According to the positions of Soviet psychology, already at the level of animals, what is mentally reflected is not so much the stimulation itself, which initiates acts of reflection and causes subjective impressions of various modalities, but rather the individual’s experience in relation to the perceived situation, which reveals how this stimulation is capable of changing and by what actions it can be changed . It is this experience, existing in the form of skills, abilities, expectations, cognitive schemes, etc., and not the external and internal influences that actualize it, that is the main determinant that determines the content of mentally regulated activity. No matter how rich the individual, as well as species, genetically transmitted experience of a biological individual may be, it cannot in any respect be compared with the continuously accumulating experience of all humanity, which is the source and basis for the development of processes of mental reflection in society. The appropriation of this experience by an individual, which continues throughout his life, equips him not only with a complex of sensory ideas about the immediate environment and the possibilities of its immediate transformation, but with an interconnected and generalized system of knowledge about the whole world, its hidden properties, interactions occurring in it, etc. n. In Soviet psychological literature, this system of assigned ideas, in which everything reflected is inevitably localized and enriched in content, has in recent years become generally referred to as the “image of the world.” The general thesis developed in these works states that

“the main contribution to the process of constructing the image of an object or situation is made not by individual sensory impressions, but by the image of the world as a whole” (Smirnov, 1981, p. 24).

The most important role in the process of a person’s appropriation of experience of social origin, which gradually develops into an increasingly complex “image of the world,” is played by language. The language itself—its morphology, reflecting the fundamental structure and general forms of objective relationships, a system of interconnected concepts that actually designate a hierarchy of phenomena and relationships between them of varying degrees of generality, etc. is a concentrated product of socio-historical experience, accumulating the most significant and widely established practical application of its elements (see Vygotsky, 1982; Leontiev, 1963; Luria, 1979). The acquired language is an already expanded, holistic and ordered “image of the world”, in which, with the help of conceptual identification, directly sensory reflected phenomena and situations are recognized. Of course, language is not the only source of the formation of the human “image of the world”, setting only a kind of frame, the skeleton of such an image, which is gradually filled with more differentiated and refined content based on the appropriation of special knowledge (using the same language and other sign systems) , experience embodied in man-made objects and forms of action with them, transmitted through the means of art, etc.

Mental reflection, as a result of mediation by appropriated social experience, acquires a number of new qualities. A. N. Leontyev wrote about this: “Animals and humans live in an objective world, which from the very beginning appears as four-dimensional: it exists in three-dimensional space and in time (motion). ...Returning to man, to man’s consciousness, I must introduce “another concept - the concept of the fifth quasi-dimension, in which the objective world is revealed to man. This is a “semantic field”, a system of meanings.” The point is that phenomena reflected by a person, as a rule, are categorized, named, that is, identified not only by sensory parameters, but also in a system of meanings. This automatically localizes them in the “image of the world”, revealing all the many features inherent to them: origin, functional qualities, hidden connections, future fate, etc. Answering the child’s questions “Why is a seed put in every cherry?”, “Why is there snow?” on the roof? After all, people don’t ski or sled on the roof?” (Chukovsky, 1966, p. 124), an adult explains in a detailed form what, when perceiving these phenomena, is immediately revealed to him as a matter of course: where the snow comes from, how it gets on the roofs, etc. The child’s “image of the world” does not yet have such information contains, nevertheless, it already exists, actively manifests itself and endows perceived phenomena with entertaining qualities for an adult: snow specifically for rolling, cherries for eating, etc. Thus, the mediation of the system’s reflection of appropriated knowledge extremely expands the boundaries of the reflected content, making them independent of the parameters of the actually perceived situation and pushing them to the boundaries of universal human knowledge, or rather, to the limits of what is known from this knowledge to a specific person. One of the consequences of having " quasi-measurements» meanings is that it practically removes restrictions on the reflection of the spatio-temporal dimensions of reality. Getting acquainted with history, a person is easily transported in his thoughts through centuries and to any depicted place, with astronomy through sensory unimaginable periods of time and space.

