K INVITED PAPER

36,3/4
From sociohistory to psychohistory
M.I. Yolles
378 Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

Abstract
Purpose – This study seeks to postulate a theory of psychohistory as a “think-piece”. It develops
from some earlier theoretical work on sociohistory that can model cultures that are large-scale (e.g.
societies) over the long term or small scale (e.g. corporations) over the short term. Sociohistory, as
developed by Yolles and Frieden, provides a new theory to explore the possibilities of tracking and
explaining social and cultural change. It offers entry to the development of a theory of psychohistory
that explores the psychological basis for decision making and social action and interaction, and
connects with both Jung’s propositions on psychological profiling and with the popular Myers-Briggs
instruments of personality testing.
Design/methodology/approach – Sociohistory was developed by coupling three theoretical
frameworks: the knowledge cybernetics of Maurice Yolles, the mathematical approach in extreme
physical information (EPI) of Roy Frieden, and the sociocultural dynamics of Pitrin Sorokin. Knowledge
cybernetics creates the vehicle for the exploration of the sociocultural dynamics that reflects the
theoretical structures of Sorokin, and uses EPI as a way of fine tuning one’s understanding of the
qualitative and quantitative dynamics uncovered. The basic fractal nature of knowledge cybernetics is
be used to extend the theory of sociohistory from sociocultural dynamics to psychosocial dynamics.
Elaborating on the fractal nature of the approach, an indicative theory of psychohistory is formulated.
Findings – The theoretical basis for sociohistory is outlined and extended from sociocultural to
psychosocial dynamics, and it is shown how the methodological approach can then be extended to the
development of psychohistory. An agenda for further sociohistorical and psychohistorical research is
also developed in this process.
Originality/value – Sociocultural dynamics is extended to the promise of being able to deal with
social dynamics within a cultural setting. The postulated theory of psychohistory both explores social
dynamics in psychological terms and is linked to the potential for developing a new personality
inventory.
Keywords Sociology, Psychology, Cybernetics, Sociocybernetics
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
This paper is in part a “think-piece” development of the notion of sociohistory by Yolles
and Frieden (2005) and Frieden et al. (2005). It explores this theory of sociohistory that
arises through the knowledge cybernetics schema (Yolles, 2006a) that has been developed
in conjunction with Frieden’s (1998, personal communication, 2004) and Frieden and
Gatenby (2006) theory of extreme physical information (EPI) and developed according to
the sociocultural principles of Sorokin (1937-1942). These principles explore the dynamics
of cultural change processes applicable in principle to either large-scale continuous
cultures (like societies) over the long term or small scale continuous cultures
Kybernetes (like corporations) over the short term. Knowledge cybernetics creates a flexible
Vol. 36 No. 3/4, 2007
pp. 378-405 knowledge-based frame of reference that offers a methodological approach capable of
exploring and relating a variety of differently conceived but thematically connected
theories by exploring aspects of their knowledge bases. The integration of EPI turns the
approach from a qualitative exploration of cultural change to one which has quantitative From
attributes, enabling specific outcomes to be generated from qualitative inputs. The sociohistory to
particular theme of cultural change is a very important one. While Sorokin’s theories are
directed towards providing an understanding of cultural condition and change in psychohistory
large-scale cultures as occur in civilisations, the application of the sociohistorical theory
indicated here is also potentially useful for the exploration of small scale cultures as they
occur in corporate environments. Understanding the nature of such cultural environments 379
provides an entry into the change imperative that every organisation experiences today.
The basis of sociohistory which explored the historical dynamics of social collectives
will be presented following Yolles and Frieden (2005), but it will only indicate the
mathematical approach adopted. While the general theory outlines the qualitative
explanations of sociocultural change, the mathematical theory has the capacity to deepen
the explanations and develop a quantitative dimension to the theory. The same
methodological approach as is provided to explore sociocultures can be applied at a
different focus of inquiry to the individual, therefore having the promise of a theory
of psychohistory, which explores the dynamics of individuals through the exploration of
their psychological attributes, i.e. a theory of psychosocial dynamics. While the theoretical
approach for this is not as well developed as that of sociohistory, it has the potential to link
with the Myer-Briggs psychometric tool that has become so popular with corporate
human resource environments. Introducing this aspect of the paper is what constitutes its
think-piece attribute, and provide entry into a broad research agenda.

Knowledge cybernetics
As an introduction to knowledge cybernetics and its use of ontological categories,
consider three types of reality that can be attributed to archetypical rational beings:
believing, thinking and doing (Figure 1). Epistemologically speaking, believing is
connected to knowledge while thinking is connected to information and doing
is empirically connected and is therefore data related; these connections may not be
immediate and linear however. In the archetypical emotional being it may be said that
processes of thinking are complexified by feeling, though this extension is beyond my
interest here. While the natures of the three attributes of Figure 1 are all very different,
they do have a mutual relationship in the autonomous being. Knowledge cybernetics is
interested in exploring aspects of these complex relationships.
In particular, knowledge cybernetics is a systemically based schema that: explores
knowledge formation and its relationship to information; encourages a critical view of

Conditions

Affects

Believing Thinking Doing

(Knowledge) (Information) (Empirical data)
Figure 1.
Elementary ontological
Is conditioned by relationship between three
Is affected by types of reality
K individual and social knowledge and their processes of communication and associated
36,3/4 meanings; and seeks to create an understanding of the relationship between people and
their social collectives for the improvement of social collective viability and an
appreciation of the role of knowledge in this. In a coherent autonomous human activity
system, knowledge occurs in structured patterns. This provides the structure that
enables the system to recognise its own existence, maintain itself, change, and develop
380 manifestations that can be seen as being indicative of systemic content.
The schema has its base history in the work of Schwarz (1997, 2001). In developing
his notions he explains how persistent viable systems are able to maintain themselves,
change and die. Viable social collectives participate in the self-development of their
own futures, and are self-organising and adaptive to perturbations that arise in their
environment. They have structures that facilitate and constrain their behaviour, and
they are responsible for the manifestation and maintenance of that structure. A viable
collective is able to support adaptability and change while being able to maintain
desired stability in its behaviour, and this is affected by incoherence and pathology.
E. Schwarz’s (personal communication, 2004) approach was to create a general
theory of viable autonomous systems, and its creation was stimulated during the
preparation for a course of lectures on the “Introduction to Systems Thinking” at the
University of Neuchâtel, in particular using Prigogine’s dissipative structures theory,
Erich Jantsch’s Self-Organizing Universe, Maturana and Varela’s (1979) autopoietic
approach and of course, cybernetic concepts. Schwarz tried to extract the basic
common features of these different approaches and produce a unique metamodel that
constitutes a transdisciplinary epistemo-ontological framework, from which other
phenomenological models could be constructed through a combination of logical
deduction and intuition. The metamodel itself has some internal dynamics, coherence
and self-referential character, and it also had resonances with philosophia perennis[1].
While many (phenomenological) models show that the evolution of systems go through
the successive stages of emergence, growth, stability, and decay, the interest of this
metamodel is its global coherence and its questioning of the foundations of the usual
materialistic, dualistic, realistic, reductionist and mechanistic approach that, for
Schwarz, provides the basis for a language for a new holistic paradigm.
Our intention here is to explain how a development of this metamodel, that we refer
to as social viable systems (SVS), can be established as a social geometry, noting that it
is its epistemological impact that leads to the notion of knowledge cybernetics.
The SVS model, shown in Figure 2 derives from the general model of Schwarz (1997)
and developed within the social context by Yolles (1999, 2006a), and like the notion of
the system it is metaphorical in nature and recursive in facility. Its metaphorical nature
does not mean that it has no scientific significance (Brown, 2003), and its recursive
nature means it establishes a relative theory of contexts that results in epistemological
variety (Yolles, 2006a). This occurs because the knowledge that it claims to express is
relative to changing contexts.
We regard SVS more as a holonic rather than systemic model. The term holon was
proposed by Koestler (1967) to stress that the system is a whole and that it has
associated with it a set of constituent parts which may themselves be sub-wholes; these
sub-wholes are within their own (recursive) context also holons. The sub-whole “parts”
were normally considered to be lateral to each other within a given ontological
space, and this is equivalent to talking about the relationship between a system and
 Autogenesis and principles through Autopoiesis and From
a knowledge related cultural manifestation of patterns of sociohistory to
normative coherence behaviour or Ego states
dynamic
psychohistory

