The making of mind

Abstract

Objectives: The ordinary, ongoing sense of personal existing, variously called higher order consciousness, mind, or self, is disintegrated, constricted and distorted in those who have suffered repetitive psychological traumata. Their speech has the form of a ‘chronicle’, literal and asymbolic. This paper offers a condensed rationale for a relational approach to this, so far, neglected problem. Conclusions: A restorative and generative kind of relatedness is ‘natural’, the propensity for it being given to us by our biological heritage. Its first form is a game between babies and caregivers, a ‘proto-conversation’. Principles derived from this, and related developmental behaviours, guide a form of therapeutic relatedness consisting of an interactive, to-and-fro ‘patterning’ of verbal ‘pictures’, or analogues, of the subject’s immediate experience. The analogue is the first form of symbol, the use of which is the hallmark of the human.