Mid-morning. You read half the Sunday paper
with breakfast; presently you and Carol are at Kroger’s on Mason-Montgomery
Road before the crowd. You are ready to work on Pouch Thirty-three. – Amorella
0955
hours. The sun has been out several times; the weather is warmer and more humid
than I expected it to be after putting on a flannel shirt. Most men are in
shorts and short-sleeves; most women have slacks, shirt and sweater. Downtown
has another day of the Flying Pig festivities which includes the city/urban
area marathon (becoming more famous each year). Many people from near and far
enjoy it.
You reduced chapter12/33 from 5532 words down
to 1149 words to work to less than 800. Let’s do the same with the next two. –
Amorella
1026
hours. I guess, but it is not so organized.
We’ll do that next taking on all three in a
new context. – Amorella
Mid-afternoon.
You are at the canoe livery near Fosters on the left bank of the Little Miami.
Carol is on page 199 of Steve Berry’s The Patriot Threat. You had a
Subway picnic for lunch. You just finished deleting info from chapters
thirty-four (down to 2730 words) and thirty-five (down to 2131 words). You eliminated
over three thousand words in each of the two chapters. – Amorella
1453
hours. Those chapters are going to take more work but now I have a broad
outline of what is important to carry through the next twelve chapters (36
through 47).
We
might get three more chapters, that is an Introduction plus three more chapters
of 700 to 800 words each. – Amorella
1457
hours. Why, what more do we need?
We need a conclusion that answers your Uncle
Ernie’s questions. What happens back on Three Planets; how does that affect/effect
the Earthlings? Yermey is not going to die in this version – there will a
subtle effect once both cultures recognise how the influence of one effects/affects
the other. No turning back, boy, even though no one in either culture wants to
move forward towards a new world . . . something of that sort. Post, once you
return home. The key is Diplomat, Yermey and Pyl.- Amorella
1503
hours. At first glance I don’t think I like this very well.
1604
hours. I was thinking about your reminder to keep my promise to Uncle Ernie. I
like that. That’s the kind of think Freud’s superego would do. Let’s
investigate.
** **
Id, ego and super-ego
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Id, ego, and super-ego are the three parts of the
psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud’s structural model of the psyche;
they are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and
interaction our mental life is described. According to this model of the
psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the super-ego
plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized,
realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego.
The super-ego can stop one from doing certain things that one's id
may want to do.
Although
the model is structural and makes reference to an apparatus, the id, ego and
super-ego are purely psychological concepts and do not correspond toic (somatic)
structures of the brain such as the kind dealt with by neuroscience. The
super-ego is observable in how someone can view themself as guilty, bad,
pathetic, shameful, weak, and feel compelled to do certain things. Freud (1923)
in The Ego and the Id discusses "the general character of harshness
and cruelty exhibited by the [ego] ideal – its dictatorial 'Thou shalt.'"
Freud
(1933) hypothesizes different levels of ego ideal or superego development with
increasingly greater ideals:
nor must
it be forgotten that a child has a different estimate of his parents at
different periods of his life. At the time at which the Oedipus complex gives
place to the super-ego they are something quite magnificent; but later they
lose much of this. Identifications then come about with these later parents as
well, and indeed they regularly make important contributions to the formation
of character; but in that case they only affect the ego, they no longer
influence the super-ego, which has been determined by the earliest parental
images.
— (The
New Introductory Lectures, p. 64)
The
earlier in development, the greater the estimate of parental power. When one
defuses into rivalry with the parental imago, then one feels the 'dictatorial
thou shalt' to manifest the power the imago represents. Four general levels are
found in Freud's work: the auto-erotic, the narcissistic, the anal, and the
phallic. These different levels of development and the relations to parental
imagos correspond to specific id forms of aggression and affection. For
example, aggressive desires to decapitate, to dismember, to cannibalize, to
swallow whole, to suck dry, to make disappear, to blow away, etc. animate
myths, are enjoyed in fantasy and horror movies, and are observable in the
fantasies and repressions of patients across cultures.
The concepts themselves arose at
a late stage in the development of Freud's thought as the "structural
model" (which succeeded his "economic model" and
"topographical model") and was first discussed in his 1920 essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle and was
formalized and elaborated upon three years later his The Ego and the Id. Freud's proposal was influenced by the ambiguity
of the term “unconscious” and its many conflicting uses.
Id
The id
(Latin for "it") is the unorganized part of the personality structure
that contains a human's basic, instinctual drives. Id is the only component of
personality that is present from birth. It is the source of our bodily needs,
wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives.
