The absurdity of any mind-body relation : delivered on 19 May 1932 at University College London / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Charles Samuel Myers
Date:
1932
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The absurdity of any mind-body relation : delivered on 19 May 1932 at University College London / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    We can no more fix the earliest appearance of a recog¬ nizable self in organic evolution than we can fix the earliest appearance of conscious activity. Indeed, the recent study of viruses is apparently making it difficult to draw a definite line even between the behaviour of living and non-living matter. With the development of self-activity, the lower levels of directive activity do not wholly cease. They are hardly recognizable in reflex levels, but (as I have insisted elsewhere) they persist in other and in inter¬ mediate or relatively independent ‘ levels ^ or spheres of mental activity. ‘The inspiration of genius and the intuitive judgements and decisions, which, crude though they may be before submission to the self’s judgement, arise apparently from the “depths” of the mind with impulsive force and compelling conviction afford striking examples of this fact. The well-known improvements in learning which continue after we have ceased to practise, so that it has been said of us that we learn to skate in summer and to swim in winter, are further examples of such activity—whether or not we choose to ascribe such improvement to the gradual disappearance of adverse initial inhibitions or to the direct strengthening (“ consolidation ”) of ac¬ quired integrations (or associations). Further, the self is continually being played upon by the impulsive and by the perseverating forces of lower mental systems. They struggle, not less than the self, for their own existence and for their own lower “self”-ish ends. Where they are modified by inhibition (or repression), it is only to ensure general harmony and general compatibility. Inhibition is not to be viewed as a mere act of passive drainage of mechanical energy
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