Lecture
Description of the world
Prototype
Hedonistic experience
A simple in the inner and outer in the external world can be represented by imagining a creature with the only need and living in the conditions of the given reality of the corresponding object. If, for example, we assume that his only need is food, then the absolute lightness of the outside world would be achieved by the fact that completely ready nutrients would come to his body. In this case there is no distance, no activity between the need and its subject, they seem to be in direct contact.
The external world is perfectly adapted to the life of the creature, there is neither surplus, nor deficiencies in this life, it can be "divided" into it without a trace. The external world is life-like, and therefore in the psychological world there are no special phenomena that, by their presence, would manifest the presence of the external world inside the psychological world and would thus serve as a kind of border between them. The life world and the outer world are merged into each other, so that an observer who would look from the subject would not notice the world and would consider this being substantial, i.e. not requiring another creature for their existence (141), and an observer from the world would not single out this creature from it, he would see, in the words of V. I. Vernadsky (41), simply "living matter".
The life of a subject in such a world is naked being, being completely open to the world. Strictly speaking, this creature cannot be called a subject, because it does not send any activity and does not thereby distinguish itself from the object. His existence is a pure culture of vital activity shrouded in infinite good, primary vitality, vitality.
We now describe the space-time structure of this world, its chronotop. Lightness from a space-time point of view should be interpreted as the absence of the “extent” of the external aspect of the world, i.e. as the absence of spatial distance and time duration in it. Phenomenologically, the first can be expressed as the unknown to a being living in this world, no “there”, in the reduction of the whole external space to the point “here”, and the second - in the reduction of the whole external time to the “now”. Thus, the phenomenological structure corresponding to the external aspect of the being being described can be designated by the expression "here-and-now." [ 35 ]
The simplicity of the inner world, or the absence of "conjugacy" between individual moments of the internal space-time, i.e. between the realization of individual relations of the subject, makes the latter completely detached from each other, completely isolated, completely blind to each other. In other words, simplicity (and, all the more, uniqueness as one of its variants) of the inner world means a reckless immersion in the realizable life attitude, chaining to a given place of the chronotope. At the same time, in the inner space there is no subjective connectedness of its areas, which is phenomenologically expressed in the abolition (more precisely, even of uncertainty) of any “that”, “other” in favor of the “this” (or “one”) that dominates itself. As for the internal time, it is devoid of sequence links, i.e. relations "first - then" between its individual moments. The moment that lies outside any orientation on the “before” and “after”, i.e. deprived of the future and the past, does not know its own end, its own time limit and from within, is phenomenologically perceived, therefore, as "always" (or "forever"). Thus, the internal aspect of this existence is being "this is always" (or "forever-one"), i.e. the present state is perceived here as that which was, is and will be, if we use temporary categories that are inaccessible to this world.
So, we have described an easy and simple world in its existential characteristics; now it is necessary to describe the world perception corresponding to this being. [ 36 ] Of course, it is somewhat strange to hear about the attitude of the creature living here, since, strictly speaking, we cannot even attribute to him the psyche. He does not need it: sensations are not needed, because the abiotic properties of objects (87) do not fall into the orbit of his life, attention is not needed - there are no alternatives for concentration, memory is not needed due to the lack of time and the like in the past and present, etc. . And nevertheless, the psychological description of this life cannot be complete unless the immanent attitude to it is revealed. This does not mean that we will describe a fiction, a world perception of this life has the same reality as itself, only it is dissolved in life, not separated from it. [ 37 ]
It is easy to understand that our experimental being leads a psychologically completely passive, passive existence: neither external nor internal activity in the light and simple world is needed.
Passion, generally speaking, differs significantly depending on whether it relates to present, upcoming or past events: now occurring events are undergoing, and if they are positive (good), then the emotional endurance appears as pleasure, and if negative like displeasure; the upcoming event is expected (if it is positive, then with hope, if negatively - with fear), past events are recalled (positive - with emotion or regret, negative - with remorse or relief)
As it was shown, the described psychological world is inherent in such a chronotope, in which there are no prospects and retrospectives, the past and the future, as it were, are pressed into the present, more precisely, have not yet been isolated from it. Therefore, suffering with regard to past and future events here is reduced to merely undergoing, and, therefore, all the potential diversity of the emotional development of time is reduced to pleasure-displeasure. The principle of pleasure , therefore, is the central principle of the worldview inherent in an easy and simple life; pleasure would be the goal and highest value of such a life if it were built and realized consciously.
