Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences

Edited by:
  • Stephen J. Guastello
Human Sciences Press. 4/yr. USA $110, elsewhere $130 (institutional); USA $35, elsewhere $41 (personal)

The emerging field of nonlinear science has led to many advances and to many new journals — Fractals, Nonlinearity and Physica D to name just three. Recently, the concepts and methods of nonlinear science have also been finding interesting applications in the social sciences. Witness, for example, the popularity of applying methods of statistical physics to problems of economics and finance, an endeavour that has spawned many interesting ideas and topical conferences in Budapest, Palermo and Dublin under the rubric of ‘econophysics’.

Other topics in the social sciences that appear to be amenable to the concepts and methods of statistical physics include problems associated with urban growth, where one quantitatively analyses the locations of homes, or foraging phenomena, where one asks for the most efficient strategy to find an object (food or lost car keys).

In all this work, there is no attempt to model the free will of the subject that determines the outcome, be they a Wall Street trader, a citizen building a home, or the foraging birds and bees. Presumably individuals do not exercise their free will, but learn efficient strategies and implement them.

In the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis it is hard to deny the role of free will, hence a journal devoted to the applications of concepts of nonlinear science to these disciplines would seem most interesting. The papers collected in the first issues span a range of problems of general interest in psychology, and bring to bear on them concepts such as catastrophe theory and fractal theory. Out of these marriages arise children with unfamiliar names such as ‘collective intelligence’ and ‘stochastic determinism’ (an oxymoron at first sight).

Will this moderately priced journal fulfil the need for a genuinely interdisciplinary journal on nonlinear science applied to the social sciences? It seems doubtful. The editorial board contains no physical scientists or practitioners of statistical mechanics, the discipline most active in nonlinear science. Further, there is a strong emphasis on psychology rather than on a wider range of social sciences. Moreover, if the initial issues are any guide, there is a tendency in many of the papers to simply ‘talk’ rather than report new experiments, simulations or scientific models. There are even a few misunderstandings of some of the principles of nonlinear science.

These limitations might be overcome, and the journal fulfil its potential, if it were to broaden its horizons and undertake rigorous refereeing procedures.