Taste is a chemical sense, and a part of flavor. Taste is the chemical analysis of molecules in a solution. Smell is the chemical analysis of airborne molecules. Flavor is a combination of taste, smell and other factors, including temperature and texture. Together they make eating a fully immersive multimedia experience.

[Read more…] about Taste

Eye Notes

STEPS

Sun produces photons. Eight minutes later, photon passes thru:

cornea = clear dome cover. It contains no blood vessels; it’s nourished by tears on the outside and the aqueous humor on the inside. The curve of the cornea accounts for 2/3 of the eye’s ability to focus, the lens provides the other third. An inherited condition (astigmatism) produces an irregularly shaped cornea; symptoms include headaches, eye strain, squinting and vision that is blurred or distorted.

aqueous humor = water-like substance continuously produced by the ciliary body. Although it’s mostly water, it also contains an antioxidant to protect the eye from UV rays. It’s presence inflates the eye. To balance the inoccurlar pressure and to carry away waste products, fluid is drained into Schlemm’s canal. Glaucoma is caused by blockage of the drainage or damage to the iris; a condition that can lead to blindness.

pupil = the opening in the middle of the iris.

lens = The crystalline lens can be irregularly shaped but is a less likely cause of astigmatism. The lens bends to focus the light on the fovea. With age, the lens becomes less flexible. It might also become clouded (cataract).

vitrious humor = jelly-like (like raw egg whites), becomes more liquid with age and separates from the retina, causing floaters (dark specks in vision). As the vitrious separates, sometimes the retina can become detached (posterior vitreous detachmentor PVD).

blood vessels = central retinal artery; 4 main branches. Supplies nourishment to non-receptor structures (ganglion, horizontal cells, etc.)

5 major layers of the retina (3 layers of nerve cells; 2 layers of connections)

1. cell bodies of ganglion cells (some amacrine cells)
2. neuropils layer of connections
3. horizontal and amacrine cells
4. neuropils layer of connections

            40 rods and cones

choroidal blood vessels = supply rods and cones. Receive about 75% of the retina’s blood flow. Macular degeneration occurs when abnormal blood vessels grow between retina and choroid. These blood vessels can also be damaged as a side effect of diabetes. This condition (diabetic retinopathy) includes leakage of blood and fluid into the eye (capillaries easily burst). The third major cause of blindness (retinitis pigmentosa) is a hereditary disease which causes rods (starting in the periphery) to degenerate. The result is the gradual onset of night blindness, followed by tunnel vision (only cones are working).

macula = about 7mm (1/4 inch), yellow spot in the eye, contains the fovea.

fovea = about 1.5 mm (1/16^th of an inch).

6 million cones

rods 500 times more sensitive than cones; 120 million

lens is held in place by strings (zonules); suspended

sclera = white of the eye; strong fibers to resist the internal pressure of the eye (twice the atmosphere). Covers entire ball, expect cornea, exit for optic nerve.

iris = color part of eye; can be translucent (albinos); two sets of muscles to open and close pupil

Visual System

Sensation & Perception

Sensation:

Hardware wiring; similar among all human beings; no meaning.

Stage 1 (sense): blotches of red, yellow, brown, pink & white

Perception:

Based on individual experiences; individual differences.

Stage 2 (perceive)

Identification; depends on past experience (apple, plum, pluot)

Characterization: delicious, hard, etc.

Perception is so fast that we don’t notice the sensation stage

Except when sensory data is vague

3 summary principles

1. Correspondence between physical and psychological reality is NOT one-one

2. Sensation and perception are adaptive

Color Context = how color behaves in relation to other colors and shapes

Effects of different color backgrounds for the same red square

Different readings of same color

3. Sensation & perception are active processes

Top-down processing

Stroop effect

Canonical perspective (prototypical perspective)

Rat-Man

Perceptual Rules

Mental sets

Illusions

Color Physics

Nanometer (nm) = billionth of a meter

Any given light is some collection of photons

The spectrum of a light tells how many photons it contains at each wavelength

Human vision detects photons from 400 nm to 700 nm in size

Color History

Isaac Newton

Prism

White sunlight is not “pure” light; a mixture of colored lights

Those colored lights ARE pure and cannot be decomposed by the prism

When all the pure colors are remixed back together, we see the mixture as white.

Mixture just two pure colors (Y+B) can also produce a light that looks white metameric light

Color Experience

Hue – the “color” of a light (red, orange, yellow, green, etc.)

Brightness – the “intensity” of a light (dark red vs. bright red, etc)

Saturation – color “strength”, how much white does the light contain? (pink is desaturated red)

Color Mixture

Additive color mixing: mixture of light

Subtractive color mixing:  mixture of paint

Optical color mixing: colors add in the eye when small spots with different colors are viewed from a distance (pointillism)

Pointillism

tiny dots of primary-colors are used to create secondary colors

post-impressionism form of painting

Rod vision

Pure rod vision is completely COLOR BLIND

Two lights of different wavelengths can always be made visually identical by adjusting their relative intensities

Principal of UNIVARIANCE

Photoreceptor can signal the NUMBER of PHOTONS it absorbs, but NOT the wavelengths of those photons

Consequently, it requires at least two types of photo pigments to perceive color

Color Theory

1. Trichromatic Theory

Thomas Young & Hermann von Helmholtz

Any color can be made by mixing 3 lights

red, green, and blue lights; adjustable intensity

3 types of photoreceptors with peak sensitivity in different regions of the visible spectrum

