THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TRUTH

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The Truth About The Truth

Truth is the result of confronting an idea with reality. There is individual truth, the result of specific moment in the life of each individual; there is collective truth, the result of one or more individuals accepting individual truth; and there is absolute truth, never known and possibly, in-cognizable, mystery. An idea is the product of thought, an attempt by the mind to give form to perception, be it empirical, about beings, be it psychological, regarding the existence of human beings, and be it social, in the sphere of the existence of human groups.

Individual truth lives in the living field of an individual’s mind, a basic component of the harmonic whole which registers one’s world view. It is affected by perception, entering a relationship with it, which is done with emotion, which influences it, with intelligence, which assimilates perception, with consciousness, the search for meaning in conduct, with morality, the search for the reason of being of conduct, with sexuality, the search for ecstasy through organic means, with religiosity, the search for ecstasy through mystical means.

Individual truth, which occurs at each specific moment in the life of each individual, and is registered in one’s living field, has distinctive phases during an individual’s development.

Childish individual truth is precarious:

– In an individual’s first phase, one’s dynamic living field is ruled by instinct, with perception in space, the emotion is shock, without intelligence, consciousness or morality, sexuality is without restraints and religiosity is mythical.

– In an individual’s second phase, one’s living field broadens towards determination, intention and imagination. There is perception in time and duration, the emotion is anticipation-fear, intelligence is at the level of balancing external sensorimotor actions, consciousness is spontaneous object precarious at the level of naïve belief, morality is perverted in the sense of passive submission, sexuality is a result of a sexual response that is partially masochist, and religiosity is also masochist.

– In an individual’s third phase, one’s living field is that of imagination at the level of naïve doubt, with perception also in time and in duration, the emotion is anticipation-anger, intelligence at the level of balancing internal actions symbolic-representative of concrete reality, consciousness is spontaneous object precarious at the level of naïve doubt, morality is perverted in the sense of active-aggressive in-submission, sexuality is sadomasochist, and religiosity is mythic of anger.

– In an individual’s forth phase, one’s living field is that of imagination at the level of naïve shrewdness, with perception also in time and in duration, the emotion is anticipation-false love, intelligence also at the level of balancing internal actions symbolic-representative of concrete reality, consciousness is object spontaneous precarious distorted by permissiveness, morality is perverted in the sense of pseudo-submission, sexuality is permissively sadomasochist, and religiosity is mythic of pretense.

– In an individual’s fifth phase, one’s living field is that of elevation at the concrete level, with perception also in time and in duration, the emotion is anticipation- naïve true love, intelligence at the level of balancing internal operations symbolic-representative of concrete reality, consciousness is reflexive on the concrete, morality is practical-utilitarian, sexuality is occasional, and religiosity is mythic latent.

Adolescent individual truth is limited:

– In its first phase, the preadolescent’s living field is that of elevation at the abstract level of pugnacity, with perception on the structure of the contraries, analytic, emotion anticipation-reflected anger, intelligence at the level of internal operations about the abstract in service of reflected doubt, reflexive consciousness about the abstract at the level of doubt, morality at the level of pugnacity in the abstract, sadistic sexuality, and religiosity is mythic and belligerent.

– In a second phase, the living field of the adolescent proper is that of elevation at the abstract level of search for self-consensus, with perception on the structural unity of the contraries, synthetic, and in the unity of mechanism, analytic, the emotion is reflected anticipation-anger, intelligence at the level of balancing internal operations about the abstract in service of the search for self-consensus, consciousness is reflexive about the abstract at the level of search for self-consensus, morality is also at the level of self-consensus, sexuality is reflected masochist, religiosity is mythic masochist.

Adult individual truth expresses the apex of adult development:

– In its first phase, the living field of the young adult is that of elevation at the abstract level of cooperation with the community, with perception in the unity of mechanism, synthetic, and in the unity of movement, analytic, the emotion is anticipation true-love extended to the community, intelligence is at the level of balancing internal operations on the abstract in service of cooperation at the communitary level, morality is at the level of searching for consolidation of independence and of love devotion to the family and the community, sexuality and religiosity are socialized.

– In its second phase, the living field of the mature adult is that of elevation at the abstract level of cooperation with humanity, with perception in the unity of movement, synthetic, the emotion is anticipation true-love extended to humanity, intelligence is at the level of balancing internal operations on the abstract in service of humanity, consciousness is reflexive on the abstract at the level of humanistic cooperation, morality is at the level of organization in terms of cooperation with humanity beyond conventions, sexuality and religiosity are humanistic.

– In its third phase, the living field of the elderly adult is that of elevation at the abstract level of integration with the cosmic totality, with perception on the unity of movement synthetic of the absolute, the emotion is anticipation-cosmic true love, intelligence is at the level of balancing internal operations on the abstract at the service of totality, there is consciousness of the absolute, morality of full freedom, and socialized sexuality and religiosity at the cosmic level.

Collective truth, the acceptance of individual truth at some level of groupality, manifests itself in stages that correspond to those of the development of individual truth. Childish collective truth is also precarious; adolescent collective truth is also limited; adult collective truth is the apex of development of the adult group.

Both individual truth and collective truth are subject to perturbations of the developmental scheme of individuals: in-adaptation occurs when the individual and the group get stuck in one on the developmental phases; dis-adaptation occurs when they lose a previously acquired adaptation. Individual truth is affected by the psychological fragility of the individual, psychosis, which is by nature polarized, having a basis of excessive closure, schizophrenia, and excessive projection, paranoia, often with an emotional tone, which is also polarized, from excessive enthusiasm, euphoria, mania and excessive sadness, depression, melancholy. Collective truth is vulnerable to the perturbations of its members.

