Dreams and semiotic schemas as intermediaries between soul and body

Rozin Vadim Markovich Doctor of Philosophy Chief Scientific Associate, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences  109240, Russia, Moskovskaya oblast', g. Moscow, ul. Goncharnaya, 12 str.1, kab. 310 rozinvm@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Introduction

Medical knowledge describes the soul (in the modern type of rationality, consciousness and psyche) and the human body separately and in different scientific ways. At the same time, although the influence of the soul on the body and vice versa is recognized, there is no strictly scientific explanation for this connection and mutual influence. More precisely, the currently existing explanations no longer satisfy us. Nevertheless, I will start with them, but first I will explain what I understand when talking about intermediaries. This concept was introduced by sociologist Bruno Latour, although, in my opinion, it also works well in the case of medical sciences. Latour picks up on a very important observation by Z.According to J. Bauman and some other sociologists, in the modern world, social relations and connections are mediated by technical objects, activities, different principles, standards, etc. He takes apart the next three cases. First, instead of directly guarding the sheep, the shepherd "guards" them with a fence and dogs. Secondly, instead of directly controlling the movement of cars in the city, the traffic controller "controls" them with the help of traffic lights and "speed bumps". Third, instead of direct communication between the designer and the future user, an environment thought out by the architect is used as an intermediary. In all these cases, as well as in most others, direct relationships (direct social connections) are mediated by cultural objects, and, as a rule, the number of such mediations ("intermediaries" according to Latour) is it can be significant. Unlike "guides" who obey causal relationships, intermediaries do not obey them and are incommensurable with each other. ^{[1, pp. 331-332]} Intermediaries separate the phenomena of interest to the scientist and connect them; in this way, I will try to show that dreams and schemas can be considered as intermediaries connecting the soul and the body. Briefly about the research methodology.

The body and soul are ideal objects, i.e. those that allow one to reason without contradictions, solve problems and tasks of interest to the researcher, and rethink the facts representing the phenomenon under study ^{[8, p. 60]}. Of course, we project these objects onto the phenomenon itself, isolating certain characteristics in it, for example, the structure of the body or the emotions of the soul, but we cannot operate with these characteristics outside of theoretical hypotheses and ideas about ideal objects. In this regard, on an empirical level, it is impossible to understand how the body and soul are related. Only within the framework of theory and new hypotheses. In order for these hypotheses to be adequate to the problem posed and capture the individuality of the phenomenon under study, we will preface the hypotheses with a case analysis. Based on this analysis, which largely boils down to the reconstruction of a phenomenon, but brought to the level of ideal objects, conclusions will also be drawn regarding the connection between soul and body. In addition, since the concepts of the soul and body have changed in history and science, a brief history of these changes will be offered.

Historical explanations of the relationship between soul and body

The first one belongs to an archaic culture. The ancient man explained this connection, as shown by the classic culturologist E. Taylor, in the framework of magic. That is, he believed that the soul lives in the body, can leave this "house", but also return back, and these actions explain all the main observed human conditions (death is the departure of the soul forever, without return, illness is the temporary exit of the soul from the body, dreams are the soul's travels during sleep, creating rock art ‒ evoking the soul). ^{[11; 5]} It is clear that, from the point of view of modern science, there is no explanation here, but archaic man possessed a different consciousness and vision of everything, in any case, such a narrative allowed him to act quite effectively for that time. For example, to treat those who are ill (if the soul has left the body because it has become cold, we will warm the body, if, on the contrary, it is hot, we will cool it, if, because we are hungry, we will feed, the first medicines).

In ancient culture, Aristotle rejects such an explanation, believing that it leads to contradictions. So in his work "On the Soul," he writes that if we assume that the soul and body are connected by movement, then the soul of a deceased person can return and he will come to life, but man, unlike the gods, is mortal. For the first time, Stagirit explains the connection between soul and body rationally, saying that the soul can be summed up under the concept of form, and the body ‒ matter, and soul and body are connected as form with matter, i.e. through the act of design.

In modern times, Descartes not only contrasts soul and body, but also discusses how they are related. He suggests that the intermediary here is the "pineal gland." Animal spirits, which are particles of the body's blood, ""running past the pineal gland" rocked it and thereby "caused suffering states of the soul" ‒ joy or sadness, which allowed the soul to judge the harmfulness or usefulness of a given external stimulus to the body…The decisive factor in the emergence of the "passions of the soul" was precisely the movements of animal spirits, i.e. the purely material processes of the functioning of the nervous system" ^{[10, p. 109]}.