He is just as freely able to imagine events possible in the most distant future. Similar distractions from the current situation, although not so impressive, are also required by everyday activities, by carrying out which a person usually, without noticeable effort, controls both previous preparations for them and future more or less distant consequences.

And in this case, the spatiotemporal parameters of the reflected content are determined not by external stimulation, but by “ way of the world“, or rather, that part of it that can be called “the way of one’s life.” Along with the change in physical dimensions, the content of the human psyche also expands significantly along the line of reflection of the most diverse internal relationships and interactions found throughout the entire range of spatio-temporal extension. " Quasi dimension» meanings should undoubtedly be represented as multidimensional, conveying fundamentally different characteristics. objective reality: classification, attribution, probabilistic, functional, etc. To understand changes In the motivational sphere of a person, the qualitative leap that occurred in the reflection of cause-and-effect relationships is especially important. The main phenomenon here is that any phenomenon reflected by a person, in addition to other more or less general characteristics, usually also receives an interpretation from the point of view of the relations of determinism: everything that exists is reflected as a consequence of certain causes, usually a whole branched complex of them, and in turn as causes of expected changes.

The desire to clarify the causality of phenomena is so characteristic of man that we can talk about his inherent tendency to see everything in the world as necessarily determined. As A.I. Herzen wrote,

This is manifested both in the child’s statements that clouds are made by locomotives, the wind by trees, and in adults’ filling in the blank spots in the knowledge of causal relationships with such explanatory constructs as fate, witchcraft, cosmic influences, etc. Reflection processes in the presence of ordered ideas about the surrounding reality and one’s place in it acquire the characteristics of human consciousness, which represents the highest form of reflection. One might think that it is the global localization of reflected phenomena in the “image of the world” that provides a person’s automated reflection of where, when, what and why he can speak of his inherent tendency to see everything in the world as necessarily determined. As A.I. Herzen wrote,

“It is so common for people to get to the root of everything that happens around them that they would rather invent a nonsense reason when they don’t know the real one, than to leave it alone and not deal with it.”

This is manifested both in the child’s statements that clouds are made by locomotives and wind-trees, and in adults’ filling in the blank spots in the knowledge of causal relationships with such explanatory constructs as fate, witchcraft, cosmic influences, etc. Reflection processes in the presence of ordered ideas about the surrounding reality and one’s place in it acquire the characteristics of human consciousness, which represents the highest form of reflection.

One might think that it is the global localization of reflected phenomena in the “image of the world”, which provides a person’s automated reflection of where, when, what and why he reflects and does, that constitutes the specific psychological basis for the conscious nature of mental reflection in a person. To be aware means to reflect the phenomenon as “prescribed” in the main system-forming parameters of the “image of the world” and to be able, if necessary, to clarify its more detailed properties and connections. Description and clarification of the mentioned and a number of other features of reflection in the human psyche require designation of the processes of their formation. Let us note the most important provisions in this regard. Knowledge and skills deposited in language and other forms of socio-historical experience cannot be directly transferred to a person; to assign them, he must be involved in specially directed activities, determined by other people or the materialized products of this experience and reproducing such methods of transforming the objective world (or its sign equivalents), as a result of which new and increasingly complex properties are revealed. It is the activity that comes into practical contact with external reality, the activities of other people and its products that makes the first copy in its form and composition from the various constituents of the objective world, which subsequently, as a result of repeated playback, folding and transition to the internal plane, becomes the basis for the mental reflection of these forming.

Without going into a detailed discussion here of the idea of ​​the activity origin of the human psyche, we emphasize that it follows from the reflexive concept of the psyche laid down by I.M. Sechenov (1953), which explains subjective reflection by the internal performance of those actions that have developed in practical activity with reflected objects. The qualitative differences between the subhuman and human levels of mental reflection are explained not by differences in the fundamental way of forming these levels (since in both cases reflection is a collapsed product of forms of activity that have developed in practice), but by differences between the processes that form these levels - the behavior of animals experiencing the external world with the possibilities of individual organism, and the activities of a person experiencing this world on the basis of experience and means accumulated by many generations of people. A number of features of the human psyche are associated with the fact that when they acquire new experience, there is a constant reduction of the initially developed processes of activity into more and more compressed and automated forms.

