HOW DOES PLAN FUNCTION

The 'PHOENIX' MECHANISM


PLAN works in a combination of three phases
A - Intervention Circle
B - Phoenix Mechanism
C - Environmental Reset




The name Phoenix Mechanism has been given by a physicist during a conversation when
laws and mechanics in the theory of fundamental physics were compared
with the social functions as there are processed in PLAN.

There is a modern project for reflecting together the sciences of mind and matter.
Such project begun with Freud-Einstein communication in the early 20th century,
Today, when these specialized studies attempt to merge, they meet on the intermediary field
which is the Knowledge of the Environment. They are necessarily, both and together, aiming toward
an industry for the enhancement of an ecology and development of life.

From the ancient Hermetic way of thinking it was already known that
their (psychosociology & biophysics) models have to be found equivalent.

This page emphasizes the Phoenix Mechanism which analytically follows PLAN's circling extraction





ANATOMY

Two terms (plus one relation) are identified in PLAN - A group is organized around 1) an Ideal, ideology, an idea and/or leader that its members share in common - and it operates on 2) an object, topic, product.

Whenever the object of the group is actualized, his model (pattern, system, Significand, etc...) which is ruled by an Ideal, is applied in response (for example, the group needs food thus it launches a hunt, or migrates or cultivates etc.... according to its pattern, AKA Ideal).

In other words, the identity of a group is defined by its Ideal - this Ideal corresponding with an object (thirdly the individuals members - relation - animate the Ideal).



PHYSIOLOGY

An Ideal does not tend to change or evolve - but the group produces effects on its environment, hence on its object. The object can also be transformed by other external causes than the group. At a certain point the object begins to differ so that it is implies for the Ideal to be modified note on systems law .

Minor and usual changes in the object are easy to address in term of repetition in an Idealization since they are related in a feed-back loop and there are little inadequation between the two modified terms. However, in some case and especially when Cybernetic laws intensify the primary level of feed-back, unpredictable and weird objectivation occurs. No known idealization can match these unknown cases; consequently they are denied or else the group dissolves, or thirdly it react with an inhibition which gradually induces its decline; a fourth possibility is in changing the Ideal but this is meaning a change of identity. This latter possibility is generically opposed by every each laws of homeostasy in the endangered organization where it can be called a catastrophe.

Such catastrophe is what the intervention circle of PLAN witness and address. Many groups and societies maintain a regime of repetition while their Ideal is actually obsolete in regards to their object A state of chaos is therefore hidden under a layer of declining rules, until degeneration and/or catastrophe.



THE PHOENIX MECHANISM

When a radical change of idealization (catastrophe) is caused in a Cybernetic system, the localization where it occurs reveals a state of Chaos.

In the simple case of a consecutive extinction, the entity's vestige is reabsorbed into the environment, or it is sub-divided and integrated in new idealizations; yet with Cybernetics 'ultimate' objects (expl. ultimate waste) may emerge, thus giving an opportunity for a pure creation (ex-nihilo).

The case of creation is rare and abstruse. Beyond the annihilation in Chaos, a Phoenix can emerge with a new identity; for this, by force logic, it must be fed by the so-called weird object which seemed to have caused its death. This doubled stimulation (destructive and constructive) by the cause of death and rebirth is traditionally repulsed as a situation of horror and opportunity for monstrosity - however, it operates positively, as a 'Phoenix Mechanism' under the condition of an appropriate setting. Such disposition is known for a long time in human history, attributed to a seer, namely Simonides of Chaos. It is generically called The Art of Memory. Under its modern version which specifically addresses the Cybernetic physiology, it is PLAN.

PLAN analyses the pure 'plural' which remains under the state of chaos after the de-idealization and its resulting loss of unity. In its sustenance of an idiosyncrasy within the chaotic object it allows a diachronic (To note: terminology) reorganization. Allegorically, it simply feeds the unorganized mass with a sustained input see increment in compulsory extraction and rebuilds a coherent order for addressing the new situation without loss of memory.

This can be illustrated with the Lacanian Optical Model


PIC.10 : This picture illustrates the situation when a 'weird object'
(the unfolding flowers which emerge in the real space in front of the mirror/group)
imposes itself over an Ideal (the dark blue spot which represents the traditional reference for the group).
As the group crumble, giving place to the underground mass (the mirror turning horizontal),
a new perspective occurs, which usually confuses the rejuvenating ideal and the ancient model.
This is usually meaning the death of the group, which remains as an historical fact (red spot to Note: on Real Image ) in the real space.


The possibility however exists for maintaining the dissociation
between ancient and rejuvenated - this is assumed within the relation
between the analyst and the extracted member in PLAN goto note re: analyst/analysand couple .
See PLAN in action
There, instead of an historical residue (red spot), the re-entering member to Note: re-input in Phoenix retoration makes,
an active entity re-integrating the group in chaos.
Under the mode of an insistent series see increment in compulsory extraction ,
it eventually restores the 'Phoenix'.









NOTE 10 : The modification of an Ideal means a modification of its system that defines in physics as non-markovian. As long as an Ideal is sustained psychosociology describe a system of Repetition which seems to correspond with the Markov Laws in physics. Only a system which is non-markovian may express memory and history <back to text>

NOTE 20 : 'Diachrony' is a word used in the sciences of the mind, which indicates a temporal relationship in comparison with a spatial one, which is commonly known as Synchrony.<back to text>

NOTE 25 : The main factor which gives Lacan's Optical Model its characteristic is based on a well known trick of Optics - e.g. the apparition in a concave mirror of a 'real image' which results from the condensation of the reflected image of an object (instead of the displacement of a virtual image beyond a plan mirror). Actually this condensed illusion was well known also in Antiquity, when Plato described its occurrence in the cave, yet on the base of a condensation of sound waves; it makes one of the clues of the identity between the Optical Model and the Cave that Plato described in The Republic. An animated picture may help distinguishing from virtual to real images.


PIC.11 : The yellow object when placed in a concave mirror, is reproduced as a real image (red)
which can only be seen from a certain perspective (pink cone).
In comparison, a virtual image appears beyond a plan mirror and can be seen
from virtually any place in front of a large enough mirror.<back to text>



NOTE 30 : The relationship between an Extracted-Member and the Plural-Analyst is illustrated in PIC.10 (above), with the meeting of the yellow and blue spots, before their confusion into a single green (which represents the residue of chaos under the conclusion of death of the group, and its memory, red spot). Instead of, and before, this final state of chaos, if the analytic period (discrimination/dissociation) is sustained enough, the course of decline may be suspended and modification happens as in the course of PLAN.
Compare yellow/blue above with caption in: see couple analyst/analysand in PLAN session<back to text>





© CYBEK of New York, 1999.