My previous video was an introduction to the
series in which we introduced the importance
of problems in character development.
Today, we elaborate on the features of childhood
- the first psychic phase of life.
The more conscious we are, the further able
are we to process of the world which results
in an overwhelming amount of thoughts, hence
psychic conflicts.
Early childhood is a care free, yet most unconscious
phase of life.
The baby cannot handle his emotions; one moment
laughing, the next he's crying.
An uncontrollable self, because he has little
to no consciousness yet; much like a temporary
psychopathy this phase is.
The child functions primarily through senses
and unconditional urges.
A primitive state.
"In early stages of childhood, we are unconscious
of our inner, as well as outer world and still
operate through pure instinct."
So what are the first signs of consciousness?
Usually it's when the child has developped
recognition; when he's able to discern patterns
and names.
To fully understand we must first define recognition:
The developped ability to capture an experience
or any kind of stimulus; be able to hold it
in memory, and recognize it, know what it
is, whenever confronted with it again.
"We speak of "knowing" something when we succeed
in linking a new perception to an already
established
context in such a way that we hold in consciousness
not only the new perception but this context
as well."
In this sense, the first step of the process
of becoming conscious is about acquiring the
mental capacity to make simple connections
between several conscious contents.
However early childhood is characterized by
a sporadic consciousness.
The connections made do not last for long.
Example is when you tell a baby to repeat
something like giving a hug.
He's able to do so a couple times at that
moment in time, but the next day he needs
to be tought the action again.
It's as though he still doesn't have enough
memory storage to recall.
"It is a fact that in the early years of life
there is no continuous
memory ; at the most there are islands of
consciousness which
are like single lamps or lighted objects in
the far-flung darkness."
Still speaking of early infancy, the child
not only has limited memory or consciousness
of things ; something more fascinating is
he doesn't even feel like he actually exists.
Obviously, to us, he does exist but you'll
often see him refer to himself objectively
; in the third person, which is silly.
Reason is: ego, or the "i", also as an island
of memory, an object in consciousness, is
still undevelopped ; And which strengthens
over time.
But until then the child seems to lack an
actual sense of self, of tangibleness.
Nevertheless some children do not exhibit
this behavior and directly skip to speak of
themselves in the first person.
Either way, the moment he begins to speak
in the first person is often a reliable indicator
that the continuity of consciousness has begun
; a continuity in ego-memories, i.e. the ability
to identify a self in oneself.
Today we looked at notable psychic features
of childhood.
Overall, what you need to remember, childhood
is often problem-free, for the kid has everything
on his parent's shoulder.
In this phase we said that the mind is under
construction, acclimating itself to the real
world.
From the minute he's born, the body and mind
of the child are trying to develop into a
more robust structure to cope with what is
to come.
Our very body construct is genetically designed
and directed to the purpose of growth, promoting
more life instead of decay.
A pleasant speculation here: if there was
no external world, there would be no consciousness.
The purpose behind the rise of consciousness
is to help us cope with this world.
So, there are no problems without consciousness.
And by problems I mean reality for reality
as a whole is the biggest riddle there is,
to solve.
The world is dependent on us, and we are dependent
on the world to provide us problems in order
to grow.
And even though the child seem to be care-free,
on an internal level countless conflicts and
changes are happening inside his body, preparing
him.
So, the fight starts internally.
What is to come, you'll find out in my next
video.
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Thanks for watching.
