Psychologie und Psychiatrie: Open Access

Abstrakt

Integration between Psychology and Spirituality: A New Paradigm for the Essence and the Nature of the Psyche

Nader Butto

Freud’s personality theory (1923) postulated that the mind was structured into three parts, namely, the id, ego, and superego, Furthermore, Freud’s earlier, topographical model of the mind divided the mind into the three elements: The conscious, preconscious, and unconscious. The conscious comprises events of which we are aware, the preconscious includes events that are in the process of becoming conscious, and the unconscious are events of which we are unaware. However, to date, no theoretical model has explained the nature or the origin of the three parts of the psyche, the nature of the conscious and unconscious, and the relationship between spiritual dimensions of humankind and the psyche. Generally, it has been well accepted by traditional neuroscience that the psyche is generated in the brain. Functional neuroimaging is employed to study the neuroanatomical correlates of various cognitive processes that constitute the mind. Evidence from brain imaging indicates that all the mind’s processes have physical correlates in brain function. However, such correlational studies have not determined whether neural activity plays a causal role in the occurrence of these cognitive processes.