S, M, L conesy

2. Opponent Theory

Proposed by Ewald Hering

Trichromatic theory does not explain

afterimages

simultaneous contrast

color blindness

Hue cancellation experiment

Must add red light to green light to get white light

Yellow light is the only color that cancels blue

Two basic types of opponent-color cells

+R-G

+B-Y

Ganglion cells

Spontaneously fire

a base rate while resting

increased firing when excited

decreased firing when inhibited

Unmylinated inside eye; mylinated outside eye

Each gets input from 100+ rods & cones

In fovea = 1 cone to 5 ganglions

In periphery, multiple rods to 1 ganglion

2 major types in retina:

Midget retinal ganglion cells

their dendrite trees are small

their cell bodies are small

80% of all retinal ganglion cells

receive input from relatively few rods & cones

project to parvocellular layers of LGN

also called parvocellular cells

respond to changes in color

slow conduction velocity

respond weakly to changes in contrast; unless the change is substantial

simple center-surround receptive fields

center may be either ON or OFF to one cone

surround is the opposite to another cone

Parasol retinal ganglion cells

Project to the magnocellular layers of LGN

Dendritic trees & cell bodies are large

10% of retinal ganglion cells

Not very sensitive to changes in color

Can respond to low-contrast stimuli

Inputs from lots of rods & cones

Fast conduction velocity

Center-surround receptive fields

Larger receptive fields

Giant ganglion cells

Only about 3000 in each retina

Respond directly to light; contain a visual pigment (melanesian)

Also receive connections from rods & cones

Encode color & spatial info

COLOR Deficiency

1. Monochromatism

Rod vision only, no functioning cones

Very rare (10 out of a million)

See everything in shades of gray

True definition of color-blind

Usually poor visual acuity

Very sensitive to light

2. Dichromatism

Dichromacy means “two-chromacy”

One of the three cone photopigments is missing

Three types

Protanopia

missing L pigment (long)

1% of men, .01% of women

Deuteranopia

missing M pigment (middle)

1% of men, .01% of women

Tritanopia

missing S pigment (short)

less than .01% of both M and F

3. Anomalous Trichromats

All three cone types are present

But one has a photopigment with an abnormal absorption spectrum

3 types

Protanomalous

abnormal L pigment

1% of men, .021% of women

Deuteranomalous

abnormal M pigment

5% of men, .04% of women

Tritanomalous

abnormal S pigment

very rare in men and women

4. Cortical Color Blindness

Cerebral achromatiopsia

brain function is normal but color vision lost because of brain injury

Color Constancy

Perception of lightness remains relatively constant; even when objects are viewed under different intensities of light

What causes color constancy?

Photoreceptor level: chromatic adaptation

Higher level: a lateral spatial comparison that “discount” the illuminant

  Light Constancy

Achromatic version of Color Constancy

How the Eye Sees Color

1. All the colors of sunlight shine on the apple

2. Red apple absorbs all the colored light rays except red, and reflects only red to the eye

3. The eye receives the reflected red light and sends a message to the brain.

How the Brain Interprets Color

Can color influence others

Teal shirt

Red dress

Yellow is cheerful or cause aggression;

Blue commands authority

Green was the sacred color of the Zhou Dynasty

Brown is a trusted color

Soothing pink

Alexander G. Schauss, Ph.D.

Experimented with hundreds of shades of pink

Identified a shade of pink that had maximum effect on reducing hyperexcitability

Painted jail cell pink: prisoners calm, stayed calm 30 min. after

Called it P-618

“Baker-Miller Pink“

Pepto-Bismol pink

Bubble gum pink

Approx. RGB formula:

R:255

G:145

B:175

Color wheel

Sir Isaac Newton

the first circular diagram of colors in 1666l

Primary Colors

All other colors are derived from these 3 hues

red

yellow

blue

Secondary colors

Formed by mixing the primary colors

green

orange

purple

Tertiary Colors

Formed by mixing one primary and one secondary color

yellow-orange

red-orange

red-purple

blue-purple

blue-green

yellow-green.

Color Harmony

Harmony = pleasing arrangement of parts

not too bleak

not too cluttered

Analogous Colors

Any 3 colors which are side by side

yellow-green

yellow

yellow-orange

Usually one of the 3 colors predominates

Complementary Colors

Any 2 colors, directly opposite

red and green

red-purple and yellow-green

Nature’s Colors

Anything in nature

6 Functions of Color

Facilitate perceptual organization

Form

Depth

Motion

Perceptual Constancy

Separate figure from ground

Survival (camouflage)

The “walking stick”

M-113 APC

Wild Turkey

American Dipper

Help attention shift (airport signs)

Add beauty to life

Makes life easier

Choose color to stand out or fit in

sensation

Stage I: sensation

Stage 2: perception

Principles

All-or-None Law

Either a neuron fires or it does not

It fires if it passes a certain threshold

If it fires, it does so at full strength

Neurons cannot change intensity of an impulse

Neurons  change the rate (# of impulses per sec)

Refractory Period

Can’t fire until it recovers

1 millisecond

Absolute refractory period

Can’t fire no matter how much stimulation

Relative refractory period

Can fire with lots of stimulation

Thresholds

Super-threshold stimulus

1 neuron releases enough neurotransmitter to activate (depolarize) the post-synaptic neuron in 1 shot

Summation

Multiple sub-threshold releases of neurotransmitter builds up

Temporal Summation

1 neuron, several impulses in rapid succession. So rapidly neurotransmitter doesn’t dissipate

