The Mind: Evil or Good?

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Recommended: Historical roots of modern psychology

In 1950s America, the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis were beginning to be reexamined and expanded as more cases of mental distress and disorders were uncovered that no one knew how to treat. These cases could often related back to one main theme, which was unhappiness in one aspect of an individual’s life. This problem area could be home life, work, social status, or a number of other areas. No matter what the root of the problem, the issue always caused a person to feel inconsequential and their minds would spiral down a negative path until they were no longer, by society’s terms, sane. Existentialists, those who believe individuals should be responsible for developing how they want and when they want, viewed these allegedly crazy people as developing at their own pace. They did not believe, however, that these people were discovering the meaning of their life as they were, more often than not, unhappy with their lives. The existentialists believed that when one does not aim for a specific goal or yearn to find meaning in their life, they are not living their life the way it was intended. The existential view emphasized a person or individual being responsible for determining their development on their own terms and discovering the meaning in life. When the mind gets in the way, in cases such as psychopathy, it does not allow for the individual to discover the true meaning of their own life as their judgment may become clouded by their current state of mind. The mind has a great deal of power in the matter of deciding whether a person will succeed on the existential path or if they will go down the path of psychopathy. This power can do a person a lot of good but it may also cause them a lot of stress and harm ...

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...and react as was socially and culturally acceptable. That is, in a way that allows the individual to be content in his or her own life while still being a positive influence on those around them and not being destructive in any way. Their methods for manipulating the mind, and learning how to deal with issues that arose from a mind, were some of the most groundbreaking discoveries made in that time and, in many ways, how the Americans imagined the mind to be was correct and the research they conducted was beneficial to society. However spot on their research was at the time, things have changed over the past sixty years and it is likely that their findings and imagined ideas of the mind are no longer relevant. It would have been impossible for them to have successfully uncovered all the secrets of the mind and there are likely many more to be discovered even now.

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