The id contains the libido, which is the primary source of instinctual force
that is unresponsive to the demands of reality. The id acts according to the “pleasure
principle” —the psychic force that motivates the tendency to seek immediate
gratification of any impulse—defined as seeking to avoid pain or unpleasure
(not 'displeasure') aroused by increases in instinctual tension. According to
Freud the id is unconscious by definition:
It is
the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, what little we know of it we
have learned from our study of the Dreamwork and of course the construction of
neurotic symptoms, and most of that is of a negative character and can be
described only as a contrast to the ego. We approach the id with analogies: we
call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations. ... It is filled with
energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no
collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the
instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle.
In the
id:
…contrary
impulses exist side by side, without cancelling each other out. ... There is
nothing in the id that could be compared with negation ... nothing in the id
which corresponds to the idea of time.
Developmentally,
the id precedes the ego; i.e., the psychic apparatus begins, at birth, as an
undifferentiated id, part of which then develops into a structured ego. Thus,
the id:
…contains
everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, is laid down in the
constitution—above all, therefore, the instincts, which originate from the
somatic organization, and which find a first psychical expression here (in the
id) in forms unknown to us.
The mind
of a newborn child is regarded as completely "id-ridden", in the
sense that it is a mass of instinctive drives and impulses, and needs immediate
satisfaction.
The id
"knows no judgements of value: no good and evil, no morality. ...
Instinctual cathexes seeking discharge—that, in our view, is all there is in
the id." It is regarded as "the great reservoir of libido", the
instinctive drive to create—the life instincts that are crucial to pleasurable
survival. Alongside the life instincts came the death instincts—the death drive
which Freud articulated relatively late in his career in "the hypothesis
of a death instinct, the task of which is to lead organic life back into
the inanimate state." For Freud, "the death instinct would thus seem
to express itself—though probably only in part—as an instinct of destruction
directed against the external world and other organisms" through
aggression. Freud considered that "the id, the whole person ... originally
includes all the instinctual impulses ... the destructive instinct as
well", as eros or the life instincts.
Ego
The ego
(Latin "I") acts according to the reality principle; i.e. it seeks to
please the id's drive in realistic ways that will benefit in the long term
rather than bring grief. At the same time, Freud concedes that as the ego
"attempts to mediate between id and reality, it is often obliged to cloak
the Ucs. [Unconscious] commands of the id with its own Pcs. [Preconscious]
rationalizations, to conceal the id's conflicts with reality, to profess ... to
be taking notice of reality even when the id has remained rigid and unyielding."
The reality principle that operates the ego is a regulating mechanism that
enables the individual to delay gratifying immediate needs and function
effectively in the real world. An example would be to resist the urge to grab
other people's belongings, but instead to purchase those items.
The ego
is the organized part of the personality structure that includes defensive,
perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious
awareness resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are
conscious. Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but
later revised it to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment,
tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis of
information, intellectual functioning, and memory. The ego separates out what
is real. It helps us to organize our thoughts and make sense of them and the
world around us.[1] "The ego is that part of the id which has been modified by
the direct influence of the external world. ... The ego represents what may be
called reason and common sense, in contrast to the id, which contains the
passions ... in its relation to the id it is like a man on horseback, who has
to hold in check the superior strength of the horse; with this difference, that
the rider tries to do so with his own strength, while the ego uses borrowed
forces." Still worse, "it serves three severe masters ... the
external world, the super-ego and the id." Its task is to find a balance
between primitive drives and reality while satisfying the id and super-ego. Its
main concern is with the individual's safety and allows some of the id's
desires to be expressed, but only when consequences of these actions are
marginal. "Thus the ego, driven by the id, confined by the super-ego,
repulsed by reality, struggles ... [in] bringing about harmony among the forces
and influences working in and upon it," and readily "breaks out in
anxiety—realistic anxiety regarding the external world, moral anxiety regarding
the super-ego, and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength of the passions in
the id." It has to do its best to suit all three, thus is constantly
feeling hemmed by the danger of causing discontent on two other sides. It is
said, however, that the ego seems to be more loyal to the id, preferring to
gloss over the finer details of reality to minimize conflicts while pretending
to have a regard for reality. But the super-ego is constantly watching every
one of the ego's moves and punishes it with feelings of guilt, anxiety, and
inferiority.
To
overcome this the ego employs defense mechanisms. The defense mechanisms are
not done so directly or consciously. They lessen the tension by covering up our
impulses that are threatening. Ego defense mechanisms are often used by the ego
when id behavior conflicts with reality and either society's morals, norms, and
taboos or the individual's expectations as a result of the internalization of
these morals, norms, and their taboos.
Denial,
displacement, intellectualisation, fantasy, compensation, projection,
rationalization, reaction formation, regression, repression, and sublimation
were the defense mechanisms Freud
identified. However, his daughter Anna Freud clarified and identified the
concepts of undoing, suppression, dissociation, idealization, identification,
introjection, introjection, inversion, somatisation, splitting, and
substitution.
In a
diagram of the Structural and Topographical Models of Mind, the ego is depicted
to be half in the consciousness, while a quarter is in the preconscious and the
other quarter lies in the unconscious.
