons for considering GCH:

• There are empirical data pointing to a generation to generation transmission of some kind of information concerning the drive dynamics (L. Szondi, Diagnostique Experimental des Pulsions, PUF, 1973);
• Because the drive system responds to highly selective pressures, it is highly probable that it is genetically coded, for instance, the e- reactions are coping with life-threatening dangers. There are life-threatening dangers to which the optimum reaction is an e- type one. If a given proto-human has the inborn capacity for appropriately e- reacting, then its genes are to be selected for in the population. This is so because its surviving chances are greater than of the others (G. C. Williams, Natural Selection, Oxford Univ. Press, 1992; M. Majerus, Evolution: The 4 billion years war, Longmann, 1996; R. Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, Longmann, 1986; R. Wesson, Beyond Natural Selection, MIT Press, 1991).

But the GCH raises the following two important questions:

• What is the nature of the genetic coding of the drives?
• Which are the mechanisms permitting the unfolding of the genetically coded information into a pulsional, functional one?

For giving the flavour of the GCH, we propose in what follows an exploratory mathematical model, a raw approximation of the reality, but a working one given its simplicity.

This model supposes that:

1. there are 16 genetic sequences coding the dedicated subsystems called h-, h+, s-, s+, e-, e+, hy-, hy+, k-, k+, p-, p+, d-, d+, m- and m+, and 16 genetic sequences coding for a intensity level, intensity level regulating the relative functional importance of every dedicated subsystem;
2. there is weak genetic linkage between the 16 intensity coding genetic sequences and the 16 subsystem coding genetic sequences, e.g. they could be placed on different chromosomes;
3. the basic difference in the population is given by the nonuniformity of the 16 intensity coding genetic sequences, the other 16 being almost uniform in population;
4. the overall behaviour is given by the complex interaction between the intensities and weighted basic subsystems.

This means that there are in the population 16 almost invariant genetic coding sequences for the different types of subsystems: h-, h+, s-, s+, e-, e+, hy-, hy+, k-, k+, p-, p+, d-, d+, m- and m+. This coding is almost invariant in the sense that for all individuals in a given population the genetic sequence coding the h- subsystems is the almost the same. So, we will neglect the interindividual differences.

The genetic variability (which is the base of evolution) is given by the fact that there is a number of alleles for every intensity coding genetic sequences, varying from individual to individual and from factor to factor. This means we have another 16 genetic sequences coding intensities, called h-_i, h+ _i, s- _i, s+ _i, e- _i, e+ _i, hy- _i, hy+ _i, k- _i, k+ _i, p _i -, p+ _i, d- _i, d+ _i, m- _i and m+ _i. These intensity coding can be considered to be an integer from 0 to 6 and that for every factor

xÎ {h, s, e, hy, k, p, d, m}

we have that

x+_i + x-_i £ 6.

In this case we can follow an example: let it be an individual X with the fixed structure: h-, h+, s-, s+, e-, e+, hy-, hy+, k-, k+, p-, p+, d-, d+, m- and m+ and the intensity structure: {3, 1, 4, 0, 1, 1, 4, 2, 2, 0, 1, 1, 4, 0, 1, 3}. Then, we can say that this individual has the innate Szondi profile (ISP):

We will interpret this as meaning that genetically this individual X is born with d-! and s-! source of tension, discharged by way of a e0 and p0 reactions. This is something like an average Szondi configuration, representing the baseline around which the individual is oscillating all of his life. There is also a phenotypic Szondi profile (PSP) given by an identical array of tension, also coded by way of 16 numbers, exactly as the innate one. The main difference is that the innate Szondi profile is a potentiality, as opposed to the phenotypic Szondi profile, which is the actual status of the drives, emerging as behavior and internal states and revealed by the Szondi test. The link is that the phenotypic Szondi profile is always evolving under a quadruple pressure:

PSP (t+1) = F (PSP (t), ISP, input (t), NPIS (t)).

Where:

• t is the discrete time variable;
• PSP is the phenotypic Szondi profile;
• F is the fitness function, the way the phenotype emerges;
• ISP is the innate Szondi profile;
• Input is the information coming from the environment;
• NPIS are the non-pulsional (e.g. cognitive, physiological, etc.) internal states.

This means that the PSP depends on its previous state, the external clues (stimuli) and non-cognitive internal states, but also on the unchangeable ISP. This function F includes also the circuits introduced by Schotte. But the external clues, non-cognitive internal states and the ISP modulate these circuits. This has the consequence that Schotte’s circuits are limiting circuits in the sense that the real dynamics of the PSP tends to approximate these ideal constructs (P. Lekeuche, J. Melon, Dialectique des Pulsions, Ed. De Boeck, 1990).

