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Chaotic Family Dynamics
Bruce M. Romanic, MD
Geisinger Medical Group Kulpmont, Pa
Arch Fam Med. 1994;3(8):656.
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings. |
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I enjoyed the article by Smith1 in the March 1994 issue of the ARCHIVES a great deal. It is a pleasure to see such information presented in medical literature, especially family medicine, since it may mean that the Glass and Mackey2 comment "that detailed mathematical and theoretical analyses are not appropriate in biology... [and] the mathematical training of most biologists and physicians is minimal" is not as true today. As a closet numbers dabbler, I am intrigued by the chaos theory; however, I am not sure why.
One of the points Smith makes is that the concept of homeostasis is "profoundly comforting... that the human body will put itself back to normal after it has been disturbed..." but this appears to not be the way that life, or at least health, may work. I found it interesting that he would then characterize a chaotic or strange attractor (his Figure 5)
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
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