Collected Works
Silo
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Collected Works
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Psychology Notes
Notes
Dictionary of New Humanism
Volume II
Silo: Collected Works, Volume II, Psychology Notes, Notes, Dictionary of New Humanism
Compilation copyright © 2002 Silo. English translation copyright © 2003 TWM, Silo. All rights reserved.
This edition contains the complete unabridged text of each work.
Translated from the Spanish. New Humanism Translation Committee. Karen Rohn and Elizabeth Medina.
Psychology Notes copyright © 2003 TWM, Silo (Apuntes de Psicología © 2002 Silo).
Notes copyright © 2003 TWM, Silo (Notas © 2002 Silo).
Dictionary of New Humanism copyright © 1996, 1997, 2003 TWM, Silo (Diccionario del Nuevo Humanismo © 1996, 2002 Silo).
Compilation originally published as Silo: Obras Completas, Volumen II.
Ediciones Humanistas, Madrid, 2002.
Plaza y Valdes, S.A. de C.V., México, 2002.
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Contents
Introduction
Psychology Notes
Psychology I
1. The Psychism
As a Life Function
In Relationship with the Environment
In the Human Being
2. Apparatuses of the Psychism2
Senses
Common Characteristics of the Senses
Memory
Recording Modes
Remembering and Forgetting
Levels of Memory
Memory and Learning
Memory Circuit
Relationship between Memory and Coordinator
Memory Errors
3. Consciousness
The Structure of the Consciousness
Attention, Presence and Copresence
Abstraction and Association
Levels of Consciousness
Characteristics of the Levels
Deep Sleep
Semisleep
Vigil
Relationship Between Levels
Inertia
Noise
The Rebound Effect
Dragging
Tones, Climates, Tensions and Contents
Errors of the Coordinator
Integrated Circuit of Senses, Memory and Coordinator
4. Impulses
The Morphology of Impulses
Functions of Internal Representation
Functions of External Representation
Characteristics of the Sign, the Allegory and the Symbol
Symbolics
The Symbol as Visual Act
The Symbol as Result of the Transformation of What is Perceived
The Symbol as Translation of Internal Impulses
Signics
Differences between Signs and Signical Categories
The Signical Function of Symbols and Allegories
Allegories
The Associative Laws of Allegories
The Allegory’s Situational Element
Functions and Types of Allegories
The “Climate” of the Allegory and the System of Ideation
The System of Tensions and the Allegory as Discharge
Composition of the Allegory
5. Behavior
The Centers as Specializations of Relational Responses
The Vegetative Center
The Sexual Center
The Motor Center
The Emotional Center
The Intellectual Center
The Structurality of the Centers’ Work
Characterology
The Cycles of the Psychism
The Responses to the World as Structuring Compensations
Personality
Appendix: Physiological Bases of the Psychism
Psychology II
1. The Three Pathways of Human Experience: Sensation, Image and Remembrance
2. Specialization of Responses in Front of External and Internal Stimuli: The Centers
3. Levels of Work of the Consciousness. Reveries and Reverie Nucleus.
4. Behavior. Formative Landscape.
5. The System of Detection, Register and Operation. Senses,Imagination, Memory, Consciousness.
Senses
Imagination
Memory
Consciousness
6. Space of Representation3
7. Impulses: Translation and Transformation
Morphology of the Impulses: Signs, Symbols and Allegories
Signs
Symbols
Allegories
8. Operative
Psychology III
1. Catharsis, Transference and Self-Transference: ActionintheWorldas Transferential Form
2. Scheme of the Integrated Work of the Psychism
3. The Consciousness and the “I”
4. Reversibility and Altered Phenomena of Consciousness
5. The System of Representation in Altered States of Consciousness
Notes to Psychology
Notes
Reverie and Action
Notes to Reverie and Action
The Bomarzo Woods
Notes to The Bomarzo Woods
Dictionary of New Humanism
LIST OF WORDS AND RELATIONS
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Introduction
Introduction
In Collected Works, Volume I, the productions followed the order in which they appeared, with the exception of Silo Speaks, a compilation of opinions, conferences and commentaries. In Volume II, the works of compilation continue in one of the books, Psychology Notes, while in Notes and in the Dictionary of New Humanism, we return to the criterion of ordering the productions in chronological succession. Volume III will continue with the books produced since 1999.