In modern English, ego has many
meanings. It could mean one’s self-esteem; an inflated sense of self-worth; the
conscious-thinking self; or in philosophical terms, one’s self. Ego development
is known as the development of multiple processes, cognitive function,
defenses, and interpersonal skills or to early adolescence when ego processes
are emerged.
Super-ego
The superego (German: Über-Ich)
reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly taught by parents
applying their guidance and influence. Freud developed his concept of the
super-ego from an earlier combination of the ego ideal and the "special
psychical, which performs the task of seeing that narcissistic satisfaction
from the ego ideal is ensured ... what we call our 'conscience'." For him
"the installation of the super-ego can be described as a successful
instance of identification with the parental agency," while as development
proceeds "the super-ego also takes on the influence of those who have
stepped into the place of parents — educators, teachers, people chosen as
ideal models.”
The
super-ego aims for perfection. It forms the organized part of the personality
structure, mainly but not entirely unconscious, that includes the individual's
ego ideals, spiritual goals, and the psychic agency (commonly called
"conscience") that criticizes and prohibits his or her drives,
fantasies, feelings, and actions. "The Super-ego can be thought of as a
type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt. For
example, for having extra-marital affairs." Taken in this sense, the
super-ego is the precedent for the conceptualization of the inner critic as it
appears in contemporary therapies such as IFS and Voice Dialogue.
The
super-ego works in contradiction to the id. The super-ego strives to act in a
socially appropriate manner, whereas the id just wants instant
self-gratification. The super-ego controls our sense of right and wrong and
guilt. It helps us fit into society by getting us to act in socially acceptable
ways.
The
super-ego's demands often oppose the id’s, so the ego sometimes has a hard time
in reconciling the two.
Freud's
theory implies that the super-ego is a symbolic internalisation of the father
figure and cultural regulations. The super-ego tends to stand in opposition to
the desires of the id because of their conflicting objectives, and its
aggressiveness towards the ego. The super-ego acts as the conscience, maintaining
our sense of morality and proscription from taboos. The super-ego and the ego
are the product of two key factors: the state of helplessness of the child and
the Oedipus complex. Its formation takes place during the dissolution of the
Oedipus complex and is formed by an identification with and internalisation of
the father figure after the little boy cannot successfully hold the mother as a
love-object out of fear of castration. Freud described the super-ego and its
relationship to the father figure and Oedipus complex thus:
The
super-ego retains the character of the father, while the more powerful the
Oedipus complex was and the more rapidly it succumbed to repression (under the
influence of authority, religious teaching, schooling and reading), the
stricter will be the domination of the super-ego over the ego later on—in the
form of conscience or perhaps of an unconscious sense of guilt.
The
concept of super-ego and the Oedipus complex is subject to criticism for its
perceived sexism. Women, who are considered to be already castrated, do not
identify with the father, and therefore, for Freud, "their super-ego is
never so inexorable, so impersonal, so independent of its emotional origins as
we require it to be in men ... they are often more influenced in their
judgements by feelings of affection or hostility." However, Freud went on
to modify his position to the effect "that the majority of men are also
far behind the masculine ideal and that all human individuals, as a result of
their bisexual disposition and of cross-inheritance, combine in themselves both
masculine and feminine characteristics."
In
Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), he also discusses the
concept of a "cultural super-ego". Freud suggested that the demands
of the super-ego "coincide with the precepts of the prevailing cultural
super-ego. At this point the two processes, that of the cultural development of
the group and that of the cultural development of the individual, are, as it
were, always interlocked." Ethics are a central element in the demands of the cultural
super-ego, but Freud (as analytic moralist) protested against what he called
"the unpsychological proceedings of the cultural super-ego ... the ethical
demands of the cultural super-ego. It does not trouble itself enough about the
facts of the mental constitution of human beings."
Advantages of the structural model
Freud's
earlier, topographical model of the mind had divided the mind into the three
elements of conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The conscious contains
events that we are aware of, preconscious is events that are in the process of
becoming conscious, and unconscious include events that we are not aware of. At
its heart was "the dialectic of unconscious traumatic memory versus
consciousness ... which soon became a conflict between System Ucs versus System
Cs." With what Freud called the "disagreeable discovery that on the
one hand (super-)ego and conscious and on the other hand repressed and
unconscious are far from coinciding," Freud took the step in the
structural model to "no longer use the term 'unconscious' in the
systematic sense," and to rename "the mental region that is foreign
to the ego ... [and] in future call it the 'id'." The partition of the
psyche defined in the structural model is thus one that cuts across the
topographical model's partition of "conscious vs. unconscious".