But all we discussed here is about the intensity coding genes and only what concerns the fitness function – the interpretation in a given environment of the genetic code. It is also important to discuss about the transmission rules regarding the intensity coding genes. We propose for this simple model that the generation to generation transmission is realized by a simple combination rule as:

ISP^offspring = G (ISP^male, ISP^female).

We will call the G function the melange function.

Now, we must shortly discuss about the interpretation of the subsystem coding genes. In this simpler model, we will suppose that every gene of this kind is coding a dedicated neural network, specialized in the appropriate reactions to a class of different selective situations, class compatible with the interpretation of the appropriate Szondian reaction. For example, the e- gene codes a neural network composed form a structure of subnetworks specialized in violently reacting to different dangers: inevitable threat, direct attack by a smaller enemy, attacking a smaller enemy, attacking a suitable prey, etc.

This model seems to be the simpler model we could imagine, retaining the compatibility with the basic data we already have regarding Szondi. There are some consequences worth underlining of this model:

1. every individual has a ISP representing the innate pulsional attitude facing life. This ISP can be experimentally known by applying as many as possible probes and in as many as possible situations and performing different statistical analysis to find the approximated profile;
2. there are differences in the pulsional attitude, but these differences are expressed by way of the PSP, which is environment-sensitive. This means that psychotherapy is possible, but only by knowing the innate dispositions that specific individual is having.

This model is intended to be used in some future Genetic Programming (J. Koza, Genetic Programming: programming computers by means of natural selection, MIT Press, 1992) simulations of the evolution of the Szondian Drive System. It is only a very simple model, but its simplicity is required by the computational complexity explosion involved in this type of simulations.

After exposing this simple model (which is haploid, not diploid), we shall try now to clarify the GCH in what concerns the human reality.

Any drive is an integrated system of dedicated modules, tightly coevolved and synchronised (as explained in the next section). The genetic counterpart of the Szondian drive system reflects this complexity, because it presents the following proprieties:

• pleiotropy = one gene influences more than one phenotypic trait;
• polygenic traits = "a given phenotypic character is most often the result of the expression of several genes" (ed. P. Skelton, Evolution, Addison-Wesley, 1993, page 77);
• epistasis = "genes do not work in isolation and the expression of a gene (or genes) at one locus (…) may be affected by genes at other loci" (ed. P. Skelton, Evolution, Addison-Wesley, 1993, page 77).

In the Szondian context, these means:

• any given drive-involved gene influences more that a single dedicated module;
• any given drive-involved gene influences dedicated modules belonging to more than one drive, e.g. it can influence one e- dedicated module and one m+ dedicated module;
• it is possible that drive-involved genes also influences other phenotypic traits, e.g. facial characteristics;
• any dedicated module is influenced by more than one drive-involved gene;
• the system made up by the drive-involved genes behaves in a chaotic manner. This means that it presents sensitivity on initial conditions, e.g. little molecular changes affecting these genes could have great phenotypic effects, as well as great molecular changes can inflict negligible phenotypic modifications. "Effects of mutation on the phenotype vary enormously. Silent substitutions, as well as many others, may have no discernible effect, although synonymous codons sometimes have different effects on the rate of translation of mRNA into protein. Mutations in polygenic characters frequently have such slight effects that they can be measured in aggregate, but cannot be isolated for individual study. Other mutations have drastic effects: in Drosophila, a single mutation such as singed changes the shape of all the bristles, and Curly changes the shape of the wing. Homeotic mutants, by acting on organs with related developmental patterns, convert one into the other: the antenna into a leg-like structure (antennapedia) or the metathorax with balancer organs into a mesothorax with wings (bithorax)." (D. J. Futuyama, Evolutionary Biology, Sinauer Associates, 1986, page 75).

For the Szondian Drive System, these proprieties imply the following:

• the transmission pattern is complex enough to be very hard to grasp;
• there is a class of pulsional disorders determined by specific configurations of alleles, which we will call genetic pulsional disorders;
• there are no "pure" genetic pulsional disorders, because any faulted allele inflicts over a class of dedicated modules belonging to more than one drive. This implies the fact that any Szondi-detectable genetic pulsional disorder cannot be diagnosed by single drive reactions, but needs the entire profile analysis;
• it is possible to infer the structure of the genetic information concerning Szondi by analysing the population genetics of the genetic pulsional disorders;
• the pleiotropism implies the possibility that drive-involved genes are influencing also the morphogenesis of facial traits. This could be in favour of the hypotheses raised by T. Bereczkei, The Szondi’s Legacy: Innate Dispositions influence our Choices. A Sociobiological Reinterpretation of Szondi-theory, 1995, Szondiana, 15 Jahrgang, Heft 1).