It is especially important that, along with the disappearance of numerous repetitions, search, trial or clarifying actions from the activity, there is a gradual reduction in its external executive elements, and as a result, the subject receives the opportunity to perform it exclusively on the internal plane, mentally. This most intimate phenomenon in the formation of the psyche and, in many aspects, a mysterious phenomenon “ ingrowth“The content of activity into the internal plane is called interiorization: “Interiorization, as is known, is the transition as a result of which processes that are external in form with external, material objects are transformed into processes occurring on the mental plane, on the plane of consciousness; at the same time, they undergo a specific transformation - they are generalized, verbalized, reduced and, most importantly, become capable of further development, which goes beyond the boundaries of the possibilities of external activity.”

It is the reduction and internalization of the initially developed activity that creates the possibility of a person appropriating an almost unlimited amount of knowledge. In a more specific description, this is ensured by the fact that something that required full dedication and prolonged efforts of the subject in the first stages of mastery is subsequently reflected easily and fluently in the form of concepts, ideas, skills, understanding and other forms of human reflection, which are characterized by minimal expression of the original procedural and maximum-effective-meaningful moments. In such a final expression, the newly formed elements of experience can be compared, generalized, and in every possible way “tested” by each other, i.e., used in the further activity of appropriation as its object or means. This creates the possibility of forming more complex, generalized and mediated “units” of experience, which also pass (after appropriate development and internalization) into the effective form of spontaneously understood meanings, principles, ideas, which are used in turn to form generalizations of an even higher level, and so on further.

A kind of accumulator for such multi-stage transitions from expanded to collapsed, from external to internal forms of activity is the individual “image of the world”, which is the final ordered product of a person’s appropriation of knowledge about objective reality and himself. As noted above, the localization of reflected phenomena in “ image of the world“is one of the main signs of a conscious reflection of reality. Data on the development of the ability of awareness in ontogenesis indicate that initially it also goes through the stage of an expanded process, directed by an adult (or then by the person himself) with the help of questions like: “What does this mean?”, “Why are you saying this?”, “Why?” what could this lead to? The solution to such questions, which contributes to the reflection of phenomena in the increasingly broader context of a report on what is happening, like any other actions when repeated under similar conditions, is reduced and automated, and, becoming a kind of operation of recognition of phenomena in the “image of the world” system, ensures the emergence of conscious phenomena reflections. Thus, the activity interpretation allows us to characterize consciousness from the concrete psychological side as a compressed form of once mastered actions to localize reflected phenomena in the “image of the world”, as a skill for identifying these phenomena in an ordered system of knowledge. The spontaneity and instantaneous awareness of well-known phenomena create the impression of complete automation of this process, its independence from the activity of the subject.

However, this is not entirely true. As is known, not everything is reflected by a person with an equally complete development of the content that characterizes the perceived phenomenon. The most detailed and clear reflection is what appears at the “fixation point”, the “focus” of the mental image, what is perceived as a “figure” on the “background” that constitutes the “periphery” of consciousness, in other words, what the subject’s attention is directed to. The ability of attention to improve the quality of the reflected content was often considered its most significant feature and included in definitions characterizing it as “a state that accompanies a clearer perception of some mental content,” “provides better results for our mental work.” S. L. Rubinstein wrote about this:

“Attention is usually phenomenologically characterized by the selective focus of consciousness on a specific object, which is recognized with particular clarity and distinctness” (1946, p. 442).

Thus, although the reflection of material that has been repeatedly and diversified and, as a result, firmly mastered, is largely automated and does not require pronounced efforts by the subject, he must detect some minimal activity (in the form of directing attention). Naturally, in cases where the degree of mastery of knowledge is not high enough, the subject must make special efforts to update it: finding out what is immediately reflected by a professional (for example, the ability to troubleshoot problems in a technical system), from a beginner may require many hours of intense mental work .