"The
new terminology which he introduced has a highly clarifying effect and so made
further clinical advances possible." Its value lies in the increased
degree of precision and diversification made possible: Although the id is
unconscious by definition, the ego and the super-ego are both partly conscious
and partly unconscious. What is more, with this new model Freud achieved a more
systematic classification of mental disorder than had been available
previously:
Transference
neuroses correspond to a conflict between the ego and the id; narcissistic
neuroses, , to a conflict between the ego and the superego; and psychoses, to
one between the ego and the external world.
It is
important to realise however, that "the three newly presented entities,
the id, the ego and the superego, all had lengthy past histories (two of them
under other names)"—the id as the systematic unconscious, the super-ego as
conscience/ego ideal. Equally, Freud never abandoned the topographical division
of conscious, preconscious, and unconscious, though as he noted ruefully
"the three qualities of consciousness and the three provinces of the
mental apparatus do not fall together into three peaceful couples ... we had no
right to expect any such smooth arrangement."
The
iceberg metaphor is a commonly used visual when attempting to relate the ego,
id and superego with the conscious and unconscious mind. In the iceberg
metaphor the entire id and part of both the superego and the ego would be
submerged in the underwater portion representing the unconscious mind. The
remaining portions of the ego and superego would be displayed above water in
the conscious mind area.
Translation
The
terms "id", "ego", and "super-ego" are not
Freud's own. They are latinisations by his translator James Strachey. Freud
himself wrote of "das Es," "das Ich," and
"das Über-Ich"—respectively, "the It", "the
I", and "the Over-I" (or "I above"); thus to the
German reader, Freud's original terms are more or less self-explanatory. Freud
borrowed the term "das Es" from Georg Groddeck, a German physician to
whose unconventional ideas Freud was much attracted (Groddeck's translators
render the term in English as "the It"). The word ego is taken
directly from Latin, where it is the nominative of the first person singular personal
pronount and is translated as "I myself" to express emphasis.
Figures
like Bruno Bettelheim have criticized the way "the English translations
impeded students' efforts to gain a true understanding of Freud." by
substituting the formalised language of the elaborated code for the quotidian
immediacy of Freud's own language.
Selected and edited from
Wikipedia
** **
Although you are going to ‘clean up’ the
article for this posting; for further clarification in context also include
Freud’s sense of ‘the unconscious’ in this general background. – Amorella
1622 hours.
It has been a long time since I read over this material. Long ago I read
several books on Freud as well as by Freud. I do not feel he is outdated even
today. Let’s see what I can find.
** **
Unconscious cognition
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia [Note -
Unconscious
cognition is the processing of perception,
memory, learning, thought, and language without being aware of it.
The role of unconscious mind on
decision-making is a topic greatly debated by neuro-scientists and
psychologists around the world. Though the actual level of involvement of the
unconscious brain during a cognitive process might still be a matter of differential
opinion, the fact that the unconscious brain does play a role in cognitive
activity is undeniable. Several experiments and well-recorded phenomena attest
to this fact, for example the illusion-of-truth effect. There have also been
several experiments suggesting that the unconscious mind might actually be
better at decision-making than the conscious mind when there are multiple
variables to take into consideration.
History
The
attitude of the scientific community towards the unconscious mind has undergone
a drastic change from being viewed as a lazy reservoir of memories and non-task
oriented behavior to being regarded as an active and essential component in the
processes of decision making.
Historically,
the unconscious mind has been viewed as the source of dreams, implicit memory (which
allows people to walk or ride a bicycle without consciously thinking about the
activity), and the storing place for memories. But new insight revealing
that the unconscious brain might also be an active player in decision making,
problem solving, creative writing and critical thinking have revolutionized the
predominant view of the importance of the unconscious on cognitive processes.
One familiar example of the operation of the unconscious in problem solving is
a well-known phenomenon of having a "Eureka!" moment when a solution
to a problem in the past presents itself without the involvement of active
thinking.
Currently,
several experiments are being performed to measure the extent of unconscious'
influence on conscious thought.
Types of unconscious
Freud's
unconscious
Sigmund
Freud is perhaps the most well-known psychologist and his theories laid the
foundation for the serious scientific investigation of the unconscious brain.
Consciousness, according to Freud, was the center for perception whereas the
unconscious was the storehouse of memories, desires, and needs. According to
Freud past thoughts and memories, which are deleted from conscious thought are
stored by the unconscious and these thoughts help direct the thoughts and
feelings of an individual and influence their decision making processes. Freud
believed that the Unconscious' influence on thoughts can be accessed by
training one’s mind through meditation, or by random association, dream
analysis and paying attention to Freudian slips.
Jung's
unconscious
Carl Jung further expounded Freud’s view
of the unconscious and categorized the unconscious into the personal
unconscious and the collective unconscious. He believed that the personal
unconscious held memories and experiences specific to every individual and the
collective unconscious held memories, predispositions and experiences of a
species which are passed on from generation to generation and are shared among
all the individuals of a species.
