Mental: the meaning of a word and its components

Here you will find information about what is a mentality in the broadest sense. The meaning of the word, various compound terms and much more - in this article.

Term meaning

Now we will talk about what the term "mental" means. The meaning of the word is rather blurry. This is the way people perceive the world around them. Mentality is a form of thinking, its image and embodiment in the formulated point of view, a certain spiritual mood of the subject or group.

Despite the fact that this concept has a rather wide meaning, at the same time it is more "vague", clear to a lesser extent. A clear characteristic is unless the person's ability to act mentally, corresponding to a certain predisposition.

How do scientists formulate such characteristics of a person as the mental? The meaning of the word in the philosophy can be treated as a relation to the mind of the individual in all forms of functional aspects, these are the ways of perception of the world, the characteristics of memory, the claimed desires, the breadth of the imagination, various feelings, etc. But beyond these aspects, mentality affects the points of content of consciousness, intellect .

Mentality also affects many aspects of the subject's life positions and can have a different definition. A mental person is a characteristic of an individual, including both the conscious and the unconscious. This concept can be defined as the composition of the mind, intellect, and can be defined as a set of attitudes of a psychological and social nature, ways of analyzing and perceiving information obtained in the process of reflection or sensation.

Analysis of the concept of "mental"

The meaning of the word in a broad sense should be taken as a complex concept that affects many aspects of a person's spiritual life, the term itself has a rather difficult character. This is due to the fact that the term not only refers to historical and anthropological sciences, but is inextricably linked with philosophy. What does it mean "mentally" - you can disassemble incredibly long. Depends much on what sources of information you address, but wherever you turn, there are common for all provisions that characterize this term.

Representations of mentality have actively developed in the spiritual sphere, and for this reason, its characteristic feature is the refusal and departure from the centralization of historical development in European culture as a whole. Instead, attention is focused on the stability of the inner self of the person, which leads the individual to the desire to unite in historical and social communities. Proceeding from this, it is possible to push the concept "mental" differently. The meaning of the word can now be perceived as a means for analyzing and interpreting knowledge of a humanitarian character.

Opposition of mentality

What does it mean "mentally" from the point of view of various oppositional ways of perception of the world and what are they generally like? Answering this question, it is first of all necessary to understand that the ways to defend one's own mental interests, namely the opposing cultural and natural, emotionally colored and rationalized, peculiar to the group and having an individual character, disappear when it comes to the mental. The very structure of this term simply dissolves all internal and external contradictions between these ways of realizing the world in oneself. In discussing this concept, it is important to know that in this case it does not matter which of the above-mentioned oppositions perceives data about the surrounding world.

Logical, pre-logical and mentality of the collective type

What does the mental logically and logically mean? These two parts of the term were introduced by Levi-Bruhl in his work "Primitive Thinking". Logical and logistical ones are types of ways to emphasize the difference in the thinking patterns of the tribes of Africa and Australia, based on laws of a participatory nature, which include the laws of logical contradiction and the image of rational thinking in Europe, along with its traditions.

Another component element is the concept of collective mentality introduced by J. Lefebvre. Adding to the meaning of the mentality of this term was based on the need to explain the actions of a certain nature, characteristic of whole groups of people. The definition was based on the study of the phenomenon of panic in a large mass of people.

Mental space

Analyzing the term, it is important to remember about its one more compound - mental space. It is a resource that guarantees the process of "humanizing" the subject in the process of self-creation. Introduced this concept in the mentality was MB Turovsky.

The main reason for the emergence of the mental space was the opportunity to create human humanity, based on the activity of an objective nature, which was formed under conditions limited by different traditions, for example, Marxist. In the course of the formation of man as part of history, he creates himself on the basis of the content of individuality. According to Turovsky, the mental space is permeated with integral directives of a supra-individual character, which dictate to mankind its relation to everything that surrounds the subject.