Psychology Articles

In 1972, Thomas Nagel first introduced what is now known as the “epistemic gap” amongst contemporary philosophers. It was described in his paper “What Is It Like To Be A Bat?” and the gist of the argument was this: one cannot fully understand the mind unless one is experiencing that mind.

Nagel took the example of a bat because bats are so fascinatingly different than humans; they hang upside down most of the time, use echolocation, they are nocturnal, and most eat nothing but insects. Could a human ever convincingly claim that he knew what it was like to be a bat? Nagel didn’t believe this was possible – I agree.

Can the same be true amongst humans? Can another human fully understand the mind of another, or, does one have to be in the first-person to understand the mind more clearly?

Philosopher Frank Jackson wrote a paper in 1982 titled “Epiphenomenal Qualia” where he introduced the famous thought experiment known as Mary’s room. It goes like this:

“Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like ‘red’, ‘blue’, and so on. She discovers, for example, just which wavelength combinations from the sky stimulate the retina, and exactly how this produces via the central nervous system the contraction of the vocal cords and expulsion of air from the lungs that results in the uttering of the sentence ‘The sky is blue’. (…) What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a color television monitor? Will she learn anything or not? It seems just obvious that she will learn something about the world and our visual experience of it. But then is it inescapable that her previous knowledge was incomplete.”

These arguments by Frank Jackson and Thomas Nagel are two of the most famous papers in support of the idea of qualia – a term used in philosophy to describe the subjective quality of conscious experience. It is an idea often associated with the mind/body dualism (the belief that the mind is in some-part nonphysical, and therefore a separate entity from our physical bodies).

The epistemic gap does not prove any such thing however, and it is perfectly compatible with a materialist view of the mind. The real questions that the epistemic gap provokes is within the field of psychology and the scientific method itself.

Science is science – we believe – because of its objective, empirical, and third-person approach to knowledge. Science has often given men the ability to step outside of the happenings of natural phenomena, study them, test them, replicate their findings, and come to conclusions.

There is no doubting the breakthroughs and advancements science has come to offer man throughout the centuries. It would be foolish to deny these achievements.

Even in Western psychology (which is quite a young field relative to the natural sciences), researchers have made incredibly discoveries of the mind and how it works. We have devised useful models for how the mind perceives sensations (Psychophysics), how it processes information, stores memories, and solves problems (Cognitive Psychology), how the mind changes throughout the human lifespan (Developmental Psychology), how the mind builds associations and how these associations affect our behaviors (Learning or Experimental Psychology), how the brain or the “physical anatomy of the mind” works (Neuropsychology), and we’ve been given the chance to take all of this information and apply it to a variety of other fields: Clinical Psychology, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Sport Psychology, and even Forensic Psychology.

There is no denying the leaps psychology has made, all in the name of proper science. This is knowledge we would likely have not gotten any other way if it were not for the extraordinary and rigorous scientific method.

However, there is good reason to believe that Nagel and Jackson are right and that we cannot fully explain or understand a mind from an outside view. This is the belief that once science carries out its full course of discoveries that there will be something left unsaid about the mind (our understanding of the mind could never be as complete as our understanding of the physics on our planet). Unless – we redefine science.

But I believe we already have the techniques used to fully understand a mind – or at the very least, our own mind.

To understand this technique properly, we need to first drift away from the Western logical positivist philosophy of “if you can’t measure it, then it isn’t real,” which I believe has plagued much of modern day intellectual thought. Instead, I turn to the philosophies of the East – who have been studying the mind far, far longer and far more thoroughly than the West.

In particular I am fond of Buddhism which – like Western Science – takes pride in an objective approach to the study of phenomena. But there is a important property of the mind that Buddhists acknowledge and scientists go out of their way to ignore: the mind is – before all else – something that must be experienced first-person, or it wouldn’t be a mind at all.

This brings me to the practice of meditation – or more generally – a mindfulness of our inner worlds. There is a world in all of us that is subjective, personal, and completely our own. We cannot let anyone in it no matter how colorful our language or how much experience we share with another human being – it is ours and ours alone – and there are aspects to it that can only be dealt with by our self; no therapist, psychologist, family member, friend, scientist or spouse can ever figure it out for you.

Neither Buddhism or Science can rightfully claim to know how to bridge the gap between the subjective and objective. Both try their best to be objective at different vantage points: Science takes a third-person empirical approach while Buddhism takes a first-person empirical approach. Why can’t the study of the mind include both?

There is a fast growing interest in the West in meditative practices, yoga, tai chi, and other mind/body, holistic and alternative medicines for physical and mental health. This suggests there might be a vacancy in the West’s psyche, perhaps due to a combination of an incomplete scientific view of the mind along with an overwhelming nihilistic and atheistic attitude toward what would be deemed the spiritual or “mystic” aspects of man.

Many of these so called mystical practices are lumped into the demeaning pop psychology term “New Age.” Followers of so called New Age practices are said to be gullible and weak-minded – and perhaps some of them are. But it is also my belief that introspection and reflection on one’s mind can be the most rewarding and therapeutic practice for better mental health, the sharpening of one’s mental skill set, and a complete understanding of how the mind truly works (in the context of how it operates in the head of the individual and not by inference of a third-person observer).

