Concepts

№ 01

Simple · Complicated · Complex

Three words that resemble one another but reside in three different worlds of thought.

№ 02

Ergodicity

Why a group average rarely tells us what one person needs.

№ 03

Idiographic

Research at the level at which we also work: the patient before us.

№ 04

Entropy

From thermodynamics to therapy: how a physics concept speaks of rigidity.

№ 05

Attractors

The states a system always falls back into — whether helpful or not.

№ 06

Phase transitions

Why change is sometimes abrupt — and what that means for recognising it.

№ 07

Feedback

The mechanism that drives addiction as well as recovery — and everything between.

№ 08

Emergence

Why parts do not always explain what the whole does — and why that is not a problem.

№ 09

Self-organisation

How systems create order without anyone directing it.

№ 10

Early warning signals

The precursors of transition — and what we can do with them in the consulting room.

№ 11

Fractals

Patterns that repeat themselves across scales — and what that may mean.

№ 12

Cycles and rhythms

Recurring patterns in time — from sleep-wake regulation to the mood cycle.

№ 13

Chaos

Not disorder, but sensitivity. A deterministic system that becomes unpredictable.

№ 14

Bifurcations

The moment at which a system may go two ways.

№ 15
Synergetics
The science of self-organisation. How many small parts together let a new order arise.
№ 16
Order parameter
The quantity that describes the whole — and in turn marshals the parts.
№ 17
Control parameter
The dial you turn. Not the outcome, but the condition that makes it possible.
№ 18
Phase space
The imaginary space of all the states a system can assume.
№ 19
Trajectory
The path a system travels through time. The route across the map.
№ 20
Dissipation
Why order costs energy — and living systems stay open in order to exist.
№ 21
Recursivity
When the output of one step becomes the input of the next.
№ 22
Critical instability
The unrest that precedes a transition. Not a derailment, but a herald.
№ 23
Butterfly effect
Why small differences can have large consequences.
№ 24
Generic principles
The conditions that make self-organisation in change more likely.
№ 25
Dynamic complexity
A measure capturing the richness of an unfolding: amplitude, frequency and spread in one.