The Need for a Conceptual Vocabulary
(or a Vocabulary of Ideas)

At some point in his life a person may attempt to understand his personal experiences of life. If there are no unusual aspects to his adventures, then he will normally expect to explain his life fairly easily. However, if he has endured unusual, even abnormal, experiences and ordeals within the mind, then how is he to understand them?  If he cannot understand them, how can he explain them?  

One reason that a person cannot explain his ideas adequately and lucidly is because he lacks a sufficient vocabulary of ideas that can identify the steps that he is taking, and links that he is making, within the mind. This is particularly appropriate to ideas about the psychic and the emotional natures of consciousness. When he lacks sufficient ideas, then his attempts to explain his thoughts are often marked by writings that are obscure, vague and even confused. Alternatively, he may rely too much on symbolism to fill the gaps in his theory.

Sometimes a suitable vocabulary may not exist, and so a person needs to do a lot of reading about relevant phenomena in order to acquire information that appears to be suitable to such phenomena. Once sufficient information has been absorbed, then the person may begin to see patterns underlying all this information. These patterns are the first step towards making sense of apparently disparate phenomena. By giving names to these patterns the person is extending the range of ideas that are available for understanding the way that the mind works.

If you study hard enough then your soul will increase your intuitiveness ("thinking outside the box") so that you can see the hidden patterns. When I constructed my psycho-analytical theory of consciousness, I had to construct my own conceptual vocabulary. I took ideas from Freud, Nietzsche, and others, generated some ideas of my own, and then melded all of them into a consistent theory. But it was very hard work.

Copyright @2003  Ian Heath
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