Noumenal domain Phenomenal domain 381

with Virtual systems with System
Existential domain having Mind/ system of having Structures &
with Metasystems thought & behaviour,
having Knowledge based ideate images, Consciousness,
Worldviews/paradigms, Collective Structure residing
Unconscious, Cultural Subconscious, Ego &
state & disposition, Superego & Shen energy
&Jing energy Chi energy
Figure 2.
SVS metamodel defined in
terms of three transitive
Autogenesis and domains that show an
regeneration of unconscious (e.g., Autopoiesis and regeneration of autonomous holon with
preconscious knowledge or subconscious ideate images or both autogenesis and
unconscious impulse for motivation) superego autopoiesis, expressed in
terms of a social
& worldviews through evaluative
psychological context
perceived experience

its component subsystems. However, this can be extended to the concept to transitive
ontological parts, as in the relationship between a system and its metasystem.
Hence, this can be extended to the concept to transitive ontological parts, as in the
relationship between a system (with its immediate interaction with the virtual system)
and its controlling metasystem.
As such the holon may best be regarded as a transitively extended system,
constituted through a development of Schwarz’s ontological schema. We constitute a
social holon as a three domain model that defines distinct ontological modes of being:
measurable energetic phenomenal behaviour, information rich ideate (taken as a valued
and perhaps complex image or system of thought), and knowledge-related existence
that is expressed through patterns of meaning.
The domains of SVS are analytically distinct classifications of being, and they each
have epistemological properties that are expressible as varieties of knowledge
classifications. The phenomenal domain has social interests adapted from Habermas’s
(1971) in a way explained by Yolles and Guo (2003). The other domain properties arise
as an extension of this, are listed in Table I, and draw on both systemic and cybernetic
notions. There is a connection here to Schutz and Luckmann (1974) who are interested
in narrative, in that the epistemological content of each of the three domains can be
defined in terms of relevancies. The existential domain has thematic relevance that
determines the constituents of an experience; the noumenal or virtual domain has
interpretative relevance that creates direction through the selection of relevant aspects
of a stock of knowledge to formulate ideate structures or a system of thought; and the
phenomenal domain is associated with motivational relevance that causes a local
conclusion through action. While this development is constructivist, an application of
 K

382
36,3/4

Table I.

(sociality)
social orientation
Domain cognitive
properties that determine
Sociality
Possibilities/potential (through variety
Cognitive properties Kinematics (through social motion) Direction (determining social trajectory) development)

Cognitive interests Technical Practical Critical deconstraining

Phenomenal (conscious; ego) domain Work. This enables people to achieve Interaction. This requires that people as Degree of emancipation. For
Identifier knowledge Activities Energy goals and generate material well-being. It individuals and groups in a social system organisational viability, the realising of
involves technical ability to undertake to gain and develop the possibilities of an individual potential is most effective
action in the environment, and the ability understanding of each others’ subjective when people: (i) liberate themselves from
to make prediction and establish control. views. It is consistent with a practical the constraints imposed by power
interest in mutual understanding that can structures (ii) learn through precipitation
address disagreements, which can be a in social and political processes to control
threat to the social form of life. their own destinies.
Cognitive purposes Cybernetical Rational/appreciative Ideological/moral
Noumenal (subconscious; superego) Intention. Within the governance of social Formative organising. Within governance Manner of thinking. Within governance
domain collectives this occurs through the enables missions, goals, and aims to be of social collectives an intellectual
Elaborator knowledge Organising creation and pursuit of goals and aims defined and approached through framework occurs through which policy
Information that may change over time, and enables planning. It may involve logical, and/or makers observe and interpret reality.
people through control and relational abilities to organise thought This has an aesthetical or politically
communications processes to redirect and action and thus to define sets of correct ethical positioning. It provides an
their futures. possible systematic, systemic and image of the future that enables action
behaviour possibilities. It can also involve through politically correct strategic
the (appreciative) use of tacit standards policy. It gives a politically correct view
by which experience can be ordered and of stages of historical development, in
valued, and may involve reflection. respect of interaction with the external
environment.
Cognitive influences Socio Base Politico
Creating cultural disposition Existential Formation. Enables individuals/groups in Belief. Influences occur from knowledge Freedom. Influences occur from
(unconscious; cultural state & disposition) a social collective to be influenced by that derives from the cognitive knowledge that affect social collective
domain knowledge that relates to its social organisation (the set of beliefs, attitudes, polity, determined in part, by how
Executor knowledge Worldviews environment. It affects social structures values) of other worldviews. It ultimately participants think about the constraints
Knowledge and processes that define the social forms determines how those in social collecties on group and individual freedoms; and in
that are related to collective intentions interact, and it influences their connection with this, to organise and
and behaviours. understanding of formative organising. behave. It ultimately has impact on
Its consequences impact on the formation unitary and plural ideology and morality,
of social norms. and the degree of organisational
emancipation.
Table I has been successfully developed to empirically explore to how the pathologies From
and coherence of an organisation can be explored (Guo, 2006; Yolles and Guo, 2003). sociohistory to
The modelling approach of Schwarz (1997, 2001) provides a capacity to explain why
chaotic events should not just be seen as temporary accidental fluctuations that occur psychohistory
in our complex social systems, but are rather caused by the inadequacy of our
worldview and our methods to manage complex situations. He argues that explicative
frameworks like religious or political ideologies are not pertinent tools to understand 383
these developments, and that mono-disciplines like economic science, sociology,
psychology, anthropology, etc. are unable to apprehend hybrid systems. A linguistic
framework that comes from a suitable coherent model is needed that is able to describe
and interpret complex situations that are part of more or less autonomous complex
systems. He argues that various theoretical developments have occurred to address
such approaches, including general systems theory, non-linear dynamics (chaos
theory), complex adaptive systems research, cellular autonomata, recursive and
hyperincursive systems, and artificial life. The frame of reference developed by
Schwarz is intended to interpret complex systems with more or less autonomy or
operational closure (like self-organization), and which possess other related facets such
as self-regulation, self-production, and self-reference.
Each of the domains we have shown in Figure 2 may host a unitary system or plurality
of related type system. Behavioural systems are hosted in the phenomenal domain,
noumenal or virtual systems in the noumenal domain, and metasystems in the existential
domain. The three domains in their pattern of interaction are together referred to as an
autonomous holon that metaphorically describes social agents (Yolles and Guo, 2003).
The holon is recursive in nature, and where the phenomenal domain applies to individual
and social behaviour, the three domains can be assigned properties (Yolles and Guo, 2003).
Autopoiesis fundamentally enables images of a virtual domain to be manifested
phenomenally through self-producing networks of processes. Autogenesis enables
principles to be generated that guide the development of the system.
The use of psychological expressions in Figure 2 and Table I may be thought of as
unusual, and questions may be raised as to whether terms that have been created in a
psychology paradigm intended for the singular person with a personality are broadly
applicable to the plural group with its sociality. This is something that Yolles and Guo
(2003) and Yolles (2006a) argue is possible at least metaphorically to draw out
explanations of corporate behaviour. While the notions of conscious, subconscious and
unconscious derive from Freudian psychology, they are here more connected to the ideas
of Wollheim (1999) within a context supported by ideas of organisational psychology, as
promoted for instance, by Kets de Vries (1991). Applying Wolheim’s notions to a collective
corporate context enables us to differentiate between cultural state and disposition (Yolles,
2006a). Cultural state constitutes the impulses, tendencies and motivations that derive
from the collective power group (often the executive) or the membership that composes it.
In contrast cultural disposition constitutes the characteristic or tendency of collective being
representing the collective mental condition that embraces beliefs, knowledge, memories,
abilities, phobias and obsessions, and has both duration, history and inertia.

