THE ORGANISATION OF THE UPPER LEVELS OF THE MIND
Those untrained in psychology generally conceive of the mind as a
homogeneous whole; our first systematic examination reveals to us,
however, that the mind is just as organic as the body.
The organisation of the mind may best be realised by thinking of it as
a tank across which, at different heights, are placed sieves of varying
coarseness of mesh. We must conceive of the mind as being composed of
certain layers, and the layer in which our conscious life has its most
permanent focus we will consider to be the outermost layer and name THE
FOCUS OF CONSCIOUSNESS. Immediately behind the Focus of Consciousness
lies the level which psychologists call THE FRINGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS,
and the two are divided from one another by a sieve-like mechanism
which is technically called a CENSOR.
The understanding of these two levels of the mind may be rendered
clearer if we next consider the uses to which they are put. Supposing
a person is sitting in a room listening to a lecture, of what will
he be aware? Firstly, his attention will be concentrated upon the
lecture, and, secondly, he will be dimly conscious of the sounds made
by the traffic in the street outside. By an effort of will he will pay
attention to those ideas only which are connected with the lecture, and
exclude from consciousness those which are connected with the street
traffic; or, to express the process in psychological terms, we may say
that all the ideas connected with the lecture are admitted to the focus
of consciousness, and all ideas connected with the street noises are
kept in the fringe of consciousness, and that the censor-sieve is so
adjusted that ideas in the fringe may not intrude upon the focus. Its
meshes may be conceived as being of such a size that only the compact
little ideas appertaining to the lecture can pass through them, and the
undefined ideas connected with the street traffic are held back.
It will readily be seen that our powers of concentration depend upon
the satisfactory functioning of this psychic sieve. The more we can
bring the adjustment of its meshes under voluntary control, the better
will be our powers of concentration; whereas, if its mesh be loose or
faulty, and we have acquired little or no control over it, we shall
find that we are unable to hold our mind to any consecutive train of
thought, and that our focus of consciousness is constantly liable to be
invaded by ideas alien to the matter to which we wish to pay attention.
These two levels, the FOCUS and FRINGE OF CONSCIOUSNESS, together
comprise what is known as THE CONSCIOUS MIND. This is the part of the
mind which most truly seems to be “our-self.” It is the section of the
mind in which we carry on all our conscious mental activities, but it
is by no means the whole of the mental house.
Immediately behind the fringe of consciousness comes the level of
the mind which is known as the FORECONSCIOUS, PRECONSCIOUS, and many
other things according to the school of psychology whose doctrines are
adhered to. If, however, its function be understood, it will be readily
enough recognised through the disguise of the varied nomenclature
which, unfortunately, complicates the study of psychology.
In this level of the mind are stored all the ideas which we hold
in memory, but are not actually thinking about. It may, in fact,
be defined as the level of conscious memory, and just as the focus
is separated from the fringe of consciousness by an adjustable
censor-sieve, so an exactly similar sieve interposes between the fringe
of consciousness and the foreconscious, and works upon exactly the same
principles.
Thus, the student listening to the lecture could adjust this second
sieve so as to allow everything he had ever learnt that had any bearing
upon the subject in hand, to rise into the focus of consciousness and
help him to understand the lecture. It is this faculty which is of such
great importance in determining the critical powers of the mind, for
the previously determined ideas, ranging themselves alongside the fresh
concepts offered for assimilation, serve as standards of value, and
form a running commentary upon the lecture.
These three levels together, the focus, the fringe, and the
foreconscious, form the level of the mind to which we have access and
of which we can make use; but we must note this point in connection
with these levels, that any idea which we may wish to consider must be
placed in the strong light of the focus of consciousness before we can
see it clearly; we cannot consider an idea while it is still in the
foreconscious, but we can, at will, take it out of the foreconscious
and place it in the focus of consciousness for our consideration.
Indeed, these three levels of the mind may be likened to a kitchen,
the foreconscious being the cupboard, the fringe of consciousness the
table, and the focus of consciousness the mixing basin; and the ideas
upon the three levels may be represented by the ingredients of the
pudding, some of which are put away in the cupboard, some lie ready to
the hand upon the table, and others are actually in the mixing basin
being stirred.
Those on the table, like the ideas in the fringe of consciousness, lie
ready to the cook’s hand, but she is not dealing with them at the
moment; those in the cupboard (the foreconscious) are out of sight, but
she knows they are there and can get them if she wants them; but it is
only those that are in the basin, the focus of consciousness, that she
is actually at work upon.
To the average man these three levels constitute all there is of his
mind, he has no conception of the strange hinterland lying behind the
narrow strip of civilised coast, yet it is here that the springs of his
being take their rise, and it is the discovery and exploration of this
hinterland which has been the great contribution of modern psychology
to the sum of human knowledge.