Lacan's
linguistic unconscious
Jacques
Lacan in his psychoanalytical theory compared the structuring of the
unconscious to the way a language is structured. According to his theory there
is no reference to self thus making the unconscious a dynamic structure. This
suggests that unconscious influence on thought processes could be altered after
traumatic brain injury. This theory could explain the cases of altered
personality, like Phineas Gage, due to trauma or traumatic brain injury.
Measuring unconscious cognition
To
establish unconscious perception a demonstration of the absence of some
critical stimulus is established and the effect of the same stimulus on
behavior is tested. To establish the absence of the stimulus, the degree to
which a critical stimulus reaches conscious awareness is assessed, by testing
whether a subject can acknowledge or perceive the presence of the stimulus.
This is called a direct measure (D) of processing, as the task requires some
type of direct report on the perception of the critical stimulus from the
subject. Also, one must assess the degree to which the stimulus affects a
certain behavior. This process is the indirect measure (I) as responses of
something other than the critical stimulus is measured.
Effects of the
unconscious during data gathering
It has
been well established that the unconscious plays a vital role in perception and
data analysis. The numerous examples of optical illusions, hallucinations and
other tricks that the unconscious brain plays on the conscious brain provide
ample evidence of the active role of the unconscious mind during data gathering
and analysis. Several experiments have been performed to show that the
unconscious brain is able to gather data at a much faster rate than the
conscious brain and also that the unconscious brain filters out a great amount
of information and can use this information to influence cognitive decision
making processes.
Artificially
induced scotomas
Vilayanur
S. Ramachandran in his research proved that the unconscious brain not only
screens certain data from the conscious brain, rendering visual data
inaccurate, but also is responsible for filling in false data in place of
missing data in certain circumstances. In his paper on "Perceptual filling
in of artificially induced scotomas in human vision" he records the effect
of the unconscious brain filling in the blind spots in the human visual field.
Subliminal
Messages
Subliminal
messages also utilize the phenomenon of the unconscious brain processing
messages faster than the conscious brain and also noticing data in a visual or
auditory field that remain below the threshold of the conscious brain. come in
various forms. They can be quick clips inserted within another video or barely
perceptible text inscribed in a picture. These messages flutter on the edge of
perception and are almost impossible to notice unless and until one's conscious
brain is called to pay attention to these minute details. Modern day ads,
posters and even shows and movies which are broadcast around the world use
subliminal messages to unconsciously attract an individual or manipulate an
individual to unconscious like a product or a show.
Effect on learning, thinking and decision making
Artificial
grammar learning
Studies
that test the way in which humans acquire language skills and learn how to
apply the rules of grammar show that a large amount of language and grammar
learning takes place unconsciously.
Experiments were performed in which participants were asked to identify whether
certain nonsensical and made up words belong to a group of words which they had
been previously shown. Some participants were not informed that the word sets
were based on rules. An analysis of their responses showed that the participants were
more likely to associate words which were not shown previously as a part of the
group if they followed the preset grammatical rules. This shows that it might
not be necessary to be consciously aware of grammatical rules to know proper
grammar. This theory might explain the feeling we undergo when we feel that a
certain sentence structure is awkward or wrong even though we might not be able
to clearly define the reason why the sentence is incorrect.
Implicit
egotism
Implicit
egotism refers to the unconscious tendency of people to prefer things that
resemble the self. In studies performed to test the effect of implicit egotism
it has been shown that implicit egotism does in fact play a significant role in
processes that influence major life decisions. Studies show that inexplicably
people choose partners whose name is phonetically or structurally similar to
their own names. This effect of implicit egotism is not only limited to
relationship decisions but can also be seen in decisions regarding place or
city of residence and arguable in almost every other aspect of life.
Unconscious
association
The
unconscious mind's tendency to make associations can have a significant effect
on decision making processes. For example, we generally associate a green
traffic light as a sign to keep proceeding while we associate a red traffic
light as a sign to come to a halt. If in an experimental setting a person
attuned to these associations was asked to come to a halt when shown a green
light and keep moving when shown a red light, the individual would have to make
a conscious effort to follow these new set of rules.The associations of the
unconscious mind lead to the creation of implicit attitudes. An implicit
attitude manifests itself as an action or judgment that is under the control of
automatically activated evaluation, without the performer's awareness of that
causation. Implicit attitudes can have a profound effect on decision making
when automatic implicit associations are made in socially significant ways.
Based on unconscious racial prejudice, sexist attitudes and nepotism might have
a huge bearing in the real world as one might unconsciously show favoritism due
to implicit attitudes.
Unconscious thought theory
Experiments
were performed to measure the decision making prowess of the unconscious mind
and they showed that when there are multiple variables to be considered in a
given decision making situation, the unconscious mind can actually be a better
decision maker than the conscious mind.