Due to different degrees of mastery, the experience of social origin in the individual psyche is presented heterogeneously and, along with knowledge that is updated automatically when attention is directed to some content, there is less mastered knowledge, extracted as a result of the subject’s voluntary attempts to “remember” something, to check whether the case before him is the same. etc. This means that the content actually reflected at some moment by a person depends not only on the experience he has mastered regarding this content, but also on the specifics of the task facing him, which determines which aspect of this experience will be active for him extracted and reflected.

A person’s ability to voluntarily control reflection processes, update and view those aspects of “ image of the world", which are necessary from the point of view of the tasks facing him, represents the most important feature of the socially developed psyche, thanks to which he gets the opportunity to completely abstract from the actually perceived situation and reflect any necessary elements and components of the assigned experience. Manifesting itself in internal activity, the ability of voluntary regulation significantly changes the course of “natural” mental processes, constituting one of the most characteristic features of the so-called higher mental functions. Thinking as a kind of summary product of the development of these functions, as an “integrator of intelligence” is carried out with the help of, in particular, higher (voluntary) forms of attention, memory, imagination and consists in the process of voluntary search, actualization and playback in the internal plane of the experience necessary for solving tasks facing a person.

The emergence of the ability for voluntary regulation is associated with the fact that not only the content, but also the form of human activity is determined by its social origin - the fact that it is carried out either under the direct or indirect (for example, written text) guidance of other people, or in collaboration with them with inevitable consideration of their interests and capabilities, the results of their work, etc. Communication, as one of the most characteristic forms of human activity, permeates almost every type of human activity, serving not only to satisfy the corresponding need, but also as a universal means-catalyst for the formation of mental new formations. Therefore, an adult transfers his experience to a child not by the type of one-sided pumping of new information into his “image of the world” through activity, but rather in a mode of dialogue with this image with the constant exteriorization of already acquired knowledge from it into activity and its use for the formation of more complex new formations. It is clear that the consistency and continuity necessary for this between individual acts of formative activity, its entire organization can only be determined in communication with other people who offer the child, in a language accessible to him and in a certain order, to do something, compare, repeat, “think,” etc. . d. As a result, the “image of the world” that is formed in activity becomes interconnected and systematic.

External methods of organizing activity, laid down by other people, are gradually mastered by the person himself and, as a result of interiorization, becoming internal means of its regulation, endow the mental reflection formed in it with new qualities. Particularly important in this regard are the consequences of the gap between motivation and action, which is formed when performing activities under the guidance of an adult due to the fact that actions are directed not by impulses arising in the situation, but by an adult, to whom motivation (of cooperation with him, play, cognitive) is, as it were, transferred this function. Mastering skills that allow one to act independently of immediate impulses becomes the basis for a person’s ability to voluntarily regulate internal and external activities. This is evidenced by special studies that have shown that the ability to voluntarily regulate activity in ontogenesis is formed gradually: first, as the child’s ability to act, obeying the speech commands of an adult, then, executing his own expanded commands, and, finally, in accordance with the collapsed orders to himself at the level of internal speech. . Let us note that the formation of this feature of the human psyche is also mediated by language; it is speech that serves as a universal means by which a person masters his own mental processes and behavior.

Arming the human psyche with an “image of the world” and especially the ability to arbitrarily actualize the content reflected in it contributed to the modification and development of a special internal structural entity-subject. This formation is an ontologically elusive, but functionally clearly manifested regulatory authority, which in the image reveals, on the one hand, motivation in the form of incentives for goals, on the other, the conditions for achieving these goals, including one’s own possibilities for action, and is most generally assigned to which consists of organizing their achievement. We are talking about the authority that W. James called “I” as a “cognitive element in the personality” (1911 P. 164), 3. Freud - “I”, or “this”.

Psyche– a systemic property of highly organized matter, which consists in the subject’s active reflection of the objective world, in the subject’s construction of a picture of the world that is inalienable from him and self-regulation on this basis of his behavior and activities.

