Introduction to Psychology Label

 

Introduction to Psychology Label

My formal education in basic psychology, consisted of undergraduate courses Psych.101,102, which focused largely on perception and study techniques and, at NASA, numerous noncredit courses in various aspects of human relations. They included Eric Bernes's “Games People Play”, Transactional Analysis, Stress Management, Oral Presentations (an excellent course that included salesmanship, debate, and speaking to a hostile audience), Problem Solving, etc. Most of these courses were more useful than one would suspect because they were not taught by local practitioners but by expensive professionals.

All of these courses were helpful in some way in teaching me how to behave in certain situations, but they didn't do much in providing the information that I most needed. For that information I would have to delve deeper into all aspects of the mind, including the subconscious. This interest in depth psychology was driven by three motivations.

First, I needed to study depth psychology in order to understand and deal with the often difficult behavior of those that I dealt with on a daily basis. By necessity I had to interact with personalities that confused and frustrated me to the extent that I began to suffer debilitating migraine headaches Consequently, I studied the different Meyers -Briggs personality types, and the various aspects of the psyche (persona, ego, etc.), and how each affects the conscious behavior of the individual. This study gave me a more tolerant and understanding attitude toward others; and the migraines went away. I'll write more about each of these fascinating aspects of the subconscious mind.

My second reason for studying depth psychology arose from my research career. I had already found, from my own experience, that the process of innovating takes place largely at the subconscious level, and I wanted to learn more about that process. One of the courses that I took was about creativity and its relation to the paradigm. It was taught by Joel Barker. It had a profound affect on my thinking.. Once I came to a full realization of the power of this paradigm situation to paralyze the mind I began to take an interest in learning about the role that the subconscious plays in innovation, and how the subconscious interacts with the conscious mind. A few posts will deal with this study.

My third, and most important, motivation for studying the subconscious mind was to acquaint myself with myself – that is, to learn my own nature at every level of my mind, down to very depths of those shadows that I suppressed from my conscious mind. I felt a need to follow Socrates's admonition: “Know Thyself”. In addition to this advice from Socrates, there is a Biblical proverb (Prov. 23:7) that states: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he). I understand that by “in his heart”, he means, “at the deep subconscious level”, including that part that we suppress from our conscious minds. Thus it seems that if I truly want to know myself fully, I need to get acquainted with my own subconscious mind and its individual aspects – my own ego, persona, etc.

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