Ap
Dijksterhuis in his experiments to measure the effectiveness of the unconscious
brain in its decision making abilities performed 3 experiments that involved
choosing or evaluating different alternatives based on positive and negative
attributes. Participants were divided in 3 groups and different groups were
allowed come to a conclusion about the alternatives in different ways. The
first group was asked to come up with instantaneous evaluations, the second
group was asked to come up with an evaluation after careful consideration
(consciously) and the third group was asked to come with an evaluation after a
period of time in which they were distracted by another task, which occupied
their consciousness, unconsciously. It was proven in all three experiments
that the group which was allowed to think about the different alternatives
unconsciously stumbled upon the right evaluations and picked the alternatives
with the most positive attributes more often than the other 2 groups.
The "radical plasticity" thesis
Axel
Cleeremans, a professor of cognitive science with the Department of Psychology
of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, in his paper "The
radical plasticity thesis: how the brain learns to be conscious", proposed
the idea that conscious brain is a product of unconscious brain's attempts at
predicting the consequences of its actions on the external world. The paper
also states that the activity of one cerebral region and its effect on the
other regions of the brain. According to "radical plasticity"
thesis, thinking and reasoning are the products of the unconscious mind's
ability to decipher and process countless possibilities and predict the
consequences of taking a certain course of action. In contrast, the conscious
mind is only able to process the outcomes of no more than a couple of courses
of action during decision making.
The
brain unconsciously learns to re-describe its own activity to itself in terms
of possibilities and probabilities and generates a method to allow activate
certain parts of its anatomy to help engender the most profitable outcome.
These learned re-descriptions, enriched by the emotional value associated with
them, form the basis of conscious experience.
Selected and edited from
Wikipedia [Underlining above my own. rho]
** **
And, I should include the
following:
** **
Hidden personality
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
Hidden
personality is the part of our personality structure
that is determined by unconscious processes.
Sigmund Freud and Carl Rogers theorised that people
have a 'hidden' personality of which they are not aware. Although both theories
are developed through years of clinical experience, they are based on very
different assumptions. It is argued that Rogers' theory is to be preferred over
the Freudian model because it is more in tune with findings of contemporary
scientific research.
Sigmund Freud
The
basic assumption of Freud's psychoanalytic view of the person is an energy
system in which all mental processes are considered to be energy flows, which
can flow freely or can get sidetracked or dammed up. Freud argues that the goal
of all behaviour is the reduction of tension through the release of energy,
which produces pleasure. People function in accordance with hedonistic principles,
seeking unbridled gratification of all desires. The endless pursuit of pleasure
is, however, in conflict with society and civilization, as the uncontrolled
satisfaction of pleasure is not accepted. In Freud's view, humans are primarily
driven by sexual and aggressive instincts. Sexual and aggressive energy
prevented from expression in a more direct way are converted to cultural
activities such as art and science. Energy used for cultural purposes is,
however, no longer available to sexual purposes and Freud concludes that the
price of civilization is misery, the forfeit of happiness and a sense of guilt.
Freud's
theory of personality is based on the idea that much of human behaviour is
determined by forces outside awareness. The relation between the person and
society is controlled by primitive urges buried deep within ourselves, forming
the basis of the hidden self. Freud argues that much of our psychic energy is
devoted either to finding acceptable expressions of unconscious ideas or to
keeping them unconscious. Freud constructed his concept of the unconscious from
analysis of slips of the tongue, dreams, neuroses, psychoses, works of art and
rituals. In psychoanalytic theory, mental life is divided into three levels of
awareness. The largest portion of the mind is formed by the unconscious
system and only a very small part by the conscious. The preconscious-system
stands like a partition screen between the unconscious-system and consciousness.
The conscious mind is like the tip of an iceberg, with its greatest part - the
unconscious - submerged. Psychoanalytic theory is fundamentally a motivational
theory of human behaviour and Freud claimed that "psychoanalysis aims at
and achieves nothing more than the discovery of the unconscious in mental
life".
Carl Rogers
Humanist
psychologist Carl Rogers opposed psychoanalytic personality theory as he was
dissatisfied with the 'dehumanising nature' of this school of thought. The
central tenet of humanistic psychology is that people have drives that lead
them to engage in activities resulting in personal satisfaction and a
contribution to society: the actualising tendency. This tendency is
present in all organisms and can be defined as the motivation present in every
life form to develop its potentials to the fullest extent. Humanistic
psychology is based on an optimistic view of human nature and the direction of
people's movement is basically towards self-actualisation. Some might criticise
Rogers as being a naive optimist and point out the violent history of humanity.
Rogers defends his view by referring to the fact that his theory is based on
more than twenty-five years of experience in psychotherapy.
A
person's identity is formed through a series of personal experiences, which
reflect how the individual is perceived by both him or herself and the outside
world - the phenomenological field. Individuals also have experiences of
which they are unaware and the phenomenological field contains both conscious
and unconscious perceptions. The concept of the self is, according to Rogers,
however, primarily conscious. The most important determinants of behaviour are
those that are conscious or are capable of becoming conscious. Rogers argues
that a notion of the self that includes a reference to the unconscious (as with
Freud) cannot be studied objectively as it can not be directly known.
