Consciousness and Unconsciousness PDF

Consciousness and Unconsciousness Chapter I – Grade 12 Unit One - Man 01 Consciousness  Consciousness Among all creatures, man is very special and distinct. Man is a rational being who judges right from wrong, realizes facts and general principles, and distinguishes the good f...

Consciousness and Unconsciousness Chapter I – Grade 12 Unit One - Man 01 Consciousness  Consciousness Among all creatures, man is very special and distinct. Man is a rational being who judges right from wrong, realizes facts and general principles, and distinguishes the good from the bad. This special rational talent has been referred to as: thought, soul, spirit, the self, and consciousness. Definition Being conscious is to act, to feel, to think; and realize that we are acting, feeling or thinking. Being conscious is a very special event which establishes man in the world, not as a thing among things, and a creature among creatures; but also before the world and facing it. In this encounter, the world becomes to man an object to know, to understand, to judge or to transform. Thus, the world is set at a distance. Thought and action arise by this new and original experience of the separation of man from the world – which is established by consciousness. Consciousness is man’s distance from the world. The state of consciousness of the world surrounding us is possible by using our sensory perception, memory, and intelligence. Our five sense organs operate to establish the communication passage between the world and our consciousness of it. A sixth sense is available too to guide this consciousness into the individual’s inner world. It is often referred to as Intuition - a pre-sentiment a feeling that evaluates… This form of self-consciousness is the first stage of “the knowledge of the self” which was later developed into a method of self-analysis – Introspection– by traditional psychology. A reminiscent of the pioneer advocate of Free Thought: “Know Thyself”. —Socrates The only path for certain conclusions was through the use of doubt. Doubt is the means and certitude is the goal. In that age, the majority of thinkers began to resort to doubt as the only way and necessary tool that leads to the discovery of truth. Some historians say that modern intellectual history began sometimes in the Seventeenth Century when – largely as a result of Descartes’ teachings – Mathematics replaced Theology as the Queen of the Sciences. People became convinced that natural laws are always true everywhere and that the human mind is capable of understanding them. Faith in the powers of human reason persisted without effective scientific criticism for about two hundred years and provided the moving spirit of the great, optimistic period of modern history called the Enlightenment ≠ The Dark Ages. Anyone who might have questioned sovereign reason was refused immediately by examples from the natural sciences. (Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Darwin…) Condillac started by doubting to reach a major principle that may overcome any doubt: Sensory Data. That was how the British Empirical School came to exist. On the other hand, the French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650) developed a methodical doubt that led him to challenge traditional knowledge to reach certitude by depending on the “thinking self”. Descartes wanted to free philosophy from all assumptions, biases and doubts. He wrote that although almost everything could be doubted, he could not doubt that he was doubting. He began by doubting sensory data, then concepts, then mathematics, and arrived by the first truth – the “thinking self” – to discover the existence of God. In this process of discovery, he reached the certitude that whatever the mind can discover from sensory data to scientific inventions is true and beyond doubt. For the God of all goodness who had given the human mind the gift to acquire such knowledge, did not at the same time deceive it by any falsehood. Descartes identified thought with Consciousness. “To know is to be conscious that we know. No one can think without having consciousness of the fact that he is thinking. “I think; therefore, I am”. In referring to the body, he distinguished it from thought. According to him, man has a dual nature: spirit- conscious thought; and body – a fragment of space. What is unconscious depends on the body, and is not included within thought. The term unconscious denotes only the physiological mechanisms that are far beyond thought and consciousness. A method of self-analysis which was introduced by Maine de Biran. It is the conscious study of one’s Feelings, Acts, and Thoughts by directing one’s Intuition into his own internal world. Briefly, Introspection is the study of the self by the self. As inner psychic life cannot be examined or lived except by the individual himself; so “no one but myself can report what I feel exactly”. Thus, the best investigator of my psychic states is my own conscious self. Introspection has become the study of the self by its own self. So the self emerges as the examiner and the examinee – the subject and the object as one.  Characteristics of Consciousness Modern psychology considers consciousness as an aspect of behavior that must be studied objectively like unconsciousness. It succeeded in determining its following characteristics: Consciousness is an Intuition/Sensory Perception that enables man to build a direct contact with the external world as well as his own internal world. Consciousness is a faculty of selection. In writing a certain topic, my consciousness chooses the relevant ideas and excludes the irrelevant ones. Consciousness is a power of synthesis between the mental and bodily states. In the case of full attention, both the mind and body are set together in close union.  