By, consciousness = psyche.
By, consciousness is a small part of the mind, it includes what we are aware of every moment.
. Consciousness is a reflection of objective reality in its separation from the subject’s existing relations to it, i.e. a reflection that highlights its objective, stable properties. In consciousness, the image of reality does not merge with the subject’s experience: in consciousness, what is reflected appears as “what is coming” to the subject. The prerequisites for such reflection are the division of labor (the task of realizing one’s actions in the structure of overall activity). There is a separation between the motive of an entire activity and the (conscious) goal of an individual action. There is a special task to understand the meaning of this action, which has no biological meaning (pr/r.: beater). The connection between motive and goal is revealed in the form of the activity of the human work collective. An objective and practical attitude towards the subject of activity arises. Thus, between the object of activity and the subject there is awareness of the very activity of producing this object.

Specifics of psychological reflection

Reflection is a change in the state of an object, which begins to carry traces of another object.

Reflection forms: physical, biological, mental.

Physical reflection– direct contact. This process is finite in time. These traces are indifferent for both objects (symmetry of interaction traces). According to A.N. Leontiev, destruction occurs.

Biological reflection– a special type of interaction – maintaining the existence of an animal organism. Transformation of traces into specific signals. Based on signal transformation, a response occurs. (to the outside world or to yourself). Selectivity of reflection. Hence the reflection is not symmetrical.

Psychic reflection– as a result, an image of the object appears (cognition of the world).

Images– sensual, rational (knowledge about the world).

Features of mental reflection: a) purely subjective education; b) the psychic is a symbol of reality; c) the mental reflection is more or less correct.

Conditions for constructing an image of the world: a) interaction with the world; b) The presence of a reflection organ; c) full contact with society (for a person).

Even in ancient times, psychologists, scientists and philosophers noticed that life is not only an objective and material world. People experience feelings, desires, are able to think, experience, and analyze. Such life in philosophy is called mental. The psyche has a unique ability to reflect reality. The main property of the psyche is the close relationship between the behavior of an individual and the reflection of objective reality in consciousness.

Psychic reflection: what is it?

The concept of mental reflection is philosophical. It includes a general and fundamental phenomenon, which is expressed in the reproduction of images, signs and properties of an object that have passed through consciousness.

The initial form of the psyche is sensitivity. Thanks to this property, we are able to perceive information from the outside and process it in the brain. Sense organs, coordination - this contributes to a more vivid manifestation of mental reflection.

Consciousness and self-awareness are a form of psychological reflection. Information is received, influence is exerted from the outside, and in the mind the existing images are processed and manifested in the form of a reflection of what happened. Moreover, consciousness is capable of both reflecting the world and creating it. Thanks to the psyche, a person can mentally operate with his activities, speech and even emotions. Self-awareness is a personal understanding of one’s place in society and in relationships with other people.

Characteristics of mental reflection

A person is able to perceive the world around him, find himself in activity, develop and grow spiritually, only thanks to mental reflection. However, not all people correctly reflect the surrounding phenomena. This happens if they have mental problems. However, a mentally healthy person exhibits the following characteristics of mental reflection:

Dynamism.

In the course of life, people's circumstances, opinions and conditions change. Therefore, psychological reflection may change under the influence of external factors.

Activity.

Psychological reflection is an active process; it is in no way associated with passivity or mirroring. Thanks to this property of the psyche, a person, without realizing it, searches for adequate conditions for himself.

Objectivity.

A person is constantly improving, and therefore the psyche undergoes various changes. Since we experience the world through practical activity, psychological reflection is objective and justified.

Subjectivity.

Although psychological reflection is objective, it is influenced by a person’s past and the people around him. Therefore, subjectivity is also included in the characteristics. All people see the same world, the same circumstances, but we see and perceive them differently.

Speed.

Thanks to the psyche, we are capable of great speed. Reflection can be called ahead of reality.

Features of mental reflection include:

- reflects reality in practice;

— anticipatory character;

— manifestation of the individual’s individuality;

- is formed only on the basis of active human activity;

- controls the behavior of the individual.

