The Cybernetic Psychoanalysis by Lawrence Kubie: The First Forays into the Concept of Feedback

Abstract

The cybernetics movement was composed of a highly heterogeneous group of scientists and intellectuals who convened periodically during a few years in the 1940s and 1950s, aiming to develop a shared paradigm to elucidate the functioning of both machines and biological organisms. Despite its relatively brief existence, cybernetics served as a catalyst for numerous scientific and intellectual pursuits throughout the 20th century, including the epistemological reevaluation of certain psychoanalytic concepts. However, the impact of cybernetics on psychoanalysis remains underexplored and underpublished in Brazil. For instance, few researchers are aware of the involvement of a psychoanalyst in the cybernetic movement. Consequently, our goal is to delineate how psychoanalyst Lawrence Kubie, an active participant in the movement, explored connections between psychoanalysis and cybernetic terminology. His primary endeavor involved interpreting pathological repetition through concepts such as feedback and reverberant circuits, elucidating it in a "machinic" manner.