The human-animal mind

[mmalluck]

I was thinking about the human mind and why problems in society exist (culture clash, racism, religious clash, etc) and I think it all comes down to the human mind and it's relationship to our animal past.

 

In order for the human mind to operate it must simplify the world around us. The most basic form of simplification is by lumping things into categories. That's why we name everything we come across. We can put it into a category more easily. One could argue that science is nothing more than an advanced form of lumping things into categories. For some religion becomes a means of making things easier to sort into categories. The categories are already given, all you have to do is sort accordingly.

 

Part of the problem is that the human mind is lazy; to use an old adage, it likes to think the world is either black or white. This simply isn't the case, but a lot of energy has to be invested to reevaluate everything that has been lumped into categories already. This happens with scientific discovery. It often takes a very long time for people to be able to resort their world into the new classifications discovered. Still many people choose not to reevaluate what they have already pegged into categories and problems arise from this.

 

I have a friend who makes a predetermined judgment on where they'll like a person basis merely on their name. Apparently all "John"s go in one box, all "Sally"s in another. Other sort by race, religion, or sexual preference. It's part of human nature.

 

Lets looks at one of the oldest classification made by the human mind; The categories of "Us" and "Them".

 

I'll speculate to say that the categories of "us" and "them" stem from a time when human interaction was much simpler. You lived in a tribe or pack. Those in your pack were part of "us". All the things that would help you survive were part of "us". "Us" was inherently good. Everything and everyone that was unfamiliar became part of "them". "Them" was inherently bad. It meant you approached "them" with caution, if at all. These were basic survival skills and served us well.

 

Today, in society this "evolutionary mental baggage" is still around us, but it no longer serves as great a purpose. "Us" might be your friends, your football team, your church, your culture, or your country. "Them" is all those who are not part of "Us". "Us" is still seen as inherently good and "Them" is inherently bad, but our categories are now much more arbitrary.

 

Are those who cheer for another football team really bad? How about those who aren’t your friends? What about those who go to a different church or have different beliefs? What about people living in another country with a different culture? The knee-jerk reaction is to say yes, but often this simply isn't the case.

 

This evolutionary mind set no longer serves us in the same manner. It is no longer needed. There's other evolutionary baggage that has been identified and an attempt to eliminate these characteristics from our society. I'm talking about the 7 deadly sins.

 

Let’s look at them: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, and Sloth. I could argue that each of these would aid an individual in a primitive society, but no longer in the society of today. Even though these characteristics still exist, we no longer have as much need for them.

 

In a way you could say that society has evolved faster than the people in it and this is causing problems.

 

I've just been milling over these thoughts and thought I'd share them with you all. If nothing else it will give you something to think about.

 

Is there any part of psychology that works on identifying these influences of the older parts of our minds?

[mmalluck]

Hmm on second thought maybe this would have been better in the Psychiatry/Psychology forum. If the powers the be (mods) see that way as well, cool.

[Mokele]

Is there any part of psychology that works on identifying these influences of the older parts of our minds?

 

An entire field, called Evolutionary Psychology (which is an outgrowth of E.O. Wilson's "Sociobiology" concept). There's plenty of profs in it, and I know someone who's actually going to do 2 chapters of their Ph.D. thesis in it (with the other two of cicada STDs).

 

Mokele

[Aardvark]

Anything by E O Wilson is great.

 

Basically, humans are part of nature just like all the other organisms. Understand nature and you are on the way to understanding the human mind.

[AzurePhoenix]

it's amazing how much work humans will put into avoiding work. I mean, as we type some science group is beginning a project aimed at collecting gene samples from every possible species alive today, from which it will create a database based on species identification bar codes, in which each species will be clearly described in detail, also with photos. It's going to take years to accomplish, but its all in the name of making things easier.