ABSTRACT

Bishop Berkeley, prompted by the irreligion of Newton and his sponsor Edmund Halley, attacked certain illogicalities, notably circular argument, in Newton’s presentation of the differential calculus; his criticisms exercised mathematicians for over a century. This chapter draws attention to some features of mathematical development which have not hitherto been adequately considered psychoanalytically. The configuration which can be recognized as common to all developmental processes whether religious, aesthetic, scientific or psychoanalytic is a progression from the “void and formless infinite” to a ‘saturated’ formulation which is finite and associated with number, example, ‘three’ or geometric, e.g. the triangle, point, line or circle. The public or psychiatric view is more important than might appear as it introduces the social or group component in mental disorder and its treatment.