The explanation, as we can see, boils down to the assumption that the bodily process (the movement of animal spirits) creates conditions for the mental (passions).

A few centuries later, Z. suggests something similar. Freud. But rather on the contrary, in the beginning, mental processes (the clash of opposing desires and drives) create conditions for biological transformations (splitting of consciousness, falling out of it of a zone that can no longer be aware, i.e. it is a biological substrate). Then biological transformations, in turn, create conditions for mental and somatic processes (suffering, pain). "But how could it happen,‒ Freud asks, ‒that such an affectively saturated group of representations turned out to be isolated?.. This question can be answered by taking into account two facts that we can judge with complete certainty, namely: (1) simultaneously with the formation of this isolated group of representations, hysterical pains occurred, and (2) the patient strongly resisted any attempt to establish a connection between this isolated group and other meaningful components of consciousness; when she finally managed to establish this connection, she experienced severe mental pain. Consciousness cannot predict exactly when an unbearable idea will arise. The unbearable idea is excluded and forms an isolated mental group along with everything connected with it. But initially it had to be represented in the mind, entering the main stream of thoughts, otherwise there would not have been a conflict, which is the reason for such exclusion. We consider these moments to be "traumatic"; it is then that the conversion takes place, the results of which are a splitting of consciousness and a hysterical symptom" ^{[12, pp. 64-65, 69, 71]}. "Thanks to the study of hypnotic phenomena," Freud explains in another work, "we have become accustomed to an understanding that at first seemed extremely alien to us, namely, that several mental groupings are possible in the same individual, which may exist in one individual quite independently of each other, may not know anything about each other. each other and who, changing their consciousness, break away from each other. If, with such a split personality, consciousness is constantly inherent in one of the personalities, then this latter is called a conscious mental state, and the personality separated from it is called an unconscious one... we have an excellent example of the influence that the conscious state can experience from the unconscious" ^{[13, p. 17]}.

It turns out a rather complicated picture: mental (mental) processes create conditions for bodily transformations, and those for new mental ones.

The author's explanation of the relationship between mental and somatic processes

For a better understanding, I suggest the following case from my childhood ‒ an interesting dream I had during the evacuation of Kuibyshev during the war. I was five or six years old. Mom worked day and night at an aircraft factory and only occasionally took a few hours off to visit my brother and me at kindergarten. She almost always brought something delicious: cocoa in a thermos, chocolate or something else. And so I persistently began to have a dream with my mother and delicious food in addition. It's understandable how upset I was when I woke up: there was no mom, no cocoa. Finally, in order not to be deceived and upset unnecessarily, I decided to check myself by pinching my ear: if it hurts, I don't sleep, if it doesn't hurt, I sleep. And that same night, I had a dream: my mom arrives, I pull my ear, make sure I'm awake, drink what and then... I wake up. Then everything is clear. The power of grief has firmly imprinted this dream in my memory.

I also remember an incident that happened a few days later. I'm playing dice, and suddenly I hear the teacher responding: "Vadik, go down to the first floor, your mother is waiting for you there." I ran headlong, and as I was going down the stairs, I saw my mother, but when I ran up, it turned out to be a nurse who was waiting for me. I then ask the teacher where my mother is, and she says in surprise, "I told you that a nurse is waiting." Now the explanation of dreams ^{[6; 15]}.

They are caused by problematic situations that do not allow for some reason to realize the desires that have arisen in a person. As, for example, in this case: at first, I had a blocked desire to see my mother, then I was not deceived, in the last story I wanted to see my mother again. My analysis shows that desire, both from a psychological and biological point of view, is a complex formation. This is something like a program (it is, on the one hand, set by language, signs and schemes, on the other ‒ by physiological structures), the implementation of which involves living certain events (meeting mom, communicating with her, delicious food, etc.). Blocking this program does not lead to its disintegration, i.e. the desire still strives to realize itself. In order not to interfere with the normal functioning that continues, the psyche takes the blocked program to another horizon, so to speak, until better times. These times occur during sleep, when the mental apparatus is freed from the waking work of overcoming those desires for which there were conditions. The work of constructing a dream begins: from existing units of experience (this was shown, in particular, by G. Helmholtz), the psyche constructs dream events that nevertheless allow the blocked program to be implemented. So, in this case, the first desire formed in a dream and launched the plot of the mother's arrival, in the second ‒ a check for sleep or lack thereof, in the third case, in the form of auditory and visual hallucinations, it "replaced" the words of the teacher and the image of the nurse (here the mechanisms of interpretation and completion and reconstruction of ordinary perceptions of dream work, see more ^[6]).

