Evening star., 1940-09-19
Of Stars, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henri.

And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.
Consciousness in man or animal Is
only "the periphery Of the cortex of the
mind"
Such in the conclusion OF Sigmund
Freud, father of the medical theory
Of psychoanalysis, in his last testament
for psychiatrists written shortly before
his death in London just after the out
break of the war.
1t has developed, he postulates, as
sentry at the door of the house OF life.
Its real function is to guard a reckless
reveller within the walls. In the begin
ming, he says, living matter was suffused
with kind OF energy which cannot be
defined. 1t is the energy of the nervous
system and may be nearly synonymous
with life itself 1t operated and con-
tinues to operate, in two opposite direc-
tions-love and destruction. This was
the primeval mind, permeating the
organic world.
At only one point, he explains, did this
mind" come in direct contact with the
outer world in which 1t existed Here
it became specialized in nervous struc-
lures designed for receiving stimuli
from this outer world and transmitting
them, if need be, to the deeper strata
of the organism. Now, per Sc, Freud
explains, this mind energy was &C
: tivated solely by the pleasure principle"
It did only that which brought satls-
faction-generally restoration OF
equilibrium and relief from the tensions
which accompanied any distortions.
This primitive mind, or Id, Freud says,
remains blindly unaware of anything
outside itself-of the fact that its
pleasure reactions may bring the or
ganism which it animates so far out of
harmony with the external world as to
threaten its existence. The one point
in contact-which essentially corres-
ponds to the brain-iS aware of this and
must see that the Id keeps within
bounds.
This is the Ego-an awareness of
and concern for the organisms own
ChAoeCiSC' 1IC lIllllu lISell,
which perhaps is all that exists in some
lower forms Of life, has no such aware
ness.
AS this awareness becomes more acute,
1t comes to correspond with conscious
ness. But the awareness still is con-
fined to that which Is outside itself
and immediate. Very slowly in evolu-
ton was laid down the faculties for
the briefest sort of memory and the
crudest sort of coordination.
consciousness in general" Freud says,
'is a highly fugitive state. What is
conscious Is only conscious for q mo-
ment. The conscious processes are only
on the periphery of the ego and every
thing else in the ego itself is uncon-
scious." This, he stresses, presumably
remains the condition among animals.
They are aware of the world but, in gen.
eral, they are aware Of it only in the
immediate present
But man, in some unexplained way.
developed the power of speech and was
able to create words. These were tied
up with visual and auditory images
and the two together left in the Ego
memory traces" which became part of
the permanent possession of the organ.
THESE memories of things that had
happened in the past thenceforth, Freud
says, were able to act as stimuli as well
as objects and events actually present
in the outside world.
"Thenceforth," he says, "the percep-
tual periphery Of the cortex of the ego
could be stimulated to a much greater
extent from the inside. Internal events,
such as sequences of ideas and thought
processes, could become conscious"
The memories are stored away in the
inside of the Ego. Freud says. Other
wise there would be infinite confusion
between them and stimuli coming from
outside, but for the most part they are
able to be drawn out into consciousness
when needed, or they may emerge OF
their own accord. The whole realm OF
these memories, ideas ETC., he calls the
'pre-conscious"-t part OF the Ego
Itself which lies outside consciousness.
The Ego itself, he points out, is largely
development within the individual 1t
grows stronger with time and expert
ence. The great danger comes during
the period OF infancy when 1t still is
weak and is incapable through lack of
experience from properly calculating
consequences. AS a result, he says, dur
ing this period 1t is liable to serious in
jury which appears in the guise Of
various nervous ailments and insanities
later in life.
The energy of the Id, Freud explains,
may exist in two forms-bound and un-
bound-like kinetic and potential energy
in inanimate bodies. Left to itself it
would soon dissipate itself and cause the
destruction of the organism. The func-
tion of the Ego, he believes, may be that
OF binding and unbinding this energy
50 that 1t will be available when re-