It is a pleasure to review this multidisciplinary treatise on “the psychological interplay of order and chaos.” A successful attempt has been made to analyze many of the interrelationships between the abstract concepts of rule-based reason and chaos-based intuition. In certain respects, the ideas discussed relate well to other writings on the yin-yang dichotomy in Eastern thought. In order to make his work more accessible to the majority, the author has flagged all sections “containing a significant amount of formalism” as optional, and has made the book understandable for those who avoid these sections.

The multifaceted basic purpose of this book is to tackle several sticky issues: the nature of consciousness, the relation between mind and reality, the justification of belief systems, and the connection between creativity and mental illness. At first reading, this sounds perhaps a bit disjointed and certainly quite ambitious. If you give the book the time it deserves, however, you will discover that this purpose is achieved.

In exploring chaos psychology to model the highly interconnected human brain, Goertzel suggests a higher view of the mind and brain as “networks of interacting, inter-creating processes.” He later suggests that mind and reality reciprocally contain each other.

Early in the book, a distinction is made between chaos theory and complex systems science. Chaos theory is said to relate to “determinism underlying apparent randomness,” while complex systems science deals with the “synergistic behaviors of systems composed of a large number of interacting parts.” In one view, complex self-organizing systems might be understood to be creating themselves. Today’s chaos theory picks up where yesterday’s general systems theory left off, and it has the added advantage of computing power.

Goertzel is unafraid to make boundaryless connections between traditionally disparate viewpoints. His discussions touch on such themes as a Nietzchean view of logic, the poetry of Octavio Paz, the limitations of Kuhn’s work in The structure of scientific revolutions [1], and a critique of Galileo’s belief system.

As a fragmentary example of his thinking, Goertzel proposes that belief systems are functionally and structurally analogous to immune systems. Belief systems shelter high-level psychological procedures from input and permit the mind to deal with things “automatically” so that additional cognitive effort is not needlessly expended. Further, he suggests that beliefs within belief systems can survive.

The analysis of good versus faulty reasoning in chapter 10 agrees nicely with fundamental tenets of Albert  Ellis’s  rational emotive behavior therapy in cognitive psychology. An intriguing insight is offered concerning dissociation.  Goertzel  sees it as necessary for normal, effective, logical thought, whereas it has traditionally been viewed as a negative process, partially responsible for such mental disorders as multiple personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. The positive function of dissociation is to give personality networks a competitive scheme and incentive for the creation of self-sustaining belief systems, which are ultimately capable of supporting creative deduction. The book concludes with suggestions for the next generation of AI machines, “artificial intersubjectivity” or A-IS machines. Such a machine would create its own virtual world.

If the book had a limitation, it would be that its scope may be too ambitious. It turns out that by relying upon hierarchical models, this criticism loses legitimacy, as the book does indeed cover the range of topics advertised. There are many reasons to commend this book, including thorough analyses of topics and subtopics, a very understandable writing style, few typos, an excellent index, good use of humor, and a solid sense of continuity of purpose. The book compares favorably with the style of Douglas Hofstadter.

The book should appeal to a wide range of professionals in the social, behavioral, and computational sciences. It should be required reading for anyone purporting to assume a multidisciplinary viewpoint. It would serve as an interesting and thought-provoking textbook for a multidisciplinary graduate seminar, requiring a solid mathematical background. Overall, it is an excellent, thought-provoking work.