Reflection and the Origin of Man's Mind

REFLECTION AND THE ORIGIN OF MAN'S MIND LEONARD R. SILLMAN, M.D.* These two, I say, viz. external material things, as the objects of SENSATION, and the operations of our own minds within, as the objects of REFLECTION, are to me the only originals from whence all our ideas take their beginnings. When the mind turns its view inward upon itself, and contemplates its own actions, thinking is the first that occurs. [John Locke (I)] If we wish to settle the question of the "superiority" of man over the animals ... I can see only one way of doing so—. . . [make] straight for the central phenomenon, reflection. . . . The being who is the object of his own reflection, in consequence of that very doubling back upon himself, becomes in a flash able to raise himself into a new sphere. Abstraction, logic, reasoned choice and inventions, mathematics, art, calculations of space and time, anxieties and dreams of love—all these activities ofinner life are nothing else than the effervescence of the newly-formed center as it explodes onto itself. [Teilhard de Chardin (2)] One of the most crucial gaps or "missing links" in man's knowledge of biology and behavior is the great question of how an anthropoid apelike mind turned into a human mind. The vast importance of this discovery for the theory of the mind and for psychopathology is obvious upon a moment's consideration. The functioning and malfunctioning of any mechanism—whether a mind, a machine, or an organ of the body—is determined by its component parts, or that out of which it is made. Therefore, whatever process or processes turned apelike mentation into human mentation must inevitably play a critical role in normal and abnormal human psychology. As contrasted with the theories of the mind elaborated by theology and philosophy, those of psychology and psychiatry have sought to base their conceptions on a biological and a developmental foundation. This is in accordance with the scientific method of understanding complex phenomena through first studying simpler components (molecules analyzed into atoms; organisms analyzed into organs, tissues, cells,»Formerly Department of Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical College. Dr. Sillman died January 10, 1976. Address: Mrs. Leonard R. Sillman, 4 Abbotts Lane, Westport, Connecticut 06880. 476 I Leonard R. Sillman · Origin of Man's Mind chemical substances, etc.). The classic instance of this has been the study of human behavior through that well-nigh universal, elemental mechanism—the conditioned reflex. Both Pavlovian psychology [3] and behaviorism [4] are based on the phenomenology of the conditioned reflex. Although these studies have behaviorally demonstrated the obvious organic kinship between man and other animals, they have failed completely to reveal in what way man differs from lower forms, endowing him with his unique mind. They have resulted in what Koestler [5] cleverly called the "ratomorphic" interpretation of human nature. Another great effort to apprehend that "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma"—or the human mind—was that of Sigmund Freud. He initially attempted to formulate a theory of mental processes in terms ofneurological concepts, as expressed in his "Project" [6] and in chapter 7 of his Interpretation ofDreams [7]. As a result of his discovery ofinfantile sexuality [8] and the importance of childhood impressions and experience in neurotics, Freud developed his libido theory of the mind, considering its main features to be determined by early childhood stages in sexual development (the oral, the sadistic anal, the phallic, and the genital phases). Reifying Wordsworth's phrase, "the child is the father to the man," the main features of the mind—including character, neuroses, schizophrenia, conscience (the superego as heir to the Oedipus complex)—were considered as derived from childhood stages of development and relationships. Although Freud made many great discoveries and revealed many lasting truths in showing how influences from early life affect adult patterns , the child is not "father" to the man. The ape is the "father" to the man. Therefore to understand the specific and unique characteristics of the human mind it is necessary to discover not how a child turns into a man but how an ape became a man. There were essentially four clear-cut stages in the evolution of...