A Modal Interpretation of Quantum Spins and Its Application to Freudian Theory

Abstract

In the present paper, we aim to develop a formal quantum logic theory of the interplay between conscious and unconscious processes of the human mind, a goal that has already been envisaged in quantum cognition; in doing so, we will show how the interplay between formal language and metalanguage allows for characterizing pure quantum states as infinite singletons: in the case of the spin observable, we obtain an equation defining a modality that is then re-interpreted as an abstract projection operator. By including a temporal parameter in the equations and by defining a modal negative operator, we derive an intuitionistic-like negation, for which the non-contradiction law is seen as an equivalent of the quantum uncertainty. Building on the psychoanalytic theory of Bi-Logic by Matte Blanco, we use modalities in interpreting the emergence of conscious representations from an unconscious one, and we demonstrate that this description fits well with Freud’s view of the role of negation in mental processes. Psychoanalysis, where affect plays a prominent role in shaping not only conscious, but also unconscious representations, is therefore seen as a suitable model to expand the domain of quantum cognition to the broader field of affective quantum cognition.