[Form of the psyche. Psychoanalysis and recent systems theory]

Modern systems theory is not concerned with objects but with the form of processes and structures. It is thus equipped to provide a unified theoretical framework for those varieties of phenomena that psychoanalysis has to deal with. The author discusses recent systems theory models and demonstrates the critique of epistemology that they by their nature imply. These models proceed from the process of observation and show that in the interaction between observers--say, analyst and analysand--observing each other observe, observation may either change or stabilise what is being observed. This is not without consequence for the way psychoanalysis envisions its own identity. Psychoanalysis can no longer naively apply "knowledge" in the traditional sense but must always be aware of the self-reflective nature of that knowledge. Its "application" is thus invariably a form of social intervention.