Ultrametric Model of Mind, II: Application to Text Content Analysis
This work applies a theoretical model to text analysis, potentially offering insights into unconscious thought processes, but it is incremental as it builds directly on prior work.
The authors investigated whether ultrametricity, a mathematical property linked to unconscious thought processes, can be detected in text collections of nearly 1000 texts, hypothesizing it as a basis for further exploring unconscious thought.
In a companion paper, Murtagh (2012), we discussed how Matte Blanco's work linked the unrepressed unconscious (in the human) to symmetric logic and thought processes. We showed how ultrametric topology provides a most useful representational and computational framework for this. Now we look at the extent to which we can find ultrametricity in text. We use coherent and meaningful collections of nearly 1000 texts to show how we can measure inherent ultrametricity. On the basis of our findings we hypothesize that inherent ultrametricty is a basis for further exploring unconscious thought processes.