BOOKS

BOOKS

BOOKS

QUANTUM PSYCHOANALYSIS: ESSAYS ON PHYSICS, MIND, AND ANALYSIS

TODAY. By Gerald J. Gargiulo. New York: International Psychoanalytic Books,
2016, 166 pp.

When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to

everything else in the Universe.
—John Muir,
My First Summer in the Sierra

Gerald Gargiulo’s recently published book, Quantum Psychoanaly-

sis: Essays on Physics, Mind, and Analysis Today is, most simply put, a
tour de force. How often does one book interrelate concepts from
psychoanalysis, quantum physics, philosophy, literature, poetry,
neurology, and theology using a writing style that itself comes
close to poetry at times? Gargiulo is clearly a Renaissance man,
fluent in all these subject areas, and these are the very areas that
Freud himself felt are necessary to, in Gargiulo’s words, “have a
productive dialogue with the psyche” (p. 103).
The book is a collection of essays written by Gargiulo on such
topics as the use of quantum physics as a metaphor for the psy-
choanalytic process, the nature of the “I,” the relationship be-
tween psychoanalysis and spirituality, psychoanalytic ethics, and
the state of psychoanalysis today. The book is divided into three
sections: (1) Quantum Psychoanalysis, which I emphasize in this
brief review because of its highly innovative and metaphorical val-
ue, (2) Theoretical Essays, and (3) Psychoanalysis Today. Though
each section has a different focus, ideas and concepts from each
often interweave and intersect in interesting ways.
What does Gargiulo mean by quantum psychoanalysis? Gargiu-
lo is proposing that the wondrous and, frankly, mind-blowing con-
cepts of quantum physics can be seen as a metaphor that can help

Psychoanalytic Review, 103(5), October 2015 © 2015 N.P.A.P.

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us better understand the nature of the unconscious as well as the

psychoanalytic process itself. The great quantum physicist Neils
Bohr famously stated, “If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly
shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.” In a culture relative-
ly deprived of the experience of mystery and wonder, quantum
physics is home to some of the strangest and most astonishing
mysteries we can imagine. Gargiulo’s reflections on quantum psy-
choanalysis will most certainly generate an experience of awe in
its readers.
Gargiulo clearly articulates the concepts of quantum mechan-
ics and relates these concepts to the field of psychoanalysis in a
lucid, creative, and thought-provoking manner. I sometimes hear
psychoanalysts ask something to the effect of “How can the con-
cepts of quantum mechanics, which apply to the micro-world of
subatomic particles, possibly relate to psychoanalysis, taking place
in the macro-world in which we all live?” Well, Gargiulo provides
answers to this question in an evocative and profoundly meaning-
ful manner, and you do not need to have a background in physics
to read this book and grasp its ideas.
Quantum physics explores the quantum world, the world of
subatomic particles, also known as the micro-world, in contrast
to the macro-world where our lived experience occurs. The quan-
tum world is just plain bizarre! It is the world of wave–particle
duality, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, entanglement, and
superposition.
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle asserts that we cannot si-
multaneously measure both the position and momentum of a
subatomic particle, and this is not due to instrumentation prob-
lems with our measuring devices. The more precisely we measure
the position of a subatomic particle, the less we know about its
momentum. The more precisely we measure the momentum of
a subatomic particle, the less we know about its position. There-
fore, the observer affects the observed. There is no longer any
sharp demarcation between observer and observed, as in Newto-
nian physics. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, one of the most
important scientific findings of the twentieth century, influenced
Harry Stack Sullivan in the development of his concept of parti-
cipant observation.
Gargiulo takes these concepts even further by addressing what
is termed entanglement. Entanglement demonstrates what is called
nonlocality, the lack of separability between subatomic particles
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and the absence of an observer-independent reality (Rosenblum

