Person: Psyche, Mind, and Self
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2025
Pages: 216
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2025
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Who am I? What makes me a unique individual? What shapes my experiences of existence, identity, and selfhood? Who is this entity asserting, “my body, my psyche, my mind, and my soul”? How do we differentiate between the psyche, mind, soul, self, and ego? Is awareness synonymous with consciousness?
Both laypersons and experts—psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers, anthropologists, and theologians—often conflate the definitions of these concepts. As a long-time university lecturer, the author aims to assist students and general readers in navigating this terminological puzzle.
The book focuses on the historical concepts of psyche, mind, and soul that have inspired new insights. The author presents a cohesive perspective on the psyche and mind within his theory of the porters of meaning.
Neuroscientific efforts to identify the “brain loci” for psychological phenomena inadequately address the nature of the subject. Gravitational energy remains invisible, yet its impacts are evident; no one questions its locus. Similarly, mental energy is unseen, but its effects are observable. The brain is not the habitat or locus of the psyche, mind, or soul, just as a television set is not a locus but merely a tool for projecting a film.
The eye is an organ of vision, but it does not actually see or perceive; the brain is an organ of the psyche, yet it does not think or feel. Thoughts and images can instantly “travel” from Montreal to Tokyo and back at speeds exceeding that of light; they seem to communicate beyond the limitations of time and space (like subatomic particles in two distant quantum physics laboratories).
To understand mental phenomena, we must abandon the rigid axioms of Newtonian mechanics and apply innovative paradigms based on the representation, mirroring, and communication of meaning (terms frequently used in quantum theory).
Three major chapters explore the themes of orientation in the world (awareness), self-orientation, and self-contemplation (consciousness). The last two chapters delve into communication and existential questions of selfhood.
Zbigniew Pleszewski, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at McGill University in Montreal. Prior to his appointment at McGill, he was involved in clinical practice, research, and teaching across Europe (Clinical Psychology Department at Poznań University, Psychosomatic Medicine Department at Hamburg University), Japan (as a visiting professor at the Psychosomatic Medicine Department at Kyushu University), and Canada (Psychology Department at Concordia University).
His research interests include long-term emotional functioning preceding heart attacks, markers of immunocompetence in hemodialyzed patients with and without depressive traits, as well as psychotherapy and hypnotherapy.
His teaching areas encompass psychosomatic medicine, personality, motivation, and the philosophical roots of psychology.
For several years, he has served as a clinical psychologist on the Crisis Team in the Emergency Room at the Douglas Institute, a psychiatric teaching hospital in Montreal.
He has also travelled extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East, Egypt, Asia, Australia, South America, and North America.
Who am I? What makes me a unique individual? What shapes my experiences of existence, identity, and selfhood? Who is this entity asserting, “my body, my psyche, my mind, and my soul”? How do we differentiate between the psyche, mind, soul, self, and ego? Is awareness synonymous with consciousness?
Both laypersons and experts—psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers, anthropologists, and theologians—often conflate the definitions of these concepts. As a long-time university lecturer, the author aims to assist students and general readers in navigating this terminological puzzle.
The book focuses on the historical concepts of psyche, mind, and soul that have inspired new insights. The author presents a cohesive perspective on the psyche and mind within his theory of the porters of meaning.
Neuroscientific efforts to identify the “brain loci” for psychological phenomena inadequately address the nature of the subject. Gravitational energy remains invisible, yet its impacts are evident; no one questions its locus. Similarly, mental energy is unseen, but its effects are observable. The brain is not the habitat or locus of the psyche, mind, or soul, just as a television set is not a locus but merely a tool for projecting a film.
The eye is an organ of vision, but it does not actually see or perceive; the brain is an organ of the psyche, yet it does not think or feel. Thoughts and images can instantly “travel” from Montreal to Tokyo and back at speeds exceeding that of light; they seem to communicate beyond the limitations of time and space (like subatomic particles in two distant quantum physics laboratories).
To understand mental phenomena, we must abandon the rigid axioms of Newtonian mechanics and apply innovative paradigms based on the representation, mirroring, and communication of meaning (terms frequently used in quantum theory).
Three major chapters explore the themes of orientation in the world (awareness), self-orientation, and self-contemplation (consciousness). The last two chapters delve into communication and existential questions of selfhood.
Zbigniew Pleszewski, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at McGill University in Montreal. Prior to his appointment at McGill, he was involved in clinical practice, research, and teaching across Europe (Clinical Psychology Department at Poznań University, Psychosomatic Medicine Department at Hamburg University), Japan (as a visiting professor at the Psychosomatic Medicine Department at Kyushu University), and Canada (Psychology Department at Concordia University).
His research interests include long-term emotional functioning preceding heart attacks, markers of immunocompetence in hemodialyzed patients with and without depressive traits, as well as psychotherapy and hypnotherapy.
His teaching areas encompass psychosomatic medicine, personality, motivation, and the philosophical roots of psychology.
For several years, he has served as a clinical psychologist on the Crisis Team in the Emergency Room at the Douglas Institute, a psychiatric teaching hospital in Montreal.
He has also travelled extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East, Egypt, Asia, Australia, South America, and North America.