Because of this I am very welcoming of these alternative and non-scientific studies of the mind. I in no way mean to deter scientific practices (I believe their should always be a science of the mind and a scientific study of human psychology), but I will stand up for the little guy on this one – science is not the giant be-all end-all of knowledge. It has its limitations, and we must be open to alternative studies of the mind. Sometimes we should turn our senses inward — and we may find there is some gold of truth to be discovered.

http://www.theemotionmachine.com

Recent research employing new and alternative approaches reveals how it is possible to help individuals release multiple traumatic memories stored in their minds/bodies quickly and easily. It has been my experience that such approaches rapidly accelerates the emotional healing sought by many traumatized individuals today.

Traumatic or negatively charged memories may remain accessible or at other times may become completely buried and unconscious. In the latter case the amount of “pain” associated with them is so great that the individual often fears the re-emergence. In the former such memories are sufficiently available to be released once and for all. As many such experiences have similar emotional roots by working on the more available ones the less available ones also begin to emerge ready for release.

Some of the benefits of releasing multiple negative memories among many included the rapid restoration of inner emotional strength and resilience, inner peace, a reclaiming of significant amounts of vital life energy, greater confidence, a feeling of lightness and joy, and greater functional abilities.

There are also very significant reports from the individuals involved in these studies that have subsequently experienced themselves in a more grounded and spiritual way then ever before.

It is a repeated experience that such approaches are rapid and effective not only to release trauma rapidly but also to help individuals achieve deep spiritual states that are only accessible via deep meditation alone.

The scope and applicability of such alternative approaches have far reaching effects on health, reducing stress, enhancing performance, ethical living and working, improving leadership capacities, anti aging and beauty enhancement, weight loss, enlightenment, empowerment, the amelioration of anxiety and depression like states.

To learn more about this process kindly visit the web site below

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Many people have tried to decipher the mysterious meaning of dreams throughout our history, but only the psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung managed to discover the right way to interpret the dream scenes and images, because of his arduous research.

Jung studied the dream formation and the content of many dreams from patients who suffered from grave mental illnesses, besides dreams of ordinary people, comparing them and analyzing each detail of each dream many times.

He looked for the meaning of each dream symbol in our history and analyzed the work of the alchemists, besides the art and religion of many civilizations.

His discoveries were amazing, but the scientific world could not evaluate them, because in order to do so, the scientists would have to precisely follow Jung’s steps, which only a few people did.

Carl Jung was a beginner, since he was the one who discovered the hidden code for the comprehension of the strange dream language, and he was not a translator; he was a doctor. This is why his interpretations were not perfect, even though he discovered the perfect way to translate the dream images into comprehensible terms.

A language is a form of expression. Therefore, it can be better understood and analyzed by a writer like me than by a doctor like him. I was able to very much improve his interpretations, transforming his vague and obscure method of dream interpretation into a clear and exact method of dream translation thanks to my literary talent, since the translation of the dream symbols is similar to the interpretation of poetry in many points.

Besides that, I continued his dangerous research into the unknown region of the human psyche translating dreams, and I went right to the end of this journey, while Jung stopped at a certain point, because he was afraid of the craziness that he knew that exists a priori in the human brain.

If you want to learn what the exact meaning of your dreams is, you have to study the dream language, respecting the discoveries of an expert. I could prove that he really discovered the right method of dream interpretation by relating many scientific discoveries in many different fields that happened after his death.

I proved that Carl Jung was correct in too many ways…

If I had to disagree with his final conclusions, it was because I had evidence and information that he didn’t have at his time of life, and I had to continue his work discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, but he is the researcher who must be honored, because he looked for the hidden meaning of dreams very deeply, and really found the correct answers.

Thanks to the accuracy of his interpretations, I could continue his research and discover the most important part, being this way able to simplify his method, and give you today the most perfect translation of the dream symbols with very short descriptions.

Don’t believe in any other method of dream interpretation, because everyone else is wrong.

Only Carl Jung discovered the right way to interpret dreams, and only I, who had the opportunity to prove that he was correct, could finally complete his mission.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung’s research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.

Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

The issue of self-esteem is perhaps one of the greatest determinates in creating a life of freedom and abundance, or feeling inhibited and “just getting by”. Self-esteem is defined as “a feeling of pride in oneself”. It is how you feel in relation to yourself rather than how others see you. It’s between you and, well… you. Therefore, it’s not necessary to be so concerned about what others think to determine your level of self -esteem, as the definition does not include any “others”, just you. So where can you help yourself to better understand you? There are so many aspects of you but one that is of great importance is that of your mind.

In the ancient wisdom of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, there are five hindrances or afflictions of the mind that are collectively known as the klesas. An understanding of each of these hindrances can help play a part in the discovery of self, leading to a feeling of well-being, connectivity, and greater self-esteem. The hindrances are as follows: ignorance (avidya), egoism (asmita), attachment (raga), aversion (dvesa), and clinging to life (abhinivesah). Encountering the afflictions without being aware of them creates stumbling blocks on the path to self-realization. The afflictions will arise at different times in life, but if one has spent time studying them, one may be able to recognize them for what they are and move through them with a certain level of personal understanding.

The first hindrance is ignorance of the true self which is the building block for all of the other afflictions. It can be described as an incorrect understanding of oneself that is the culmination of years of unconscious actions, thoughts, and words that one has become dependent upon as part of one’s being. Sound familiar? How many times have we replayed old tapes over and over in our head until they become so embedded in our persona that we begin to self-realize these false beliefs? From ignorance, derives judgments of oneself and of others. By understanding the various afflictions and where they originate, one may transcend a lifetime absorbed in ignorance.

