“Biologically, life is not maintenance or restoration of equilibrium but is essentially maintenance of disequilibria, as the doctrine of the organism as open system reveals. Reaching equilibrium means death and consequent decay. Psychologically, behaviour not only tends to release tensions but also builds up tensions; if this stops, the patient is a decaying mental corpse in the same way a living organism becomes a body in decay when tensions and forces keeping it from equilibrium have stopped.”

Source: General System Theory (1968), 8. The System Concept in the Sciences of man, p. 191

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Ludwig von Bertalanffy65

austrian biologist and philosopher 1901–1972

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Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901–1972) austrian biologist and philosopher

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William Foote Whyte book Street Corner Society

p 263
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