All the main processes involved in the construction of dreams are twofold: psychological, i.e. related to the soul, and physiological, related to the body. For example, what is desire as a program? On the one hand, semiotic and mental education, in which events to be realized are set by means of semiotic means. On the other hand, a program is a physiological process that creates pressure and tension in the body that requires resolution. The dual nature of programs and other dream processes allows us to consider dreams as intermediaries between the soul and the body.

This mediation has been established since the dawn of human development. The biology of hominids, which gradually transformed into ancient humans, began to change dramatically around one to two million years BC in the process of transition from a signaling system to a symbolic (symbiotic) one. Hominids regulated their pack relationships using signals (danger, submission, certain activity, etc.). A condition for survival in catastrophic situations typical of that time for hominids was a new way of behavior based on replacing real situations with imaginary ones, given by signs. However, it was necessary to learn how to create signs, understand, follow imaginary situations, and select those signs that provided effective behavior (see ^{[9, pp. 87-106]}).

Under the influence of all these processes, a two-way process unfolds: the suppression of the biological behavior of hominids (which, in particular, B. Porshnev drew attention to ^{[4, pp. 414-415, 440]}) and the formation of a new, human behavior. The latter was based not only on semiotics, but also on a new biology emerging under the influence of semiotics. This can be better understood from the material of a later period, related to the archaic culture. The American anthropologist Margaret Mead, who studied early forms of love and sexual relations, writes the following. "Since the Arapeshi (a mountain tribe in New Guinea) think that a child is obtained from maternal blood and paternal semen, the father's function in fertilization does not end with conception, intense sexual activity is required of him for several weeks. The more acts of coition parents perform, the Arapesh think, the better and healthier their child will be. But as soon as “the mother's breasts show the swelling and discoloration of the nipples characteristic of pregnancy, it is considered that the creation of the child is complete. From now on, all sexual intercourse is prohibited.” And further, until the child begins to walk, a strict taboo is imposed on sexual intercourse ^{[2, p. 253]}<...> The engagement of the Arapesh takes place between a girl of seven or eight years old and a boy about six years older than her. After the engagement, she goes to live in the house of the futureyour spouse. Here, the father-in-law, the future spouse and all his brothers work together to raise a little bride... If we take into account the fact that for a number of years a husband and wife have been living together as brother and sister, then one of the decisive factors in the attitude of Arapashi to sex becomes clear to us. Their sexual intercourse is not associated with feelings that are dramatically different from those they have for their own daughter or sister. They just turn out to be a more complete and complete expression of the same feeling. They are not considered to be some kind of spontaneous human reaction to internal sexual stimuli. Therefore, the fact of peculiar frigidity in adult women is no longer surprising ^{[2, pp. 274, 280]}. Arapesh women, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes, “do not receive even simple relaxation in sexual intercourse and described their sensations after sexual intercourse as a kind of indefinite warmth and a sense of relief” ^{[2, p. 298]}.

Here there is a transformation of biology (body) under the influence of social models accepted in society, which are formalized in language (signs). These same social models define the consciousness of the Arapesh. Now another, more complex case is Carl Jung's youthful memory.

"The world is beautiful and the church is beautiful," says Jung in his latest book, "and the God who created all this is sitting far, far away in the blue sky on a golden throne... Here my thoughts stopped, and I felt suffocated. I was numb and remembered only one thing: Not to think now! Something terrible is coming.

(After three days and two sleepless nights, Jung nevertheless decided to finish the thought he had started. - V.R.).

I gathered all my courage, as if I had suddenly decided to immediately jump into the flames of hell, and gave the thought a chance to appear. I saw the cathedral in front of me, the blue sky. God sits on his golden throne, high above the world ‒ and from under the throne a piece of feces falls on the sparkling new roof of the cathedral, breaks through it, everything collapses, the walls of the cathedral break into pieces.

That's it! I felt incredibly relieved. Instead of the expected curse, grace descended upon me, and with it an unspeakable bliss that I had never known... I understood a lot that I didn't understand before, I understood what my father never understood, the will of God... My father accepted the biblical commandments as a guide, he believed in God, as prescribed by the Bible and as his father taught him. But he did not know the living God, who stands free and omnipotent, standing above the Bible and above the Church, who calls people to become equally free. God, for the sake of fulfilling His Will, can force the father to abandon all his views and beliefs. Testing human courage, God forces us to abandon traditions, no matter how sacred they may be" ^{[14, pp. 46, 50]}.