& Kuttner, 2011, p. 178). The bottom line, according to quantum
physics, is that there exists an interconnectedness of all things
making up the cosmos. To understand entanglement, which Ein-
stein memorably termed “spooky action at a distance,” picture
a pair of subatomic particles, each of which always takes the op-
posite spin of the other when measurement occurs. But it gets
stranger than that. Even if a large distance separates the pair of
particles, when one particle’s spin is measured, the other will
simultaneously take on the opposite spin. Mind you, this occurs
simultaneously; this experiment, which has in actuality been per-
formed, illustrates an interconnectedness between subatomic par-
ticles in which information exchange somehow occurs faster than
the speed of light! Gargiulo, with his love of Winnicott, uses the
concept of entanglement in a metaphorical sense to exemplify the
idea that there is no infant without the infant–mother pair. From
Gargiulo’s perspective, the “I” is always a communal “I.” The self-
contained “I” of Western philosophical tradition is an illusion; we
are always embedded in context, and entanglement brings new
meaning to the idea of interconnectedness. This emphasis upon
the communal “I” is further highlighted in one of the theoretical
essays from section 2 of this book.
Gargiulo uses the paradox of wave–particle duality to make
an analogy between quantum physics and the creation of the un-
conscious via psychoanalytic interpretation. I will first review the
concept of wave–particle duality and then examine more closely
the metaphorical manner in which Gargiulo uses this.
Wave–particle duality, or complementarity, refers to the fact
that subatomic particles exhibit properties of both waves and par-
ticles. The now famous double-slit experiment demonstrates that
if you shoot subatomic particles, one at a time, through a piece
of metal with two slits, you still see wavelike features in the inter-
ference patterns generated on the photographic plate where the
particles land. How is this possible? For an interference pattern
to occur, each particle would have to pass through both slits. But
how can an individual particle pass through both slits simultane-
ously and thereby interfere with itself ? This leads to the concept
of superposition, whereby a subatomic particle can simultaneously
be in more than one state and more than one place at a time
due to its wavelike properties. Even stranger, before a subatom-
ic particle’s position is observed and measured, the particle is,
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in actuality, everywhere and nowhere at the same time. This is

where Schrödinger’s wave function enters the picture. The wave
function is “the mathematical representation of the wave” (Rosen-
blum & Kuttner, 2011), the mathematical probability of finding a
particle in a certain area through observation and measurement.
Before an observation/measurement is made, there simply is no
particle! There is only the probability wave function. To create
an actual particle requires observation. In contrast to Newtonian
deterministic predictability, we are now in the world of quantum
probability, a world in which reality itself comes into question.
What Rosenblum and Kuttner (2011) refer to as the “quantum
enigma” is the measurement problem in quantum mechanics.
The observer affects the observed. Consciousness impacts the re-
sults of a physical experiment in the material world. According
to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics (one of
several interpretations), observation and measurement collapse
the wave function, leading to the existence of actual subatomic
particles as well as the macro-world itself. In other words, obser-
vation appears to create reality, the reality of the macro-world in
which we reside and in which all our phenomenological experi-
ence arises.
Gargiulo proposes that the collapse of the wave function is
analogous to creating the dynamically repressed unconscious in
psychoanalysis through the vehicle of interpretation. Mind you,
interpretation creates the unconscious; it does not discover an al-
ready existing unconscious, as in Freud’s metaphor of archeologi-
cal excavation leading to the bedrock of absolute truth. In phys-
ics, before the collapse of the wave function, a subatomic par-
ticle does not exist per se. As John Wheeler put it, there is only
“a mist of infinite possibilities” (p. 7). In an analogous manner,
before a psychoanalytic interpretation is made, there are infinite
possibilities with regard to the content of unconscious processes.
The interpretation creates a reality from this infinite expanse of
possibility. Quantum psychoanalysis is a wonderful metaphor for
the co-construction of the unconscious as well as for realizing the
infinite number of possibilities prior to interpretation. And each
analytic dyad will create a different reality.
Gargiulo writes, “We are walking on a bridge of analogy, so
to speak” (p. 33). Given Gargiulo’s concern over the reification
of psychoanalytic concepts, emphasized in his theoretical essays
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in section 2, I appreciate that he keeps his creative thinking at

