Chaos and constructivism: Counselling for career development in a complex and changing world

Chaos is everywhere: you carry it with you. Chaos theory in general construes the world in terms of complex dynamical systems of which the human body is a classic example. The human body is a system comprised of a series of other systems such as the nervous system, the vascular system, immune systems, skeleton, musculature and so on. The complexity of such systems can be observed by the fact that the body has about 50 million fat cells and up to 100 billion neurons in the brain alone. The dynamical nature of the body as a system is evident in the connections and interactions of its subsystems: the skin is cut; the reflex system pulls the body part away from the sharp object; the nervous system sends pain signals to the brain; the vascular system causes bleeding and coagulation; the immune system through the blood sends antibodies to the site to combat infection and so on. Another dimension of the dynamical nature of the body as a system is that it is subject to change both from without and within. From without the body is subject to injury, trauma, infection and disease; from within it is subject to the processes of genetic imprinting, development and ageing.