Spatial Summation

Many neurons give 1+ impulses

1 cell can code 2+ perceptual experiences

excitation signals one quality; inhibition another

For example:

excitation = blue, inhibition = yellow

excitation = left, inhibition = right

Efficiency

Separate systems

Separate subsystems for specific functions

Ignore steady state information

Pre-code for critical features

All of our senses are data reduction systems

Light

Travels in straight lines

(assuming unchanging optical density)

Reflects off of surfaces

Absorption of light by atmosphere

Refracts when traveling into new medium

Has various frequencies (colors)

Has various amplitudes (intensities)

Electromagnetic wave

Carrier of information

Radiance

Amount of energy from a light source

Measured in lumens

Illumination

Amount of light falling on a surface

 Seeing

Definition

The physical recording of the pattern of light energy received from the outside world

Process

Selective gathering of light

Projection or focusing of the light on a photosensitive surface

Conversion of the light into a pattern of chemical or electrical activity

Doesn’t matter if an object is a source or a reflector of light

Strength of reflection is a function of:

color of object

smoothness of object

relative orientation between light rays, surface and observer

Eye

Photoreceptor = receptor of photons

Transforms light into nerve impulses

more light = higher frequency of impulses

Directional Sensitivity

If photoreceptor responds to light from any direction

cannot determine direction of light

can only determine overall amount of light

Eye Cups

Need to exclude all light, except rays which come from a particular direction

pigmented cells behind eye cups:

Cambrian period, 570–500 million years ago

Directional Sensitivity  (parasitic worm)

Mermis nigrescens

Directional Sensitivity  (ommatidium)

pigmented cells around

extend eye cup into a tube

Compound Eyes

Insects

trilobites (300 million years ago)

very near sighted but wide field microscopic vision

very poor far vision

Average human vision; would require array 1m diameter

 Pinhole Eye

Array of photo receptors along cavity

Pinhole selects light traveling in the direction between it and photoreceptor

Result is a complete image on photoreceptor array

Image represented by set of outputs

Nautilus: squid that lives in a shell

Advantages

Sharp images (like a pinhole camera)

Drawbacks

Requires high intensity of light or long exposures

Can’t change focus

Lens

Vertebrates

Octopus

Instead of a single ray thru a narrow pinhole

Lens focuses and selects light rays

beam of light focused onto each photoreceptor

Human Eye

Retina covered with light-sensitive receptors:

rods

primarily for night vision & perceiving movement

sensitive to broad spectrum of light

can’t discriminate between colors

sense intensity or shades of gray

cones

used to sense color

Center of retina has most of the cones

allows for high acuity of objects focused at center

cones packed very tightly in fovea “depression”

Edge of retina is dominated by rods

allows detecting motion of threats in periphery

Photoreceptor array “copies” incoming light

lens forms an image on the retina

photoreceptors fire at a rate “proportional” to intensity of light

But, absolute intensity is not that useful

changes when light level changes

Better to represent objects via changes of intensity over space: edges

For example:

The pattern of light from an object with a patch of black

If incoming light is twice as strong, twice as much gets reflected…

Very efficient compression

100 million axons from photo receptors per eye

1 million axons from ganglion cells per eye

Reduction by a factor of 100!!

 

 

Eyes

Structure cornea
iris
pupil crystalline lens
Made up of transparent proteins = crystallins Very concentrated collection of proteins
20,000 concentric layers
retina
wired backwards
rods
target detection
spread across eye
wired together (summed)
cones
target identification
concentrated in fovea
wired one by one
intensity = amount of light needed to fire

 

 

 

Writing a theory is a great way to consolidate your ideas. There’s something about seeing it in print that helps solidify your thinking. You can see where you got it right, where it’s wrong, and where it’s merely confusing. To help you write your theory, I’ve included my own theory of personality as an example…of what not to do.

[Read more…] about Your Theory Of Personality

At the visitors center on Mr. Blanc, I was outside when the fog rushed in. If I had waited 30 more seconds, I wouldn’t have been able to find my way back into the building. I wouldn’t have know which way to go. Sometimes searching for yourself feels like that. Existentialism is about find the essence of who you are.

May

Frankl

Mind Map

Notes

Viktor Frankl (1905-1997)

• Pre-War
  Studied Schopenhauer
  Corresponded with Freud; met Freud in 1925
  Preferred Adler’s theory
  Organized free counseling centers for teen
• Prisoner of War
  Arrested in Vienna; Sept. 1942
  119104 (stamped on his arm)
  Father died of starvation at Theresienstadt in Bohemia
  Mother & brother killed at Auschwitz
  Wife died at Bergen-Belsen
  Transferred to Auschwitz
  “The Doctor & The Soul” (life’s work)
  Believed people with vision of future (important task; loved ones) more likely to survive
  Man’s Search For Meaning

“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”

“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how. ” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Meaning must be found, not given
Meaning must be discovered, not invented

• Logotherapy
  a will to meaning
  against reductionism (the view that everything comes down to physiology)
• Conscience
  not Freud’s instinctual unconscious
  source of your personal integrity; wisdom of the heart; core of your being

“Being human is being responsible — existentially responsible, responsible for one’s own existence.”