It is important to point out the scale of emotions of pleasure and displeasure in this psychological world. The internal aspect of this chronotope, as we have seen, can be phenomenologically expressed as "it is always", i.e. every present state of affairs fills the entire possible space-time perspective. Therefore, if we allow any, the most insignificant from the external point of view, deprivation of the need of this being, then in terms of attitude it will correspond to displeasure, covering everything, endless, some universal horror, essentially death, for as pleasure here is a principle and a sign of life , so displeasure (instantly, due to the temporal-spatial characteristics of the world, swelling to panic) is a principle and a sign of death.
Prototype
The prototype of the considered existence and attitude can be the stay of the fetus in the womb of the mother, the infant existence (though to a lesser extent) and the corresponding infantile attitude of the world. The bases to consider “infantilism” as the prototype of the type we analyzed are quite understandable - it is the ease and simplicity of the “infantile” being: the world of the individual in this period of development itself ensures its life processes, without requiring it to be special activity nor to obtain life benefits, nor on coordination and conjugation their relationship.
These conditions of the uterine and infantile existence, through which every child inevitably passes, give rise to a corresponding attitude that forms the infantile basis of consciousness - some remaining in man, unavoidable, primary and basic layer, which throughout his life implicitly influences his consciousness and behavior.
Naturally, this attitude during the uterine period of development is still dissolved in vital activity, implanted in being. In other words, it is psychologically unmanifested, and therefore in itself it is devoid of any emotionality. Nevertheless, this attitude can be described as blissful, unclouded satisfaction in comparison with the disturbances awaiting him from the side of difficulty and complexity. This is a "plus", which does not yet know itself as a "plus", and only in a future collision with a "minus" will it reveal its original positiveness. The reversal of a person described in such a way, towards the "pampering sweetness of childhood" K. Jung associated with the symbolism of rebirth (166). [ 38 ]
Strictly speaking, the end of the prenatal stage is already marked by breakthroughs in the shell of this blissful state of satisfaction. First of all, this is, of course, the trauma of birth, but in the future the child suffers from temporary impairments of one or another need, because life circumstances and real properties of time make it impossible for one-time satisfaction of all his needs.
Any private pain (or dissatisfaction) of the infant, if its cause is not immediately eliminated, very quickly grows to the size of an all-encompassing horror (as far as you can guess from shouting, movements and facial expressions), covering the entire horizon of the child’s worldview because does not know the "spatial and temporal limits of pain," does not know ", [ 39 ] that it will ever end, because in his world there is still no such" once ". Such a spread of pain from a private organ or relationship to all relationships is extremely significant for the inner structure of the psychological world of early childhood: the individual relationships here are still psychologically undifferentiated, they form a certain amorphous mass, so that events in one part of it are easily extended to all others.
Hedonistic experience
It is the breakthrough of the shell of the light and simple existence that is the point from which we can approach the main subject of our theoretical reasoning — an experience corresponding to the described life world. The fact is that in this world itself, taken in all the purity of its characteristics, there is no place for experience at all, since the lightness and simplicity of the world, i.e. security and consistency of all life processes, exclude the possibility of situations that require experiencing. Moreover, even when being suddenly ceases for one reason or another to be easy and simple, and it means that such situations arise, a being “brought up” by an easy and simple world is not capable of experiencing in the exact sense of the word. It is not capable because experience necessarily implies the realization of ideal transformations of the psychological world (although it is not exhausted by them), and this being is devoid of any ideality. His livelihoods are completely material, bodily, and significantly intrinsic, since his external contacts are limited to the necessary input and removal of unnecessary substances that do not require him to be active. This being, not being able to “respond” to the critical situation that has arisen, either by external practical activity or by ideal transformations of the psychological world, responds to it with the only means available to it — internal changes. The latter corresponds to the concept of physiological stress reactions.
Does this mean that there is no experience at all that corresponds to a light and simple world, obeying the laws of this world, i.e. first of all the pleasure principle? No, it does not mean, because the infantile world with its laws does not disappear with the disappearance of its existential conditions, and these laws can determine the processes of experiencing.
If a living being has passed through the experience of simple and easy existence, then the phenomenological structures generated by such being are not a dead weight in the past life history of a given being, but are effective, ever-living and unremovable layers of its consciousness, and they are existential layers in the sense that they are they strive to determine the whole consciousness, to direct its processes in the direction corresponding to these structures, to impose their mode of functioning on the mind altogether. This vitality of infantilism (we will call it this existential-conscious formation generated by the simple and easy world) is explained very simply: in any life world, however difficult and complex it may be, no matter how powerful and diverse the developed ones would be. in him, the active, and psychic "organs" and the corresponding phenomenological structures, remains the inescapable primary vitality, the atom of which is the act of directly satisfying any need.
