Quantum Psychology

This work presents a new and important paradigm modification in psychology that attempts to incorporate ideas from quantum physics and postmodern culture. The author feels that the current diagnostic model of the mental health establishment is too entwined with political and economic factors to represent a valid method for healing psychological problems. The predominant model is too linear, reductionist, normative, and based upon an abnormal view of behavior. Exacerbating this problem is our highly accelerated present-day lifestyle in which new processes and interactions are constantly emerging. The postmodern self is evolving into a manipulative, situational self with no authentic core values.

Quantum psychology is a psychology of consciousness and experience and is reflective of the entire process of being. It is a holistic, dynamic, and synergistic model, designed to augment the classical model. It involves non-linear as well as linear models of description, with non-linearity having an association with intuitive and irrational thought. Quantum psychology also attempts to describe the complex reciprocal relationship that exists among consciousness, community, and culture. In part, it is culture that forms our consciousness and consciousness that modifies our culture, with community being the vehicle by which these transactions take place. Quantum psychology represents an emergent system of understanding a consciousness that has been exposed to the complex and accelerating effects of a postmodern culture.

STEPHEN T. DEBERRY is Director of Psychology at Broughton State Hospital in Morganton North Carolina. He is a Board Certified clinical psychologist, and he maintained a private practice for twelve years in New York State. For thirteen years Dr. DeBerry was an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiartry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has published numerous articles in academic journals pertaining to psychotherapy, community and culture.