• How Find Meaning
  Experiential values (experiencing something you value)
  esthetic experience; peak experience
  Creative values
  becoming involved in a project; your life as a project
  Attitudinal values; compassion, bravery, humor or suffering
  Supra-meaning or transcendence
  ultimate meaning in life
  not dependent on others
  not dependent on projects
  not dependent on dignity
  spirituality
• Therapy
  Paradoxical intention (used to break vicious cycles); try to sweat
  Dereflection = tend to overemphasize ourselves; shift emphasis to someone
• Terms
  Noögenic Neurosis = existential neurosis; existential vacuum
  Anticipatory anxiety = so afraid of getting symptoms get symptoms
  Hyperintention = try so hard it prevents you from succeeding (insomnia)
  Hyperreflection = thinking too hard about self

Rollo May (1909-1994)

• Brought Heidegger’s existentialism to America
  Emphasized the need for love
  Emphasized man’s capacity to “will”
  Importance of facing loneliness and anxiety
• 2 kinds of anxiety
  Normal anxiety; can help you grow
  Neurotic anxiety
• Man’s capacity to “will”; actively choose the best of possibilities
  We must choose to love
  Love is composed of:
  Sex
  Eros (the need to unite with others)
  Phila (brotherly love)
  Agape (love for all mankind)
• Existential Attitude
  Existentialism = stand out or to emerge
  Not essence but being
  No truth or reality except as we participate in it
  Knowledge is act of doing, not thinking
  Spectator or player in game of life
  Existence precedes essence
  Emphasis on choice and responsibility
  Worthwhile life is one that is authentic, honest and genuine
• We face a predicament:
  • 1. Powerlessness: inner feeling of emptiness
  • 2. Anxiety: he likes anxiety better than the word stress
    Inevitable characteristic of being human
    Anxiety is apprehension cued from threat to some value
    value that individual holds essential to his or her existence
  • 3. loss of traditional values
    Ability to stand outside of self permits us to create values that help shape our lives
    The answer to our dilemma is to discover and affirm a new set of values
    Can’t reaffirm the traditional values
    No reaffirmation of our essence can occur because we have no essence, only existence
• Rediscovering selfhood
  Comes at risk of anxiety & inward crisis
  Not automatic: born in a social context; grows in interpersonal relations
• Ontological Assumptions
  1. all living organisms are potentially centered in themselves; seek preserve that center
  2. have need to go out from their centeredness, participate with other people
  3. sickness is a method used to preserve his being, a strategy for survival
  4. participate in self-consciousness that permits them to transcend immediate situation
• 4 states of consciousness of self
  1. stage of innocence (infant)
  2. stage of rebellion (toddler and adolescent)
  3. ordinary consciousness of self
  4. creative consciousness of self (ability to see outside one’s usual limited viewpoint)
• Summary
  Psychological concepts need to be oriented within an ontological framework
  Rediscovering feelings
  Most have to start again & rediscover their feelings
  Meaning is experienced by a person who is:
  feels the power of his will to choose
  able to live by his highest values
  knows his own intentions
  centered in himself
  and is able to love
  Love is the supreme value
  Will is the power to make love active in the world
  Self-awareness and care are necessary to choose values
  WILL is necessary in order to actualize them
  Need know self and develop will, attain inner strength, fulfillment, love

Terms

Viktor Frankl

• a will to meaning
• anticipatory anxiety
• conscience
• creative values
• dereflection
• esthetic experience
• existential vacuum
• experiential values
• hyperintention
• hyperreflection
• logotherapy
• Man’s Search For Meaning
• meaning
• noögenic neurosis
• paradoxical intention
• suffering
• supra-meaning or transcendence
• The Doctor & The Soul

Rollo May

• agape
• anxiety
• authentic
• centered
• consciousness of self
• creative consciousness
• eros
• existence precedes essence
• existential attitude
• Heidegger’s existentialism
• innocence
• loss of traditional values
• love
• neurotic anxiety
• normal anxiety
• ontological assumptions
• ordinary consciousness
• phila
• powerlessness
• rebellion
• rediscovering feelings
• rediscovering selfhood
• will

Quiz

Which means “to stand out or emerge:”

• a. reconstructivism
• b. existentialism
• c. daimonic
• d. agape

2. According to May, people must:

• a. increase their levels of positive regard
• b. generate testable hypotheses
• c. reveal their inner innocence
• d. rediscover selfhood

3. Who wrote Man’s Search For Meaning:

• a. Heidegger
• b. Maslow
• c. Frankl
• d. May

4. In an existentialist game of life, you must be a player or:

• a. spectator
• b. scalper
• c. referee
• d. coach

5. May reminds us of the importance of our:

• a. constructive alternativism
• b. ontological assumptions
• c. genetic predisposition
• d. ego

1. Which means “to stand out or emerge:”

• a. reconstructivism
• b. existentialism
• c. daimonic
• d. agape

2. According to May, people must:

• a. increase their levels of positive regard
• b. generate testable hypotheses
• c. reveal their inner innocence
• d. rediscover selfhood

3. Who wrote Man’s Search For Meaning:

• a. Heidegger
• b. Maslow
• c. Frankl
• d. May

4. In an existentialist game of life, you must be a player or:

• a. spectator
• b. scalper
• c. referee
• d. coach

5. May reminds us of the importance of our:

• a. constructive alternativism
• b. ontological assumptions
• c. genetic predisposition
• d. ego

Summary

Bonus

Photo credit

Adler and Jung were followers of Freud, yet each established their own unique version of psychoanalysis. Although neither Adler or Jung were pupils of Sigmund, their ideas were all related. I think of them as Freud’s sons. At one point, they were very closely tied to Sigmund but, as children do, they grew up and went off on their own.