The second hindrance is egoism which is the identification of the self with what one is not- the body, mind, personality, emotions, senses, accomplishments, failures, and possessions, or lack thereof. You may be thinking, “People with low self-esteem are certainly not showing an ego problem.” Well, it actually is an ego problem, as the concern over what others think dominates many choices and actions in daily life. In egoism, the practice of remaining in the moment and being a non-judgmental witness comes in handy. In truly observing what is happening in life as it is, rather than placing violent judgments on self, others and situations, one may experience life with a limited ignorance. Imagine viewing the world through a camera lens and just seeing what is-nothing else.

The third hindrance is attachment which arises from the ego’s idea that more is better and of the fear of losing what one already has in his/her possession. Are you keeping up with the Jones’? Do you really need to be? More stuff just means more upkeep; right? As one progresses on the life path, experiences occur that cause feelings of great pleasure. One may cling to these things in hopes of experiencing the feelings over and over again. Attachment is looking outside of oneself for validation and bliss. The reality is that external factors come and go; it is the internal true self that remains a constant. “Happiness is found within”, is a timeless phrase and it is unconditional and independent of any outside circumstances or people. Freeing, isn’t it?

The fourth hindrance is aversion which is also a form of attachment, but in the negative sense. The experiences or circumstances that one does not want to have, or is repulsed by, comprise aversions. Aversions are typically based on fear of the unknown, unfamiliar, or years of subconscious mechanical thought. Fear plays a big role in issues of low self-esteem. Attachments and aversions are both relative in that what is a good/bad experience or feeling for one may not be so good/bad for another. Any attachment or aversion springs from the imagination and can be construed as clinging, and therefore, in turn, suffering. By practicing detachment to either aversions or attachments, one can see a situation for what it is rather than what it is perceived to be.

Clinging to life or the fear of death is the final hindrance. It is self-preservation and the fundamental will to live in one’s body on this Earth. This affliction is said to be experienced even by the very wise. It is ultimately the understanding of this affliction that will set us free. Each individual would come to terms with this hindrance by their own accord in relation to their own belief system regarding death and what happens when we leave our physical body. It is my sense that we are eternal in spirit.

The klesas are complex and interwoven. By increasing the understanding of each affliction, one may begin to identify them when they surface in life. In knowing where the reaction, situation, or behavior is derived, the individual may be better able to experience the true sense of the moment in awareness and without judgment. By remaining open, one is able to receive the perfection in every moment.

It is a daily process to connect with oneself in understanding, but one that can create a life that is, for the most part, joyous, peaceful, and full of love. With practice the sense of self-esteem will continuously improve and the feelings of a life connectedness will deepen. Try it for yourself as this all begins and ends with you. For, it’s what you think that really matters.

“The mind is everything; what you think, you become.” (Buddha)

Copyright 2005~Deborah L Shipley is a yoga teacher, a writer, and a devoted mother. You may contact her at dlshipley@comcast.net.

“Behaviour is ultimately the product of the brain, the most mysterious organ of them all.” Ian Tattersall (from Becoming Human.Evolution and Human Uniqueness, 1998)

The question of why we are motivated to certain behaviours is perhaps one of the most fundamental in Psychology. Since Pavlov described conditioning in dogs in his famous 1927 paper, scientists have pondered the origins of motivations that drive us to action. For most of the early twentieth century, behaviourists like Watson & Skinner sought to explain behaviour in terms of external physical stimuli, suggesting that learned responses, hedonic reward and reinforcement were motives to elicit a particular behaviour. However, this does not tell the whole story. In the last few decades, the school of cognitive psychology has focused on additional mechanisms of motivation: our desires according to social and cultural factors having an influence on behaviour. Furthermore, recent advances in neuroimaging technology have allowed scientists an insight into the vast complexities and modular nature of specific brain regions. This research has shown that behaviours necessary for survival also have an inherent biological basis.

The biological trigger for inherent behaviours such as eating, drinking and temperature control can be traced to the hypothalamus, an area of the diencephalon. This article will explore the hypothalamic role in such motivated behaviours. It is important to note that a motivated behaviour resulting from internal hypothalamic stimuli is only one aspect of what is a complex and integrated response.

The hypothalamus links the autonomic nervous system to the endocrine system and serves many vital functions. It is the homeostatic ‘control centre’ of the body, maintaining a balanced internal environment by having specific regulatory areas for body temperature, body weight, osmotic balance and blood pressure. It can be categorised as having three main outputs: the autonomic nervous system, the endocrine system and motivated behavioural response. The central role of the hypothalamus in motivated behaviour was proposed as early as 1954 by Eliot Stellar who suggested that “the amount of motivated behaviour is a direct function of the amount of activity in certain excitatory centres of the hypothalamus” (p6). This postulation has inspired a wealth of subsequent research.

Much of this research has been in the field of thermoregulation. The body’s ability to maintain a steady internal environment is of critical importance for survivalas many crucialbiochemical reactions will only function within a narrow temperature range. In 1961, Nakayama et al discovered thermosensitive neurons in the medial preoptic area of the hypothalamus. Subsequent research showed that stimulation of the hypothalamic region initiated humoral and visceromotor responses such as panting, shivering, sweating, vasodilation and vasoconstriction. However, somatic motor responses are also initiated by the lateral hypothalamus. It is much more effective to move around, rub your hands together or put on extra clothes if you are feeling cold. Similarly, if you are too warm you might remove some clothing or fan yourself to cool down. These motivated behaviours demonstrate that in contrast to a fixed stimulus response, motivated behaviour stimulated by the hypothalamus has a variable relationship between input and output. This interaction with our external environment may be a ‘choice’, however it is clear that the motivation to make these choices has a biological basis.

