Prof. Joseph Levine, M.D. is an emeritus associate professor in the Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University in Israel. Prof. Levine is a certified psychiatrist with clinical experience in controlled trials of adult psychiatric disorders and in psychotherapy. He was awarded a NRSAD independent investigator grant for the study of Creatine Monohydrate in psychiatric disorders -- mainly Schizophrenia. He resides and treats patients in Tel Aviv and all of central Israel.
Conversation 70: How are the personal, family, group, subcultural and national narratives expressed in the "self" according to our model?
Greetings to our readers,
Our model of mental life first assumes the existence of the "primary self", which is in fact the basic biological nucleus consisting of a number of innate structures and subject to increasing development during life, this self includes the instinctive emotional and cognitive parts of the person.
The primary self uses the reservoirs and mechanisms of emotion, memory and cognitive abilities and it contains primary nuclei for the future development of other mental structures.
Let's first refer to the primary self (biological predestined core): the primary self consists of innate biological structures and instincts that form the innate basis of the parts of the personality and it also included the cognitive processes and the emotional processes.
This primary self has its own dynamics during a person's life and is subject to changes with age, following illnesses, traumas, drug consumption, addiction, etc.
Both the instincts and the basic needs in each and every person change according to different periods of development and aging – (hence their effect on behavior) and may change through drugs, trauma, diseases and more.
Within the primary self is the potential for instrumental abilities that are innate, but they can also be promoted, or on the contrary, suppressed through the influence of the reference groups.
The primary self also has cognitive abilities that are partly innate and partly dependent on interactions with the environment during the first years of life.
In addition, it includes the temperament and emotional intelligence that are partly innate and partly dependent on interactions with the environment in the first years of life.
And finally, it includes an energy charge that is mostly innate but can be suppressed through the influence of the reference groups, as well as through various situational factors.
he primary self also includes the seven personal sensitivity channels: Individual Sensitivity Channels (ISC) which reflect our individual reactivity in response to stressors (both external and internal). So far we have identified seven channels of sensitivity:
1. Sensitivity regarding a person's status and position (the status channel).
2. Sensitivity to changes in norms (the norms channel).
3. Sensitivity in relation to emotional attachment to others (the attachment channel).
4. Sensitivity to threat (the threat channel).
5. Sensitivity to routine changes (the routine channel).
6. Sensitivity to a drop in the energy level and the ability to act derived from it (the energy channel).
7. Sensitivity to a variety of sensory proprioceptive aspects arising from the body (the proprioceptive channel).
The less sensitive the person is in these channels, the healthier he is mentally. Great sensitivity in one or more channels may demonstrate mental pathology.