And, as often happens, if you don’t accept your children as adults, there is a falling out. In the case of Adler and Jung, they never really reconciled with Freud. With Freud, you were either in or out.

 

Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

Adler believed that being born second, being sick as a child or being pampered (or neglected) can lead to feelings of inferiority. He spoke from personal experience. The second child of six children of a wealth grain merchant, Adler had rickets as a child and was pampered by his parents. He was frail and unathletic and resented the way his mother doted on his strong older brother.

Born in Penzing, Austria (near Vienna), Adler attended the University of Vienna, receiving his MD in 1895. In 1902, Adler became Sigmund Freud’s most prominent follower. Freud was 14 years older, already famous and like an older, wiser brother. But in 1911, Adler’s had developed his own ideas (some would say had grown up) and they had a falling out. Adler formed his own circle of followers, founded his own journal and, beginning in 1921, established a chain of 30 child-guidance clinics. In 1926 Adler moved to the US. He died on a lecture tour to Scotland.

Adler was the founder of “individual psychology” and coined the term “feelings of inferiority.” In individual psychology, people’s primary motivation is striving for superiority. In light of Adler’s emphasis on inferiority, it would be easy to misconstrue superiority as meaning trying to be more valuable than another. But Alder used superiority as moving higher in rank toward completeness, as getting closer to perfection. Obviously, feelings of inadequacy and inferiority can interfere with reaching our full potential. Although compensation for feeling inferior is good, overcompensating can result in a lifestyle that take unfair advantage of other people. Adler also believed that people have an innate drive for “social interest” (the urge to work with others and be cooperative). Consequently, the goal of Adler’s therapy was for people to become socially useful and emotionally mature.

 

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) was born and raised near Vienna. Although he grew up in a wealthy family, his childhood was not without difficulty. Alfred had rickets (a a vitamin D deficiency that causes soft bones). He also was quite lonely.

His father was busy being a grain merchant, and his mother was busy with six children (Alfred was the second oldest).

Adding to his childhood trouble, Alfred always lived in the shadow of his older brother (Sigmund); Sigmund Adler.

Adler & Freud

The other Sigmund in Alfred Adler’s live was Sigmund Freud. Freud was 14 years older than Alfred, and it’s hard for me to imagine that their relationship wasn’t somehow brotherly (including sibling rivalry). Freud certainly was fond of Adler, inviting him to join Freud’s “Wednesday Evening Discussions,” and later supporting his becoming the president of the Vienna Analytic Society. Apparently, you were either on Freud’s good or bad list but never in between. Disagreement with Freud was treated as disloyalty.

And Alder did disagree with Freud. He disagreed with Freud’s interpretations of dreams. Adler liked the idea of analyzing dreams but not Freud’s assumptions. In classical Freudian psychoanalysis, people are pushed by instincts and drives. Adler preferred to focus more on an individual’s goals. Although he didn’t dismiss the importance of genetics, environment and personal experience, Adler was less concerned about where people came from and more interested in where they were headed. Adler’s approach, called Individual Psychology, tried to understand and treat a person in a broader context.

Three Gates

For Adler, there were three “entrance gates” to understanding a person’s mental life.: birth order, early memories and dream analysis. Although each family is different, Adler found that people’s attitudes about their family often fit in predictable patterns. For example, only children often feel like they have no one to rely on. Their parents may be more anxious than those with several children, so an only child might receive special care (pampered or anxious attention). Similarly, the first born child was an only child before being “dethroned.” The first born might battle for position by being precocious, sullen or rebellious.

As you can see the theory doesn’t predict well. If there are three possible outcome to a single condition (precocious, sullen or rebellious), you’re not much better off than saying you have no idea what a first born child will do. But Adler didn’t worry about prediction; he was more concerned with attitude. If a first born acts like a second born, it makes little difference for Adler’s purpose. He was looking for a gate to discover attitudes; whatever the attitude is.

The second gate is early memories. What’s your earliest memory? If it involves aggression, you might still be battling for position in your family of origin. Maybe you’re competing with your siblings. If your earliest memory is about hiding, perhaps you felt neglected or inferior. For Adler, these early memories help reveal the underlying themes of your life.

The third gate is dreams. As a reflection of your inner life and goals, it doesn’t matter if they are real dreams or fantasies. Adler’s concern is discovering your style of life.

Inferiority Complex

Alfred Alder is probably best known for coining the term “feelings of inferiority.” When we are inferior, we compensate for our weakness. This is a good thing. If you hurt one arm, you use the other more. When you break a leg, you use a crutch.

Stories of compensation abound. Demosthenes (384-322 BC) compensated for his stammering by putting pebbles in his mouth, running and reciting poetry until he could speak clearly. And, of course, he became a famous orator. Annette Kellerman could barely walk as a child, so she took to swimming. She became the mother of synchronized swimming, and the inventor of the one-piece bathing suit. The heroes in the stories always overcome great obstacles by compensating.

But overcompensating is bad. It’s bad to take advantage of other people because you’re trying to cover up your weakness. When you find yourself being less than truthful on your resume, you’re probably overcompensating. When you’re exaggerating the size of the fish you caught that too is overcompensation.

In contrast, superiority is moving toward completeness and perfection. Superiority is not being more valuable than another. It is reaching one’s own full potential. Alder’s superiority is similar to Maslow’s self actualization.

