The typical debate that goes on endlessly is whether or not our behavior is more determined by nature or nurture. What people fail to see is that they can work together. Imagine your brain as if it were like an orchestra. The sound of the symphony would be dependent on the instruments, pitch, and notes. Think of a symphony as your psyche. The human psyche refers to the forces in an individual that influence thought, behavior, and personality. To the more ‘religious’ or uneducated it might be the concept of the self, encompassing the modern ideas of soul, self, and mind. The Greeks believed that the soul or "psyche" was responsible for behavior. Thanks wiki! I want to say that there is no 'soul' as for what most people think it actually means what psyche means. Or they think a persons 'soul' has control over what we do. This is not true.
So our psyche is like a symphony. The symphony itself is not a singular thing; it is a many yet singular entity. Imagine how many different things can influence a single symphony. Some known, some unknown, some unnoticed. Imagine the conductor of the symphony represents your sense of ‘soul’. In reality, our ‘symphony’ is guided by a conductor’s baton of composed of DNA. Certain notes must be played in tune with another instrument at a certain tone, tempo, and pitch. Certain values, thoughts, memories, beliefs, and desires must be played in tune according to the laws of nature and culture. It must flow seemingly seamlessly with no cognitive dissonance. The instruments must flow in tune with each other and be in well working condition. They use the instruments they have available. You can’t play the flute if you don’t have a flute to play with. The musicians must work together as a team after hours of rehearsal time. The same tunes flowing over and over again, thoughts and notes heard over and over again until they are ingrained and become automatic. The same routine for hours and hours until it was learned and played beautifully. Unless someone was taught to play the blues, in which case, why would they play anything else if they know playing the blues gets them by? The symphony must flow through the same patterns and pathways it’s used too. The conductor seems to have the most influence over the symphony but does not. The musicians appear to have more influence too but do not.
Well what has the biggest influence on my psyche then you may ask? Or what did the musicians even represent? They can represent anything. ‘Imagine your brain as an orchestra’ I said in the beginning. Your BRAIN is what influences everything you experience, your brain is bigger than your psyche. Your behavior is an expression of your brain. Just like the orchestra is bigger than the symphony. Comparing your brain to your psyche is like comparing candles to the universe, it doesn’t makes sense and they are in two completely different dimensions. Your psyche is insignificant in the long run because it is just a show. It is just a beautiful show of power, elegance, control, structure, meaning, climaxes, etc., Brought to you in part by: The Human Brain. It is frivolous in the main scope of things, yet the one thing that makes us human and special. The symphony is dependent on the entire orchestra while the orchestra is dependent on the musicians, the building, fans, money, schedules, time and space etc. Well perhaps our thoughts defy the laws of physics; however, they are just thoughts which are a representation of our conscious anyway. Remember you are like the listener to your own symphony and can can’t even grasp the concept of your own brain or ‘orchestra’. Imagine someone else trying to listen to your own personal symphony or experience your ‘psyche’? It would be impossible because it is uniquely your own perception from your entire ‘brain’.
Lastly, someone deaf would hear nothing, in fact might develop a sense of hearing the music through vibrations. Imagine a psychopath as a tone deaf person. They can’t hear certain notes in the symphony; they can’t hear notes of remorse, empathy, or guilt. Yet they seem so evil and take advantage of their lack of these emotions and feelings. Perhaps this is their way to ‘feel vibrations’ or to take advantage of what they don’t possess to flourish. Should we blame them or the flaw in their making? Blame genes? Upbringing? Aren’t we all here trying to do whatever makes us feel good about ourselves? Perhaps not if we weren’t taught to do so like me. Our desire to blame and punish is yet another emotion that evolved and is part of survival. Oust the one taking advantage of the group or else they will suck you all dry. Our psyche is dependent on nature and nurture which also means that our behavior is dependent on flowing harmoniously with the many entities of our universe in our search for meaning.
Where is all of the evidence for this you may ask? There isn’t much information about feral children aka ‘wild children’. It is known that in cases where children were raised around or by animals or lacked socialization with humans, they took on the characteristics of whatever living thing they were around. In one case a girl became just like a dog. She barked, walked on all fours, couldn’t speak or behave anything like a human. In most of these very few cases, the children never become normal, often many of them slip back into the forest or wherever they came from. Obviously we mirror what we see and what we are around. This girl had no concept of self and did not recognize herself. This is something we learn to do because the brain is so malleable. Some of these kids were able to learn basic grooming, manners, and functioning. They are capable of being normal genetically, but psychologically it ain't happening. Just like they could never be full dogs. DNA simply doesn't allow it. Some did learn how to talk. Like an orchestra we are variable and influenced by innumerable outside influences.
No comments:
Post a Comment