Frequency

The term ‘frequency’ inhabits the depth-psychology corpus in several distinct registers that only partially overlap, and the scholarly reader must attend carefully to which register is operative in any given text. In its most literal sense, frequency designates a measurable rate of recurrence — the rate at which sound-waves oscillate, the rate at which astrological aspects appear in marital samples, or the rate at which chills responses are elicited by aesthetic stimuli. Jung’s synchronicity research employs frequency as a statistical category against which observed coincidences may be evaluated, while Porges deploys it in the neurophysiological sense of acoustic hertz-bands, arguing that the detachment of mammalian middle-ear bones created a specific frequency band protective of social engagement. Simondon extends the concept into ontological territory, proposing that a photon’s individuality is proportionate to its frequency — the higher the frequency, the more the photon approaches the status of matter. Von Franz and Plato’s Timaeus invoke a related but qualitative notion: the rhythmic recurrence of cosmological and biological cycles. Pargament’s empirical studies use church-attendance frequency as a proxy for religious investment. Across these registers, the common thread is that frequency encodes the density and rhythm of engagement between a subject or entity and its environment — a measure not merely of quantity but of the quality of relational intensity over time.

In the library 14 passages

the photon’s individuality would merely be proportionate to its frequency, i.e. to the quantity of energy (hv) it transports, without this individuality ever being able to be complete, since it would then require this frequency to be infinite

Simondon argues that frequency is the ontological index of photonic individuality, such that complete individuation would require infinite frequency — a condition no actual oscillator can achieve.

Simondon, Gilbert, Individuation in Light of Notions of Form and Information, 2020thesis

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the movement of the eardrum is reduced and only higher frequencies bouncing against the eardrum are transmitted to the inner ear and to the auditory processing areas of the brain

Porges demonstrates that middle-ear musculature actively filters low-frequency acoustic stimulation, privileging the higher frequency band associated with human vocalization and mammalian social communication.

Porges, Stephen W., The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation, 2011thesis

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Detached middle ear bones delineate the frequency band that enables mammals to hear species-specific vocalizations associated with social communication and provide a ‘safe’ frequency band in which they could communicate without detection by larger predatory reptiles.

Porges identifies a phylogenetically determined ‘safe’ frequency band as the neurophysiological basis for mammalian social engagement and its evolutionary divergence from reptilian threat-detection.

Porges, Stephen W., Polyvagal Theory: A Science of Safety, 2022thesis

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the high-frequency limit is inversely proportional to the ossicular mass. Although, in general, larger mammals have greater ossicular mass, there are instances of larger mammals being able to detect higher frequencies due to adaptive shifts in ossicle mass

Porges contextualizes frequency detection limits within mammalian evolution, showing that ossicular mass mediates the upper boundary of audible frequency range across species.

Porges, Stephen W., The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation, 2011supporting

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of twenty Mars aspects no less than ten were emphasized, with a frequency of 15.0; of the moon aspects nine, with a frequency of 10.0; and of the sun aspects nine, with a frequency of 14.0

Jung deploys frequency as a statistical measure to assess the significance of astrological aspect distributions in individual subjects, correlating heightened Mars-aspect frequency with documented emotional excitation.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960thesis

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Observed Calculated Frequency for 180 for 180 Unmarried Married Pairs Occur- Pairs

Jung presents comparative frequency tables for astrological conjunctions in married versus unmarried pairs as empirical evidence within his synchronicity argument.

Jung, Carl Gustav, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 1960supporting

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the frequency of chills was assessed within each stimulus modality, to see if specific stimuli were particularly effective at eliciting chills. Results highlight that only the music category showed a significant effect of individual stimulus

Bannister uses frequency of chills response as the primary dependent variable to establish differential efficacy of multimedia stimuli, finding music uniquely capable of producing stimulus-specific variation.

Bannister, Scott, Distinct varieties of aesthetic chills in response to multimedia, 2019thesis

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They have been shown to perceive rhythm, velocity, and frequency long before they begin to adapt to our ordinary notion of time.

Von Franz notes that children’s primordial perception of frequency and rhythm precedes their adaptation to clock-time, situating frequency within her broader argument about archetypal temporal experience.

von Franz, Marie-Louise, Psyche and Matter, 2014supporting

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Frequency of church attendance related to less negative affect (r = -.23), better physical health (r = -.20), better mental status (r =.19), and better religious outcomes (r = 36).

Pargament’s meta-analytic review demonstrates that frequency of religious practice consistently correlates with improved psychological and physical wellbeing outcomes across coping studies.

Pargament, Kenneth I, The psychology of religion and coping theory, research,, 2001supporting

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The higher sound, despatched by more vigorous and frequent impulses, travels the faster and arrives first. The lower follows more slowly with longer intervals between its projectiles.

Plato’s Timaeus, as glossed by its commentator, attributes pitch differentiation to frequency of impulse, grounding acoustic experience in a proto-physics of vibratory rate.

Plato, Plato’s cosmology the Timaeus of Plato, 1997supporting

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All musical sounds are motions started by a blow, and these motions follow one another at shorter or longer intervals, making the sound heard correspondin

Archytas’s doctrine, as transmitted through the Timaeus commentary, identifies acoustic pitch with the temporal density of successive motional impulses — an ancient forerunner of frequency theory.

Plato, Plato’s cosmology the Timaeus of Plato, 1997aside

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partial reinforcement produces higher rates of responding and greater resistance to extinction than continuous reinforcement

The passage treats frequency of reinforcement delivery as the operative variable in schedule-dependent differences in behavioral persistence and extinction resistance.

James, William, The Principles of Psychology, 1890aside

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