Levels of psychic reflection

Although the psychic reflection appears before us and is perceived as a whole image, in fact, it has several levels:

Sensual or sensory. At this stage, the formation and construction of mental images is carried out based on what we perceive through the senses. This facilitates further processing of information in the right direction. By stimulating vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch, information about an object expands and has an even greater impact on the subject. When something similar happens in a person’s life, stored memories emerge from the subconscious and influence further reflection. This ability of a person allows him to create real pictures in his mind, regardless of time.
Performance. This level is characterized by the active work of the human subconscious. What has already been deposited in memory emerges in the imagination. This process can be carried out without the direct participation of the senses. The significance of events plays an important role, some of what happened is eliminated, only what is extremely important remains. Thanks to thinking, a person creates standards, plans, and controls consciousness. This is how one’s own experience is built.
. Real events at this level do not play any role at all. The personality already uses the knowledge that is in consciousness. The universal human experience, about which the individual is aware, also matters.

The levels of psychic reflection harmoniously intertwine and flow from one another. This is due to the unified work of human sensory and rational activity.

Psyche (from the Greek psychikos - spiritual) is a form of active reflection by the subject of objective reality, arising in the process of interaction of highly organized living beings with the outside world and carrying out a regulatory function in their behavior (activity). The central category in this definition is the active display or reflection of reality.

Mental reflection is not a mirror, mechanically passive copying of the world (like a mirror or a camera), it is associated with a search, a choice; in mental reflection, incoming information is subjected to specific processing, i.e. mental reflection is an active reflection of the world in connection with some necessity, with needs. This is a subjective, selective reflection of the objective world, since it always belongs to the subject, does not exist outside the subject and depends on subjective characteristics. You can define the psyche as a “subjective image of the objective world” - this is our idea or picture of the world, according to which we feel, make decisions and act.

The fundamental property of the psyche - subjectivity - determined introspection as the main method of its research from ancient times until the emergence of the first research centers at the end of the 19th century. Introspection is self-observation organized according to special rules.

In Russian psychology, a rationalistic way of cognition is generally adopted, based on logic and experience, which connects the psyche with the activity of the brain, the development of which is determined by the evolution of living nature. However, the psyche cannot be reduced simply to the nervous system. Mental properties are the result of the neurophysiological activity of the brain, but they contain the characteristics of external objects, and not the internal physiological processes through which the mental arises. Signal transformations taking place in the brain are perceived by a person as events taking place outside of him - in external space and the world.

Mental phenomena are correlated not with a separate neurophysiological process, but with organized sets of such processes, i.e. psyche is a systemic quality of the brain, realized through multi-level functional systems of the brain that are formed in a person in the process of life and his mastery of historically established forms of activity and experience of humanity through active activity. Thus, specifically human qualities (consciousness, speech, work, etc.) are formed in a person only during his lifetime, in the process of assimilating the culture created by previous generations. Consequently, the human psyche includes at least three components, as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig.3. The structure of the subject’s mental reflection of the external and internal world.

Functions of the psyche.

The definition and concept of the psyche, analyzed above, gives an idea of ​​the functions of the psyche or answers the question - why does the subject need a psyche?

Even W. James, the founder of the functional approach in psychology (the forerunner of behaviorism - the science of behavior) believed that the psyche serves the purpose of adapting the individual to the surrounding world and therefore reflects it. Accordingly, the functions of the psyche include: 1) reflection, 2) adaptation necessary for survival and interaction with the environment - biological, physical, social. From the definition of the psyche it is clear that it also performs 3) a regulatory function, that is, it directs and regulates the activity of the subject and controls behavior. In order to regulate behavior adequately to the conditions of the external and internal environment, that is, adaptively, it is necessary to navigate this environment. Consequently, it is logical to highlight 4) the orientation function of the psyche.

The mental functions mentioned above 5) ensure the integrity of the body, which is necessary not only for survival, but also for maintaining the physical and mental health of the subject.

Modern domestic psychologists are expanding the list of traditionally considered mental functions. Thus, V. Allakhverdov in his works pays great attention to 6) the cognitive or educational function of the psyche and considers the psyche as an ideal cognitive system. One of the famous Russian methodologists B. Lomov, based on a systems approach, identifies 7) the communicative function of the psyche, since the psyche of the subject arises and develops in interaction with others, that is, it is included as a component in other systems (an individual within a group, etc. ).

