Excerpt

Human experience is psychological and manifested through subjective knowledge and observation of behavior patterns. A given psychological phenomenon can be described not only in terms of its characteristics, but in terms of its containment within the overall flow of thought, emotion, and action. An episode of unexplained panic, blushing, or a recurrent dreamlike image may tend to occur in a certain state of mind, a state of mind that can be distinguished from other states of mind.

States of mind, such as episodes of queasy anxiety, can be described and classified by various theories of phenomenology. The explanation for entry into the state of mind, and for the component elements in that state of mind, is a complex one that will, in the coming years, include both neuroscientific and psychological levels of explanation. The mind–body problem will in these decades be addressed in terms of transformations of information and energy, and transactive systems. Biological factors will be seen as driving psychological factors, and psychological factors as also driving biological factors.

Psychological factors—that is, causal mechanisms and transactive operations—include structures of meaning as well as processes that assess and transform information. Complex, enduring, but slowly changing structures of meaning include the self-concepts of individuals and their conceptual maps of how the self relates to others and the world. These schemata of meaning are not always available to conscious expression. The full explanation of a state of mind is difficult because such schemata of motivation and meaning operate unconsciously, and they are meaning structures rather than materially tangible ones. In addition, the involved motives are sometimes caught up in value or social conflicts. Their assessment is by clinical inference about observed patterns and the reactions to selective probes.

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