The mechanics of thermoregulation can be explained by what is sometimes referred to as ‘drive states’. This is essentially a feedback loop that is initiated by an internal stimulus which requires an external response. Kendal (2000) defines drive states as “characterised by tension and discomfort due to a physiological need followed by relief when the need is satisfied”. The process begins with the input. Temperature changes are picked up from peripheral surroundings by thermoreceptive neurons throughout body which sense both warmth and cold separately. An electrical signal (the input) is then sent to the brain. Any divergence from what is known as the ’set point’ – in this case a temperature of approx 37° – will then be identified as an ‘error signal’ by interoceptive neurons in the periventricular region of the hypothalamus. Armed with these measurements and temperature signals being relayed from the blood, the hypothalamus then launches an appropriate error response. This includes motivating behaviour to make a physical adjustment, e.g. to move around or remove surplus clothing in an attempt to control your temperature.

This type of feedback system in the body is common. Other systems necessary for survival such as regulation of blood salt and water levels are regulated in a similar way. However, the processes that motivate us to eat is much more complex.

Humans have evolved an intricate physiological system to regulate food intake which encompasses a myriad of organs, hormones and bodily systems. Furthermore, a wealth of experimental research supports the idea that the hypothalamus plays a key role in this energy homeostasis by triggering feeding behaviours. Controlling energy balance is of crucial importance and eating is primarily to maintain fat stores in the event of food shortage. If fat cell reserves in the body are low, they release a hormone called leptin which is detected as an error signal by the periventricular region of the hypothalamus. This then stimulates the lateral hypothalamus to initiate the error response. In this case, we start to feel hungry which in turns initates the somatic motor response by motivating us to eat .

Since the hypothalamus also controls metabolic rate by monitoring blood sugar levels, in theory we seem to have a similar feedback loop to temperature control. However in practice this is not a reality. The main difficulty in maintaining energy homeostasis is that motivation does not rise solely from internal biological influences. Cultural and social factors also play an important part in motivation about when, what and how often to eat. In western culture, social pressures to be thin can override the need to eat and in extreme cases like anorexia the drive state becomes reversed. The motivation is no longer to eat because they are hungry but is instead not to eat so they do feel hungry. This corruption of the reward system is well documented and is associated with delusions of body image, a concept which is also linked to the hypothalamus and the parietal lobe. Problems can also occur if an individual receives over stimulation to eat. The prevalence of obesity in today’s society is testament to this fact.

Author: Kellieanne McMillan (Glasgow University, BSc Neuroscience)

We are almost completely unaware of the evolution of psychic function. We believe that people of ancient times were exactly like us, as if conscious human nature was born, like Paul Bunyan, in it’s present form, without any need for psychic leaps of understanding-perhaps most of which haven’t happened yet. Whether as archeologists, historians, sociologists, or anyone studying ancient times, we draw conclusions about motive and state of mind based upon present-time human consciousness, assuming that psychically we always have been like we are today, and always will be exactly the same.

Indeed the entity least studied on planet Earth is human nature. We know as much about ourselves as we know about the deep sea, less than 10% of which has ever been explored. We’ve found very exotic wonderful animals on the bottom of the ocean, and we’ve imagined strange and unfathomable traits in the dark recesses of our unconscious. But both deep places remain as mysterious and unknown as paleontology or archeology was 200 years ago-which may be how long it will take us seriously to understand ourselves.

After over 100 years of clinical study one would think that psychology would have revealed much more information. In a sense it has, though that knowledge is perceived so obliquely that we can’t see the forest for the trees. Studying ourselves is still very much like trying to understand the normal function of deep-sea creatures when the only way we can accurately examine them is to remove them from their natural environment. Indeed, except for psychotherapy, the study of psychic human nature is treated as a function of brain physiology, as if the human spirit derived from grey matter. Instead the human psyche is an intangible, ephemeral spiritual entity, unlike any other living creature, capable of observing and knowing itself.

Humanity has evolved some very virtuous and wonderful traits, like our ability much of the time to restrain a powerful tendency toward violence, and a capacity for thoughtful sensitive acts of caring and love. But in the study of psychology our principle efforts have been committed to discovering various kinds of psychopathology. Because of this emphasis upon illness, not much illumination has been shed upon normal human psychic function, which has been defined almost entirely in a negative way, as the absence of psychopathology. What a strangely dark cast to put upon what is assumed to be, in its normal state, at least in part the epitome of happiness and satisfaction? Why this predominant emphasis upon dysfunction?

Curiously, in spite of this clouded perspective, most of us regard ourselves as perfectly normal. If so, why do we spend so much time studying human pathologies? The average person would explain this as evidence that it’s the shrinks who are crazy, looking for insanity everywhere else but in themselves. In contrast professionals mostly avoid the issue, or put a positive cast upon what is by definition negative phenomena-in other words, pathology. There is at present a strong cultural movement to regard everything previously perceived as abnormal, as if it were indeed the epitome of normal. This includes everything from food binging to criminality.

In trying to make everything okay, yet professionally continuing to study the intimate details of psychopathology, what are we wrestling with? Insisting that we’re all perfectly normal, yet secretly worrying about things that feel quite beyond our capability, we struggle with how to put the pieces of this strange contradictory puzzle together. As a result of the environmental movement, many of us have begun to think of ourselves as a cursed and destructive species that deserves to be annihilated for the safety and survival off all other living things. Most likely, if we put all of this contradictory evidence together, it means that we’re gnashing our teeth in the sometimes-frightening dilemma of finding out just who we are-in spite of our pretense that we already know.