The acts of consumption, their meaning, meaning and role can be radically transformed in the new life world compared to what they were for the light and simple world (and they were life itself), but they always have a primary vital remnant living by the law pleasure. Thus, infantile structures, infantile consciousness are not only inherited by the subject from the former easy and simple life, but they are again and again produced by satisfying every need.
In a complex and / or difficult world, the consciousness that corresponds to this world pattern can be developed, but it does not abolish the infantile consciousness, does not take its place, but builds on it, entering into complex and sometimes antagonistic relations with it.
The infantile consciousness itself exists in the new life in the form of an attitude. This means that it is psychologically active, is not a dead layer of memories, but a craving for an easy and simple existence, the radical of which, on the one hand (from the external aspect of the chronotope of the light and simple world), is a striving for now "[ 40 ] to meet the need, i.e. to satisfaction that does not require effort and expectation, but on the other hand (corresponding to the phenomenological structure "always one") - striving for such full possession of the object of need (and even dissolving in it and identifying with it) that the life relation realized at the same time would overshadow the whole horizon of the psychological world, creating the impression of its uniqueness and forcing, thus, to forget about other relations and possible consequences for this satisfaction for them.
Such is the radical of the infantile installation. In order to determine the nature of the experiencing processes that it determines, it is necessary to pay attention to one feature of this attitude. Being the inertia of the former easy and simple existence (cf. 14), the infantile attitude requires the restoration of the blissful world perception lost with this existence. We emphasize: it is the attitude of the world, and not the easiest and simplest being. Why? The fact is that, as already mentioned, in an easy and simple first life all future differentiations (separate activity, infantile attitude, opposition to external and internal, etc.) exist in an undifferentiated unity and only potentially. This also applies to emotional outlook. The primary emotionally neutral state of the first life at the time of the breakthrough of the light and simple existence acquires a powerful positive emotional charge in contrast to the panic caused by this breakthrough. The infantile installation born at this critical moment “recognizes” the two states of being - “easy” and “difficult” (more precisely, “impossible”) not in their purity, but in the form of the corresponding perceptions of “bliss” and “horror”, “recognizes” and at the same time absorbs this affective polarity, as if putting down the vector of the dominant tendency on the phenomenological map of the world. From the inside of the infantile installation, as well as from the phenomenological position in general, being and consciousness are indistinguishable, it identifies the easy and simple being only by “blissful” world perception, and therefore the infantile setting is the mind of a thirst for this attitude, not worrying whether it is adequate or not. whether it is provided by existence, guaranteed for a certain period of time, at the cost of what consequences it is achieved, etc. All these questions do not even stand before the infantile consciousness.
It is quite understandable that the type of experience determined by this installation constitutes such transformative psychological world processes, which by their goals are aimed at achieving positive and avoiding negative emotional states, and by the nature of their implementation are unrealistic, subject to momentary impulses that do not take into account external and internal dependencies of life.
The analysis done in the first chapter gives grounds to assert that the processes of psychological defense correspond to this theoretically derived type of experience. Of course, complete coincidence of the theoretically described type. переживания, со всем полем известных защитных механизмов в принципе быть не может, во-первых, потому, что это описание слишком абстрактно, чтобы учесть эмпирическое многообразие способов психологической защиты, во-вторых, потому, что совокупность выделяемых защитных механизмов представляет собой скорее "кучу", чем некоторое организованное целое. Этот класс психических процессов не имеет, как мы уже видели, четких, однозначных и общепринятых разграничении ни внутри себя, ни с другими категориями психических процессов. И все-таки существует преобладающее представление о психологической защите, в котором главной целью ее признается достижение максимальной степени эмоционального благополучия, возможного в данных условиях (208), а сама она считается следствием когнитивного и эмоционального инфантилизма (190; 191), что и дает возможность именно процессы психологической защиты считать прототипом выведенного теоретически типа переживания, подчиняющегося закономерностям легкого и простого жизненного мира.
The described type of experience as a result of a theoretical movement carried out to date, although it can be correlated with a certain empirical, is still rather abstract. This, of course, means not that the promised “ascent from the abstract to the concrete” was not done, but only that this “ascent” was not completed. We come to such a point on one of the lines of "ascent", where the "energy" of the abstractions underlying the movement has exhausted itself, so further movement in this direction requires the "injection" of experienced, empirical knowledge, but, let's notice, not everyone, but the achieved under the guidance of already obtained abstractions. However, this is a special study task.
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Psychology of experience
Terms: Psychology of experience