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Two processes will be regarded as different relative to a given analysis into subsystems if the
differences between the "scores" are significantly greater than the experimental error in determining the
levels of activity of the subsystems.
If one wished to take this musical analogy a little more poetically, one could say that the Hypnotherapist
is like the conductor rehearsing an orchestra: the orchestra of subsystems of the Subject. He or she will
be bringing up some sections of the orchestra and quieting others. Perhaps the Client's problem is only in
one section, in which case it is best if all other sections are stilled and that one section is quietly
rehearsed by itself. The tendency of the Hypnotist to repeat suggestions a number of times is akin to the
conductor getting one section to run over a little passage several times until it has become smooth.
More lyrically yet, we might observe that just as a conductor's skill is evoking harmony from the
orchestra, just so does the Hypnotherapist work to achieve an inner harmony within the mind and heart
and body of the Client!
Before we end this chapter we will make a certain important distinction. The above description of a
process of a system is a kinematic one and not a dynamic one. It is a way of noting what does happen,
and not why, in any sense, it does. The distinction is at least that between a kinematic description of the
solar system in terms of the changing directions of the planets as seen from the earth, or in terms of their
positions relative to the sun, and a dynamic description in terms of Newton's laws.
The orchestral score gives a kinematic description of a process. It tells us what a process is. There is
nothing in it that can tell us why the music is as it is. It is impossible to deduce the remainder of a score
from a fragment. We may perhaps deduce certain partial laws in the light of a detailed analysis of it in
the form, "Activation of this sequence of notes is followed in the next bar by that sequence of notes.".
But that comes nowhere near explaining the whole. In order to be able to do this we would have to move
to a much larger system: the mind of the composer. Within the context of that larger system lie the clues
to many of the questions we might ask about the Why? of the music. But even that is unlikely to be a
large enough system, and we would need to move into the system which incorporates the musical taste of
the composer's culture.
The big moral of this is that we cannot expect the most detailed analysis of the processes of an organic
system to provide us with anything like a full understanding of why they are as they are. In principle
there will always be things about them which can only be understood in terms of larger processes of
larger systems of which the specific system is a part.
Though this principle may not always be made explicit in this book, it is axiomatic to the approach that
whereas a process may be analysed and described and distinguished by means of looking at subsystems
and subprocesses, it is necessary always to look the other way - to the system of which they are a part - to
gain anything like a full understanding of why they are as they are. The analogy of the musical work
represents this fact. Further remarks on this aspect of systems theory will be found in the chapter on
consciousness in Part C.
CONCLUSION
In this chapter we have looked at the notion of a process in a little more detail, in order to clarify it. The
structure of a system is typically something easy to define and indeed see. The processes are more
abstract patterns of change. They have been defined in terms of the pattern of activation of the
subsystems. The analogy of a musical score has been used to illuminate the idea. This analogy also draws
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Principles of Hypnosis (7) Process dynamics vs. kinemematics. Analogy of orchestra.
attention to the severe limitations of an analysis of subsystems when it comes to understanding as
opposed to describing processes.
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