Acquiring Attitudes

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In my view, an infant is not born with a conscious mind but only with a subconscious mind. This means that the infant has no ego and has to create one. 

In order to explain the psychological issues involved with creating a new ego, I set my ideas within a perspective of reincarnation. [¹]. So I accept that the infant brings some character traits and beliefs with it from its previous life on Earth.

The absence of a conscious mind confers some advantages to the infant. It uses re-birth as a new beginning. Traits and beliefs are often karmic ones, that is, the new-born child carries them in its subconscious mind as a legacy from the past life. However, the family situation is a new one for the child, and so it can learn new beliefs and new traits, and modify old ones. In order to avoid punishment, the child usually has to learn to think about issues in the same way as the parents do. Whence the child often acquires the attitudes of the parents.

The basic factors of attitudes are character traits, beliefs and feeling. Feeling is of three kinds: the positive feeling, the negative one and the neutral one. These are the basis of all emotions. The factor of feeling means that we can define attitudes as our likes and dislikes.[²]

I can now state my viewpoint on how attitudes are formed by the child (or adult). The process starts from psychological needs and desires, and how these are affected in a new situation.

The child's needs and desires first influence its behaviour. The consequences of this behaviour (whether the parents reward it or punish it ) alter some of the child’s beliefs or generate new ones. In turn, the beliefs, together with emerging character traits, help to create attitudes. As the child grows up, it begins to develop characteristics such as values, moral standards, and new character traits. These become part of the process of attitude acquisition.

This process is normally done subconsciously and achieved through trial and error – the child has to learn the social limitations to its efforts. The strength and intensity of attitudes are derived from the strength and intensity of those traits which underlie them.

I use the example of learning to be friendly. Our desire to be friendly is an ideal that shapes our behaviour, and is a conscious effort at change. The positive results of being friendly ensure that we maintain this practice. Over a period of time the practice is incorporated into our standards and becomes a trait, the trait of goodwill (a trait is more general than the attitudes derived from it). Now the practice is automatic and has led to the adoption of a firm attitude of friendliness.

Classification of Consciousness

The manner in which consciousness is analysed often determines the result of that analysis. So a broad approach to understanding consciousness is required in order to avoid bias. For example: consciousness can be classified into various components in several ways.

• Three levels of consciousness. This is a ‘ horizontal ’ view. Consciousness is understood to be an amalgam of surface consciousness, subconsciousness, and unconsciousness. Here I use the term "surface" to denote our ordinary consciousness which we are aware of.

• Desire, mind, and emotion. Variations on this theme are will /mind /feeling, or action /mind /behaviour (or sensibility).

• Body, soul, and spirit. This is a traditional religious and ascetic view which is a three-way ‘vertical ’ view. The soul is an intermediary between the divine spirit and the lowly ego. I presume here that  ‘body’ is really an ego consciousness that is associated with the body by the ascetic person – he /she does this in order to make it easier to despise his /her ego by despising the body (an effect of a strong sense of guilt). This view would be better expressed as body, ego, soul and spirit. See Note below.

• Identity, character, and passion. This is an existential view of consciousness, and is perhaps more suitable for the modern age. Here ‘passion’ refers to a general level of intensity in the way that one lives life, and is not restricted to sexual interests.

The diagrams on attitudes are useful here. They can be used to characterise definite mental states. For example, I use the final diagram, diagram D: Pattern of Ego Response 4, to explain the last classification.

I put these ideas in a table.

Table 3.  Identity, Character and Passion

Identity is our own location of ourself within our social and cultural group. Character is the manner of our interactions with our group. And passion is our joy in ourself and in the world.

If external circumstances are difficult, then the passion either burns lower or else flares up to launch a quest that can re-discover that joy, if possible. Alternatively, the quest may become a vocation to remove obstacles to that joy, obstacles such as social or political inequalities, or just mental confusion. [³]

Note on Terminology

Unfortunately, the term ‘soul ’ is often used ambiguously, since the term ‘ego’ was not used by ancient writers.
Until the modern era  ( beginning perhaps with Descartes), the concept of consciousness was vague and muddled. It was described by the traditional phrase ‘body, soul and spirit ’. Descartes brought the ‘I’ or ego (which is more or less the personality) into contemporary thinking, and this change was made permanent by Freud. I follow Freud in this use of ego.

So how does the ego fit into the idea of  ‘body, soul and spirit ’ ?   It doesn't. What seems to be the case to me is that ‘body’ equals the physical body plus the bad parts of the ego (negative emotions like guilt, and feelings of violence, etc) ; and ‘soul ’ equals the good parts of the ego (its idealisms and nobility of character). ‘Spirit ’ is the spiritual agency. This usage of ‘soul ’ is different from my usage of it.

In my use of terms, I ignore the body.  Body is only the vehicle for consciousness. A body is required in order for the ego to experience the world. So I only use ego and soul. For me, ‘ego’ is the agency of consciousness, representing what the person thinks is himself /herself, while ‘soul ’ is the spiritual agency. I do not use the term ‘spirit ’.

The number in brackets at the end of each reference takes you back to the paragraph that featured it. The addresses of my other websites are on the Links page.

[¹]. The infant creates its ego in the first 15-18 months of life. I explain my ideas on this assumption, along with a description of some of the difficulties encountered, in the article Creating the Ego.

My ideas on reincarnation, along with an explanation of why the new-born infant does not have a conscious mind, are given in articles on my website Patterns of Spirituality. [1]

[²]. My analysis of attitudes is described in the previous article,  Attitudes and Ego Responses. [2]

[³]. The idea of a new quest is described in the article on Confusion. [3]

The articles in this section are :

The printing versions of diagrams B, C and D are A4 size.
The full-size versions are 1½ times larger.

Copyright @2003  Ian Heath
All Rights Reserved

The copyright is mine and the articles are free to use. They can be reproduced anywhere, so long as the source is acknowledged.