Until the last 200 to 300 years we’ve been exclusively the property of God, Who has, since time immemorial, defined who we are and what we’re not, or shouldn’t be. Though all of this defining was, and still is for many, done in the context of good and evil-which, if you look at it carefully, is a very primitive system of understanding. It has only two alternatives-instead of millions, a number that characterizes the complexity of the ecosystems that science has revealed to us.

The multiplicity of options our study has unveiled in the realm of physical reality has made possible the proliferation of our proudest achievement-technology. We are so enamored of the miraculous power technology has given us, we can’t stop watching the thrill of it erecting and exploding things. There’s strong evidence that we would prefer to be a machine in order to give us superhuman strength. In a sense we’ve all become computer nerds in order to occupy and master what many regard as the brain-god of the future.

Meanwhile back at the farm, psychology-actually psychotherapy, the best laboratory for the study of the human psyche-continues to unravel the mysteries of psychopathology. In our private thoughts, and sometimes within a social context, we fully accept the guilt of this negatively charged concept of human nature, while we also strongly resist it openly being applied to ourselves. So which view is true?

The answer is perhaps a mixture of both perspectives, meaning what we’ve discovered in psychopathology is true about us, but on the other hand, these dysfunctional traits aren’t pathological, though they can be very painful and frightening. Is it perhaps normal to be, and do what for so long we’ve called crazy?

Lets consider this radical option and see where it takes us. What we discover immediately is that a remarkable man, a Princeton psychologist, Julian Jaynes, has been here before us. He proposed just such a theory in the 1970’s (The Origin of Consciousness), which asserted that prior to about 3000 years ago, the vast majority of humans hallucinated! If that is so, perhaps what we call psychosis, with its delusions and hallucinations, represent a normal stage in the evolution of the human psyche.

What Jaynes discovered both academically, and in his own life-he occasionally hallucinated, as do many non-psychotic humans-was that the human brain evolved to make hallucination very easily accomplished. Electrically stimulate the only connective tissue between the brain’s right and left lobes, and most people will momentarily be delusional or hallucinate. But for what purpose would nature play what seems, at first glance, to be such a dirty trick upon us? The answer is in order to be able to off-load much of human experience until it could be gradually understood and integrated into a more evolved mature psyche, capable of containing what, to an earlier human, was unimaginable.

Having lost the ability to hear commanding voices telling us to do what we could not internally comprehend, humanity suffered deeply for eons of time, revealing why oracles, the use of psychedelics and trances, for instance, were so terribly important to ancient civilization, and up to the present time, in our efforts to bring the voices back.

To illustrate what may well have been a gradual and painful evolution of psychic capability, consider just one concept it has taken humanity tens of thousands of years to evolve-democracy, in some ways that is still poorly conceived. This enlightened political idea failed to happen for so many centuries not because of oppression, as we normally assume, but because a sufficient majority of humans were not yet capable of assuming the responsibility-or even imagining it-of being sufficiently independent of the social matrix to presume to have a mind of their own, putting them at odds with, and outside their family or social group. Imagine the emergence of selfhood in a child growing up as a reenactment of that evolutionary process.

A second question emerges. If hallucination is an evolutionary part of human nature, then what psychic strategies followed it as a replacement? Total psychic maturity most likely didn’t follow immediately, and may never entirely be accomplished. The answer is to be found in today’s most-studied form of psychopathology-borderline personality, more accurately known as someone who employs dissociation.

Psychosis exists in a psyche unable to contain all of its personal experience as something, at least partially, originating from inside. Instead part of what that psyche is, feels and thinks must be heard and obeyed in large part as a command from an external source. In sharp contrast, dissociation is a psyche capable of containing much, if not all experience, but who is able to pay almost no attention to what is external. The severely dissociated personality operates instead from a made-up, pretended, personal fantasy system that makes it possible to live in what we like to call the real world, but to regard all external stimuli as completely unreliable, threatening and perhaps even deadly.

Whole societies, obviously of a very warring nature, have functioned in this way.

The psychopath is perhaps the best-known example of severe dissociation, as someone who appears utterly without conscience, meaning any regard whatsoever for anyone else. Though they pretend they do, becoming very skilled at appearing entirely sympathetic to others, but only in order to be able to entice them into being a pawn in their usually malevolent game plan-treating the world the way it treated them, as dog eat dog.

In general dissociation means literally to put out-of-sight, out-of-mind-the way we used to regard and treat children precisely because they are primitive in their function, and we didn’t want to be contaminated by this primitive content. Denial is one of the strategies of dissociation.

In the case of non-psychopathic dissociative personality, others don’t suffer; they do, very deeply. They have cut themselves off from the real world because the one they occupied as a child was so utterly mortifying, terrifying, and dangerous, that they could arrange to survive by occupying primarily their own fantasy/body system. They remain fiercely loyal to their family of origin, ironically by learning not to see this terrible villainy; only in their private fantasy world could they believe in an ideal loving space, turning what is malevolent into something holy. They may pretend the outside is safe, but they meet it with indifference.

Perhaps the best-known example of such psychic functioning is in the book, and then movie, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden. It’s a story of a very disturbed girl who lived honestly only in the company of her private invented gods. The extent, to which children will go to prove their parents are good and they are bad-to protect the connection envelope-is beautifully revealed in the movie, Ordinary People, where a young man attempts suicide in order to take personal responsibility for, and conceal his mother’s hatred of him.

There is evidence to suggest that dissociation may be a generic defense of all humans, more or less. Truth is we ignore most of the evidence that passes in front of our noses every day. It’s not because we’re bad. It’s because we haven’t learned to integrate it. By way of illustration, lets consider a piece of history that is not well known, which has to do with the enormous difficulty of achieving a more perfect democracy.