Some brief comments on Volume II:
- Psychology Notes
These are a compilation of the conferences given in 1975, 1976 and 1978. In Psychology I, the psychism in general is studied as a function of life, from the perspective of its relationship with the environment, and in its human expression. Following is an exposition on the characteristics of the “apparatuses” of the psychism—the senses, the memory and the consciousness. The theory of impulses and behavior is also developed.
In Psychology II, the three pathways of human experience are studied—sensation, image and remembrance. What immediately becomes clear are the responses that the psychism gives to stimuli that are external to the body and to the stimuli of the intrabody. The levels of work of the consciousness and the mechanisms of behavior are reviewed in light of the theory of the space of representation. Finally, the production and transformation of impulses are illustrated as they go following the trajectory of sensations, images and remembrances at the same time they are organized in a morphological presentation of signs, symbols and allegories.
Psychology III studies the system of Operative, which is capable of intervening in the production and transformation of impulses. A simplified scheme of the integrated work of the psychism contributes to the comprehension of the themes of Operative. Finally, distinctions are established between the consciousness and the “I”, contrasting the states of reversibility with the altered states of consciousness.
- Notes
These are two very short works written in 1999. The first, Reverie and Action, tells us about Plaza de Colón (Columbus Square) in Madrid. On the Plaza, a kind of scenographic montage of colossal dimensions suggests contradictory reflections. The Plaza ceases to be a simple place for recreation or relaxation in the city and is converted into a labyrinth of historical facts that unfold in a complex framework.
In The Bomarzo Woods the author elucidates the meanings of a Renaissance Mannierist garden that is replete with allegories and symbols originated in Alexandria of the second century. In this wood, today converted into a tourist attraction, numerous sculptures of mystical inspiration are preserved, which continue to stimulate fanciful interpretations.
- Dictionary of New Humanism
This work was first published in 1994 under the title Algunos Términos de Uso Frecuente en el Humanismo (Some Frequently-Used Terms in Humanism). It was expanded considerably and published in 1997 as Diccionario del Nuevo Humanismo (Dictionary of New Humanism). In order to include it in Collected Works, Volume II, some additional revisions have been added to the most recent 1999 editions. The terms included in this work do not come from the broad fields of culture; rather the majority of them come from Political Science and Sociology. On the other hand, very technical terms that have been featured in various productions of Humanism have not been included. According to the author:
In this dictionary, which has been created with the contributions of select collaborators, a balance has not been achieved between Western humanism and other forms of humanism—which are equally rich and are found in diverse cultures. This insufficiency will be resolved when the task of producing an encyclopedia with the scope required by universalist humanism is undertaken.
The Editors
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Note to the Translation
This Second Volume of Silo's Collected Works continues the effort to give English readers access to Siloist thought, which is laying the foundation for a new culture, a new vision of the world and of the human being. For over 30 years Silo’s thinking has inspired the planetary movement of New Humanism that has given rise to a diversity of organizations dedicated to social and personal change.
The reader must bear in mind that Silo is an original thinker and writer who uses the Spanish language with great precision and clarity, and at times in an idiosyncratic, non-epochal style that may disconcert as it pushes the language to new levels of expression. The rarity of original thought in our times is such that the various documents making up Volume II have posed a special challenge to our team to be especially rigorous in performing the translator's function—that of serving as a faithful bridge across two languages, refraining from interpretation in order to avoid interference in the author’s communicational intention. We have tried to be as true to the original Spanish as possible, in meaning, vocabulary and sentence structure, while maintaining good flow in English and preserving the original spirit of each document. While we don’t doubt that in the future this first English edition will go on to be perfected, we are confident it will effectively raise the general level of knowledge of Silo’s contribution and the awareness of its true importance.
