Stream Of Consciousness (psychology)
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The metaphor "stream of consciousness" suggests how
thought In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, and de ...
s seem to flow through the
conscious Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, a ...
mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...
. Research studies have shown that humans only experience one mental event at a time, as a fast-moving ''mind-stream''. The full range of thoughts one can be aware of forms the content of this "stream". The term was coined by Alexander Bain in 1855, when he wrote in '' The Senses and the Intellect'', "The concurrence of Sensations in one common stream of consciousness (on the same cerebral highway) enables those of different senses to be associated as readily as the sensations of the same sense". But the man who popularized it is commonly credited instead:
William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...
, often considered the father of American
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
, used it in 1890 in '' The Principles of Psychology.''


Buddhism

Early Buddhist scriptures describe the "stream of consciousness" (
Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...
; ''viññāna-sota'') where it is referred to as the Mindstream. The practice of
mindfulness Mindfulness is the cognitive skill, usually developed through exercises, of sustaining metacognitive awareness towards the contents of one's own mind and bodily sensations in the present moment. The term ''mindfulness'' derives from the Pali ...
, which is about being aware moment-to-moment of one's subjective conscious experience(Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 4)" - Mindfulness Training as a Clinical Intervention: A Conceptual and Empirical Review, by Ruth A. Baer, available at http://www.wisebrain.org/papers/MindfulnessPsyTx.pdf aid one to directly experience the "stream of consciousness" and to gradually cultivate self-knowledge and wisdom. Buddhist teachings describe the continuous flow of the "stream of mental and material events" that include sensory experiences (i.e., seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touch sensations, or a thought relating to the past, present or the future) as well as various mental events that get generated, namely, feelings, perceptions and intentions/behaviour. These mental events are also described as being influenced by other factors such as attachments and past conditioning. Further, the moment-by-moment manifestation of the "stream of consciousness" is described as being affected by physical laws, biological laws, psychological laws, volitional laws, and universal laws.


Proponents

In his lectures circa 1838–1839 Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet described "thought" as "a series of acts indissolubly connected"; this comes about because of what he asserted was a fourth "law of thought" known as the "law of reason and consequent": :"The logical significance of the law of Reason and Consequent lies in this, – That in virtue of it, thought is constituted into a series of acts all indissolubly connected; each necessarily inferring the other" (Hamilton 1860:61-62). In this context the words "necessarily infer" are synonymous with "imply". In further discussion Hamilton identified "the law" with
modus ponens In propositional logic, (; MP), also known as (), implication elimination, or affirming the antecedent, is a deductive argument form and rule of inference. It can be summarized as "''P'' implies ''Q.'' ''P'' is true. Therefore, ''Q'' must ...
; thus the act of "necessarily infer" detaches the consequent for purposes of becoming the (next) antecedent in a "chain" of connected inferences. William James asserts the notion as follows: :"Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such words as 'chain' or 'train' do not describe it fitly as it presents itself in the first instance. It is nothing jointed; it flows. A 'river' or a 'stream' are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. ''In talking of it hereafter let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life.'' (James 1890:239) He was enormously skeptical about using
introspection Introspection is the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology, the process of introspection relies on the observation of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one's s ...
as a technique to understand the stream of consciousness. "The attempt at introspective analysis in these cases is in fact like seizing a spinning top to catch its motion, or trying to turn up the gas quickly enough to see how the darkness looks." However, the epistemological separation of two levels of analyses appears to be important in order to systematically understand the "stream of consciousness."
Bernard Baars Bernard J. Baars (born 1946 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands) is a former Senior Fellow in Theoretical Neurobiology at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, US. He is currently an Affiliated Fellow there. He is best known as the originator of ...
has developed Global Workspace Theory which bears some resemblance to stream of consciousness. Conceptually understanding what is meant by the "present moment," "the past" and "the future" can aid one to systematically understand the "stream of consciousness."


