Biological priority and psychological supremacy: a new integrative paradigm derived from process theory.

Process theory is a comprehensive theory of physical and psychological processes that can serve to integrate biological, social, and psychodynamic psychiatry. Process theory uses concepts derived from mathematical dynamics and Heraclitus's process philosophy. It provides three novel and clinically applicable concepts: 1) biological priority and psychological supremacy (as contrasted to theories of biological or psychological primacy), 2) union of opposites (as contrasted to psychoanalytic and dialectic conflicts and to systems homeostasis), and 3) creative bifurcations (as contrasted to determinism and developmental theories).