Awareness can be understood as the ability to be aware of what is happening inside us, but also of what is happening around us. You can meet the terms subconscious and unconscious - how do they differ from the concept of consciousness and what is it?

Contents:

  1. Awareness: what is it?
  2. Psychological awareness
  3. Medical awareness

Awarenessis a mysterious phenomenon for most of us. Just as medicine has quite well understood the functioning of many different organs, the function of one of the organs is still unknown to this day - we are talking about the human brain.

Of course, the general principles of the functioning of the human nervous system are known, medics manage to conduct research on the effects of various neurotransmitters, but still many processes taking place in human minds remain extremely mysterious. One such puzzling aspect is awareness.

Awareness: what is it?

Consciousness can be defined differently. In Latin, consciousness was referred to as "conscientia", a word that was created by combining the words "con" ("with") and "scientia" ("knowledge"). In the past, the term "conscientia" was primarily used to describe secret knowledge, but in a broader, more metaphorical sense, it could be translated as knowledge that each person shares only with himself.

It is generally accepted that awareness means being able to be aware of internal processes (inside the body) and external processes (everything that happens outside the body). In such an approach, thanks to consciousness, people would be able to, inter alia, feeling pain or knowing about your own thoughts, but also awareness would allow you to orient yourself in the environment, i.e. to be aware of where you are at the moment.

Above consciousness has been connected with humans, but whether Homo sapiens is really the only species that has consciousness - it is not really known for sure. A lot depends on how broadly the consciousness is defined.

If we assume that one can talk about consciousness even when a given being is able to orientate itself in its own environment, then in such a case one canto talk about the fact that there is also consciousness in animals.

If we assume that the ability to analyze one's thoughts and emotional states is decisive for having consciousness, then animals would not necessarily be classified as organisms characterized by consciousness. But how is it really - modern medicine and the world of science simply do not know it.

Disturbances of consciousness: types and symptoms

Effect of mental awareness on the immune system

Onejroid syndrome: causes, symptoms, treatment

Psychological awareness

The issue of consciousness was one of the aspects that particularly interested the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. This eminent physician distinguished several different types of consciousness. The first was "pure" consciousness, that is, that part of the human mind to which we have full access at all times. In consciousness there are emotions and thoughts that are currently in our head and which we can analyze at any time and in every possible way.

There is another term closely related to consciousness, i.e. the subconscious. There are also various feelings and thoughts, although they are not so readily available at your fingertips. The subconscious is a kind of storehouse from which we can draw, but only when we really want to.

This can be explained very clearly: in consciousness, thoughts and emotions simply exist, the subconscious, in turn, accumulates various memories and emotional states, and only when we start to think about them, do they start to emerge from the subconscious. So it is not difficult to get to the collections of various mental states accumulated in this part of the human mind.

Yet another type of awareness is the unawareness. As in the two above-mentioned elements of the human psyche, there are various emotions and thoughts in the unconscious, but we do not have free access to them - at least without the use of special psychological and psychotherapeutic techniques.

What is a lucid dream and how is it different from a normal dream?

Autogenic Schultz training, i.e. relaxation and relaxation

Confusion: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

The role of the unconscious is very important, because it is where various heavy memories and thoughts go. In the case of this type of consciousness, various emotional states function in it, which - if they were within the conscious or subconscious mind - could lead to a significant nervous disorder. The unconscious accumulatesso different emotions that are crowded out by the human psyche.

The above-presented division of consciousness is often compared to an iceberg floating in sea water. Its apex is what is "visible" and to which access is very simple, i.e. consciousness. The transitional part - that is, what is only partially visible, but partially hidden - this is the subconscious. In such an approach, the unconscious is at the lowest level, it is what we cannot see at all, because it is "sunk" in the depths of water.

Medical awareness

Not only psychologists but also doctors are interested in awareness. The assessment of awareness is one of the basic aspects that are important, for example, when assessing the condition of a patient who has been a victim of, for example, an accident. If the patient's awareness does not differ from the norm, it is called "full awareness".

Patients may also have a variety of consciousness abnormalities known as a consciousness disorder. These include quantitative disturbances of consciousness (which are e.g. foggy consciousness or coma) and qualitative disturbances of consciousness (in which the patient's consciousness changes, but also various other symptoms may appear, examples of which are delirium syndrome and confusional syndrome. ).

Worth knowing

Who is most interested in consciousness and its different types?

Consciousness and its various types are among the aspects analyzed during psychotherapy (including psychoanalytic therapy). Earlier it was mentioned that the unconscious accumulates traumatic mental states and prevents them from appearing within the consciousness. This is to protect the human mind from a complete breakdown, although it is not an ideal mechanism.

Negatively marked emotions, accumulated in the unconscious, can affect the entire human behavior, including the state of his psyche. Mental conflicts in the unconscious - especially the unresolved ones - may become the cause of various problems in relationships with other people (they may be the source of problems, e.g. with proper functioning in a relationship), but they can also be the basis for the occurrence of such problems, such as various neurotic disorders or mood disorders. During psychotherapeutic sessions, in which the principles of psychoanalysis are used, individual levels of consciousness are analyzed. One of the goals of therapy may be to reach the unconscious (for this purpose, various techniques may be used, including analysis of dreams orhypnosis).

After gaining access to this part of the human mind, it is possible to find unresolved mental conflicts, and then work them through - the final effect of the therapy is to free the patient from mental states tormenting him ( although deep in his psyche) and improve his general functioning in the everyday world.

About the authorBow. Tomasz NęckiA graduate of medicine at the Medical University of Poznań. An admirer of the Polish sea (most willingly strolling along its shores with headphones in his ears), cats and books. In working with patients, he focuses on always listening to them and spending as much time as they need.

Category:

Psychology