Abstract

This paper proposes that conscious, explicit memory, implicit memory, and instincts constitute the four-component mind for the mental origins of psychotherapy and personality. The mental origin of the personality theories including the big five personality traits, the MBTI, the social style model, the Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, and the Schwartz’s theory of basic human values is from the unconscious instincts (the six social and three mental protective instincts). The three mental protective instincts that contain the three instinctive countermeasures against the three adversities are hyperactivity countermeasure against danger, phobia countermeasure against unfamiliarity-uncertainty, and comforter countermeasure against hardship. Each countermeasure is regulated (moderated) by a regulator to minimize overactive countermeasure as physical regulator to minimize overactive immunity in physical immune system. Severe adversities and ineffective regulators over-activate protective countermeasures to generate overactive countermeasures as overactive hyperactivity, overactive phobia, and overactive comforter, corresponding to dramatic-impulsive cluster, anxious-fearful cluster, and odd-eccentric cluster, respectively for personality-mental disorders in the DSM-5. Such disordered behavioral habits are stored in unconscious implicit memory which generates disordered thought patterns in pre-conscious explicit memory. For psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) normalizes disordered thought patterns in explicit memory to normalize disordered behavioral habit memory in implicit memory through the repetitive training in normalizing thought patterns, feelings, and behaviors. For psychotherapy, mindfulness meditation strengthens conscious attention (working memory) to normalize disordered behavioral habit memory through the repetitive training in directing conscious attention to the breath or body. In conclusion, the mental origin of personality-mental disorders is from the overactive mental protective instincts. The mental origin of psychotherapy is from therapeutic implicit memory and conscious attention for CBT and mindfulness meditation, respectively. The mental origin of personality is from the unconscious instincts. Therefore, the four-component mind of conscious, explicit memory, implicit memory, and instincts explains the origin, the storage, and the normalization of personality-mental disorders for psychotherapy, and provides the mental origin of personality.

Highlights

  • Freud categorized the mind in three parts consisting of the conscious mind, the pre-conscious mind, and the unconscious mind [1]

  • In the four-component mind for psychotherapy, instincts consist of the six social instincts for the formation of society and the three protective instincts against adversities [18]

  • The six social instincts are kinship instinct based on commitment, alliance instinct based on reciprocity, division of labor based on interdependence, reproductive instinct based on propagation, generativity instinct based on multigenerational care, and boundary instinct based on the boundary between ingroup and outgroup

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Freud categorized the mind in three parts consisting of the conscious mind, the pre-conscious mind, and the unconscious mind [1]. This paper proposes the four-component mind of conscious, explicit memory, implicit memory, and instincts based on neuroscience for psychotherapy and personality. In the four-component mind, unconscious instincts are not dominated by sexual instinct, unconscious implicit memory is not a storage place for hidden desires and wishes by repression, and conscious reconstructs rather than merely retrieves from whatever available in preconscious explicit memory. Severe adversities and ineffective regulators over-activate protective countermeasures to generate the disordered behavioral habit memory in implicit memory as personality-mental disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (overactive hyperactivity) against severe danger, anxiety disorder (overactive phobia) against severe unfamiliarity-uncertainty, and schizophrenia (overactive comforter) against severe hardship. Of the paper, the six social instincts, the protective instincts, memories, the identity-adversity development, the instinctive personality theory, wakefulness and sleep, and psychotherapy and mental health maintenance will be discussed

The Social Instincts
Kinship Instinct
Alliance Instinct
Division of Labor Instinct
Generativity Instinct
Boundary Instinct
The Protective Instincts
Comforter against Hardship and Odd-Eccentric Cluster
Hyperactivity against Danger and Dramatic-Impulsive Cluster
Phobia against Unfamiliarity-Uncertainty and Fearful-Anxious Cluster
Personality-Mental Disorders from Egos
Sensory Memory
Explicit Memory
Implicit Memory
Memories for Psychotherapy
The Identity-Adversity Development
The Instinctive Personality Theory
Wakefulness and Sleep
Wakefulness
Light NREM
Deep NREM
Tonic REM
Phasic REM
Therapeutic Psychedelic Hallucination
Psychotherapy and Mental Health Maintenance
Findings
Summary and Conclusions
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call