“The Constitution will inevitably produce an oligarchy.”

It was Thomas Jefferson who said this, following ratification of the Constitution. That’s when he wrote the Bill of Rights to counteract that eventuality, though historians don’t teach that. Much of the how of governing ourselves by direct-vote-a true democracy- is something we can’t yet even imagine.

At first Thomas Jefferson tried to insert into the body of the Constitution the convening of a Constitutional Convention every 25 years-every generation-to facilitate updating it. So what have we made of it instead? A sacred document that will never change; responsibility is indeed an awesome experience, intimidating to consider.

But we should not be discouraged. In spite of all our shortcomings, humanity continues, with much stumbling, to make progress. The fact is we have evolved probably far more than we realize. Taking just a small piece of that movement, perhaps the greatest achievement of the 20th century will be the discovery that war, as annihilation-what it’s always been within the limits of technology-is unwinnable. The Bomb taught us that. This has begun to lead us to the realization that war must become exclusively preventative, to stop conquest and racial extermination-in other words to exterminate itself. This could make it possible for centuries of peace ruled by democratic principles instead of by tyrants, who have brought long years of peace before, but only as absolute rulers. Such prolonged stable conditions are required if the human psyche is to grow significantly larger.

My additional works can be seen at this website: http://donfenn.com

In many organizations with a strong hierarchical culture, we place a premium on the deep insights and reflective learning of our most senior leaders. In these organizations it makes a lot of sense in conventional times to value their insights above all others.

It would be normal in this kind of organization when faced with a challenge or problem, for the leader to think deeply and reflect upon his experience and come up with a design for a strategy that will lead the organization to success.

This kind of leader would typically assemble his staff and asked them specific questions for information he believed he would need in order to made the best decision possible. His staff would normally then go out to find the answers to these few questions and report back quickly with the required information.

Receiving the required information, the leader would then integrate these into his plan and produce the final solution and the organization would proceed into the execution phase of operations.

Under conditions of uncertainty however, the strategy for information gathering is not sufficient area when the world is so dynamic that the long and colorful history of the leader no longer applies to the uncertain future, then his deep insights actually are harmful to the cause.

Senior leaders in conditions of uncertainty must therefore actively encourage their staff to provide their deep insights which are developed from a close working relationship with the world. This later must set aside his seniority and generate the conditions whereby a team-based approach to learning and problem solving can be applied.

The more entrenched the hierarchy has been in the culture, the harder it will be for the leader to create those conditions. He must set aside his high rank and become emotionally vulnerable by revealing the limits of his knowledge and encouraging his subordinates to speak out especially when their ideas are different than his.

This form of emotional intelligence is not a natural condition for senior leaders to have developed in a hierarchical culture and makes the need for leader education in the new way all the more important as we look forward to an increasingly uncertain and dynamic future.

Ken Long, Chief of Research, Tortoise Capital Management
finance: http://www.tortoisecapital.com
essays: http://kansasreflections.wordpress.com

Independent research, combining technical analysis and behavioral psychology. 30 day free trial of reports and live trader chatroom. Training, education, mentoring and coaching for professional traders.

The dreams you see when you sleep are images that contain important messages, which are sent by the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is an independent brain, an organ in fact, that regulates the functionalism of your body and tries helping you develop your intelligence by eliminating the wild and absurd side of your conscience, and transforming it into a positive component of your conscious mind.

Since the unconscious mind is in fact a doctor and a teacher who lives helping you evolve, when you learn the dream language you have the opportunity to understand the important messages sent by your protector.

The knowledge you acquire translating your own dreams surpasses the limited knowledge of your civilization in this historical time, exactly because you enter in contact with the unconscious’ wisdom.

The possibility to learn everything you ignore and transform your personality gives you an extra power that you never imagined could ever belong to you.

You’ll feel far superior to the ignorant human beings, but don’t forget that you have a lot to learn, and that just because you’ll attain a higher level of knowledge this doesn’t mean that you should be proud of yourself. You should always be humble, and always remember your basic ignorance as a human being with very limited knowledge, and the indispensable necessity you have to study the dream language the more you can, so that you may absorb each detail of each dream message.

The preparation of the future according to what you desire, or according to what will be better for you even when you cannot change many factors, is by itself already an extraordinary power that many people would like very much to have, but this is something that only the scientific method of dream interpretation can provide you, because it is the most clear method of communication with the wise unconscious mind.

All the power you acquire comes from the wisdom of the unconscious mind. You are basically ignorant like everybody else, but since you have access to a font of wisdom, and you are transformed while you learn, your progress is extraordinary. It cannot be compared with your studies when you read what ignorant authors wrote about something, for example. They can be experts in their fields, but they are ignorant human beings at the same time, while the unconscious mind is only wise and knows everything.

Do you understand the difference?

By translating your dreams you have access to a font of wisdom that works like medicine for you, and you are in constant communication with your doctor and teacher, what means that you can ask many questions and receive all the answers in dreams.

The answers you receive may be different from what you had expected, because the unconscious mind always shows you first of all what is most important for your mental health, even if you care more about other matters, but everything you learn in your dreams is true and helps you succeed.

Besides that, you don’t need to be afraid of the unconscious mind, the same way you are afraid of other people, because they may have bad intentions while pretending that they are helping you… The unconscious mind is saintly and only protects you, helping you evolve and live happily. He is your doctor, and your teacher.

