Status Updates From Simply Psychology (DK Simply)

Traditionally, psychologist believe that hardwired, biological differences between the brains of men and women determine differences in their feelings and behaviour. However, research has shown that although most people are born with either a male or female body, the cultural environment in which they grow up has a great impact on whether they develop stereotypical masculine or feminine feelings or behaviours.

…Since this “ideal self” can never be attained, it degenerates into what Horney called the despised self. The real self, she argued, is a person’s natural self, which has an authentic picture of who they are. Being in touch with this real self is what Horney called self realisation. {attachment to ego, which can be fueled by social pressures/conditioning but I don’t sense that is the only cause}

Karen Horney believed that many psychological problems are caused by social conditioning rather than biology… She argued that, under healthy circumstances, people usually have a realistic idea about who they are and what they can achieve. However, due to social pressure, many people have an unrealistic, or idealised, image of who they ought to be….

The real… Is the world as it is “in itself”… We can either sense, understand, nor putt into words[Lacan] thought that because we can never know the real, we have a constant sense of incompleteness. This sense can either motivate us to do great things, or it can lead us into self-destructive behaviour. {incompleteness is what one feels if they only identify with their humanity; instead Wholeness/oneness}

“A Iie would have no sense unless the truth felt dangerous” - Alfred Adler

…Adler argued than an inferiority complex can impaired personality development, and may lead to chronic distress if left unchecked.

Alfred Adler coined the term “inferiority complex” to describe a condition in which a person suffers from an overwhelming sense of inferiority that they cannot overcome. He believed that someone within an inferiority complex will often try to overcompensate by, for example, being aggressive or competitive in the company of others in order to hide what they feel is the “truth”: that they are inferior….

Anna Freud thought that the egos defence mechanisms helped protect us, however, they can also prevent us from facing important truths about ourselves

…She attributed these mechanisms to the ego, which, she argued, defends us from both the drives of the ID and the demands of the super ego. {interesting how his child not only accepts his theory as her truth, but builds upon it — we use the work of our ancestors as a foundation, no matter if it is solid or weak — but ultimately we choose to keep the bones or reform them}

Anna Freud explore the ways in which our unconscious minds manipulate reality in order to protect us from traumatic events and circumstances. She identified a wide range of such “defence mechanisms”, including repression (the bearing of painful memories) and rationalisation (the justification of unacceptable thoughts and behaviours)…

In Freud’s view, they could alleviate these ailments by undergoing a process that he called psychoanalysis, in which an analyst encourages them to talk about whatever comes to mind. He claimed that this method, known as free association enables patients to access and face their suppressed memories, thoughts, feelings, and dreams. {I think there are other ways and sometimes better/safer ways, like somatic therapy}

Freud propose that psychological problems arise when an individual has a traumatic experience, usually early in life, and then suppresses the memory of what happened. He argued that such memories remain active in the unconscious mind, causing the person to suffer a range of ailments, including anxiety and depression.

…He claimed that psychological problems arise as a result of conflict between a persons, conscious mind and their unconscious beliefs and desires.

Sigmund Freud proposed that each person‘s mind has three levels of consciousness: the conscious, the pre-conscious, and the unconscious. He also identified three aspects of personality: the super ego, the ego, and the ID. Freud suggested that the super ego and the ego both have conscious, pre-conscious, and unconscious elements, but that the id is entirely unconscious…

William James… Claimed that thoughts and beliefs help us to adapt to the world around us {alluding to my theory that it’s not what happens to us, but how we react to what happens to us that determines the trajectory of our lives. The same event can happen to 2 different people — one optimistic and one pessimistic — but the outcome will perhaps be drastically different.}

Charles Darwin… Argued living things evolve overtime as they adapt to changing environments. {or they become extinct — which is likely what will happen now with some humans— selective breeding will occur based on a different level of consciousness because we all (particularly women) have the privilege of choice and freedom for the first time in history due to resources like internet and rights}

Ebbinghaus demonstrated that we quickly forget learned information, and that, to retain it, we need to return to it daily. {which is why if we ever want to change our patterns it has to be persistent and consistent.}

“ mental events… Are not passive happenings, but the act of a subject” - Hermann Ebbinghaus

… The only mind that anyone has direct access to is their own. {therefore, how can we possibly ever truly know how another views the world?}

Freud claim that mental disorders have psychological, rather than physical, causes – but he still linked them to sexuality and gender {my theory is that these psychological disorders and diseases are actually the root cause of all physical ailments. Sometimes the physical manifests to challenge the mental, sometimes they physical manifests as a result of the mental}

In the republic, Plato divided the soul, or mine, into three parts: reason, spirit, and appetite. Reason gives us the ability to think and to make sound judgements. Spirit is our life force, and enables us to act with courage. Appetite is desire, which we keep in check by using reason. For Plato, a healthy person keeps all three elements in balance.

“ Nothing exists except atoms and empty space” Democritus

Democritus claimed that the psyche is composed of physical particles called “fire atoms”, which bring inanimate matter to life. {perhaps alluding to my theory that our souls, and everything around us is all light vibrating at different frequencies — the higher they are the brighter they shine}

In ancient Greece, the philosopher Plato argue that the “psyche”, or mine, is connected to the “eternal realm of the forms”: a world that we cannot perceive with our senses, from which we derive all of our ideas about reality.

… The term psychology originate from the Greek word psyche, meaning both soul and mind {the relationship between the soul and mind}

… It has become possible to study mental processes, and state such as consciousness, which researchers had previously considered to be beyond the scope of scientific study. {always impossible until it’s done}

Psychology only became recognised as a science towards the end of the 19th century, when experimental psychologist found ways of applying scientific methods to their research. {psychology is still so young}