The sociocultural dynamics of Sorokin

Sorokin’s theory of sociocultural dynamics adopts an enantiomer or yin-yang theory of
change. The notion of yin-yang comes from Chinese Taoism, and proposes that things
K can be seen in terms of a two primal opposing forces in dialectic interaction that can
36,3/4 form a global whole which symbolizes Tao. All change in the whole that it produces
can be explained by the internal workings of yin and yang as they either produce or
overcome one another. Like the interaction of all opposites such as male/female, and
light/dark, true/not-true, being/not-being, they have a transcendent function that,
following Jung[2], comes from their dialectic. In other words they have the capacity to
384 produce each other. Yin and yang are two opposites that are individually called
enantiomers. This word is used in chemistry to mean that each of a pair of compounds
that is a non-identical reverse/mirror image of the other. The original Greek form of the
word “enantiodromia” was adopted as a key Jungian concept (Wilson, 1984) for his
notions about consciousness (www.endless-knot.us/feature.html), and like yin-yang
has been defined[3] as the process by which something becomes its opposite, and as the
subsequent interaction of the two. Jung used it to describe the way a set or system of
beliefs developed that were opposite to those held at an earlier stage. Jung eventually
dropped this difficult term when he developed his theory of personality traits, just
using yin-yang (Jung, 1920; Aveleira, 2004).
Sorokin’s theory of sociocultural dynamics uses only what Yolles and Frieden (2005)
calls the identifier cultural attribute, though two other attributes also exist.
The identifier attribute has a yin-yang nature, the two dichotomous forces being
ideational and sensate enantiomers (Table II).
The yin-yang sensate-ideational pair maintains an interaction that enables a
continuum of “mixed” conditions to arise, like the idealistic condition that he refers to as
“integral”. Integral cultural mentality does not appear to have much of a role in Sorokin’s
theory, and is used principally to explain the rise of the Western industrial revolution.
We shall, however, generalize on this concept by using joint alliance theory (Yolles, 2000;
Iles and Yolles, 2002, 2003), and illustrate how such joint alliances can emerge through
SVS theory. Referring to the connection between yin and yang as an enantiomer alliance is
not new. The nineteenth-century philosophy of Hegel proposed that alliance or synthesis
developed from (enantiodromic) opposites, calling this the doctrine of the “dialectic”.
In what follows, in this paper we begin with an exploration of the identifier attribute
associated within cultural profile, since it is based on Sorokin’s well-developed theory
that he supported with empirical evidence. Identifier orientation occurs when the
identifier attribute within the cultural profile is assigned values for a given contextual
situation towards either the ideational or the sensate.
Brander (1998) explores the three major metahistorical works, all produced during
the twentieth century: Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West; Arnold Toynbee’s A
Study of History; and Pitirim Sorokin’s Social and Cultural Dynamics. Sorokin’s theory
of history was originally published as a four-volume set between 1937 and 1941, and is
concerned with the rise of different cultural supersystems in the West. Sorokin,
however, seems to be an implicit systems thinker, and his theory appears to be the only
one of the three that is suitable as a systemic enantiomer theory.