Ya. Ponomarev drew attention to the fact that human behavior can be non-adaptive (for example, creative behavior - where a person, when implementing his ideas, sometimes acts contrary to common sense and the instinct of self-preservation). Accordingly, he added 8) the function of creative activity, which leads a person to the creation of a new reality that goes beyond the existing one.

It seems that this is an incomplete list of the functions of the psyche, that is, why and for what it is needed by an individual, personality and subject of activity. Psychological science is waiting for new discoveries in the study of mental phenomena.

Psyche- this is the essence where the diversity of nature gathers into its unity, this is the virtual compression of nature, this is a reflection of the objective world in its connections and relationships.

Mental reflection is not a mirror, mechanically passive copying of the world (like a mirror or a camera), it is associated with a search, choice, in mental reflection incoming information is subjected to specific processing, i.e. mental reflection is an active reflection of the world in connection with some necessarily, with needs, this is a subjective selective reflection of the objective world, since it always belongs to the subject, does not exist outside the subject, depends on subjective characteristics. The psyche is a “subjective image of the objective world.”

Objective reality exists independently of a person and can be reflected through the psyche into subjective mental reality. This mental reflection, belonging to a specific subject, depends on his interests, emotions, characteristics of the senses and level of thinking (different people can perceive the same objective information from objective reality in their own way, from completely different angles, and each of them usually thinks , that it is his perception that is the most correct), thus a subjective mental reflection, subjective reality may differ partially or significantly from objective reality.

But it would be wrong to completely identify the psyche as a reflection of the external world: the psyche is capable of reflecting not only what is, but also what could be (prediction), and what seems possible, although this is not the case in reality. The psyche, on the one hand, is a reflection of reality, but, on the other hand, it is sometimes “inventing” something that does not exist in reality, sometimes these are illusions, mistakes, a reflection of one’s desires as real, wishful thinking. Therefore, we can say that the psyche is a reflection not only of the external, but also of one’s internal psychological world.

Thus, the psyche is “ subjective image of the objective world“, this is a set of subjective experiences and elements of the subject’s internal experience.

The psyche cannot be reduced simply to the nervous system. Indeed, the nervous system is an organ (at least one of the organs) of the psyche. When the activity of the nervous system is disrupted, the human psyche suffers and is disrupted.

But just as a machine cannot be understood through the study of its parts and organs, so the psyche cannot be understood through the study of the nervous system alone.

Mental properties are the result of the neurophysiological activity of the brain, but they contain the characteristics of external objects, and not the internal physiological processes through which the mental arises.

Signals transformed in the brain are perceived by a person as events taking place outside him, in external space and the world.

Mechanical identity theory asserts that mental processes are essentially physiological processes, that is, the brain secretes the psyche, thought, just as the liver secretes bile. The disadvantage of this theory is that the psyche is identified with nervous processes and they do not see qualitative differences between them.

Unity theory states that mental and physiological processes arise simultaneously, but they are qualitatively different.

Mental phenomena are correlated not with a separate neurophysiological process, but with organized sets of such processes, i.e. the psyche is a systemic quality of the brain, realized through multi-level functional systems of the brain that are formed in a person in the process of life and his mastery of historically established forms of activity and experience humanity through man's own active activity. Thus, specific human qualities (consciousness, speech, work, etc.), the human psyche are formed in a person only during his lifetime in the process of assimilating the culture created by previous generations. Thus, the human psyche includes at least 3 components: the external world (nature, its reflection); full brain activity; interaction with people, active transmission of human culture and human abilities to new generations.

Mental reflection is characterized by a number of features;

• it makes it possible to correctly reflect the surrounding reality, and the correctness of the reflection is confirmed by practice;
• the mental image itself is formed in the process of active human activity;
• mental reflection deepens and improves;
• ensures the appropriateness of behavior and activity;
• refracted through a person’s individuality;
• is anticipatory.

Functions of the psyche: reflection of the surrounding world and regulation of the behavior and activity of a living creature in order to ensure its survival.