ArticleTauber JW.
Schweiz Med Wochenschr. 1977 Mar 19;107(11):360-4.
The persistent defense of biological individuality is explained on the basis of the concept that "foreign" and "self" are complementary phenomena. Since it is the T-lymphocyte of the immune system which recognizes "foreign", its receptor must represent "self". How is this accomplished in immunogenetic terms? An intriguing possibility would be the somatic reduplication and amplification of "self" through random combinatorial principles by means of exclusion: all receptors are formed, but those directed against "self" suppressed while the others (including those identical with "self") remain at disposition. In this way, HLA gene products, rather than representing immune receptors themselves, would prime the formation of the immunological repertoire indirectly. The concept that "self" plays the role of a template copied by the actual recognition system is supported by elementary information theory. Analogies to other, higher biological information systems such as the brain are drawn. Moreover, since neuroscience and psychology are in fact inseparable, the analogies reach even much further. A common blueprint can be traced from primitive cell to cell interactions through molecular immunology to neurochemistry, psychology and philosophy. Particularly Jung's concept of psychological individuation as the never-ending struggle of the human individual for consciousness would precisely fit the role of "molecular individuation" as a means of acquiring the immunological repertoire. In psychological terms "foreign" corresponds not only to the outer world (antigens( but also to our own unconscious (antiidiotypic set) resulting in a similar network of mutual interactions between conscious and unconscious much as between idiotypes and anti-idiotypes.