The biological sciences have been dominated by 'classicist' science-predicated on the post-Enlightenment belief that a real world exists, which behaves according to notions of causality and consistency. Although medicine, and by implication psychiatric nursing, derives its explanatory power from such a science, much of its focus-illness-is not amenable to causal explanation or prediction. The theoretical developments of the 'new physics' have been used to redefine science and, as a result, have challenged traditional constructions of reality. The new physics are usually framed in terms of the physical world, or to construe consciousness. In this paper I shall consider the implications of chaos-a relative of the new physics-for psychiatric nursing practice. As nursing appears to crave a 'certainty principle' to govern the theoretical underpinnings of practice, this study considers how chaos might contribute to a metaparadigm of nursing.
Chaos and the way of Zen : psychiatric nursing and the 'uncertainty principle'
Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing
Format:
Journal Article
Publication Date:
1996-08
Publisher:
Blackwell Science
Place of Publication:
Oxford
Pages:
235-243
Sources ID:
126518
Collection:
Tibetan and Himalayan Library
Visibility:
Public (group default)
Abstract:
(Show)
Subjects:
Psychiatry
Zen/Ch’an Buddhism
Nursing