The Correlation of All Mental Phenomena

Moreover, the attempt to discern or uncover the “correlation of all mental phenomena” which is at the heart of economic, political, and social affairs begins with just a few intelligent individuals and in turn is acknowledged and recognized by just a few intelligent individuals. When a White-American female editor of a major American foreign policy magazine marries an Iranian man and openly empathizes with the “poor men” of the Middle East and Asia, it means that only a few intelligent individuals can discern and understand this deep and hidden “correlation of all mental phenomena” which is at the heart of our economic, political, and social affairs. 

And as Wilfred Trotter wrote:

“The absence of any strong pressure in the direction of establishing a correlation of all mental phenomena, whether human or not, is not a matter of merely theoretical interest. The actual practical success to be obtained today in such an attempt might possibly be insignificant and yet of great value in moulding the whole attitude of mind of the investigator towards matters lying wholly within the sphere of human psychology.” 

The “edifice” upon which an investigation into a possible “correlation of all mental phenomena” can be built is the work of Sigmund Freud, as Trotter noted. But as many astute students of history know full well, Freud was subject to alienation and perhaps even hate during both his own time as well as after his passing. Freud’s books were burned in Europe, and even now, there is a reluctance and stubbornness on the part of some Western cognitive scientists, psychologists, and therapists in accepting Freud’s ideas. As Trotter wrote:

“However much one may be impressed by the greatness of the edifice which Freud has built up and by the soundness of his architecture, one can scarcely fail, on coming into it from the bracing atmosphere of the biological sciences, to be oppressed by the odour of humanity with which it is pervaded.”

The fact that the idea of the human mind being in a “conflict” between its conscious and subconscious levels is still an esoteric or even taboo idea in the Western world goes to show that both the people and the environment which pervade such an idea are toxic and unhealthy. Thus, it is no surprise that in an environment and social setting where a basic and fundamental concept or idea of human life is largely rejected for no apparent or clear reason whatsoever, only a select few with the proper intelligence and insight can accept what is essentially the deepest and most hidden of all truths about human life. 

In turn, and as Freud argued, there is added pressure upon the conflict of the mind which comes from the people and environment that surrounds the individual. Hence, the significance or even the veracity of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” precedes and underlies the Freudian structure or system, in the sense that people and the environment make up the “cave” which conceals and hides reality. Stepping out of the “cave” and into reality means stepping out of the environment and people which surrounds the individual. And as suggested before, those who are brave and intelligent enough to make that move out of the proverbial “cave” and into reality are quite few in number and always have been few in number.