Criticism

Susan Blackmore challenged the concept of stream of consciousness. "When I say that consciousness is an illusion I do not mean that consciousness does not exist. I mean that consciousness is not what it appears to be. If it seems to be a continuous stream of rich and detailed experiences, happening one after the other to a conscious person, this is the illusion." However, she also says that a good way to observe the "stream of consciousness" may be to calm the mind in meditation. The criticism is based on the stream of perception data from the senses rather than about consciousness itself. Also, it is not explained the reason why some things are conscious at all. Suggestions have also been made regarding the importance of separating "two levels of analyses" when attempting to understand the "stream of consciousness". Baars is in agreement with these points. The continuity of the "stream of consciousness" may in fact be illusory, just as the continuity of a movie is illusory. Nevertheless, the seriality of mutually incompatible conscious events is well supported by objective research over some two centuries of experimental work. A simple illustration would be to try to be conscious of two interpretations of an ambiguous figure or word at the same time. When timing is precisely controlled, as in the case of the audio and video tracks of the same movie, seriality appears to be compulsory for potentially conscious events presented within the same 100 ms interval. J. W. Dalton has criticized the global workspace theory on the grounds that it provides, at best, an account of the cognitive ''function'' of consciousness, and fails even to address the deeper problem of its nature, of what consciousness ''is'', and of how any mental process whatsoever can be conscious: the so-called " hard problem of consciousness". Avshalom Elitzur has argued, however, "While this hypothesis does not address the 'hard problem', namely, the very nature of consciousness, it constrains any theory that attempts to do so and provides important insights into the relation between consciousness and cognition.", as much as any consciousness theory is constrained by the natural brain perception limitations. New work by Richard Robinson shows promise in establishing the brain functions involved in this model and may help shed light on how we understand signs or symbols and reference these to our semiotic registers. Daniel Kolak has argued extensively against the existence of a stream of consciousness, in the sense of someone having a continuous identity over time, in his book ''I am You''. Kolak describes three opposing philosophical views regarding the continuity of consciousness: Closed individualism, Empty individualism, and Open individualism. Closed Individualism is defined as the default common sense view of identity where one's identity consists of a line stretching across time, which Kolak, argues is incoherent. Empty Individualism is the view that one's identity only exists for an infinitesimally small amount of time, and an individual person has an entirely different identity from moment to moment. Kolak instead advocates for Open Individualism, which is the view that everyone is in reality the same being, and that the "self" doesn't actually exist at all, similar to
anattā In Buddhism, the term ''anattā'' () or ''anātman'' () is the doctrine of "no-self" – that no unchanging, permanent self or essence can be found in any phenomenon. While often interpreted as a doctrine denying the existence of a self, ''ana ...
in Buddhist philosophy. Derek Parfit is another philosopher who has challenged the idea of the existence of a continuous stream of consciousness over time. In his book '' Reasons and Persons'', Parfit describes the teletransportation paradox thought experiment, which describes the difficulties in distinguishing one's future self from an entity that is merely a copy of oneself.


Literary technique

In literature, stream of consciousness writing is a literary device which seeks to portray an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, either in a loose interior monologue, or in connection to his or her sensory reactions to external occurrences. Stream-of-consciousness as a narrative device is strongly associated with the
modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
movement. The term was first applied in a literary context, transferred from psychology, in ''The Egoist'', April 1918, by May Sinclair, in relation to the early volumes of Dorothy Richardson's novel sequence ''
Pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...
''. Amongst other modernist novelists who used it are
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
in '' Ulysses'' (1922) and
William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...
in '' The Sound and the Fury'' (1929).''Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms'', p.212.


Inner space

In
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
, inner space refers to works of psychological science fiction that emphasize internal, mental, and emotional experiences over external adventure or technological speculation, which defined it as "a category introduced to science fiction by representatives of the New Wave to designate internal, mental experiences as imaginary worlds with no connection to the real world" contrasts with traditional science fiction's fascination with outer space. Works from this genre appeared as part of the emergence of the New Wave in science fiction in the 1960s. They were popularized by English writer J.G. Ballard and associated with the New Wave movement in science fiction. Subsequent contributions by critics and writers such as Michael Moorcock, Pat Cadigan, and
Greg Bear Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American science fiction writer. His work covered themes of Interstellar_war, galactic conflict (''The Forge of God, Forge of God'' books), parallel universes (''The Way (Greg Bear ...
helped establish inner space as a recurring theme in science fiction discourse. Rob Mayo wrote that the 1980s was the second "golden age" of inner space, associated with writers such as Pat Cadigan and
Greg Bear Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American science fiction writer. His work covered themes of Interstellar_war, galactic conflict (''The Forge of God, Forge of God'' books), parallel universes (''The Way (Greg Bear ...
; he also notes the movie '' Dreamscape'' (1984), which he calls "the first inner space film". He notes that the genre once again returned the 2000s, here noting the movies '' The Cell'' (2000) and '' Inception'' (2010), as well as the video game ''
Psychonauts ''Psychonauts'' is a 2005 platformer, platform game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Majesco Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, Xbox (console), Xbox and PlayStation 2. Set in a Retrofuturism, retro-futuristic version of t ...
'' (2005). He notes that ''Inception'' marked "the transition of inner space fiction from a marginal genre ( SF literature) to a viable mainstream ( Hollywood cinema)".


See also

*
Edmund Husserl Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl (; 8 April 1859 – 27 April 1938) was an Austrian-German philosopher and mathematician who established the school of Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology. In his early work, he elaborated critiques of histori ...
* Free recall * Inner space * Mindstream * Monkey mind * Mind-wandering *
Phenomenology (psychology) Phenomenology or phenomenological psychology, a sub-discipline of psychology, is the scientific study of subjective experiences. It is an approach to psychological subject matter that attempts to explain experiences from the point of view of the ...
*
Qualia In philosophy of mind, qualia (; singular: quale ) are defined as instances of subjective, conscious experience. The term ''qualia'' derives from the Latin neuter plural form (''qualia'') of the Latin adjective '' quālis'' () meaning "of what ...
* Samyama * Self-discovery * Teletransportation paradox *
Train of thought The train of thought or track of thought refers to the interconnection in the sequence of ideas expressed during a connected discourse or thought, as well as the sequence itself, especially in discussion how this sequence leads from one idea to ...
* Visionary fiction


References

{{Consciousness Consciousness Cognition