Many have sought to understand the truth about the human mind.

                                                       Few have asked the question “How will I recognize this truth should I encounter it?”

On face value, this statement appears to be yet another philosophical premise that has little relevance to subjective living. However, in terms of understanding the human condition, this is the prime question. There are numerous subconscious factors that have significant impact on the way we perceive and interpret both the world and ourselves, and these in turn color our ability to understand ourselves, both as human beings and individuals.

For example, the article that you are reading is written to convey meaning. As such, it reflects an approach to, or a way of viewing, the subject matter. However, all that you are seeing on this page are specifically arranged symbols. What you think this paper means, and the approach you believe it represents, are in fact interpretations subject to filters and perceptual patterns occurring within your subconscious mind. They may or may not reflect what the author actually means, and these interpretations may include biasing factors of which you are unaware consciously. Sometimes, the ‘truth’ is right in front of us but we simply cannot recognize it. Just ask the anorexic who interprets their emaciated condition as being overweight. Most regard this as a mental aberration given rise to by the disorder. Whilst this is true, the mechanism that promotes this aberration exists in all of us. We are all capable of distortion on the level that anorexics experience, and this is a reality that few of us care to acknowledge.

These perceptual impactors represent a facet of a phenomenon known as Perceived Reality. Human life is a perceived reality. During our formative years, we believe (whether we realize it or not) in an overriding concept of life and self, known as the Life Concept (LC), and our subconscious actively promotes that particular version of reality. It is true that humans across the globe share a common understanding of the fundamental physical world. For instance, there is little doubt that rain is wet and if you close your hand in the door it will hurt. However, our awareness of just about everything over and above the basic physical reality reflects some kind of perception, and thus is subject to subconscious processes of interpretation and judgement. Psyche Theory (PT)is the unifying approach to understanding the basis of this LC development and the ways in which the subconscious is able to dictate our experience of life to fit within our LC parameters. While the basics of PT shall be discussed in the following overview, it is important to recognize that the human mental-emotional system is an incredibly complex mechanism with broader and deeper applications than what will be covered here. 

                                                                                                               Psyche Theory

Approach

The thing that sets humans apart from other species is our intellect and the mental abilities that go with it. Whereas with many species much can be hardwired, humans have much more innate flexibility due to the speed with which we can learn and, in turn, incorporate that learning into the way we go about life. In other words, the subjective nature of human existence can vary from generation to generation, and even within generations. Therefore, human beings are infinitely adaptable and the thing that replaces hardwiring in the human sphere is informed judgment. Instead of having hardwired components, humans have the ability to make informed judgments and thus to decide on courses of action rather than repeat predetermined patterns.

Most human beings have their personal view of life so rooted in the physical reality that they don’t consider that life is an interpretation - a matter of judgment or opinion. By nature, the societies in which we live reflect an interpretation of what it means to be human. We are constantly judging/interpreting the meaning of input (consciously and subconsciously) and we use these data to judge appropriate actions, or courses of action, and to predict the impact of our actions on our external environment. And since we are all individuals, it means that we desire an individually specific experience of life. No one can tell us exactly what that experience is or how we should get it. We live the type of life that, in our opinion, will work best for us. Life is definitely a judgment call.

Judgment is what lies between proof and a guess. The more relevant the data a judgment is based upon, the more chance there is that the judgment will be correct. Likewise, the more in depth, or greater, our understanding of a thing, the more informed the judgments are that we make. Different levels of understanding give rise to different levels of judgment, which in turn give rise to different levels of efficacy, both in terms of interpreting input and successfully integrating ourselves into the world in order to achieve our goals.

Human beings are goal achievers and we set goals on many levels - everything from simple things like getting a cup of coffee to life goals that we pursue all our lives. We control our experience of life by setting and achieving goals. There are three basic human functions that allow us to achieve this. Firstly, humans are extremely good learners who not only retain data, but also learn conceptually and in great depth. Secondly, our imagination allows us to formulate goals and, combined with our deductive abilities, devise ways of achieving them. But the thing that makes it all work is informed judgment. Obviously, informed judgment plays a significant role in interpreting input and setting goals, but it is also what enables us to integrate ourselves into the world in a positive fashion to achieve these goals.

One of the simplest examples is that of driving. We are able to drive from one location to the next because of the understanding we hold about driving overall (including our own skill levels and the abilities of the vehicle we are driving) and because informed judgment allows us to use these data to interpret input and predict courses of action - to predict what the actions of other motorists mean in relation to us, and to predict the impact of our actions in relation to them. As such, we are able to drive from one location to the next because we can interpret what the actions of other motorists mean in relation to us, and what our actions mean in relation to them, and make the appropriate judgments as to which actions to take to allow us to achieve our goal safely. Every human action over and above basic hardwired responses reflects this process in one form or another.

Therefore, on a fundamental level, humans gain understanding of themselves, the world they live in, and the relationship between the two, and then use these data to interpret stimuli and to set and achieve goals. As humans, we are born with the necessary mental abilities to achieve this. The one thing humans aren’t born with is the thing that fuels the system - conceptual understanding of life and self that enables us to interpret meaning and to set and achieve goals in whatever world into which we’ve been born. As such, our formative years represent a massive learning curve as we attempt to gain the necessary understanding that will allow us to live our lives independently.