Characteristics of Consciousness Modern psychology considers consciousness as an aspect of behavior that must be studied objectively like unconsciousness. It succeeded in determining its following characteristics: Ribot viewed consciousness as having a physiological function that satisfies our needs for better adaptation to the environment. (The dormant tiger…under the oak tree…) According to Edmund Husserl, consciousness is a dynamic activity of one’s motivation (needs, interests, tendencies…) Hence, consciousness is a donor of meaning. For example: Do people of different interests observe or perceive the world around them in the same manner? “Every consciousness is a consciousness of something distinct” 02 Unconsciousness Unconsciousness Before the Twentieth Century, the notion of the Unconscious was unknown and unacceptable to traditional psychologists. Consciousness – which was considered as the only object of psychology was the pre-requisite topic in every psychological study. (Kant, Descartes, Maine de Biran…). However, some psychic phenomena like sleep, forgetting, and conditioned habitual behavior that exceeded the limits of consciousness raised a series of questions that led to assume the existence of the Unconsciousness. This new concept began treading new grounds with great difficulty due to the relentless opposition of traditional psychology. Definition Unconsciousness is that major part of personality composed of all tendencies, instincts, desires, and the internal psychic forces that seek expression by all means. The study of the unconsciousness leads to a better understanding of behavior (Freud’s view). Unconsciousness may be compared to the large part of the iceberg that is hidden under water. The small part which is visible above water is Consciousness. It is the seat of our instinctive impulses, repressed and forbidden inclinations, early childhood experiences, and very shocking and traumatic events. It is the internal psychic motivation of behavior.  PSYCHOANALYSIS: (I- A New Psychotherapeutic Method*) A scientific procedure [post-Hypnosis) by which the psychoanalyst reveals the hidden aspects of the analysand’s behavior reaching his unconsciousness. The history of psychoanalysis is related to its founder, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) who lived and practiced medicine in Vienna, Austria. Freud treated a group of patients who suffered from Hysteria. (Hysteria is a mental disease with diverse bodily symptoms: paralysis, deficiencies or loss of sensation, loss of speech…). The symptoms of hysteria did not have organic causes. In 1885, Freud traveled to Paris to attend a series of lectures given by  PSYCHOANALYSIS: (I- A New Psychotherapeutic Method*) In 1885, Freud traveled to Paris to attend a series of lectures given by: Charcot: the doctor who cured some patients of Hysteria by employing: Hypnosis: During hypnotic states, patients would become very suggestible. Charcot was able to determine a symptom in the patient or relieve him from another (similar to a puppeteer holding the strings to manipulate a puppet). Freud deduced from this discovery that the unconsciousness can often determine an individual’s behavior.  PSYCHOANALYSIS: (I- A New Psychotherapeutic Method*) Back in Vienna, Freud got introduced to the work of his colleague Joseph Breuer. Breuer treated a young girl called Cecily who suffered from the impossibility of drinking. During hypnosis, he kept asking her to remember the specific events and circumstances related to her symptoms. After much resistance, she relieved herself of the symptom after recounting the event which had determined it. (Entering the room of her severe governess, she saw the dog of the governess licking water from a cup). Freud deduced from the case of Cecily that a “neurotic” symptom which seems “meaningless” has in fact an unconscious meaning ignored by the subject herself /himself.  PSYCHOANALYSIS: (I- A New Psychotherapeutic Method*) Later, Freud began treating the neurotic patients that came to his clinic by utilizing the means of Hypnosis – a method that led to purify the patient from the painful souvenirs (personal past events that are negative and painful which cause problems to the analysand /hypnotized subject) that are hidden deep in the unconscious After some time, Freud found out that this purification process (reached by means of Hypnosis) led to some personality disorders by intimidating the patient. Patients experienced emotional blocks when requested to discuss painful and embarrassing feelings and experiences, and recall the events of childhood. Hypnosis led to short-term recovery and not a permanent one. When Hypnosis failed, Freud turned to the Method of Psychoanalysis.  PSYCHOANALYSIS: (I- A New Psychotherapeutic Method*) This method of Psychoanalysis calls forms the patient to relax and to say whatever comes to mind, without any effort to organize or direct his thinking in a state of full mental activity (consciousness). The basic problem to which Psychoanalysis is directed is that of helping patients to accept their emotions and feelings, and the demands and limits of society. The purpose of this psychotherapeutic method is that of locating focal points of conflict and maladjustment, and aiding the patient / analysand to recognize his thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and eventually her/his personality in order to bring about a better adjustment. (CATHARSIS)  In this aspect of trying to resolve mental problems, Psychoanalysis is a psychotherapeutic technique that uses Free Association: In his full conscious state, the patient relaxes on a couch in the psychoanalyst's clinic and says "whatever comes to his mind freely", without any effort to organize or direct his thinking in an attempt to reach the problem that is eating him up. (Similar to Introspection / Retrospection) Interpretation of Dreams: the patient's dreams for part of the repressed material found in the unconsciousness that was denied expression due to the failure of the "ego" and the pressure of the "superego". These dreams usually reflect instincts and desires expressed in symbols. The material of the dreams (events, symbols...) are analyzed by the psychoanalyst and explained to the patient. During dreams, we imagine ourselves expressing wishes, doing things we dare not do in reality, suffer untrue disasters, or enjoy untrue conquests.  In this aspect of trying to resolve mental problems, Psychoanalysis is a psychotherapeutic technique that uses Slips of the Tongue: they are verbal errors - words which are said to reveal a repressed belief, thought or emotion. A slip of the tongue is an involuntary substitution of one word for another that sounds similar but unintentionally reveals something the person really feels. (thanks: the breast dinner ever). Unintentional Acts: Types of behavior which express (physically). Some repressed desires buried in one's unconscious wishes / desires.  