 

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)

Jung was born and raised in Switzerland, along the shore of Lake Constance, where his father pastored a small Swiss Reformed Church. Jung received his MD from the University of Basel in 1900, and spent the next nine years working in a psychiatric clinic associated with the University of Zurich.

Freud wanted Jung to succeed him, and so in 1911, over the protests of many others, Freud managed to get Jung elected as the first president of the International Psychoanalytic Association. By 1912, however, their relationship had cooled, and was finally severed in 1914.

Jung accepted Freud’s insistence on a dynamic psychology of psychic energy and internal motivation. Like Freud, he was deterministic but unlike Freud, Jung incorporated aims, goals, and decisions into his model. Although he distinguished between the conscious and the unconscious, Jung’s unconscious included instincts, cultural knowledge and a basic life urge.

Like Freud, Jung believed in the importance of the unconscious mind, but he subdivided it into the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. According to Jung, emotionally charged collections of private attitudes are called complexes. In contrast, archetypes are universal thought forms (e.g., hero, mother, wise old man, etc.) are called archetypes. The most important of these archetypes are formed into systems (i.e., self). For Jung, the self involved striving for unity and wholeness, and was symbolized by a mandala, pearl, diamond, circle, or any object with central point.

Jung proposed 8 personality types, a combination of two personality orientations (extroversion and introversion) and four psychological functions (thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting). Since the self is multifaceted, it shows different sides at different times. Sometimes the self presents its public personality (persona). At other times it reveals its ability to understand the opposite sex (anima and anius), or its darker (shadow) self.

 

Carl Jung (1875-1961) was the first outsider to join Freud’s inner circle. Jung was not Jewish, not born in or around Vienna, and wasn’t even Austrian. Carl Jung was born and raised in Switzerland. He was an only child who was not good at relationships but did well in school. Carl was a loner, didn’t like competition, and was teased by his peers (he tended to faint under pressure).

Mother

Jung felt closer to his mother but he described her as having two personalities: humorous and unpredictable. Some suggest Jung’s interest in psychiatry was because his mother was schizophrenic. His mother may have been hospitalized when he was three but there is little evidence that it was for schizophrenia.

Was Jung Schizophrenic?

Carl Jung was certainly weird. But whether that weirdness was genius or mental illness is a matter of opinion. There are proponents on each side of the issue. Jung’s ideas are very scattered, which can be seen as artistic or symptomatic.Adding to the controversy, Jung referred to himself as having two personalities: the one in this life and the one from a previous century in which he was an old man. Similarly some see creativity or pathology in the breadth of his concepts and the incorporation of occult and mythology imagery.

There is no question that Jung was imaginative. He tended to see the world and himself in a larger context. Even his autobiography, which was published after his death, was as much mythology as historical truth. Jung had a vision of a “monstrous flood” that would cover most of Europe, though not the mountains of Switzerland. The vision was followed by several weeks of recurring dreams about rivers and floods of blood. This was not a child’s dream; Jung was 38 at the time, but very vivid. When WWI began, Jung viewed his vision as having been a prediction. I like the idea of predicting the future. If you have a dream on Tuesday and something happens on Thursday, it’s interesting. But Jung’s vision was in the fall of 1913, and the start of WWI was in July of 1914 (August of 1916 for America). For me, 9 months of so ruins the illusion.

Diversity

Jung was pursued many arts. He painted, sculpted, drew and wrote. Although he explored many fields, he was always looking for themes and commonalities. For Jung, everything had a meaning. One of his therapeutic techniques (amplification) involved expanding every detail of a dream into associations. Instead of Freud’s free association (jumping from thread to thread), Jung preferred to elicit multiple associations from the same item. The more associations that can be made, the easier it was to discover underlying themes. And the more themes that can be discovered, the easier it is to find archetypes (overriding, universal themes that impact behavior).

Archetypes

One pair of archetypes Jung repeatedly encountered was persona (outward image) and shadow (inner self). Jung maintained that people protect themselves and influence others by presenting a persona that is more presentable than the reality in which they live. Although we don’t intentionally lie, we do try mask the realities of our inner pain. We do this, of course, unconsciously.

Freud

Jung differs from Freud on what is unconscious. For Jung, people have both a personal unconscious (undiscovered personal experiences) and a collective unconscious (undiscovered universal experiences). The collective unconscious is a repository of all human knowledge, including our pre-human experiences. It is filled with primordial images: memories from out ancestral past. For Jung, the goal of life, and much of the fun and pain of life, is the discovery of what the universe is trying to tell us through this collection of symbols and images.

Personality Types

Also open to discovery is our personality types. Jung proposed four basic functions (sensation, intuition, thinking and feeling) that can be combined with two primary attitudes (introversion and extroversion) to create eight personality types. There are several personality tests based on Jungian assumptions, including the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), the Rorschach inkblot test, and the more recent Myers-Briggs. These tests, like Jung’s theory, are quite creative and broad. Although critics point out the terrible test-retest reliabilities of the instruments, supporters point to the wealth of creative data they produce.

