Objections and Clarifications: Narcissism as a Regulatory Principle of Biopsychosocial Continuity

A basic question appears often when we try to see life as a unified process: are the biological, the psychic and the social level truly connected, or is it simply a theoretical wish? Contemporary knowledge tends toward the idea of connection. Biology, psychology and the social sciences increasingly meet within a biopsychosocial understanding of life. This does not mean that the levels cease to be studied separately. Science often examines them separately for methodological reasons. Fragmentation, therefore, is often methodological and not a property of reality itself. This, however, does not mean that the levels are confused or lose their autonomy. It means that, behind the different languages of description, there may exist a common functional continuity which allows the levels to remain functionally linked to one another without becoming one and the same. If we look at life from a more basic perspective, a stable course becomes visible. Life organizes itself, develops, tries to protect itself and eventually deteriorates and dies. It is not a conscious purpose but a recurring pattern. The description concerns the way living systems tend to move when they try to maintain a coherence within changing conditions. Every organism is born within an environment of relationships, organizes its structure, adapts and tries to maintain its balance. This leads to another question: could the different levels of life be different expressions of the same basic regulatory function?