Understanding Matte-Blanco
Skelton, R.
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 65: 453-460
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0020-7578 PMID: 6544756 Document Number: 226660
Matte-Blanco claims to explain a wide range of characteristics of the Unconscious from a simple base. His theory of the logic of the Unconscious is based on two principles: first, that the Unconscious treats every class as a subclass of a more general class. Second, that the Unconscious treats relations as reversible. It is claimed that it is possible to explain such a wide range of characteristics of the Unconscious because these two principles contradict one another. From the theory of formal systems we know that any theory with contradictory principles explains everything and so explains very little.