Table II. Enantiomer Meaning

Identifier attribute of
cultural profile in a Ideationalism Connected with conceptual imaging and knowledge creation
yin-yang pairing Sensatism Connected with phenomena and their structures and processes
Unlike Spengler and Toynbee who are interested in the decline and fall of societies, From
Sorokin’s (1962) work concentrates on historical transitions. While it has an empirical sociohistory to
demonstration, it argues that social and cultural history can be represented as a
dynamic system, the dynamics coming not from the external needs of society, but from psychohistory
within the attribute and between the enantiomer or yin-yang interaction. This is
through what he calls the “Principle of Immanent Change”.
Cultural yin-yang forces of are in continual interactive conflict, and where they find 385
balance one or other emerges in a society with some degree of dominance to create a
cultural orientation that will determine the direction that a society takes. Another form
of expression for cultural orientation is cultural mentality (Yolles, 1980; Kemp, 1997) or
equivalently cultural mindset (Yolles, 1999). Both cultural orientation and cultural
mentality suggest a social collective with shared norms, and the terms can be used
interchangeably. While the idea of the cultural mindset can be applied in the large, to
large-scale social groups like societies, it also has the capacity to be applied in the
small, to small-scale cultural groups like organizations. The theory that we shall
develop here will also benefit from some of the conceptual facilities embedded in
Frieden’s (2004) information theory called EPI, which has resulted in a mathematical
formulation based on Sorokin’s theory and expressed by Yolles (2006a, b) through SVS.
Relating EPI and SVS after some conceptual adjustment is feasible since they are both
constructivist in nature.
Sorokin (1962, Vol. 4, p. 590), through his Principle of Immanent Change, perceives
that social groups with coherent cultures function as autonomous bodies. The principle
states that change in a socioculture occurs by virtue of its own internal forces and
properties. It cannot help changing, even if all external conditions are constant. Sorokin
(1962, Vol. 4, pp. 600-1) tells us that any functional sociocultural system incessantly
generates consequences that are not the results of the external factors to the system,
but the consequences of the existence of the system and of its activities. As such, we are
told, they are necessarily imputed to it, and this occurs without the benefit of conscious
decision. One of the specific forms of this immanent generation of consequences is an
incessant change of the system itself, due to its existence and activity. The system is in
a continual state of non-equilibrium.
Sociocultures are therefore dynamic systems that are constantly in a state of
change; this is proprietary change that is generated from within. Change is not a
condition that human cultures pass through, but they are always in a state of flux that
has a past history of continuous development, and a future history that will evolve.
Thus, cultures exist only as they are now because of their histories, inertia and futures.
One of the other key aspects of Sorokin’s work lies in its proposition that in a given
human society there appears a degree of logical reasoning that underpins many of its
artefacts, laws, institutions, and together with structures and the outcomes of behaviour,
these may be termed the phenomenal manifestations of a given culture. Sorokin (1962,
Vol. 1, p. 5) states that culture should not be seen as “a simple mathematical addition of
individual parts” but as a system of interactive components. His analysis draws him to
the conclusion that the nature of that interaction is essentially an integrative one.
Sorokin (1962, Vol. 1, p. 55) also identifies what we might call collective cultural
mentalities that derive from mind, value, and meaning. While they are based on
individual participants in a culture, the predominant statistical consequence defines a
dominating cultural (or sub-cultural) condition that itself defines the collective
K (or sub-collective like a class or sociocultural faction). It is normally the case that
36,3/4 sociocultures maintain a plurality of co-existing, if autonomous, cultures. Where there
are common elements that can be identified within that culture then this can be referred
to as the dominant culture, often represented by a ruling class. Sorokin defines the
cultural mentalities as the elements of thought and meaning that lie at the base of any
logically integrated system of culture, belong to the realm of inner experience, and
386 occur either in a coordinated form of non-integrated images, ideas, violations, feelings,
and emotions, or in an organized form of systems of thought woven out of these
elements of the inner experience. These cultural mentalities are orientations that
“characterize” phenomenal manifestations, and provide constant internal forces of
social dynamics. These dynamics are constituted by the enantiomer or yin-yang
sensate and ideational mentalities that oppose and may balance each other.
So, while a social collective can be perceived to be in a constant flow of change,
shaped, directed or characterized by different cultural orientations, it can also be seen
in terms of internal social and cultural dynamics that are constituted by differing
enantiomer cultural forms. The sociocultural dynamics that develop are a consequence
of the shifting relationship between the enantiomers or yin-yang forces, and in the case
of the identifier attribute these are the sensate and ideational cultural macroscopic
variables. Sorokin (1962, Vol. 3, pp. 511 –2) notes that the relationship between these
two macroscopic variables characterizes the dominant culture and the character of the
conduct of the persons that live in it. The relationship between the dominant culture
and the behaviour of its bearers is not always close, but it does exist.
Following Sorokin (1962, Vol. 1, p. 70) the dynamics of social collectives derive from
the characteristics of their polar variables, and these may be seen to include ontological
and epistemological attributes. The ontological attribute is constituted by the cultural
orientational perception (or at least those who constitute it) of the nature of reality.
Ontologically, belief within sensate orientation allows realities to be deemed to exist
only if they can be sensorally perceived. It does not seek or believe in a supersensory
reality, and it is agnostic towards the world beyond any current sensory capacity of
perception. Its needs and aims are mainly physical, that is that which primarily
satisfies the sense organs. The epistemological attributes include the nature of the
needs and ends to be satisfied, the degree of strength in pursuit of those needs, and the
methods of satisfaction. The means of satisfaction occurs not through adaptation or
modification of human beings, but through the exploitation of the external world. It is
thus practically orientated, with an emphasis on human external needs. With reality as
perceived from senses, it also views reality through what can be measured and
observed rather than reasoned. Sorokin identifies the degree of strength in pursuit of
these needs as “maximum”. This suggests the occurrence of a mathematical principle
of extremization, such as that of EPI that we shall introduce later.
Ontologically, ideational orientation sees reality as non-sensate and non-material.
Epistemological needs and ends are mainly spiritual, rather than practicable, and
internal rather than external. The method of fulfilment or realization is self-imposed
minimization or elimination of most physical needs, to promote the greater
development of the human being as a being. Spiritual needs are thus at the forefront
of this orientation’s aims rather than human physical needs. As with sensate
orientation, the degree of the strength in pursuit of these needs is also a “maximum”.
The two mentalities are yin-yang contradictions that are antagonistic to each other and
hold different priorities, aims and needs for the social collective. They also come to From
reflect the didactic of the cultural evolutionary process that encourages social sociohistory to
complexification[4].
Since, each has a maximum degree of desire to pursue their aims, world-view psychohistory
holders that maintain these polar mentalities do not compromise with each other, and
engage in conflict. Sorokin notes that in a society where they co-exist they create
“latent antagonism” that can flare “up into open war” (Sorokin, 1962, Vol. 1, p. 75). 387
The knowledge cybernetics of sociocultural dynamics
A yin-yang cultural orientation may be thought of as an individual and collective
disembodied mental construct that operates as a social force influencing patterns of
thought and behaviour. To be able to develop the theory, we needed to introduce the
notion of a dispersed system: an autonomous social agent that emerges as a
phenomenal system when it has developed a self-defined purpose that directs its
phenomenal social interactions. An autonomous dispersed[5] social agent has the
potential to operate as a viable system, and therefore has durability. It is disembodied
because it is not normally possible to associate it with a single named structured social
organization that constitutes that construct, even though there may be individual
organizations with a given orientation that constitute it. This is because it is
constituted as a dispersed collective agent, having the capability of spontaneously
establishing local social organizations of that particular cultural orientation, some of
which may arise to bid for social power and the control of the social community.
As such the dispersed agent is composed of a plurality of individuals, who may be
interconnected by communication that is either indirect (e.g. books) or direct
(e.g. interactive). It has an existential domain where beliefs (including beliefs about
behavioural norms) and values exist. Behavioural norms are usually more or less
adhered to by members of a cultural orientation and due to a shared history, and from
this we can conceive of an implicit social structure that limits the individual’s potential
for behaviour. It may be expressed, for instance, as a moral code that may or may not
be enforced by law. Orientational beliefs can also limit the ideate content of the
noumenal domain, this ideate being composed of images or systems or coherent
patterns of thought (that may include its ideology, notions of morality, or forms of
rationality) that may be maintained by constructed information.
The dispersed agent therefore has at least three interconnected ontological domains.
It is autopoietic because it is able to self-produce phenomenally its own components
(like patterns of communications or behaviour) according to its own orientational
principles (autogenesis) through a distributed network of processes. In effect this
network of processes is likely to be able to phenomenally manifest the dispersed
agent’s own ideate. The network may involve inherent political or operative processes
that may function at a personal level, and may become associated with ritual.
The orientational principles of governance that are embedded in cultural
knowledge, and that inform ideology and morality as well as behavioural conduct,
are likely to be implicit rather than explicit, and to which the membership of each
dispersed agent more or less adheres. This is because the principle emanates from
knowledge that is a normative part of the orientation. Distinct ideational and sensate
orientations maintain a different knowledge that has semantic value only to the
enantiomer. The likelihood is that the membership of a given dispersed agent will
K be unable to recognize the base knowledge that defines its opposite enantiomer.
36,3/4 For this very reason, the principles that we have referred to are likely to be different in
sensate and ideational cultural orientations.
The distinction between ideational and sensate dispersed agents can be formulated
as follows. Ideational dispersed agents have a cultural orientation with values that are
grounded in the ideate that exist in the noumenal domain, while sensate dispersed
388 agents are grounded phenomenally through observables that are seen to exist in the
phenomenal domain. Thus, sensate and ideational concepts derive from different
ontological domains, and since we are referring to value systems, these constitute a
fractal of the existential domain. This difference is shown in Figure 3 using a recursion
of SVS, embedded in the existential domain value system.
The nature of sensate orientation is to be concerned with survival. It is also
connected with external relationships, and tends to be concerned with the pathologies
of doing (e.g. how can we improve the survivability of a particular organization). This
is in contrast to ideational orientation, which is connected with the generation of ideas
independent of immediate needs, i.e. to internal condition. Ideational orientation is
often concerned with the pathologies of being (e.g. how can we improve the likelihood
of achieving enlightenment or nirvana[6]). Such pathologies are often expressed
through the noumenal ideate that is normally intended to express higher knowledge (in
the Taoist tradition). Such knowledge extends beyond the local thematic knowledge
through which phenomenal distinctions are made, and hence provides a frame of
reference or context that enables the noumenal ideate to be constructed.
We have said that the cultural agents with yin-yang orientations have a social
behaviour and operate in a phenomenal world as a dispersed collective from which a
distribution of social collectives may arise. We can explain the formation of such a social
collective. Essentially we can think of a dispersed collective as maintaining a global
cultural potential within which a set of local cultural singular identities can be
manifested. We note that by the term singular identity we mean an identity that has

Existential Domain
Value system

Autogenesis and Autopoiesis and production

production of of processes to manifest the
meaningful ideate phenomenally
principles

Noumenal domain
Ideate: a valued system of Phenomenal domain
Existential domain conceptual thought and Valued phenomena
Valued concepts images that constructs including objects
and symbols world-view knowledge Residence of
Residence of sensatism
ideationality

Figure 3. Autopoiesis and regeneration of

The basis that the ideate
distinguishes ideational Autogenesis and creation of
and sensate values new knowledge
a quality of being one of a kind, in which one entity is distinguishable from all others in a From
given context, or the quality or state of being of that singular identity; some character or sociohistory to
quality of a thing by which it is distinguished from all, or from most, others. Where
a singular identity has duration, it has the capacity to spontaneously develop a psychohistory
behavioural system. When this occurs together with consciousness, the cultural singular
identity has the capacity to both create a noumenal ideate, and to establish a concrete
metasystem through which local primary knowledge can be created. The mechanism for 389
this to occur is explained by Schwarz (1997) and Yolles (1999, Chapter 8), and relates to
the structural criticality. In fact it can be argued to occur as a structural pattern of
knowledge is manifested and becomes an attractor, from which the social collective
emerges. The global cultural potential that has a capacity to manifest local social
collectives can more generally be referred to as a dispersed system.
When the dispersed enantiomer agents develop phenomenal manifestations and
interact, they can be shown as in Figure 4. Here, it is possible for information from the
phenomenal world to be constructively acquired by creative observers with which a
noumenal ideate can be supported and maintained. Since, we are dealing with
sensate and ideational dispersed agents, two classes of information consequently arise
that we shall represent by I and J, and these are housed in the noumenal domain.
Information I represents the acquired information by sensate culture, and information J
the theoretical basis for the social collective. The information natures of both I and J
mean that they are part of the noumenal domain. Let us discuss the validity of this
construction. The argument will require that we create a special interpretation of the
nature of ideational cultural orientation.