1. The Neural Coding Hypothesis (NCH)

This hypothesis can be put in the following form: the Szondian drives are not unitary entities, but they are composed by many substructures. These substructures will be called dedicated modules. A dedicated module is a neuropsychological structure, functionally specialised. For instance, there are dedicated neural circuits specialised in depth perception, walking, the columns in the VI area, etc. (M. R. Rosenzweig, A. L. Leiman, S. M. Breedlove, Psychobiologie, De Boeck Universite, 1998).

In what concerns the Szondian system, we will consider the e- reaction. The Szondian interpretation of this reaction is: "accumulation inconsciente d’affects bruteaux (fureur, colére, haine, désir de vengeance). Intolérance. Tension intérieure, inquiétude, peur de soi même." (L. Szondi, Diagnostic Experimental des Pulsions, PUF, 1973). There is in any interpretation a mixture of basic behavioural reactions and internal statuses that can be categorised as "violent emotions accumulation". One of the most important difficulties in the interpretation of a Szondi Profile is to get down to real life behaviours and internal states. . These difficulties in interpretation are an indication about the fact that an e- is like the tip of an iceberg: it is a global indication about the statuses of many dedicated modules that produce the emergent reaction called e-.

One of the most important selective pressures is given by dangers. We can consider that any selectively important danger falls into one of the following classes: predator, disease and inanimate threats (like falling from a rock). For every class, there are specific evolutionary favoured reactions and inside every class these reactions are differentiated. For instance, to avoid a lion needs a highly different strategy than that needed to avoid a snake or a band-attacking predator. For avoiding life-threatening dangers one needs:

• To became aware of the presence of the danger: recognising it;
• To perform an appropriate avoiding reaction;
• To minimise the temporal delay between recognising a danger and initiating an appropriate reaction: quick reactions.

We could conceive the following metaphor: given the three conditions, we might ask an engineer to construct a system capable of meeting them. We would be interested in the biological plausibility and relevance of its proposals.

There are two main methods:

• The Top-down approach: trying to construct a general-purpose mechanism and instructing it to perform the desired behaviour;
• The Bottom-up approach: using defined-purpose mechanism and combining them as to obtain the desired behaviour as an emergent phenomenon.

The first method isn’t biologically plausible because:

• There is a broad class of naturally occurring problems solved by relatively uncomplicated neural systems but too complex to be computationally tractable (for instance, the bipedal walking or the visual orientation in a natural environment);
• The building blocks of the nervous system are the neurones and the evolutionary most parsimonious trend is to combine them into behaviourally dedicated structures (Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer, http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.htm);
• The third reason is that a general-purpose mechanism, even if it is a very powerful one when finished, it is useless unless completed. Natural selection requires that every step in the evolutive process be viable, useful.

In turn, the second method is biologically plausible, because:

• Even if there is also a broad class of problems not easily tractable with distributed systems (for instance, logical inference), the class of selectively relevant problems are solvable in this way (J. B. Best, Cognitive Psychology, West Publishing, 1994);
• The natural selection fashioned already working dedicated modules as to made them capable to cope better with older problems or with new ones. This was possible because of the dynamic nature of the neural structures (Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer, http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.htm ).

For the Szondian Drive System, this hypothesis has the following consequences:

• The drives aren’t unitary entities, but they are composed from dedicated modules;
• The concept of "drive" is an approximation of a much more complex neuro-behavioural reality;
• This explains why the classical interpretation of a Szondi profile is so abstract, general and vague and why one uses so bad-defined concepts as "drive";
• The analytical discourse can be understood as the best match for such a conceptual framework. This doesn’t imply that the analytical discourse is the best match for a Szondian-like system, but only that it represents some kind of refuge facing the conceptual difficulties;
• The dedicated modules composing a drive are not only evolved, but coevolved and their selective situations are overlapping, so that to a certain degree of analysis they could give the sensation of being an unitary entity (the drive). This implies that the Szondian drives are indeed good approximations of these coevolved systems;
• The interpretations of the Szondian profiles are working approximations, based on induced regularities of these coevolved systems. But these systems presents a chaotic behaviour and the inferred rules are only applicable in general cases: this is why sometimes the interpretation is invalid and this doesn’t depends on the analyst – it simply is a bug of the system;
• There is something vary interesting about the pattern given by the self-organisation of the system composed by these dedicated modules into the eight drives: is it possible to reflect some deeper self-organising principles of the affective life?
• This implies that for another species, the drive system could assume other patterns than that found in modern humans (Homo Sapiens Sapiens).

1. The Evolutionary Adequacy Hypothesis (EAH)

This hypothesis can be stated as follow: the Szondian drive system isn’t a by-product of evolution, but a strongly selected response to long enduring and important selective pressures. Its role is to create an internal status favouring specific adaptive reactions to specific situations.