Truth always occurs in the individual and it is communicated to the collectivity. There is the truth of science, the truth of philosophy, and the truth of religion, each one supported by its premises. The truth of science about the individual, as it is known to it, has happened through empirical science, which starts from the “bios”, through interpersonal eidetic science, which starts from the “psyche”, and through multi-personal eidetic science, which starts from the “socius”. The truth of philosophy has been, at times rational, at times intuitive, and at times phenomenological. The truth of religion has been at times affirmative, natural or revealed, at times negative.

The truth of empirical science holds that human beings are a superior kind of animal; the biological has the necessary conditions for psychic life; the nervous and endocrine systems produce reciprocal effects extremely complex and they are anatomophysiologically interconnected in an almost inextricable way. The new notion of the brain as the supervising element, also affected by the “inferior instances,” and not as a simple command organ, has given rise to the concept of “integration” and defines the ground rules for the working of the normal psyche and for the fragile psyche, psychotic.

The truth of interpersonal eidetic science holds that there is a general law, that of harmonization, which holds that the universe is harmony, and that harmonization consists of detecting the causes for dissonance in one or in several of the components of the harmonic whole and solving them. In human beings, the basic component of the harmonic whole is the living field, and it is influenced by the others, which are, perception, emotion, intelligence, consciousness, morality, sexuality and religiosity, each guided by its own law. There is personality, the global expression of the psyche, which integrates all its components at each moment of existing, and it is also guided by its own law.

The truth of multi-personal eidetic science holds that: social facts are subject to laws; every social regime is the implementation of a philosophical system; there is a social anatomy, or statics, and a social physiology, or dynamics; only the individual is capable of thinking, adding to one’s thinking the thinking of other individuals before oneself; individuals, gathered in groups, work on maintaining the world in a given situation or in changing it. The idea of progress has stages: the chiliastic one, the irruption of an idea; the liberal-humanitarian one, the regulation of this idea; conservatism, practical control of the environment; the socialist-communist one, a synthesis of them, a commitment to the contributions of each one and a new creation of them. There are the basic suppositions of dependence, when the group submits itself to the leader, of counter-dependency when it reacts to the leader, and of interdependency, when it collaborates with the leader. There is no human nature without a social environment, and the human group is the factor and transmitter of culture.

The truth of philosophy, since ever, has been at times rational, at times intuitive, at times phenomenological. Rational philosophy enabled human beings to perceive their capacity of knowing, through reflection, the forces of the laws of nature, to symbolize them, and to seek protection in their logic. Intuitive philosophy led human beings to understand that reason is not able to reach all knowledge. Phenomenological philosophy led human beings to develop the capacity to broaden their perception in order to encompass the different angles of apprehension of the phenomenon existence and of the phenomenon human existence and, consequently, to put forward hypotheses regarding reality, considering it in its triple aspect, where it can be, simultaneously, the truth, the concealment of truth, or the path towards truth. Such approaches, rational, intuitive, and phenomenological, manifest themselves at all times and places, with their own arguments and language, feeding theses, antitheses, and syntheses, in search of the truth about thinking.

The truth of religion has been at times affirmative, natural or revealed, at times negative. Theology is discourse about God. When it is natural affirmative, it seeks to know God based on knowledge of the world, which gave rise to mythical explanations, confusing believes full of lore, without any grounds on truth. When it is revealed affirmative, it deals with a permanent desire to communicate with the divine, which gave rise to the recording of instances in which truth would be transmitted directly to the individual by God, also without any grounds on truth. When negative, mystical, it deals with the capacity to communicate, directly and indescribably, with the unknown, with certainty, with the absolute, also without any grounds on truth. Such types of approaches, affirmative, natural or revealed, and negative, are pure idealizations, without any possibility of being confronted with reality.

The truth, a result of the confrontation of an idea with reality, which is individual in its origin and collective by extension, and arrived at through the permanent labor of human thinking, is dependent on each developmental stage of the individual, which can be: childish, adolescent, and adult, and it is also dependent on each group that supports it in a dependent, counter-dependent, or inter-dependent way. When truth is arrived at in such a way it is subjected to the trials and errors of each individual and of each group, according to their developmental stage and the phases that are a part of it, it is also based on the functioning of each psyche, normal or fragile, psychotic, with the limitations of each type and degree of fragility. Truth, which is arrived at through such means, requires constant revision of the statements that originate its premises.

The truth about the truth is the result of the examination of each acquired truth, taking into consideration the progress of the individual which gave rise to it, in terms of this individual’s own development, which includes all the information which one has gathered throughout one’s maturing. The individual and the group, well known in their structure, need to be directed in their dynamics in order to understand all possible knowledge about their living, and in order to apply this knowledge to their thinking about their own thinking and to the truth acquired from the confrontation of their idea with reality.

The individual and the group’s understanding of all possible knowledge about their living is a result of the education and re-education that they have received, which aim at their rational upbringing, the only way to achieve the truth, the foundation of freedom, which will promote the creation of a society that allows all, individual and group, to reach the fullness of their humanization.

Absolute truth, never known and possibly unknowable, mystery, is made present, as an idea, in religiosity, a feeling resulting from the sensation of incompleteness of an individual which is a consequence of ignorance about one’s origin and fate and about the origin and fate of the universe. Religiosity, be it a product of imagination, be it authentic thinking about possible future development, is vital for the individual and for humanity, becoming a right of each one to believe what one needs to believe at each moment of one’s existence. Once only truth can free us from ignorance, it is up to each individual and to humanity as a whole, to have the courage to live, at each moment, the truth that one has, and to seek its permanent growth as a result of progress in the data one acquires.

Maria Auxiliadora de Souza Brasil

Psychologist