Autopoiesis: network of political process to

Autogenesis: produce autonomous patterns of behaviour; it
Autogenesis: ideational principles of may involve the elaboration of contested Social
ideational governance or strategic difference between the agents, due to interaction
principles of management distinct images or systems of thought between
governance ideational and
sensate
Virtual system mentalities
ideational (perhaps
Metasystem uncoordinated and non
ideational culture, -integrated) images or
social unconscious system of thought Ideational
(cultural information J agent
dispositions) Structural
Noumenal domain coupling with
common
Existential domain Phenomenal domain conflictual
behaviour
having past and
Metasystem future history.
Virtual system Sensate There may be
sensate culture, agent
social unconscious sensate (perhaps facilitating or
(cultural uncoordinated non- constraining
dispositions) integrated) images or effects
system of thought depending on
information I other agencies Figure 4.
Interaction between
Autogenesis: Autopoiesis and regeneration of distinct ideational and
evolving principles of networks of rational/ sensate mentalities and
governance or strategic appreciative system processes their social interactions
management
K The political dimension of dynamic sociocultural processes illustrated here is important.
36,3/4 Political debate by members of a social collective constitutes an innate conflict on the
value of these mentalities in its social and cultural development. The result is a pulling of
society of the collective in many directions, so that it may become chaotic and unstable.
One of the outcomes of the innate conflict (and therefore the political processes that
accompany them) is that it can become resolved into the emergence of a balanced
390 cultural orientation as the agents establish an alliance and a new cultural agent is
formed. By this we are referring to Sorokin’s integral notion, but in broadened form.
It can now develop a variable cultural orientation that is determined not only by the
state of the enantiomers but also by the mix that results between them. This notion is
consistent with the development of Hegelian joint alliances in small-scale societies
(Yolles, 2001; Iles and Yolles, 2002, 2003), and there is no apparent reason to argue that
it cannot also be valid for large-scale societies. The emergence of such a balance occurs
initially through political or operative processes that enables the cultural agents to
co-exist, and which may become stable if it develops its own noumenal or virtual
system and metasystem. It does not assume that the individual cultural orientation
enantiomers disappear, but rather that they each maintain their existence and interact
with the emergent yin-yang balanced form, as shown in Figure 5.
It is supposed here that a balance K _ is always maintained between the sensate
elaborator condition (information I measuring “survival ability”) and ideational
elaborator condition (information J measuring “degree of structure” relating to the
internal conditions of a socioculture). This continuous maintenance of balance directly
means that the theory is one of general non-equilibrium. Equilibrium, by comparison,
is usually attained only after a relatively large amount of time has passed.
Structural coupling between common balanced
Structural coupling between balanced cultural cultural mentality and ideational cultural
Autogenesis: mentality and ideational mentality. mentality.
balanced Autopoiesis: network of political process to
principles of Autogenesis: produce autonomous patterns of behaviour; it
governance individual principles may involve the elaboration of contested
of governance difference with other agents, due to distinct
images
Interactive
suprasystem
Virtual system
Perhaps non-integrated
uncoordinated images
Metasystem or system of thought
ideational culture, informationJ Ideational
social unconscious agent
Noumenal domain Structural
coupling with
common
Existential domain Phenomenal domain interests that
override
conflict
Metasystem behaviour,
Sensate agent having past and
balanced culture, Virtual system with its own
Figure 5. social Perhaps non-integrated
future history.
fractal holon These interest
Relationship between unconscious uncoordinated images
may facilitate
ideational and/or sensate or system of thought
or constrain
cultural orientations and information K
conflicts
an emergent Hegelian
“alliance” or balanced Autogenesis: Autopoiesis and regeneration of
culture evolving principles of networks of rational/
governance appreciative system processes
A summary of the mathematics attributes of the theory come from EPI, that maintains From
two forms of information, I and J, which are indicators of complexity. The flow of
information where J ! I, and where I is the expectation of the derivative:
sociohistory to
psychohistory
I ¼ Expectation {½dðlogð pð yjaÞÞ=daÞ
2
for the differential of log(p(yja) and measurements y of a, where the probability law
p(yja) which in statistics is called the “likelihood function” and defines the probability 391
of each possible vector y of measurements in the presence of the ideal parameter
value a. The relationship between I and J is determined by a parameter as given below:
I ¼ KJ ; 0 # K # 1:
and:
XN 0
½pn ðtÞ
2 0
I ¼ I ðtÞ ¼ ; pn ðtÞ ¼ dpn ðtÞ=dt:
n¼1
p n ðtÞ

Another relationship called the “physical information” K is defined to be the change in

the information that is incurred during its transit, where K is always zero or negative:
K ¼ I 2 J:
where it should be noted that when sensate and ideational cultures reach a balance,
then K ¼ K._
The aim of EPI is as follows. Let a given society consist of n ¼ 1; . . . ; N population
components. At this point, we refer the reader back to the defining concepts in
Section 5.4. The aim of EPI is to find the probabilities, or occurrence rates, pn(t) of the
components n ¼ 1; . . . ; N , where:
pn ðtÞ ; pðnjtÞ;
and where the vertical line means “if”. That is, by definition pn(t) is the probability
of randomly selecting from the society a population member type n, if the time is t.
These pn(t) thereby define the dynamical evolution of the society, and the aim is to find
them. This results in the possibility of predicting sociocultural events once an inquirer
is certain about the form of the measuring process that results in the functional J
(Frieden et al., 2005).
It should be noted that this research, which seems quite theoretical and with little
easy option for empirical application, is currently being considered in empirical terms
in an application to the idea of culture shock (Feichtinger and Fink, 1998; Fink and
Feichtinger, 1998; Fink and Holden, 2002) by Gerhard Fink.

Extending the dynamic

We have said that this paper is a think-piece, and what follows now will be true to this
rather that providing well developed theory that has an immediate research agenda.
As such it will be proposed how this theory can be extended. The core of this postulate
derives from Yolles (2006a), who developed the notions of enantiomer dynamics for not
only the existential domain, but also the noumenal and phenomenal domains for an
autonomous social actor. The result is shown in Figure 6, and explained in Table III.
K Autopoiesis and manifestation
Autogenesis and thematic of task-related behaviour
36,3/4 principles of governance through a network of self-
guiding self-production produced processes

Existential Noumenal domain Phenomenal domain

392 domain
Ideational/Sensate
Patterner/Dramatist
(Shotwell et al)
Fundamentalist/Pragmatist
(Sorokin) enantiomers
enantiomers
enantiomers

Figure 6. Autopoiesis and impact

Enantiomer dynamics of Autogenesis and of phenomenal
autonomous social actor regeneration of evaluative experience on system
perceived experience of thinking

Domain attribute Attribute enantiomer

Executors Fundamentalism Pragmatism

Supports the ability to carry
out or perform activities
Elaborators
Supports both elaborators (who
understand how to deal with
the relationships between
cultural attributes) and
planners (who through their
understanding of cultural
attributes and its patterns of
knowledge are able to
determine possible trajectories
for action)
Identifiers
Supports the creation or
translation of ideas and
Table III. concepts; its members are able
Nature of knowledge to accommodate the knowledge
enantiomers for each
domain
Behaviour conforms to some
fundamental prescription
independent of circumstance. It
is useful where conformity is
essential
Patterner
Persistent curiosity about the
object world and how it works,
is constructed, and is named,
varied or explored. It is
connected to problems of
symmetry, pattern, balance,
and the dynamics of physical
relationships between entities,
and is likely to indicate relative
connection
Ideationalist
Centres on conceptual imaging
constituting knowledge. Good
at acquiring or creating
knowledge. No know-how to
develop them for material
implementation
Behaviour reflects the demands
of circumstance. They create
meaning through context, to
the detriment of rules and
regularities
Dramatist
Interested in sequences of
interpersonal events, having
dramatic or narrative
structures that are likely to
involve distinction (e.g., the
distinction of scenes or
chapters), and undertaking
effective communications
Sensatist
To do with the senses. Able to
develop or engineer existing
ideas for material
implementation. Good concept
translator. Cannot generate
new ideas or concepts

