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- Herausgeber: David De Angelis
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
- The present edition is unique;
- The translation is completely original and was done for the Ale Society. Mar. SAS;
- All rights reserved.
In this nimble, smooth-reading little volume, renowned esotericist Dion Fortune, one of London's most famous psychoanalysts of her time, gives us an explanation of the workings of the mind and its structure.
All this can be easily understood and assimilated even by those who have never approached psychological and psychoanalytic theories, thus saving them the time and effort they would spend in reading the ponderous and often obscure tomes written on the subject by other authors.
On the other hand, since these mechanisms act continuously within each of us, it is at the very least appropriate that one be aware of their existence and their mode of action.
Dion Fortune clearly and unequivocally reveals to us that instincts, not reason, are the key to the human mind.
But if the primitive man lies at the base of our being, the divine man, however, lies at its apex, and it is up to each of us, in our personal spiritual ascent and journey, to find ways to mediate and use our primitive part to pursue and cultivate that divine spark that lies dormant in us.
And this book gives important keys regarding that.
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CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Physical Vehicle Of Consciousness
Chapter 2. The Evolution Of The Nervous System
Chapter 3. How An Idea Enters The Mind
Chapter 4. The Organisation Of The Upper Levels Of The Mind
Chapter 5. The Organization Of The Lower Levels Of The Mind
Chapter 6. Complexes
Chapter 7. The Instincts
Chapter 8. The Self-Preservation Instinct
Chapter 9. Diseases Of The Self-Preservation Instinct
Chapter 10. The Reproductive Instinct
Chapter 11. Development Of The Reproductive Instinct
Chapter 12. Diseases Of The Reproductive Instinct
Chapter 13. Sublimation
Chapter 14. Maladaptation To Environment And Psychopathology
Chapter 15. Conflict
Chapter 16. Repression
Chapter 17. Dissociation
Chapter 18. Symbolisation
Chapter 19. Phantasies, Dreams, And Delusions
Chapter 20. Psychotherapy
Chapter 21. Psychoanalysis
Chapter 22. Hypnosis, Suggestion, And Autosuggestion
Chapter 23. The Practical Application Of Psychology
Chapter 24. Conclusion
The Machinery of the mind
Dion Fortune
Foreword
I am very glad to have the opportunity of commending this little volume to those without any -previous knowledge, who desire to gain a clear idea of the way in which modern psychology regards the human mind.
For every time the words “psychology" and “psychological” were used in the newspapers ten years ago, they must be used fifty times today; and though very often some other word would do just as well, or a good deal better, this sudden vogue has a real meaning.
The public has become aware of the existence of psychology. People are beginning to realize that the human mind, the instrument by which we know and think and feel and strive, must itself be studied for its own sake if we are to gain a deeper understanding and a greater control of human life.
A distinct reaction from the rather narrow materialism of the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, an increased realization of immaterial, of "spiritual" values, has helped towards giving the mind its rightful place in human interest.
On the one hand, modern academic psychology has, for many years now, been gradually emancipating itself from the chaotic subjectivities of competing philosophies, and developing on really scientific lines, with the aid of accurate observation, comparison and experiment. Its genuinely and increasingly useful applications to education and to industry are evidences of that.
On the other hand, the remarkable results of psychoanalysis have been made widely known, though often with that misleading one-sided emphasis which seems fated to attend the popularisation of any branch of scientific enquiry. And these results have been found not only interesting but exciting (to some morbidly exciting) because they appeal to instincts and emotions which our civilisation represses and often perverts. Psychoanalysis has indeed become a fashionable craze, and as such has doubtless done a certain amount of harm and has met with a good deal of opprobrium from the serious minded.
But psychoanalysis has come to stay, because, however much it may be misused by the ignorant, the unbalanced and the half-educated, it is both a sound technique of research and a sound therapeutic method. And it certainly has a most important contribution to make to the psychology of the future.
This little book, which can be read through at a sitting, succeeds in the difficult task of presenting the rudiments of the modern view of the mind in an easy, lucid and attractive form.
Though I may not agree with every sentence she has written, Miss Firth's development of the subject, and of its very intimate connection with human life and human troubles, seems to me not only substantially sound and accurate, but essentially sane and well balanced. Her explanation of the different levels of the mind and of the censors by the metaphor of the tank and the sieves is particularly ingenious and helpful. The book will certainly succeed, to use the author's words, in "planting certain fundamental concepts in untrained minds so that they may serve as a basis for future studies.”
A.O. TANSLEY.
Introduction
ORIGINALLY given as a popular lecture course, this little book does not pretend to be a contribution to the formidable array of psychological literature. It is intended for those who have neither the time nor the training necessary to assimilate the standard works on the subject, but who want to know its elements and to understand the principles on which our characters are formed and the means by which the process of thought is carried on, not so much from the scholastic point of view, but in relation to the problems of everyday life.
It is hoped that many will find herein the key to things that have puzzled them in their own natures, for only those who hold such unsolved problems in their hearts can know how crippling and tormenting they are.
This book does not aim so much at an orderly setting forth of the elements of psychology as at planting certain fundamental concepts in untrained minds so that they may serve as a basis for future studies. To this end the writer has adopted a pictorial, almost diagrammatic method of presentation in order that a framework of general ideas may be formed into which details may subsequently be fitted, having found this to be the best way to convey novel concepts to minds untrained in web physical subtleties.
The teachings of no special school of psychology are adhered to; the writer is indebted to all, though loyal to none; holding that in the absence of any accepted standard of authority in psychological science each student must review the doctrines offered for his adherence in the light of his own experience.
This book is essentially practical in aim, written in response to a practical need. In her experience of remedial psychology, the writer saw that many cases of mental and nervous trouble would never have developed if their victims had had an elementary knowledge of the workings of the mind. She also found that many patients required nothing but an explanation of these principles to put them on the road to recovery, and that even when more than this was needed to effect a cure, such a knowledge greatly expedited the treatment by enabling the patient to co-operate intelligently.
So far as she is aware, there is no book that deals with psychopathology, not from the point of view of the student, but from that of the patient who needs an elementary knowledge of the laws of the mind in order to enable him to think hygienically. This book is written to fulfil that need. It is not only applicable, however, to those who are sick in mind or state, but to those also who desire to develop their latent capacities by means of the practical application of the laws of thought and character.
Chapter 1. The Physical Vehicle Of Consciousness
In order to arrive at an adequate understanding of mental processes it is necessary to have some idea of the machinery whereby the mind makes contact with the body.
Throughout every inch of our organism is a network of specialised fibres whose function it is to carry nervous impulses from the sense organs to the central nervous system of brain and spinal cord, and from thence out again to the muscles, glands, and other organs of reaction. The sense organs act as receivers of sensation, the nerve fibres as transmitters, the central nervous system as a general telephone exchange, and the muscles, glands and organs as the executers of the impulses of the mind.
Sense organs consist of cells, or sets of cells, specialised for the reception of particular kinds of impressions. That is to say, if the particular kind of stimulus they are fitted to receive is administered to them, a change, probably of a chemical type, takes place in their substance, which, it is thought, gives rise to energy of an electrical nature, which runs along the nerve fibre as along a wire. At the present moment, however, our knowledge of the nature of the nervous impulse is tentative and hypothetical.