This means that:

• In our evolutive history, there was a strong selective pressure causing the proto-humans to acquire certain specific reactions specialised to specific situations;
• Also, there was a strong selective pressure that these reactions be coadapted with other related reactions;
• This coadaptation provokes the activation not only of the optimum matching reaction, but also of the related reactions, creating an internal specific status (the drive as an internal status);
• It is highly probable that some of the characteristics of the drive system be by-products. This is so because of the complexity of the system, which implies that there are internal genomic interactions provoking the appearance and maintenance of certain characteristics not related to strong selective pressures.

The following facts permits as to consider this hypothesis:

• The drive system copes with important selective pressures;
• There is a genetic mechanism responsible for generation to generation transmission of the drive characteristics (L. Szondi, Diagnostic Experimental des Pulsions, PUF, 1973);
• There is a mechanism responsible for interindividual variation in what concerns the drive system (L. Szondi, Diagnostic Experimental des Pulsions, PUF, 1973).

These three facts are necessary and sufficient to imply the action of Natural Selection, given the importance of the selective pressures (R. Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, Longman, 1986; R. Wesson, Beyond Natural Selection, MIT Press, 1993).

In what concerns the modern man, this hypothesis has the following important consequences:

• The structure of the drive system was selected for in the long evolutionary history of the hominine lineage, but with a very high probability starting long before the beginning of the Australopithecine lineage (R. Lewin, Human Evolution – a core textbook, Blackwell Science, 1998). But in the last few thousands years, with the advent of complex cultural life, the selective pressures under which the drive system evolved begun to dramatically change (R. Lewin, Human Evolution – a core textbook, Blackwell Science, 1998, M. Konner, The Tangled Wing – biological constrains of the human spirit, Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1982). This implies that the drive system in the modern Homo Sapiens Sapiens is mismatching the environment (at least in some regards);
• This mismatching is most evidently manifested in the modern and generalised discontent prevalent in the Occidental-like societies;
• The modern man tries to minimise this mismatch between his internal and most powerful needs and the environment, mostly by cultural means. One can shortly enumerate some of these tendencies: the erotic escape, generalised violence, blind searching for a so-called "true inner self" (see C. G. Jung for instance), erasing the intersexual dimorphism, searching for the "aliens" (C.G. Jung, Un mythe moderne, Gallimard, 1961), etc.;
• If the current trend is to be continued, we can predict that this mismatch will grow further, provoking even our eventual extinction as a species. This problem has two solutions: we can passively watch Nature’s workings or we can actively intervene. This intervention has as goal the minimisation of the mismatch between our genetic destiny and our cultural one and could work on the environment or on us. Working on our cultural environment seems impossible, because the memetic (cultural) system seems to have acquired laws on its own, too complex to be properly mastered. To work on us seems to require some important genetic restructuring, not yet feasible.

Conclusion

These three hypotheses, if they are validated, could form the basis of an evolutionary consistent theory regarding the Szondian-like drive systems. These could permit us to better understand the nature of the human affective life, as well as finding homologies between human and non-human drive systems. This could further permit to glimpse into the evolutionary history and major transitions marking the hominine lineage.

Acknowledgements

We thank to Mr. Leo BERLIPS for signalling us in the first place as to this Conference, as well as to Mr. Christian PAPILLOUD for its invaluable remarks concerning the first draft of this article and his openness for our opinions. We want to thank to Mr. Nicu DUMITRASCU for his suggestions. Special thanks to Mrs. Gabriela ROMANU which critically assisted us in this sometimes demanding labour.

Bibliography

[1]. L. Szondi, Diagnostique Experimental des Pulsions, PUF, 1973

[2]. R. Wesson, Beyond Natural Selection, MIT Press, 1991

[3]. G. C. Williams, Natural Selection, Oxford Univ. Press, 1992

[4]. M. Majerus, Evolution: The 4 billion years war, Longmann, 1996

[5]. R. Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, Longmann, 1986

[6]. P. Lekeuche, J. Melon, Dialectique des Pulsions, Ed. De Boeck, 1990

[7]. J. Koza, Genetic Programming: programming computers by means of natural selection, MIT Press, 1992

[8]. ed. P. Skelton, Evolution, Addison-Wesley, 1993

[9]. D. J. Futuyama, Evolutionary Biology, Sinauer Associates, 1986

[10.] T. Bereczkei, The Szondi’s Legacy: Innate Dispositions influence our Choices. A Sociobiological Reinterpretation of Szondi-theory, 1995, Szondiana, 15 Jahrgang, Heft 1

[11.] M. R. Rosenzweig, A. L. Leiman, S. M. Breedlove, Psychobiologie, De Boeck Universite, 1998

[12.] Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer, http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.htm)

[13.] J. B. Best, Cognitive Psychology, West Publishing, 1994

[14.] R. Lewin, Human Evolution – a core textbook, Blackwell Science, 1998

[15.] M. Konner, The Tangled Wing – biological constrains of the human spirit, Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1982

[16.] C.G. Jung, Un mythe moderne, Gallimard, 1961

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