The patterner/dramatist elaborator dimension was taken from Shotwell et al. (1980)
from their exploration of children at play, and the fundamentalism/pragmatism
executor dimension is an original postulate. Each of these dimensions, like that for the
identifier attributes, can be expressed in terms of the noumenal/phenomenal
dimensions (Yolles, 2006a). Extending Sorokin’s notion of immanent change from
identifier to elaborator and executor knowledge types suggests that there will always
be sociality flux that may well give an appearance of cyclic change.
 These are set up according to Figures 7-9 (Yolles, 2006a). Each of these enantiomers From
can be connected together to generate a composite social system in which each of the sociohistory to
domains can be expressed in terms the set of enantiomer pairs. These can be used to
define the dynamics of any social system, as shown in Figure 10. Let us postulate an psychohistory
illustration for this.
Oligopoly Inc. is a European corporate body that like other many of its compatriot
organisations is hosted financially and culturally in an ambiently sensate environment. 393

Existential Domain
Value system
Autogenesis and Autopoiesis and production
production of of processes to manifest the
meaningful ideate phenomenally
principles

Noumenal domain
Valued system of Phenomenal domain
Existential domain conceptual thought and Valued phenomena
Valued concepts images (the ideate) that including objects
and symbols constructs worldview Residence of
knowledge sensatism
Residence of
ideationality

Autopoiesis and regeneration of Figure 7.

the ideate Basis that distinguishes
Autogenesis and creation of
ideational and sensate
new knowledge
values

Nounemal Domain
The ideate
Autogenesis and Autopoiesis and production
production of of processes to manifest
meaningful coordinated images and/or
principles for the pattern/system of thought
ideate

Phenomenal domain
Noumenal domain Narrative models or dramatic
Constructed visualisations of event
Existential domain unintegrated system sequences that create
Elaboration of thought and/or expectation, are phenomenally
knowledge images & logically projected, and facilitate
structured ideas. communications.
Residence of Residence of dramatising
patterning

Autopoiesis and regeneration of Figure 8.

coordinated images and/or Basis that distinguishes
Autogenesis and creation of new pattern/system of thought
elaboration knowledge patterning and
dramatising enantiomers
K
36,3/4 Phenomenal Domain
Structure and Behaviour
Autogenesis and
production of Autopoiesis and production
meaningful of processes anticipate
principles for phenomenal experiences
394 behaviour

Noumenal domain
Manifested system of Phenomenal domain
thought, images, and Phenomenal behavioural
Existential domain ideas that define experiences embedded in
Execution phenomena and create circumstance
knowledge structural anticipations. Residence of
Residence of pragmatism
fundamentalism

Autopoiesis and regeneration of

projected system of thought and
Figure 9. Autogenesis and creation of new ideas
Basis that distinguishes execution knowledge
executor enantiomers

Autogenesis: cultural
principles of Autopoiesis:
Social Being network of processes that
underpins the formation of
behaviour
Noumenal domain Phenomenal domain
Existential domain
Identifier: Executor:
Elaborator: Patterning/ Fundamentism/
Sensate/Ideational Dramatising Pragmatism

Figure 10.
Relationship between
three types of enantiomer

The company has been in existence for almost a century, and over its history there are
some who claim that its sociality appears to be cyclic in nature. This sociality is
affected by its identifier, elaborator and executor knowledge types, in particular in
respect of its political nature (Yolles, 2006b). The former affects its political culture and
in particular the principles under which it operates its governance, elaborator
knowledge affects its ability to create visions, its ideology and the related ethical stance
it takes, and the latter the way in which it behaves. It is influenced by the Principle of
Immanent Change, and as such develops a sociality that oscillates over the decades.
The ideational organizations that attempt to coexist with it, like the Church, are just
managing to survive by shifting towards sensate values. Its image of the world around
it was not the development of a dramatizing grand narrative, within which it envisaged
itself as the leader of its corporate category. This might have been consistent, From
it perceived, to a political structure that directed its operations through a rigid sociohistory to
hierarchy to achieve that end. Rather it operated as a patterning organisation,
developing a network of production units and exploring the patterns of problems that psychohistory
arose within them against the outputs that it perceived were needed to make thee
network as a whole sustainable. The development of its operational behaviour was not
like that of some of its competitors, who imposed rigorous rules that has to be followed 395
no matter what situations arose – this form of fundamentalism was foreign to its
nature. Rather, it operated a more pragmatic approach accepting the notion that its
employees were individuals who should operate individually on behalf of the company
and for its overall benefit. It is this attitude that contributed to its improved employee
trust and motivation. Fortunately, unlike the audit company Anderson and its
infamous involvement with Enron (Grant, 2003), there was no need to ensure that it
operated a fundamentalist approach to its operational environment.
The mathematics of the formulation in Figure 10 is more complex than that of the
relatively simple sociocultural dynamic shown earlier, and the dynamics internal to
the autonomous system has not so far been explored.

Developing a model of personality

The model in Figure 10 can be applied recursively within the existential domain,
suggesting that corporate culture, which is not accessible as a whole to the company (i.e.
it exists as part of the corporate unconscious) can only be accessed through individuals.
Each individual that composes the corporate culture has its own personality, and indeed
personality profile that can be associated with knowledge attributes.
Andersen (2000) provides an explanation of Jung’s ideas in which he argues that a
personality typology rests on two elements, attitudes and functions. These are often
presented through the three dimensions of human psyche:
(1) attitudes-extrovert and introvert;
(2) perception functions-sensing and intuition; and
(3) judgement functions-thinking and feeling.

This idea was developed further by Myers-Briggs, who produced a measuring

instrument for personality type and its relationship to decision-making behaviour.
For Aveleira (2004), the work of Jung is concerned with creating a set of
classifications about the nature of rationality and its connection with thinking, feeling,
perception and intuition (Table IV). We have produced a simplified version of this
(Table V), supported by the psychological metaphor that enables us to examine the
social collective as a psychological entity, with a conscious and its associated
structured ego, and subconscious with its associated superego (Yolles, 2006a).

Natures Extraversion Introversion

Yang Yin
Rational concrete, ego, yang Thinking, energy Feeling, matter
Non-rational abstract, ego, yin Perception, space Intuition, time Table IV.
Jung’s notion of the
Source: Aveleira (2004) yin-yang of personality
K Jung’s exploration of the theory of personality is contained in Jung (1957-1979).
36,3/4 The attributes of the model have been simply represented by Myers (2000, p. 9) and by
Carroll (2003), and a summary is given in Table VI. The enantiomer attributes are also
represented graphically through the SVS model in Figure 10. In this we have set up as
a system an autonomous personality agent in which the connection between the Jung’s
dimensions of personality type is expressed. It is embedded in the social collective
396 virtual system since all of the primary (unshaded) enantiomer dimensions are ideate
composites. The link between the virtual and phenomenal domains is an interesting
one, but needs at least a brief explanation. Individuals tend to exhibit behavioral
patterns in what they say and do, how they relate to people, and how they perform
tasks or process information (McKenna et al., 2002).
This connects directly to decision-making behavior and more generally behavioral
style, though it should be seen to be conditioned by context and circumstance.
McKenna et al. (2002) note that in the literature a connection is often taken between
personality type and behavioral style, and there is a tendency in the management
literature to adopt the premise that consistent behavioral patterns are synonymous
with personality. Thus, for instance, George and Jones (2002, p. 43) define personality
as the pattern of relatively enduring ways in which a person feels, thinks and behaves,
while Robbins (2001, p. 92) discusses personality in terms of the sum total of ways in
which an individual reacts to and interacts with others, and is most often described in
terms of measurable traits that a person exhibits. Taking personality type and
behavioral style to be related therefore enables us to connect agent personality
attributes to behavioral potential in an environment. Unlike the propositions of
Myers-Briggs, the ontological nature of personality type as shown in Figure 7 demands
that we take behavioral style as being determined by the primary enantiomers, with
orientation conditioning the behavior that occurs within the social context. Hence,
while personality style is represented at one focus of examination, orientation is
represented at another.
While in Figure 11 we have defined the personality type of an individual in an
autonomous personality system, composed of three sub-systems (the personality
system, the virtual system and personality metasystem). The personality system is
created through judging/perceiving and is constituted as an image of, or system of
thought about the current phenomenal experience interpreted by the personality and
taken to be representative of phenomenal reality. It ultimately acts as a basis for the
creation of decision-making behavior in the social collective. The other two
sub-systems are representative of what the Myer-Briggs model calls the functions:
the virtual system provides contextual form for that image through feeling/thinking,
while the metasystem establishes it within a base of existent knowledge and
conception through sensing/intuition. This model can be projected to a higher focus
of consideration using the fractal logic developed through the SVS model. The coupling

