620 THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF INDIVIDUALITY 



abstraction and synthesis, resulting from our dealings with the environment 

 as well as with thought processes, may determine our actions and attitudes 

 without regard or even in opposition to their suggestive effect. In this case 

 our thoughts act as true or imaginary representatives of reality. On the basis 

 of our experiences gained in dealing with the outer environmental world or 

 with our thoughts, we make furthergoing abstractions concerning the char- 

 acter of abstractions and synthesis in general and their relation to the 

 environment. Thus logic is built up. The purely logical, rational use of 

 thoughts as determiners of our actions freed from the elements of suggestion 

 and detached from their function as instruments in the natural and social 

 struggle, represents the highest type of human activity and the closest 

 adaptation to reality. But when thoughts are not concerned with the purely 

 intellectual reproduction and interpretation of elements of the universe on a 

 rational, logical basis, they deal with and are instruments in the natural 

 struggle and in the social struggle, or in a combination of both. In this case 

 our thoughts function largely as suggestions rather than as representations 

 of reality and the resulting actions tend the more to be accompanied by 

 strong emotions, the more they are parts of the social or natural struggle. 

 The tendency to emotional response decreases in inverse ratio to the increas- 

 ing importance of thoughts functioning as symbols of reality. 



As a result partly of rational thought, but largely also because of the 

 friction, antagonism and pain developing in the soccial and natural struggle, 

 the concept of the "I," as contrasted with the concept of others and of the 

 surrounding world, develops. The "I" is the individuality in the psychical- 

 social sense. This concept has a very intricate structure, consisting of com- 

 binations of thoughts and emotions, memories, hopes and fears. Like all 

 thoughts, it has a complex origin, its sources being within us as well as in 

 the surrounding world. Hence our "I," our psychical individuality, does not 

 admit of a sharp separation between us and others, between ourselves and 

 our environment, although originally the concept developed in contact with 

 and in antagonism to the environment. 



Related to the "I" concept is the state of consciousness in our actions or 

 attitudes. Conscious psychical processes are those which form easily re- 

 membered combinations with such other pictures, thoughts, emotions and 

 experiences as are close to them in time or space, or have certain elements in 

 common with them. The term "consciousness" is used also in another sense, 

 in order to express the distinction between psychical and bodily processes ; 

 our images, thoughts, feelings and emotions are separated by us as conscious 

 processes from the chemical-physical processes underlying them and associated 

 with them. In general, most abstract thinking tends to be conscious because 

 it depends upon large combinations of experiences and remembered analogies; 

 it requires mental exertion, in contradistinction to the relative absence of 

 mental effort connected with thoughts when they function as suggestions or 

 otherwise exist in a relatively dissociated form. When a suggestion or com- 

 mand, direct or implied, enters into our mental processes, it tends to become 

 conscious only if it functions as a disturbing element. It is largely this 