Rogerian
personality theory distinguishes between two personalities. The real self is
created through the actualising tendency, it is the self that one can become.
The demands of society, however, do not always support the actualising tendency
and we are forced to live under conditions that are out of step with our
tendencies. The ideal self is the ideal created through the demands of society.
Rogers does not see it as something to strive for (that is the real self) but
an ideal imposed on us we can never fully reach. Rogers' view of 'hidden'
personality relates to the person one could be given the right circumstances
within society. For an individual to be truly happy and for self-actualisation
to be realised, the public and hidden selves must be as similar as possible.
Rogers believed that when all aspects of a person's life, surroundings and
thoughts are in harmony and thus the ideal state of congruence is reached.
Carl Jung
Jung was
a Swiss psychiatrist who became one of the most famous and influential
psychological thinkers and innovators of all time. Early in his career, Jung
studied with Sigmund Freud and was thought to possibly succeed Freud as the
leading promoter of Freud’s brand of psychoanalysis. Later in his career Jung’s
thinking diverged significantly from Freudian psychology in ways that are
directly relevant to the concept of the inferior function. Jung viewed human
personality from a broad perspective, so his system for understanding
individual differences and similarities is complex. Jung saw the human psyche
as containing everything necessary to grow, adapt, and heal itself. He believed
that people were capable of directing their own personality development and
benefiting from both positive and negative life experiences (Quenk 2002).
In his
studies, Carl Jung divided the psyche into the unconscious and the conscious
minds. Freud viewed the unconscious as containing the Id, the Superego and the
Ego, whereas Jung developed a different model. He described the unconscious as
consisting of two major components: the Personal Unconscious and the Collective
Unconscious (Quenk 2002).
Jung
looked at all behavior including neurotic symptoms as ways of stimulating an
individual's growth toward completion. He was interested in personality
development as it occurred over the life span and saw it as an ongoing process.
Personal Unconscious
The
Personal Unconscious, as conceived by Jung, encompasses the totality of what
Freud recognized as “the unconscious” and corresponds to what most of us
intuitively associate with the term “unconscious mind.” It contains those
elements of our own unique life experience, which have been forgotten, ignored,
repressed, suppressed or otherwise blocked from consciousness. Some of these
elements can be easily recalled into consciousness at will, while others may be
more difficult to access or retrieve. In simpler terms, the Personal
Unconscious are the thoughts, ideas, emotions, and other mental phenomena
acquired and repressed during one's lifetime.
The Collective Unconscious
Many
philosophers have advanced the theory that the human mind is a “blank slate,”
capable of being molded by our upbringing, which includes social experiences.
In working with patients, Carl Jung observed the development of repeated themes
in different people’s artwork, dreams and fantasies. Yet he noticed that many
of these themes had no relation to and could not have originated from any
connection to the person’s own individual life experiences.
Jung
concluded that, in addition to our Personal Unconscious, we each possess a
deeper aspect of the unconscious. It was in identifying this second unconscious
region that Jung’s model differentiated itself from Freud’s.
Naming
it the Collective Unconscious, Jung theorized that this region contained
psychological elements not developed during the course of our own lives, but
passed on through our common evolutionary history to all members of our
species. There are shared, fundamental elements that make up the Collective
Unconscious and generate a limiting framework around which our psychic material
organizes. He referred to those as Archetypes.
Archetypes
are the fundamental elements of the collective unconscious. Jung, states that
every human being is born with a psyche that expects to engage, influence, and
to undergo certain life milestones. For instance, our psyches have evolved to
expect us to be born, to expect us to have parents, to expect us to encounter
particular types of other people and creatures with which we share the earth,
to expect us to have children, and to expect us to eventually die. These
fundamental psychological expectations have become embodied, Jung claimed, in a
common set of basic tendencies in the unconscious that predispose us to
generate particular ideas, concepts and imagery related to them. These
tendencies are the Archetypes.
Foundations of Personality
Freud
and Roger's theory of personality are based on some very different assumptions.
Their concept of human nature and the role of rationality in human motivation
are diametrically opposed. Although both theories include a hidden personality,
both concepts are very different in that for Freud it is our natural state,
while for Rogers it is the self-created by the demands of society.
Human Nature
Freud
theorised that people have an unconscious mind that would, if permitted,
manifest itself in incest, murder and other activities, which are considered
crimes in contemporary society. Freud believes that neuroticism is a result of
tensions caused by suppression of our unconscious drives, which are
fundamentally aggressive towards others.