This translation was made possible by the cooperative effort of a large team of people, who worked closely on all of the facets and stages that a translation of this nature requires. Ourgrateful thanks to the author for his clear orientations, and to the translators of Volume I, Daniel Zuckerbrot and Paul Tooby, for their experienced support. We especially thank GloriaMorrison for her work on the three documents in Psychology Notes, which SuzanneGepp and Tony Robinson collaborated on as well. Patricia Rios, Patricio Ascui, TrudiRichards and Mark Farrell worked on the two literary essays in the Notes section. FredFronof’s excellent 1997 translation of Dictionary of New Humanism was edited by AdolfoCarpio, with the assistance of Antonio Carvallo and Marcos Pampillon. Many others participated in the final stages of reviewing and verifying the documents, and formatting the entire volume. We thank them as well for their anonymous but no less essential contribution to this work’s completion.
Karen Rohn and Elizabeth Medina
July 2003
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Psychology Notes
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Notes to Guided Experiences
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Psychology Notes
Psychology I
Summary prepared by attendees at Silo’s conferences in
mid-November 1975 in Corfu.
The Appendix“Physiological Bases of the Psychism,” wasadded towards the end of the same year.
1. The Psychism
As a Life Function
Since its beginnings, life has manifested itself in numerous forms. Many species have disappeared because they did not adapt to the environment, to new circumstances. Living beings have needs that they go to their environment to satisfy; this situation in the ecological environment unfolds in constant movement and change. The relationship is unstable and unbalanced, producing responses in the organism that tend to compensate the disequilibrium and thus enable it to maintain its structure which otherwise would abruptly disappear. Thus we see living nature deploy itself in a variety of forms, in an environment that has numerous characteristics that are different and variable; and at the base of living nature we see simple mechanisms of compensation in front of the disequilibrium that threatens the structure’s permanence.
The adaptation to external change. also implies an internal change in organisms for their survival. When this internal change does not take place in living beings, they eventually disappear and life chooses other paths to continue its growing expansion. The mechanism of responding compensatorily to disequilibrium will always be present in the sphere of life and life forms, and its complexity will be greater or lesser depending on each species’ degree of development. This task of compensating the external environment, as well as internal needs, will be understood as adaptation (and, specifically, as growing adaptation)—as the only way to prevail in the dynamic of instability in movement.
Especially, animal life will develop according to functions of nutrition, reproduction and locomotion. Of course these functions exist in plant life as well, and even in unicellular life; but clearly, in animals these functions constantly relate the organism with its environment, maintaining the structure’s internal stability. This will be expressed in a more specialized way as vegetative tendencies,, as “instincts” of conservation and reproduction. The first maintains the individual structure; the second, that of the species. In this preparation by organisms to preserve themselves as individuals and perpetuate themselves as a species, an inertia (we would say, the “memory”) is expressed that tends to ensure permanence and continuity, in spite of the variations.
In animals, the functions of nutrition, and reproduction will need locomotion in order to be deployed. This allows for displacement in space in order to obtain food. Internally there is also a mobility, a transporting of substances in order for them to be assimilated by the organism. Reproduction will be internal within the individual, and external in the multiplication of individuals. The first is verified in the form of the generation and regeneration of tissue; the second as the production of individuals within the same species. Both will need to use locomotion to accomplish their purpose.
The tendency to go toward the environment—from the search for food supply sources, to flight or concealment from danger—gives direction and mobility to living beings. These specific tendencies in each species form a team of tropisms. The simplest tropism consists of giving a response to a stimulus. This minimal operation, of responding to an element alien to the organism that provokes a disequilibrium in the structure, in order to compensate and re-establish stability, will later manifest itself in a diverse and complex way. All the operations will leave “tracks,” which will be preferential pathways for the new responses (in Time 2 the living being operates on the basis of conditions obtained in Time 1). This possibility of recording is of prime importance for the structure’s permanence in a changing external environment, and a variable internal environment.
