Personal Functioning
Preview
is the field of study. is required for survival and evolutionary success because it is the basis for , personal and social.
The «» is popularly conceived as a (metaphorical) instrument for handling or containing our and . However, it now appears to be a superfluous concept equivalent to .
Any complex real field of study is a system whose elements must be identified and ordered: this generates a —THEE.
The Field of Study
is an observable requirement for our survival. It is dependent on biological functioning but distinguished from it in being:
- a volitional property of a ‘whole person’ (i.e. bio-psycho-social);
- the generator of ‘psychosocial reality’ i.e. Worlds 2 & 3 in K. Popper’s schema, and philosophically labeled as metaphysical;
- called into play by ‘endeavours’;
- based in affective states (feelings, emotions).
Examples: comparing, intervening, visualizing, varying, planning, signaling, valuing, risking, feeling, knowing, arbitrating, choosing, helping, structuring, orchestrating, adapting, needing, obeying, judging, stabilizing, prioritizing, leading, representing &c.
Each distinguishing feature will be briefly explained in the Topics to follow.
Exit «The Mind»
I had previously followed common usage and referred to 'the mind' and to 'mental functioning'. But it seems increasingly likely that «mind» is an unnecessary concept from a scientific perspective. «Mind»cannot be observed. Everything attributed to it is a form of or of brain functioning.
It is a person who dreams, who risks, who judges, who signals, who acts &c—not a mind (and not a brain or neuronal circuit). All such has consequences for the person and for others.
More
We can still speak of «mind» as a metaphorical instrument that handles . If it makes reading easier, I may sometimes write as if it is the «mind» that meets our vital needs and responds to our inner pressures.
While it is impossible to study a non-existent non-observable «mind», it is perfectly possible to study both (in a metaphysical world) and concurrent biological changes including brain functioning (in the physical world).
Organisation: Findings & Conjectures
Speaking systematically about plunges us unavoidably into a complicated world. Below is a brief introduction that may confuse some readers because it is so new and different.
Research has clarified that can be represented as a non-physical system of systems. Each system is called a Domain, and there are two sorts of Domain: Root & Primary.
The Root Domain is named . It enables and , and ultimately supports both psychosocial and biological functioning through .
The is structured via distinctive manifestations into 7 Levels. Each forms a Primary Domain e.g. and are two and simultaneously the and . Primary Domains, which are largely under social control, guide and contribute to personal endeavours.
Each Domain is presumed to have its own evolutionarily acquired need
e.g. the serves the need for . Domains have complicated control systems to enable meeting those needs e.g. is the source of the control system within the .
in each Domain is shaped and driven, at times irrationally or destructively, by a specific felt pressure e.g. the is believed to be permeated by a pressure for certainty.
Psychosocial pressures are quasi-instinctual and are conjectured to emerge from neuro-biological systems. They can be temporarily assuaged, but not removed.
- generates a metaphysical reality: the psychosocial world.
- is best studied via endeavour.
Originally posted: 1-March-2015. Last amended 4-Jun-2015.