After eliminating the roots of absurdity from your brain and developing all your psychological functions, you’ll begin to learn many other things that today you cannot suppose, the same way that a child that is only in elementary school cannot imagine everything that a student learns in an university.

The power you acquire then is superior, and you are able to predict almost everything that matters in your life, without sleeping or dreaming, but only by observing the signs of your daily life, which work like short dream messages giving you information about the future.

You learn how to read other people’s minds and understand what their real intentions are by observing their behavior, besides having objective information about them in your own dreams, since you’ll be already advanced in dream interpretation.

When you reach this level, you’ll become wise too, like the unconscious mind, and the dream power will be part of your tools in life. This means that you’ll predict many things without any effort, and prepare the future development of reality without difficulties. This preparation will be part of your routine.

You won’t be dependent of external factors: you will control your life, following wise plans that will lead you to success in all fields.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung’s research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.
Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com
Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

Perhaps the best known name in the world of psychology is that of Sigmund Freud. Perhaps no other name provokes greater controversy. Was he a genius or a charlatan?

Born in Vienna to a middle class Jewish family, young Sigmund was the apple of his mother’s eye. A diligent and studious youth, he excelled in his studies and eventually qualified in medicine. He was drawn to the new science of neurology and became recognized as being an extremely skilled neuro-anatomist.

However, for various reasons, cutting and staining slices of brain tissue began to hold less and less appeal, and he began to lean towards psychology, and in particular, the treatment of what was then called ´hysteria´. Very fashionable in middle class, 19th century Europe, this malady was strictly the preserve of the female gender.

Crying, faintness, inability to cope, withdrawal and neediness seemed to be the main symptoms, and as late as the 1850´s some still held that it was caused by the womb moving upward in the body towards the seat of emotion, the heart.

Above all, however, the treatment of hysteria could be quite lucrative, and Freud – in somewhat difficult financial circumstances, began to build a substantial practice in that area. Initially, he used hypnosis, but soon abandoned it. Various reasons for this have been suggested, the most popular being that he was a pretty poor hypnotist!

He called his own system ´psychoanalysis´ and developed a technique, still used today, which he described as ´free association´. Essentially, this entails (even now) the client reclining comfortably, with the analyst out of his or her direct line of vision, saying whatever comes into his mind about his condition or concerns. Nothing may be held back, and deep introspection or mental analysis is discouraged. In theory, over time, this will lead to a better understanding of client’s condition, and thereby offer a solution or accommodation.

It is Freud’s theoretical contribution to the world of psychology which is the most fascinating, and which still stimulates sometimes violent debate. To really over simplify matters, Freud suggested a basic framework of the mind, and a belief that what ails you now is the result of what happened in your childhood. Pretty strong stuff, since the theoretical underpinnings of his work rely heavily on juvenile sexuality – a hot potato today, let alone in 19th century Vienna. Freud made a great impact, and at one stage, counted amongst his followers such luminaries as Alfred Adler and Carl Jung.

So, Freudian psychology – it’s all about sex, isn’t ´it? Well yes, but when Freud used the term sex, he did so in a very wide connotation encompassing practically any pleasurable sensation related to the body, and by extension,, to such feelings as tenderness and affection.

His great idea was that all of us have two basic drives – self preservation and the procreation of the species and from the way those develop in us as individuals comes our character, personality and behavior. He called this drive towards procreation ´libido´, (in a simple sense, desire) and suggested that as it developed in the child, it moved through more or less clearly defined phases, each linked to a particular stage of infant sexual development – oral, anal and genital – where the child was concentrated upon particular aspects of its life.

In the oral stage for example, the child’s first need and desire is to suckle, and this first stage persists for a considerable time. Freud thought that we never entirely lose this devotion to ´mouth pleasures´ as adults, citing such pleasurable activities as kissing, smoking and eating. The oral stage´ was overlapped by the anal stage, which generally coincides with the start of the child’s ability to control its anal sphincter, and therefore his ability to ´give´ or ‘withhold’ gifts at will.

In the genital stage, the child becomes aware of, and interested in his or her genitalia as a source of pleasure, and this stage lasts until about the age of five. From then, until puberty, there are no further stages of libidinal development, except quantitatively.

Although Freud took the view that these various stages were basically biologically determined, he conceded that social and parenting factors could influence the direction and rate of their development, and he held the view that each stage had to be completed successfully for the child to emerge as a well balanced adult.

Any disruption of any of these phases could result in ´fixation´, a stalling of development in which the adult would develop and display behavioral characteristics related to the point at which his libidinal development was interrupted. We have all probably heard of the ´anal retentive´ type of character – stubborn, controlling, possessive, with a “what I have, I keep” sort of personality. In Freudian psychology, feces became associated with possessions, and particularly money. Otherwise, the Freudians ask, why do we have such phrases as “stinking rich”, “filthy lucre”, or “rolling in the stuff”.

Time now to examine Freud’s Oedipus and Electra theories, the Id, Ego and Super Ego and see what has become of his theories today.

Not content with ascribing all sorts of adult problems to childhood sexual development, Freud went even further. He theorized that as a little boy passed through the genital stage; he developed strong sexual feelings for his mother, and an intense jealousy and distrust for his father, because the father is the stronger competitor for his mother’s love and affection.

This is the often referred to Oedipus complex and usually ends at about four years old, as the boy develops a distinct fear that his father will castrate him in revenge for his feelings about his mother.

Little girls go through a similar but opposite phase in which there is rejection of the mother and attachment to the father, which Freud referred to as the Electra complex. Freud suggests that we all need to go through these complexes in order to be able to develop healthy adult relationships.