PSYCHOANALYSIS: (II- A System of Personality Theory) Psychoanalytic theory assumes that behavior is governed by unconscious forces. These forces are impulses, drives, instincts… that arise from the primitive (wild) part of our personality. These primal forces seek expression but are denied to do so as they contradict social values and traditions. The socialization of the individual leads to repress or to channel these forces, and the way this is done leads to personality formation.  According to Freud, three basic elements compose personality. They may look very similar to a triplex house; or to a stagecoach with a driver harnessing the “tamed” horses: the id, the superego, and the ego. ID Super Ego The Id is primitive disorganized The Superego which represents the idealistic emotions that are found in man’s self. In this section of personality is found primitive nature (impulses, drives, social traditions and moral censorship that instincts). The id contains all take the form of codes, laws, customs and unconscious and hereditary factors, commandments. (The Morality Principle) egoistic tendencies, desires, instincts, and the sexual drive. The id is motivated by (The fussy passengers of the stagecoach) the libido – The Pleasure Principle (the It represents the moral and judicial aspects running horses of the stagecoach). of personality It is concerned with the immediate discharge of energy or tension. Ego The Ego: As the nervous system of the child develops and gets in close contact with reality, a part of the id separates itself, and becomes organized. This part is the ego which denotes reason and common sense. The ego acts as The Reality Principle which functions as a referee and judge between the irrational energy of the id and the conservative values of the superego. (The driver of the stagecoach) The Ego regulates the interactions of the person with his environment.  ID Super Ego Ego It is noteworthy that the ego tries hard to set a compromise between the desires of the id and prohibitions of the superego. The id urges the ego to secure the satisfaction of its desires. However, such satisfaction depends on the role of the superego: It may permit satisfaction within limits and under certain conditions, or it may refuse by checking the unacceptable desires and repress them in unconsciousness. Whenever the ego succeeds in its effort of compromise, behavior is normal. But once the conflict is unresolved (with preference of the superego) theses desires become repressed, awaiting the opportunity to satisfy themselves. Very often they re-appear disguised in abnormal behavior such as Hysteria, Depression, Delinquency, Bullying, Aggressive Behavior… Dreams, Slips of the Tongue, or Unintentional Acts.  Development/Growth of Personality Freud’s concept of infantile sexuality: The libido (the sexual drive) is found in man since birth. Freud considered this drive at the basis of personality development. The oral stage: According to Freud, the first erogenous zone is the mouth, where a baby first gets pleasure from sucking, then from biting. If any psychic energy becomes fixated on the oral zone during the sucking stage, it will produce a dependent personality in the adult. The anal stage: In the normal course of development, sexual gratification shifts from the mouth to the other end of the alimentary tract. The child will begin to experience pleasure in the anal zone. If there is important conflict during the period of toilet training (holding back and not giving up), a person may grow up with an anal retentive character – neat, clean, compulsive, fastidious. (18 months → 3 years). At this stage, the child acquires his first lesson in socialization through his parents (the proper social behavior to use the toilet at the proper Time and Place)  Development/Growth of Personality Freud’s concept of infantile sexuality: The libido (the sexual drive) is found in man since birth. Freud considered this drive at the basis of personality development. The phallic stage: The third Freudian stage occurs when erotic impulses migrate to the sexual zone, and the child enters the phallic stage… Incestuous longings for the parents, who are the child’s first love objects, must be brought under control... When a little boy begins to feel sexual impulses towards his mother, Freud said, he becomes jealous of his rival, the father. Since his family crisis was discussed in terms of the Greek legend about Oedipus, who killed his father and married his mother, the boy’s dilemma is generally referred to as an Oedipus complex. (3 →6 years) In relation to Freud’s psychoanalysis Theory, Wordsworth claimed “The child is Father of the man” (The Oral, Anal, Phallic stages. The Seeds of Personality are found in the first 3 stages of Personality Development).  Later Psychoanalytic Theories: As psychoanalysis developed as a theory and as a form of psychotherapy, it produced a number of schools or variants, most of them the result of a schism among the ranks of Freud’s disciples. Alfred Adler (1870-1937) and Carl Jung (1875-1961) are the best known leaders of these schools. Adler proposed a concept of psychological development based on the idea that self-development and personal progress are the result of attempts made by the individual to compensate for feelings of inferiority and inadequacy. Both Adler and Jung placed less emphasis on the sexual nature of man than did Freud. Both conceived the self as playing a more important role in behavior than Freud’s ego, and both were far more concerned than was Freud with cultural and interpersonal factors in man’s environment. Adler’s ideas have made large contributions to theory and research in social psychology.  “Man with all his capacities, aspirations, and beliefs is not an accident but a product of the time. While he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future; and his thoughts - (Consciousness: Will, Intelligence – Reason and Imagination)- are as children born to him, which he may not carelessly let die. They provide the impetus for change.” —Edmund Spencer