Mind Map

Notes

Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

• Life
  Born in Penzing, Austria (near Vienna)
  Frail & sickly (rickets)
  2nd child of six
  Father was a wealthy grain merchant
  Mother favored his older brother: Sigmund Adler
  1895, MD from U of Vienna
  1902, Freud invited him to join
  “Wednesday evening discussions”
  Sigmund was 14 years older
  Like an older, wiser brother
  Competition
  1910, Adler become president of Vienna Analytic Society
  1911, complete break with Freud
  1916-18, Drafted into army
  WWI, physician on the Russian front
  “War is not the continuation of politics with other means,
  but the greatest social crime against the solidarity of humanity.”
  1921, opened chain of 30 child-guidance clinics
  1926, visit US (extended stay)
  1934, moved from Vienna to Long Island
  1937, died on a lecture tour to Scotland
  Heart attack at Aberdeen University
• Founder of “individual psychology
• Coined the term “feelings of inferiority”
  • Not more valuable than another
  • Moving higher in rank toward completeness
  • Getting closer to perfection
  • Reaching our full potential
• Compensation
  • Compensation is good
  • Make up for weakness
  • Demosthenes
    • 384-322 BC
    • Speech impediment; stammered
    • Compensated:
    • Put pebbles in his mouth
    • Recited verses while running
    • Became Greek’s greatest orator
  • Annette Kellerman
    • Mother of synchronized swimming
    • Creator of 1-piece swim suit
    • Began swimming because of childhood illness; barely able to walk
  • Overcompensating is bad
  • • Take advantage of other people
    • Try to cover up a weakness
• Six distinctively-Adlerian concepts:
  • a. Family constellation
    position within the family
    sibling rivalry
  • b. Pampered child
    Spoiled and protected
    Greatest curse of childhood
    Deprived of right to be independent
  • c. Inferiority complex
    unfulfilled, overwhelmed by inferiority
    organ inferiorities
    some body parts stronger
    circus performers
    psychological inferiorities
    concentrate only on what good at
    math phobia
  • d. Superiority complex
    pretending to be superior
    exaggerate own importance
  • e. Compensation = striving to overcome
  • f.   Life lie
    self-deception
    mistaken style of life
• More Adlerian concepts:
  • Masculine protest
    • Demands to have his own way
      • Normal for boys
      • Boys are encouraged to be assertive in life
    • Boys and girls begin life with the capacity for “protest!”
    • Girls not encouraged to be assertive
    • Woman act & dress like man to compensate
• Three situations that make a faulty lifestyle
  • 1. Organ inferiorities & childhood diseases
    “Overburdened”
    Tend to be focus on themselves
    Most = strong sense of inferiority
    Some = overcompensate: superiority complex
    Few truly compensate; need the encouragement of loved ones
  • 2. Pampered child
    Taught by the actions of others
    Can take without giving
    Their wish is everyone else’s command
    Pampered child fails in two ways
    1. doesn’t learn to do for himself; discovers later that he is truly inferior
    2. doesn’t learn any other way to act; always gives commands
    Society responds with hatred
  • 3. Neglect
    Told they are of no value
    Taught to trust no one
    Learn inferiority
    Orphans, victims of abuse, parents are never there or rigid rules
• Style of life = how live your life
• Teleology = moving towards the future
• Fictional finalism
  Behave “as if” (philosopher Hans Vaihinger)
  as if knew world will be here tomorrow
  as if were sure what is good and bad
  as if everything we see is as we see it
  “as if” heaven & hell real
  “fiction” = can’t be proven
  “finalism” = won’t know until future; but it influences our behavior today
  Psyche = ultimate finalism
• Social interest
  originally called Gemeinschaftsgefuhl
  “community feeling”
  can’t exist or thrive without others
  social animals
• Self-guarding tendencies = to not feel inferior
• Neuroses = unrealistic life goals
• Adler’s 3 “entrance gates” to mental life
  • a. Birth order
    Only child
    pampered, special care, parents more anxious, no one to rely on
    1st child
    begins as an only child, dethroned, battle for lost position
    act like the baby
    disobedient and rebellious
    sullen and withdrawn
    most likely to be problem children
    more conservative
    precocious
    2^nd child
    has first child to be “pace-setter”
    tries to surpass the older child, competitive
    tend to dream of constant running without getting anywhere
    Other “middle” children are similar to second child;
    each may focus on a different “competitor”
    Youngest child
    most pampered
    only one who is never dethroned
    second most likely problem children
    incredible inferiority; everyone older & “therefore” superior;
    can be driven to exceed all of them
  • b. Earliest memory
    Concerned with the theme
    If involves security & attention, might be pampered
    If recall aggressive competition with your older brother, “ruling” personality
    If involves neglect or hiding, it might mean severe inferiority and avoidance
  • c. Dreams
    Includes daydreams
    An expression of your style of life
    Reflect your goals
    If can’t remember any dreams,  fantasize
• Personality Types
  • 3 styles have no social interest
    Differ on amount of energy use
  • Ruling
    dominates people
    lots of energy
  • Leaning
    also called “getting” type
    rather get than give
    some energy
  • Avoiding
    try to escape
    no energy
  • Socially useful
    4^th type has both social interest & energy
• Therapy
  Client caught in dark room & can’t find an exit
  Mirror Technique = looks at self in mirror
  Favorite questions
  “And why do you feel like that?”
  “What purpose does your illness serve?”
  “What do you think is the reason for your reacting that way?”