Yang enantiomer Ying enantiomer

Rational Thinking ( ) ego energy) Feeling ( ) ego behaviour)

Non-rational (emotive) Perception ( ) ego space) Intuition ( ) ego time)
Table V. Note: Simplified representation of Jungian rational/emotive thinking with impact on ego behavior
 Personality type attributes
Enantiomer Attribute Nature Attribute Nature

Executor Judging Need planned processes and regulation. Perceiving Are flexible in a spontaneous way, seeking
(fundamentalism) Highly structured lives, adhering to plans (pragmatism) to experience and understand phenomena
rather than to control them. Energized by
resourcefulness. More interested in their
surroundings than by their own intentions
Elaborator Thinking Involves logical consequences for choices Feeling (patterning) Involves evaluating information, and is
(dramatizing) of action. Connects to judging rather than associated with emotional responses.
intake of simple information Connects with purely subjective
perspective of situations, and orientated
towards personal values
Existential Sensing (senate) Involves perception rather than judging Intuition Connected to the unconscious. Comes from
information. Preference is for sensing (ideational) complex integration of large amounts of
relating to the tangible and manifest information. Consequence is to see the
bigger picture, focusing on the structured
relationships and connection between facts
and finding patterns. Tends to
accommodate the abstract and conceptual
Personality Introvert Focus on the inner world of ideas and Extravert Focus on the external world and
orientation experiences, reflecting on thoughts, participatory activities and actions within
memories and feelings it. It is based on the internal world
psychohistory

attributes
From

orientation conditions
two “universal”
affiliation, identifying
personality type

that can affect the other

Myers-Briggs local

attributes with global

397

Table VI.
sociohistory to
K
36,3/4 Existential domain
of the social
Autogenesis: principles to
make sense of the collective
collective Being

Autopoiesis: network of (decision-

Virtual domain making) processes that formulate
of the social collective an Introvert/ Extravert behavioural
orientation
398 Autogenesis: principles to
make sense of Autopoiesis:
Being network of processes that Phenomenal
underpins the formation of domain
System
Figure 11. Virtual/ideate
behaviour
of the personality of the social
collective
Basis for personality Metasystem of the personality connected to personal
of the seeing of real-world
orientations of individual’ spersonality Feeling / Thinking phenomena Introvert/extravert
introversion and (Patterning/ interactive decision
Sensing/Intuition Judging/Perceiving
Dramatising} behaviour affecting
extraversion for an (Sensate/ (Fundamentism/
other agents in a
Ideational) Pragmatism)
individual’s autonomous bounded social
environment
personality system, itself
as part of an autonomous
social collective Autopoiesis: impulses for
behavioural adjustment

of the personality system to its social environment is accomplished by autopoietically

coupling the system and its environment that is bounded in the sense that it is defined
by a group of interactive agents that together constitute an autonomous system. If the
social collective is deemed to exist as an autonomous system then it requires its own
(proprietary) existential domain that will have an impact on its autopoietic couple.
As far as the other interactive agents in the phenomenal domain are concerned, the
personality orientation of a given agent is only seen in terms of the phenomenal
consequences of its judging/perceiving, this resulting from the individual’s autopoietic
network of processes which results in behavior and that therefore affects the other
agents in the social collective. This suggests that there is a major distinction between
the three primary and the non-primary enantiomers. While the non-primary
enantiomers are distinct properties of individual personality, the non-primary
enantiomers are manifestations that occur at a different focus of examination, during
social interaction.
Personality style is normally seen to be characterizable by an enantiomer balance.
In other words it is unlikely that a personality will engage purely in one pure attribute
(e.g. thinking) and be devoid of the other (feeling), like the Vulcan characters of the
Star Trek science fiction series who ideally engage in thinking without feeling.
More usually personalities are seen to engage in an enantiomer balance, with perhaps
some dominance by one or more of the enantiomers. When a personality has scored
a certain outcome from the Myers-Briggs typology, the result is said to be indicative
of temperament, though only four types have been defined (Myers, 1998, p. 34).
The personality types have also be coalesced into what Jung called personality
temperaments, defined in Table VII, which also shows that these temperaments may
be broadly compared to our knowledge types as discussed previously.
As we shall show shortly, the introvert/extrovert attributes of Figure 11 will be of
particular interest. However, if we refer back to Table VI we cannote that these
enantiomer personality orientations have not so far been well explored. It may be
possible to correct this by referring to the independent research of Cathal Brugha.
Classifications personality temperament
Type Nature
Idealists Search for unique identity and meaning. Value empathetic, meaningful relationships. Generally enthusiastic. Want to make the world a better
place. Trust their intuition and imagination. Think in terms of integration and similarities. Focus on developing potential in others, finding a
purpose in life and bridging differences. Want to be authentic
Rationals Theory-oriented. Seek to understand the principles on which the world and things in it work. Trust logic and reason. Sceptical and precise.
Think in terms of differences, categories, definitions and structures. Focus on strategies and designs that achieve long-range goals and lead to
progress. Want competence and thorough knowledge
Artisans Action-and impact-oriented. Hunger for spontaneity. Optimistic. Trust luck and ability to handle whatever comes up. Absorbed in the moment.
Read people and situations and adapt to changes to get the job done. Seek adventure and experiences. Think in terms of variations. Focus on
tactics to help others and get desired results. Want freedom to choose their next action
Guardians Hunger for responsibility and predictability. Like standard operating procedures to protect and preserve. Serious and concerned. Trust the past,
tradition and authority. Think in terms of comparisons, sequences and associations. Focus on logistics to support people, maintain organizations
and achieve objectives. Want security, stability and to belong
Enantiomer Knowledge attributes Personality temperament
type
Executors Fundamentalism (behaviour lead by rules) Pragmatism (behaviour through context Guardians (requires firm Artisans (responds to
despite rules) structure and authority) the moment)
Elaborators Dramatist (Ideating dramas or narratives Patterner (Ideating patterns or “geometric” Rationals (Likes to Undefined
that differentiate) relationships) differentiate)
Identifiers Ideational (Connected to the ideate and Sensate (Connected to phenomena and their Idealists (Connected to Undefined
possible conceptual creation) structures and processes) potential)
psychohistory

knowledge attributes
Personality
From

temperaments types in
comparison with
Table VII.
399
sociohistory to
K The core of Brugha’s (1998a) work comes from Hamilton who developed his notions
36,3/4 from the previous work by Kant. Hamilton had interest in the development of
Nomology, the science of laws of the mind (Hamilton (1877, pp. 122-8) that used the
terms cognition, affect and conation as a triad of mental activities corresponding to
knowing, feeling and willing. These operate within what he called somatic, psychic and
pneumatic levels that for us define ontological distinctions. For Brugha (2002), the
400 somatic level refers to needs, the psychic level with likes, the pneumatic level refers to
likes, and the pneumatic level refers to basic values. According to C.M. Brugha
(personal communication, 2006), these levels relate well to the domains of our SVS
model in knowledge cybernetics, and provide a wealth of exploration of noumenal
attributes that could with utility be integrated into knowledge cybernetics.
In particular for Brugha (1998a), Hamilton’s formulation can be expressed in terms
of decision-making processes that connect with extroverts and introverts, and this also
can be represented as a SVS fractal. Decision making arises when the decision
possessor is subjectively involved as the participant, and deemed to be introverted or
extroverted. Introverted decision making is shown to correspond to Hamilton’s
somatic, psychic and pneumatic levels of commitment. Extroverted decision making is
shown to correspond to three levels of conviction (becoming convinced): technical,
relating to other people (others) and situational. Where decision making combines both,
extroverted decision making is shown to be nested within introverted decision making,
making nine kinds of behaviour or stages of relating to or dealing with a problem
(Brugha, 1998a, b).