the level of analogy, as opposed to equating interpretation with
the literal collapse of the wave function. We have to be careful
of the possibility of concretizing the metaphor and using ideas
from quantum physics to explain mysteries in the macro-world. As
Rosenblum and Kuttner (2011) point out, “Many, no doubt most,
physicists dismiss the creation of reality by observation as having
little significance beyond the limited domain of the physics of the
microscopic entities” (p. 269).
In a theoretical essay on metaphor and meaning from section
2 of this book, Gargiulo points to the underlying metaphorical
structure of knowledge. Psychoanalytic models are inherently
metaphorical, but, according to Gargiulo, “The reality is that if
we are not constantly recreating psychoanalysis we are, in fact,
killing it. . . . Unless we are constantly refinding the metaphori-
cal aspect of our knowledge, we can, all too easily slip into a lit-
eral, concrete understanding of it” (p. 84). If reality is a construct,
then, “understanding the metaphorical basis of knowledge frees
us of the Herculean burden of finding the truth” (p. 87). As can
be seen, Gargiulo struggles against the reification of theory and
the notion of absolute truth; rather, “each new perspective is ul-
timately an act of creating, revealing more by placing what we
are addressing in a wider context” (p. 87). Freud, of course, lived
in the world of Newtonian physics and, naturally enough, used
mechanistic and hydraulic models and metaphors. Gargiulo is
helping to enrich, revitalize, and renew psychoanalysis by using
metaphors stemming from the wondrous world of quantum phys-
ics.
In summary, a quantum sensibility is multifaceted and includes,
but is not limited to the following:

• An emphasis on probability, randomness, and indeterminacy

as opposed to deterministic predictability with clear cause and
effect
• The inseparable connection between observer and observed,
between the “I” and the world
• An understanding of the inherent interconnectedness of ev-
erything
• An appreciation for the mystery of the cosmos
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In some ways, the most important aspect of this quantum sensibil-

ity for psychoanalysts is that it leads to an appreciation of mystery
and the experience of awe. This can only help the analyst in fos-
tering a deep experience of aliveness both in him- or herself and
in the analysand. Gargiulo writes:

Mystery, not formula, guides our interactions with the world,

with each other and with one’s patients. By mystery I mean an
ever-inviting horizon to our knowledge that beckons us. One
must walk cautiously, knowing that what one knows is mostly
the unknown; quantum physics models help in the appreciation
of the great unknown. (p. 78)

The concepts just described are just a taste of what the reader will
come away with. The ideas thus far presented in this brief review
are dealt with in much greater depth in section 1 of this book, and
other concepts explored there include information theory, how
the present can change the past, Alfred North Whitehead’s pro-
cess philosophy, how Gargiulo views conscious and unconscious
processes as a unity, the impact of quantum mechanics upon
epistemology, the debate over one mind versus many minds, and
mind versus brain.
In section 2, Gargiulo continues his exploration and apprecia-
tion of mystery in what he terms everyday transcendence, which he
defines as, ”an openness to the mystery of existence, as well as a
perception of the dignity that life demands” (p. 99). Intricately
connected with the idea of everyday transcendence is Gargiulo’s
concept of psychoanalysis as a spiritual journey, a pilgrimage
leading to greater aliveness as well as greater compassion and the
capacity to care. It is “a pilgrimage to touch the center of one’s
being, so that a life can be lived with competence, joy and love” (p.
151). The relationship between psychoanalysis and spirituality is
greatly emphasized in both sections 2 and 3 of this book.
Section 3 contains essays on a variety of issues, including the
ethics of a home office (spoiler alert: Gargiulo, unlike Langs and
Maroda, is very open to using home offices), psychoanalytic eth-
ics, the consequences to our culture if psychoanalysis were to
disappear, and psychoanalysis today. Gargiulo, like Merton Gill,
does not see psychoanalysis as defined by factors such as the fre-
quency of sessions or the use of the couch. He states, “The more
formal aspects of analysis are always subordinate to the goals of
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self-awareness and self-reflection, in the service of deepening our

understanding of what it means to be human” (pp. 149-150).
If I had to point to a negative, it would be that there are minor
editing issues throughout the book. Other than this, I have only
the utmost regard for this book. These essays deserve the highest
of accolades. I have enormous admiration and respect for Gargiu-
lo’s magnificent essays and cannot recommend this book enough
to psychoanalysts of all orientations. The book itself is a spiritual
journey, leading the reader to an experience of awe and mystery.
Gargiulo’s goals for analysis are always those of greater aliveness
and greater subjective sense of realness that emerge in a context
of compassion, caring, and interconnectedness. Awe and mystery
are essential to an experience of aliveness, and a quantum sen-
sibility on the part of the therapist can foster them. Therefore,
the focus of quantum physics on the lack of anything real in the
micro-world and the lack of an observer-independent reality leads
to a sense of awe and mystery, which in turn paradoxically leads
to a greater subjective experience of realness and aliveness. This
paradox itself fills one with wonder and astonishment.

REFERENCE

Rosenblum, B., & Kuttner, F. (2011). Quantum enigma: Physics encounters con-
sciousness. New York: Oxford University Press.

JOHN TURTZ