Rogers
agrees that we may behave aggressive and violent at times, but at such times we
are neurotic and are not functioning as fully developed human beings. Rogers
reverses Freud's concept of neuroticism and thinks that what Freud has
construed as our natural state of being is actually unnatural and unhealthy
behaviour. For Rogers, the core of our nature is essentially positive and
aligned towards self-actualisation, while for Freud, we solely are driven by
sexual and aggressive instincts. Recent research support Rogers' point of view
as it has shown that people with an optimistic style of thought tend to cope
more effectively with stress than do people who have a pessimistic style.
Reason in Human Behaviour
Revolutions
in the history of science have one common feature: they deconstruct our
convictions about our own self-importance. Copernicus moved our home from
centre of the universe to its periphery, Darwin relegated us to descent from an
animal world and Freud discovered the unconscious and deconstructed the myth of
a fully rational mind. In Freud's view, human beings are basically irrational and the
unconscious mind is alogical. We are forever driven by irrational, practically
uncontrollable unconscious instincts that are the ultimate cause of all
activity.
Rogers
sees human beings as basically rational and behaviour is controlled through
reason. Rationality and the actualising tendency are inseparably connected in
Rogers' basic image of personality. Human behaviour is, according to
Rogers: "exquisitely rational, moving with subtle and ordered complexity
toward the goals the organism is endeavouring to achieve". The natural
course of the actualising tendency is, however, often blocked by psychosocial
conditions. When this happens, people become estranged from their true nature
and may behave irrationally through anti-social and destructive behaviour.
Hidden Personalities
The
Freudian concept of the unconscious mind was never experimentally verified by
him and remained a theoretical construct. Critical questions about what is
available to immediate observation and what occurs unconsciously could never be
fully answered by Freud as he did not possess any of the current day
technological possibilities. Through contemporary cognitive science, it has
been discovered that most of our thought actually is unconscious, not in the
Freudian sense of being repressed, but in the sense that it operates beneath
the level of cognitive awareness, inaccessible to consciousness and operating
too fast to focus on.
Unconscious
processing goes on in the mind of humans, not because we have to filter out
threatening stimuli and impulses, but because many cognitive operations go on
without conscious participation. The brain operates in this way in order not to
flood the conscious part of the mind with impressions. The unconscious is a
type of process, a way of constructing perception, memories and other kinds of
cognition, not a portion of the mind. This view agrees with Roger's concept of
the unconscious, who theorised that the unconscious is only a part of the
phenomenological field and does not control our personality.
Aside
from Freud and Roger's views on the hidden personality there is a simplified
idea of stress. When our hidden personality emerges it is also referred to as
out-of-character episodes. These are essential to our general well-being as
well as helping to continue our own personal growth and development. When a
hidden personality emerges it's also called being 'in the grip'. This refers to
the times when the inferior function is being showcased. This happens when we
are low on energy and under great stress. Stress is defined as any external or
internal event that lessens or depletes one's mental and physical well-being.
Stress is a necessary and sufficient stimulus for bringing out our hidden
personality. Unconscious contents are charged with energy that must be
discharged in order for a person to function comfortably and with minimal
tension and distress. One of the most powerful and universal ways human beings
deal with being unacknowledged, unconscious thoughts and feelings is through
projection. Because the inferior function is appropriately understood as an
unconscious process that is subject to the mechanism of projection. Projection involves
attributing to others an unacknowledged, unconscious part of ourselves-
something that lies outside our conscious awareness. What we project onto
others can be negative or it can be positive. In Jung’s psychology, projection
often accounts for our initial attraction to or rejection of others. A person
may be a ready “host” for one or more aspects of our own unconscious, and it’s
a way our psyche regulates itself. Equilibrium is maintained when people
eliminate their contradictory ideas or feelings (Quenk 2002).
We are
all capable of using our tertiary and inferior functions when a particular task
requires them.
Jung
suggested that we all have instincts that pushes us to grow toward completion,
or to become the best possible version of ourselves. This goal is called
individualization, a state of self-awareness or self-actualization we strive
for and hardly ever achieve. Jung saw the lifelong quest of individualism as
more important than focusing on an unattainable end point.
Conclusion
Both
Freud's and Rogers' theory of personality are based on some very basic
assumptions and occupy opposite ends of the spectrum of views on human
motivation. When comparing both theories with contemporary research in
cognitive psychology, Rogers' personality is to be preferred over the Freudian
model.
Selected and edited from Wikipedia
** **
1640
hours. I have the material but have to clean up the ‘blue print’, that is fill
in with new in black and delete the blue because it normally ‘kicks back’ into
the Internet when clicked upon. This takes time but I am also re-reading along
the way and being reminded of what I learned in a variety of university classes
in psychology many years ago. It is interesting to do – like a quick refresher
course. In this greater blog I mostly relate this sort of material to some
aspect of research in neurology. Re-learning (reminding) only takes time. I
love Wikipedia. Time for a break (1648)
Mid-evening. Post. - Amorella
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