Why did Jung see a God who looked like a kind of revolutionary destroying the church in an obscene way? But because during this period he had a conflict with his father (a hereditary pastor) and the church, and Jung wanted to break off relations with them, which he did after the story of the fantasy that visited him (as I show, it was a waking dream ^{[6, pp. 371-372]}). "In this religion," he writes, "I no longer found God. I knew that I would never be able to take part in this ceremony again. The church is a place where I won't go anymore. Everything is dead there, there is no life there. I felt sorry for my father. I realized the tragedy of his profession and life. He was struggling with death, the existence of which he could not admit. A chasm opened up between him and me, it was boundless, and I did not see the possibility of ever overcoming it" ^{[14, p. 64]}.

In this case, for Jung, a problematic situation is a poorly realized desire to break off relations with his father and the church, despite the fact that it is almost impossible for a teenager brought up in religion to do this. Nevertheless, Jung solves this problem, but in three steps. At the first stage, a problematic situation triggers a daydream (a fantasy close to a hallucination), which frightens Jung to death; what if God strikes him for blasphemy. This process is basically, as in the case of Freud, physiological, but it also determines mental images. In the second stage, Jung intuitively searches for a rational solution and finds it in constructing a scheme in which God looks like a revolutionary, giving Jung the sanction to break with his father and the church. In the third stage, he actualizes this scheme, getting into a new reality ("understood the will of God" and so on). Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. The scheme that solved Jung's problem

The body's reaction is also not a purely biological process, because Jung dreamed of a picture that can only be understood with the help of language. Schematics play a major role in rational thinking. Scheme ‒ This is the construction (invention) of an individual, which makes it possible to resolve a problematic situation, thereby setting a new reality, and opening up the possibility of acting in a new way. Moreover, the schemes determine the sensuality of a person, forming his physicality. "Sometimes," writes psychotherapist G. Nazloyan, "patients are surprised by the shape of their ears, nose, eyes, lips, and chin. This is the first way out of autistic captivity, the first look at oneself from the outside, the first attempt to compare oneself with other people without vicious mythologization and dysmorphophobic attitudes that distort the vision of the world in general and the world of human relations in particular. Sergey V., for whom the forehead was a “testing ground”, the surface of the nose was a “launching pad”, and the mouth was a “cave”, eventually recalled this with an ironic smile, as well as the developed delusional system and inappropriate actions associated with the fact that he was an Alien from the Future. Another patient, Vladimir U., who has yet to be treated, “sculpts” horses, cats and other animals out of his cheeks, and then “erases" them. What is hidden behind all this?" ^{[3, p. 23]}

As I show, schizophrenics' vision of their face, and their basic feelings, are completely determined by the features of the "deformed reality" that has formed as a result of the formation of the anthropological image of the patient. In turn, a new pyramid of realities is formed as a result of the patient building schemes that he believes solve his problems. The displacement of the pyramid of realities that existed before the disease, and the final victory of the deformed pyramid is perceived by the schizophrenic as entering a new world where different sensuality and events. So, precisely because Sergey V. considers himself an alien from the future and, consequently, an astronaut, he perceives his nose as a "launch pad" and his forehead as a "space test site". ^{[7, pp. 55-56]}

Conclusion

I understand that a psychologist and a doctor would like to get an answer to the question of how the mechanisms that allow the transition from the soul to the body and back are arranged, which determine these transitions. In my opinion, this formulation of the question is not entirely correct. Not transitions, but interdependence, the simultaneous action of the soul and body, mediated by dreams and schemas. Both of these formations are semiotic. Dreams are formed under the influence of language, which allows you to set not only desires that are realized during the waking period, but also those that a person cannot realize in ordinary life. Evolution has found a way out: blocked desires are realized biologically and symbolically (Freud) during sleep. Diagrams are also special complex signs, because the condition for solving problems with their help is to understand and translate the diagrams. Dreams and schemas are involved in shaping both human consciousness and physicality in different ways. In turn, consciousness and physicality act as a substrate of human behavior and activity. From the point of view of function and place, schemas and dreams can be summed up under the concept of "intermediary", which was introduced by B.Latour.