Aesthetics Assingment M.F.

A 2nd Semester Roll no 03 Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra

Submitted by: Bhawna Chandra

Submitted to: Mr. Anand Jaiswal

Levels of Mind

Human mind is a very complex entity. Sometimes we think about one thing, while
doing something completely different. Sometimes we do something, without thinking. This lack of alignment within personality is caused by the fact that human mind is working in different levels that are related, but they are sometimes in conflict. There are three levels of the human mind: Unconscious mind, Subconscious mind and Conscious mind. First level is the Unconscious mind. This level of human mind holds the control of the basic functions of the human body, breathing, heart beating, digestion, reflexes. Basically, it controls all automatic functions, without need to think about it. Though, by conscious will we can influence some of these functions. Second level is Subconscious mind. This level contains all knowledge, experience, habits, beliefs and attitudes toward life. Whatever we met and learned in our life is placed in this level, in our personal library. Every second of your life is recorded in this segment of mind. Your subconscious mind is enabler or prohibitor, depending what you adopted as your attitude toward something. If you placed belief that you cannot drive a bicycle, than you will not be able to drive it, since your subconscious mind tells you that you cannot do it. Third level of human mind is the Conscious mind. This is analytical part of the mind that analysis all data that comes in. Also this part of mind is filtering information that comes to the subconscious mind. Actually, the Conscious mind is aligned with what is already formed as attitude or belief in Subconscious mind. If the new information is in conflict with information that is already stored in Subconscious mind, the Conscious mind tends to block that information. This is why people seem to be difficult to change. More information already stored in Subconscious mind makes new information that is in conflict with current information to be rejected.

Of course everybody can change. It takes time effort and application of certain techniques. These techniques can be hypnosis, mantra, suggestive message received repeatedly, or simply a sudden event with the strong impact to the beliefs stored in subconscious mind. Basically, all of these techniques are bypassing the filter of the conscious mind and entering directly to the subconscious mind. For example, person that does not know how to drive the bicycle, due to strong belief that cannot drive the bike under any circumstances, can beat this belief by autosuggestion. A positive thinking about driving the bicycle, "Yes, I can drive the bike" repeated over and over can gradually change the belief system toward goal required. The process cannot go by force. The process needs to be gradual and persistent. During the whole process it is important to distract the blockers from the conscious mind. Simply breathing or counting can relax the body and conscious mind. The mind then enter the suggestive state when the new ideas can enter the subconscious mind, which can lead to creation of a new beliefs, or gradual alteration of current beliefs. The guidance of trained hypnotist can ease and accelerate this process. But whether you work on your belief system by yourself or with assistance, the process should go gradually without pushing. There is no such autosuggestion or hypnotherapy that can change your attitude if you resist.

Three components of personality

Clinical psychologist Don Bannister has described Freud's position on the human personality as being:

"...basically a battlefield. He is a dark-cellar in which a well-bred spinster lady (the superego) and a sex-crazed monkey (the id) are forever engaged in mortal combat, the struggle being refereed by a rather nervous bank clerk (the ego)."

Thus an individuals feelings, thoughts, and behaviors are the result of the interaction of the id, the superego, and the ego. This creates conflict, which creates anxiety, which leads to Defense Mechanisms.

Id
The Id contains our primitive drives and operates largely according to the pleasure principle, whereby its two main goals are the seeking of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. It has no real perception of reality and seeks to satisfy its needs through what Freud called the primary processes that dominate the existence of infants, including hunger and self-protection. The energy for the Id's actions come from libido, which is the energy storehouse. The id has 2 major instincts:

Eros: the life instinct that motivates people to focus on pleasure-seeking tendencies (e.g., sexual urges). Thanatos: the death instinct that motivates people to use aggressive urges to destroy.

Ego
Unlike the Id, the Ego is aware of reality and hence operates via the reality principle, whereby it recognizes what is real and understands that behaviors have consequences. This includes the effects of social rules that are necessary in order to live and socialize with other people. It uses secondary processes (perception, recognition, judgment and memory) that are developed during childhood. The dilemma of the Ego is that it has to somehow balance the demands of the Id and Super ego with the constraints of reality. The Ego controls higher mental processes such as reasoning and problem-solving, which it uses to solve the Id-Super ego dilemma, creatively finding ways to safely satisfy the Id's basic urges within the constraints of the Super ego.

Super ego
The Super ego contains our values and social morals, which often come from the rules of right and wrong that we learned in childhood from our parents (this is Freud, remember) and are contained in the conscience. The Super ego has a model of an ego ideal and which it uses as a prototype against which to compare the ego (and towards which it encourages the ego to move). The Super ego is a counterbalance to the Id, and seeks to inhibit the Id's pleasureseeking demands, particularly those for sex and aggression.

Energy and Cathexis

Freud viewed the forces on us as a form of energy, with energy from the senses being converted into psychic energy in the personality through atopographic

model that takes sensed energy, filters it through various associative metaphors, then passes it through the unconscious and preconscious before it finally reaches the conscious mind.

Object-cathexis
This is the investment of energy in the image of an object, or the expenditure of energy in discharge action upon such an object. It occurs in the Id.

Ego-cathexis
This is the investment of energy in mental representations of reality through associations and metaphors, which is needed for the Ego's secondary processes. It occurs in the Ego.

Anti-cathexis
This is energy used to block object-cathexes of the Id. Repression occurs in the battle between cathexis and anti-cathexis. It occurs in the Ego and Super Ego. Although later theories have improved understanding, Freud's ideas still provide a useful model for the more complex actions that are really going on. To persuade, you can appeal either to the basic urges of the Id or the higher morals of the Super ego. Then encourage the Ego to make the 'right choice'.