Carl Jung (1875-1961)

• Life
  Born in Kessewil, Switzerland; July 26, 1875
  Father (Paul Jung) was a minister
  Mother (Emilie Preiswerk Jung)
  Didn’t care for school
  Kept to himself
  Didn’t like competition
  Boarding school in Basel, Switzerland
  Teased by others
  Tended to faint under pressure
  First career choice was archeology
  MD, University of Basel ; work under famous neurologist Krafft-Ebing
• 1913, in the fall, has a vision
  • “Monstrous flood”
    Engulfing most of Europe
    Comes to mountains of Switzerland
    Thousands drown & civilization crumble; waters turned into blood
    Followed by several weeks of dreams of eternal winters and rivers of blood
• 1914, July, WWI began in Eurpose
• 1916, August 1, World War I began for US
• 1918-1928, self-exploration
  • Wrote down his dreams, fantasies & visions
  • Drew, painted, and sculpted them
  • Common threads
    • Formed into ‘persons’
      • wise old man = spiritual guru
      • little girl = “anima”: the feminine soul; his medium with his unconscious
      • leathery dwarf guards the unconscious; the shadow
    • Lots of dreams about death
      • dead people
      • the land of the dead
      • the rising of the dead
    • Represented the unconscious itself
      Not the “little” personal unconscious
      Collective unconscious of humanity
      Contain all the dead, including our personal ghosts
      Mentally ill are haunted by ghosts
      Personal ghosts
      Collective unconscious
• 10 characteristics of Jung:
  • a.  Amplification
    Different from free association
    Focus repeatedly on same element
    Give multiple associations
  • b.  Persona = social role
  • c.  Shadow = un-social feelings & thoughts
    Opposite side of persona
  • d.  Anima-Animus
    Anima = feminine side of male
    Animus = masculine side of female
  • e.  Archetype = universal themes affect behavior
  • f. Synchronicity = meaningful coincidences
  • g. Transcendence = integration of self systems
  • h. Primordial images
    Memory traces from ancestral past
    Including pre-human
  • i. Collective unconscious = composed of primodial images
  • j. Personal unconscious = stores personal experiences
• Other characteristics of Jung:
  • Complexes = an organized group of thoughts and feelings about something
    So preoccupied influences most behavior
    Mother
  • Self = the central archetype
  • Constellating power = attracts new ideas into it and integrates them
  • Transpersonal = extends across persons
  • Mandala = the symbol of self; self striving for wholeness
  • Compensatory function = speak for the unconscious
  • Psychic birth
    Starts in adolescence
    Psyche shows definite form
    Personality grows throughout life
    Big changes in middle years (35-40)
  • Teleology
    Moving toward future; like Adler
  • Causality = relative causality
  • Synchronicity
• Jung’s 4 basic functions
  a.  sensation
  b.  intuition
  c.  thinking
  d.  feeling
• 8 Personality Types
  4 basic functions
  Sensation-intuition = how deal with facts and reality
  Thinking-feeling = logic, value and attitudes
  2 primary attitudes toward reality
  • introversion
    inward to subjective world
    direct psychic energy more inwardly focused
  • extroversion
    outward to objective world
    direct psychic energy towards the things in external world
• Jungian Assessments
  • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
  • Word association test
  • Active imagination
  • Rorschach ink blots
  • Myers-Briggs
    16 different 4-letter combinations
    EI Extroversion-Introversion
    SN Sensing-Intuition
    FT Feeling-Thinking
    JP Judgement-Perception
    Sensation (S) seeks fullest possible experience of what is immediate and real
    Intuition (N) seeks the broadest view of what is possible and insightful
    Thinking (T) seeks rational order and plan according to impersonal logic
    Feeling (F) seeks rational order according to harmony among subjective values

 

Terms

Adler

• avoiding personality
• birth order
• compensation
• dreams
• earliest memory
• family constellation
• fictional finalism
• individual psychology
• inferiority
• inferiority complex
• leaning personality
• life lie
• masculine protest
• mirror Technique
• organ inferiority
• pampered child
• ruling personality
• social interest
• socially useful personality
• style of life
• superiority complex
• three entrance gates

Carl Jung

• amplification
• anima
• animus
• archetypes
• collective unconscious
• complexes
• constellating power
• extroversion attitude
• feeling function
• introversion attitude
• intuition function
• mandala
• persona
• personal unconscious
• primordial images:
• psychic birth
• self
• sensation function
• sensation-intuition
• shadow
• synchronicity
• thinking function
• thinking-feeling
• transcendence
• transpersonal

Quiz

1. Adler said the Oedipus Complex, if it exists at all, is the result of:

• a. the collective unconscious
• b. systematic desensitization
• c. being pampered
• d. phrenology

2. For Adler, one’s position in a family is called:

• a. family constellation
• b. temperament
• c. conditioning
• d. locomotion

3. According to Jung, the opposite of persona is:

• a. personal unconscious
• b. Broca’s area
• c. simplicity
• d. shadow

4. In contrast to Freud, Jung proposed the:

• a. incorporation of classical conditioning
• b. collective unconscious
• c. family constellations
• d. modeling

5. Who introduced “individual psychology:”

• a. Shakespear
• b. Freud
• c. Adler
• d. Jung

 

1. Adler said the Oedipus Complex, if it exists at all, is the result of:

• a. the collective unconscious
• b. systematic desensitization
• c. being pampered
• d. phrenology

2. For Adler, one’s position in a family is called:

• a. family constellation
• b. temperament
• c. conditioning
• d. locomotion

3. According to Jung, the opposite of persona is:

• a. personal unconscious
• b. Broca’s area
• c. simplicity
• d. shadow

4. In contrast to Freud, Jung proposed the:

• a. incorporation of classical conditioning
• b. collective unconscious
• c. family constellations
• d. modeling

5. Who introduced “individual psychology:”

• a. Shakespear
• b. Freud
• c. Adler
• d. Jung

 

Summary

 

Bonus