As the organism tends to go toward the environment to adapt to it and survive, it will have to do so by overcoming resistances. In the environment there are possibilities but also inconveniences, and to overcome the difficulties and surpass resistances, energy must be invested; work must be done that requires energy. This available energy will be used in that work of overcoming environmental resistances. There will be no energy available again until the difficulties are overcome and the work is completed. The recordings of tracks (memory) will allow responses based on previous experiences, which will leave free energy available for new evolutionary steps. Without energetic availability, it is not possible to carry out more complex tasks of growing adaptation.
On the other hand, the environmental conditions present themselves to the developing organism as alternatives of choice, as well as being the tracks that allow it to decide between the different alternatives of adaptation. In addition, the adaptation is carried out by looking for the path of least resistance in front of the different alternatives, and that will require the least effort. This lesser effort implies less energy expenditure. And so, concomitantly with overcoming resistances, the attempt is made to do so with the least amount of energy possible, so that the free energy available can be invested in new evolutionary steps. In each evolutionary moment there is transformation, both of the environment as well as of the living being. Here is an interesting paradox: the structure, in order to preserve its unity, must transform the environment, and also transform itself.
It would be erroneous to think that living structures change. and transform only the surrounding environment, since this environment becomes increasingly more complicated, and it is impossible to adapt while keeping the individuality unchanged, just as it was created in its beginnings. This is the case of man, whose environment, with the passing of time, is no longer just natural, but is social and technical as well. The complex relationships between social groups and the accumulated social and historical experience create an environment and a situation in which man’s internal transformation will be necessary.
Following this roundabout description in which life emerges as organizing itself with functions, tropisms and memory) so as to compensate a variable environment and thus increasingly adapt, we see that a coordination among these factors (however minimal) is also necessary for the opportune orientation toward favorable conditions of development. When this minimal coordination appears, the psychism emerges as a function of life in growing adaptation, in evolution.
The function of the psychism consists of coordinating all the operations of compensation of the living being’s instability in its environment. Without coordination, the organisms would respond partially without completing the different compositional parts, without maintaining the necessary relationships; and, finally, without preserving the structure in the dynamic process of adaptation.
In Relationship with the Environment
This psychism that coordinates the vital functions makes use of the senses and the memory) for the perception of variations in the environment. These senses, which through time have become more complex (like all parts of organisms), provide information on the environment that will be structured in adaptative orientation. The environment in turn is very varied, and certain minimal environmental conditions are necessary for the organism’s development. Wherever these physical conditions are present, life emerges; and once the first organisms appear, the conditions are progressively transformed in way that is increasingly more favorable for life. But in the beginning, organisms require optimal environmental conditions for development. The variations in the troposphere reach all organisms. Thus, daily cycles and seasonal cycles, as well as general temperature, radiation and solar light, are influential conditions in the development of life. So is the composition of the Earth, which, in its wealth, offers raw material that will be the energy and work source for living beings. The accidents that can occur all over the planet are also decisive circumstances for organic development. From glaciations, cave-ins, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, even wind and water erosion—all are determining factors. Life will be different in the deserts, in the mountain heights, on the poles or on the seacoasts. Large numbers of organisms and diverse species appear and disappear from the earth’s surface once life arrives from the oceans. Many individuals encounter insurmountable difficulties and perish as a result. This also happens to complete species—species that were unable to transform themselves or the new situations that arose in the evolutionary process. Life nonetheless continually opens up its path, encompassing many possibilities through great numbers and diversity.
When diverse species appear within one same space, different relations arise among them, apart from those that exist within the same species. There are relations of symbiosis, of association, parasitic relations, saprophytic relations and so on. All these possible relations can be simplified into three major types: relations of domination, relations of interchange, and relations of destruction. Organisms maintain these relationships among themselves, with some surviving and others disappearing.