In order to make sense of the seething mass of drives and emotions present in infants, Freud began to develop a complex theory of personality to try to describe why we behave as we do. He thought that infantile behavior was instinctive, without guiding thought or conscious decision, and referred to this impersonal primitive mass as the Id.

As the child grows older, and begins to use reasoning, part of the Id becomes detached to form the Ego, or self, whose purpose is to help determine what reality is like, and what form of behavior brings the most rewards – very selfish, one would think!

Later, a third component of the personality begins to form, the Super-ego. It results from the child taking on board the dictates of its parents, and the “rules” of the society in which it finds itself, and appears to mediate between the demands of the Id and the Ego.

According to Freud, females can never develop a strong Super-ego, resulting in them having a weak moral nature, and of course, leading to our expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the need for psychoanalysis! I think that we can assume that Germaine Greer would have something to say about that.

So when something goes wrong with us, and we decide we need psychoanalysis, what happens?

The object of the treatment is for the client to understand the nature of the drives and conflicts within him, and to adjust his behavior in the light of the information gained.

Typically, the client would be expected to attend four or five one hour sessions per week, for an average of five and a half years- one can see immediately that a great deal of faith and very deep pockets are a prerequisite for candidates for psychoanalysis.

Amazingly, it is still a popular therapy, despite a great deal of skepticism in the psychological community.

Norman is a partner in a counselling, hypnotherapy, psychotherapy and life coaching practice in Spain.

He also runs an online counselling/psychotherapy service at http://www.lifechangeonline.co.uk Why not visit and see what’s on offer?

PSYC8723 -Week Six Discussion Question #2: If an American Indian client has a habit of not showing up for sessions and attributes the absences to family issues that received priority, how would you deal with this? Do you brush the incidents aside and tell yourself it is due to the time orientation value of American Indians, or do you discuss the topic and bring the issue of cultural differences out in the open?

Dealing With Native American Clients

This is certainly a very interesting topic. I am part Native American myself, and now I can see why I have been accused of living too much in the “here and now.” As with the African Americans, D. W. Sue and D. Sue (2003) imply that family priorities are very important to Native Americans. Causing family discord or disharmony is not acceptable. As mentioned in the discussion question, time orientation is focused on the present rather than planning for the future. Deadlines and appointments may not take center stage if family matters are pressing. I am reminded of a story I once heard about Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi and his devotees were planning a demonstration march to protest British rule in India. Plans were elaborately made for weeks for this march. At the last minute Gandhi called off the march. Alarmed, his devotees asked Gandhi how he could do this? Extensive plans have been made. Everyone is ready. Gandhi replied, “Truth is relative. It changes from moment to moment. My allegiance is to truth, not to consistency” (Ram Dass, 1985) Gandhi was concerned that resistance to the march could lead to violence, so he called it off. He was living in the present moment.

I belong to a Student Assistance Team at the school where I am employed. There are about eight members of the team. To be successful, we need to learn how to work together, and sometimes this means we need to confront each other in a compassionate way. As a prelude to learning about each other and gaining an understanding of how we all function and learn, at the beginning of the year, we all took the Myers-Briggs Test of Learning Styles (Odyssey, 2003). This tests reveals information on how each of us processes information and how we learn. For example, an INFP personality would indicate that the person in Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceptive. Others on the team may be, as an example, ENFJ, which would indicate they are more extroverted and judgmental. This doesn’t indicate that one or the other is wrong or dysfunctional. It just indicates that the two process information differently. Using this test greatly enhances our ability to understand each member better.

In the same manner as our Student Assistance Team, I think that the proper way to handle this matter of lateness to scheduled appointments is by gaining a compassionate understanding of the client’s customs, priorities, and values, and a positive attitude. Since, the authors suggest that success with Native Americans in an academic setting appears to be most related to building a bond with faculty and staff (D. W. Sue & D. Sue, 2003, p. 318), I feel that the same type of approach would apply in a counseling session. I do not feel that direct confrontation would be a good approach, especially in lieu of the fact that, for one thing, a large number of Native Americans are considered to be at risk (D. W. Sue & D. Sue, 2003). Furthermore, indications in Chapter Eleven point to the fact that many Native Americans hold resentment for White customs, education, and influence in their lives. This is certainly understandable considering what our government has done to their culture over the past one hundred years. Building rapport with the client is crucial in addressing any matters that my tread on family customs or traditions. As therapists, we need to know what level of acculturation and assimilation our client has achieved before we attempt to assist him or her in making changes that we think would be appropriate for survival in the dominant culture.

As with the story of Gandhi, truth is relative. Our approach to suggesting change would be relative to their level of acceptance of us as therapists. This hinges on our success at taking the effort to understand them and their cultural values. It is only from this that true rapport could spring. Once this is established, mention of lateness to therapy sessions could be addressed. It should not be presented as any kind of reprimand, however., but rather, to assist the client to function better in the dominant society. This does not mean to accept its values, necessarily, but to learn to cope and function more effectively in it. A sense of humor would go a long way in enhancing both the client and therapist in understanding personal differences.

References

Odyssey, Inc. (2003). Coaching, Assessments, Consulting. [Web Document] Obtained on Internet in January, 2004 at: http://www.odysseycoaching.com

Ram Dass (1985) How Can I Help? [Tape Series] San Anselmo, CA: Ram Dass Tape Library
D. W. Sue & D. Sue (2003). Counseling the Culturally Diverse – Theory and Practice. 4th Ed. New York: Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Glenn Schuyler
Walden University Student
2004

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