Developing psychohistory
We have now arrived at a point that is conjectural, and points to a research
agenda. The mathematics of a psychohistory that connect with Figure 11 centers in
part on the extrovert/introvert attributes of the model and its interaction with other
actors (in a known phenomenal space of size N). In effect, the psychohistorical process
visualizes a suprasystem of N interacting actors all of whom interact in a way that
is determined by their personality profiles, and conditioned by their personality
orientation (extrovert/introvert) and the contextual situation in which they find
themselves.
To explore this, and as a result of recent discussions with Roy Frieden, we can
assume that there are N (known) agents in a social collective. Each is defined in terms
of a personality vector (n1,n2,n3,n4) determined by its enantiomers that result in agent
traits. For example, suppose Mr Jones has a personality vector (3,5,1,10). These traits
are the result of the interaction between the dominant enantiomers and the social
interaction that the agent engages in. Possible examples are degree of shyness for
trait 1, degree of assertiveness for trait 2, degree of inquisitiveness for trait 3. There
will be a number of people in the population with this same personality vector
(3,5,1,10). The relative number of them is denoted as p(3,5,1,10jt), that is the relative
number at the time t. The objective is to generally predict the relative number
p(n1,n2,n3,n4jt) of people present with each possible personality vector. The problem is
now that much more prior knowledge is now needed to make the theory work than in
the case of sociohistory. One way forward here is that it can be assumed that individual
personality types are known from a Myers-Briggs type analysis, resulting in an
indication of their dominant enantiomers.
 The dimensionality that defines personality traits is given by Myers-Briggs as 4 From
(Table VI). The fourth is extroversion/introversion, which is at the social rather than sociohistory to
individual focus, and it is a response as opposed to an innate state. This is also an
apparent conclusion that arises from the way in which Brugha has dealt with these psychohistory
variables. If this is true, then we need to set up the dynamics to enable a 4 enantiomer
reference outcome to emerge.
It may be noticed that in connection with the Myers-Briggs instrument, the original 401
Jungian dimensions of sensing/intuition (which can be related to Sorokin’s sensate/
ideational pair) and thinking/feeling (that can be related to dramatizing/patterning) are
called functions, and some of these functions can become dominant. The judging/
perceiving is, in knowledge cybernetics, equivalent to fundamentalism/pragmatism,
and connects to the internal view a person has of phenomenal reality. It is not the
experience of the phenomenal reality, but a mental image that is produced of that
experience.
Frieden suggests the following ideas in developing the theory. Consider linking the
orientation (extraversion/introversion) attribute into the system. The use of Fisher
information I allows one to mix “apples and oranges”, i.e. things with different
dimensions. This is because it depends completely upon a mere conditional probability
law p (data of parameters) where the data (e.g. apples, oranges, cars, jet planes)
y-vector are conditional upon unknown parameters (say, mean numbers of apples,
oranges, cars, jet planes). EPI allows one to solve for this conditional probability law.
One problem appears to be that the theory cannot address interactive scenarios where
the dimensions changes during evolution of the system. To resolve this the maximum
possible dimensionality must be known and used throughout, letting it (say) start
effectively at a small number and then later increase to the maximum number as
required. This trick in effect accommodates a changing dimension. As such the n-bodies
are now interacting over a given context determined by the probability distributions.
They would be interacting as determined by what are called fitness values w1 ; w2 ; . . .
which are part of the overall system equations (Frieden et al., 2005; Yolles and Frieden,
2005). These are presumed to be some known functions of all the pn at time t.
The initial conditions are now set up, i.e. a set of occurrences p(nj0) at t ¼ 0. In effect
the approach that can be adopted to is use the Lotka-Volterra equations (R. Frieden,
personal communication, 2004) to form a solvable system of differential equations
which allows one in principle to compute p(njt), the relative numbers of people with
traits prescribed by the various values of n. Formally, this is a simple problem because
the equations are only first-order in the time derivatives.
However, there are practical complications, in that the problem is famously
ill-posed, i.e. goes into chaotic solutions for n modestly large. The “art” is then to seek
approximate solutions that “regularize” the problem, i.e. make it well posed (not
chaotic). Books have been written on this. Then the choice of “regularization” scheme
used determines the predictions that result. Hence, the choice must be very good if ones
predictions are to be defensible. In other words one should not just choose some
arbitrary regularization scheme such as least-squares. Instead, the scheme should
represent some known or plausible effect that would reasonably affect predictions in
reality. Past choices of this type have been maximum entropy or minimum Fisher
information. In other words, one must make a choice that seems plausible as to how
nature would work to regularize/stabilize the system. The assumption is that nature
K does operate in this way. However, this leads to a fundamental question: does
36,3/4 nature operate to preserve unstable prediction, or is there some key assumption that
nature imposes that lifts the instability?
Even more fundamentally, does nature “want” to be made predictable, or does it
“want” to remain elusive in this respect?

402 Reflection
The field of knowledge cybernetics has provided a capacity, through its fractal context
sensitive nature, to create knowledge-based models of sociohistorical and
psychohistorical processes. While the theory of sociohistory has no empirical
support at present, it is at least better theoretically developed than psychohistory. The
discussion of psycholistory therefore leads to the idea that this paper is a think-piece
that defines an extended research agenda.
The promise of a theory of psychohistory that can explore the dynamic behaviour of
individuals in social settings, given that they have a determinable psychological
profile, is a most interesting one. Not least it provides a potential to create a personality
testing instrument that unlike the Myers-Briggs instruments has a well grounded
theoretical base. Jungian theory acts as a core for this, with a potential to incorporate
the theoretical developments of Cathal Brugha. However, the Myers-Briggs instrument
must be replaced by the theoretical constructs represented here, so that all personality
characteristics and their interactive relations are more appropriately formulated. This
in particular constitutes a rather large research agenda.
The mathematics approach of psychohistory as considered by Roy Frieden
provides a very useful way forward, as long as the formal constraints are recognised
and responded to, and with all assumptions and conditions made explicit and
pragmatically reasonable. We cannot be in the unfortunate position of the game
theoretical approaches that postulate unrealistic constraints that make the
development of a theory impractical for the prediction of real situations, which after
all is the intention for psychohistory.

Notes
1. This is a 16th C. idea that suggests the existence of a universal set of truths and values
common to all peoples and cultures.
2. In a letter on 3 May 1939 that discusses Psychological Types.
3. According to the on-line Oxford English Dictionary.
4. As a point of information, since Fisher I measures the degree of complexity of a system, the
Fisher I of the overall sociocultural system would rise at this point of increased “social
complexification”.
5. This dispersed agent, once it is conceptualized, is deemed to exist either: in an ideational
world because it is an essence that can be manifested in its ideate; and in a sensate world if it
can be identified phenomenally and measured.
6. Any place of complete mental bliss and delight and peace.

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Further reading
Brugha, C.M. (2001), “Implications from decision science for the systems development life cycle 405
in information systems”, Information Systems Frontiers, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 91-105.
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change: an application”, Organisational Transformation and Social Change, Vol. 2 No. 2,
pp. 137-51.

Corresponding author
M.I. Yolles can be contacted at: m.yolles@livjm.ac.uk

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