3. Self-Consciousness as a Fundamental Factor of Human Health

Abstract

The state of human self-awareness is analyzed as a process and result of person’s self- consciousness. It is proved that this state becomes a fundamental factor of human health, and accordingly, the task of education as a social institution is to form and develop a state of self- consciousness in participants in the educational process, which (state) makes a person a creative, happy, healthy being, capable of being responsible for his/her actions. It is shown that the key quality of the personality — consciousness/self-awareness (as a person's ability to be aware of himself/herself through reflection — the ability to look at himself/herself from the outside, to achieve transcendence — going beyond the current givenness) presupposes the freedom of a person from the determinism of the world, which makes the person a creature who is freed from the animal fate of biological robot and begins to be responsible for his/her actions/deeds (only a free person/being who is capable of controlling certain aspects of social reality can be responsible for his/her actions). As relevant studies have proven, human freedom is realized as an internal motivation, which, in turn, is associated with such aspects of a person as supra-situational activity, reflexivity, abstraction, transcendence of the existing situation «here and now», non-adaptive behavior, going beyond the boundaries of need-based and situational determination, liberation from the determinism of the world, creative activity, consciousness/self-awareness, — all that makes a person a thinking being who possesses the «I» — the human personality — a unique and self-identical essence. Studies of the state of consciousness in various spheres of human activity and life are outlined, in particular, the experiments of E. Langer and her colleagues are considered: retrotherapy; experiments with elderly people who took responsibility for their actions; the counterclockwise study, which revealed the influence of a person on the processes of their aging; research in which clothing is used as a factor in overcoming the processes of human aging; experiments with maids who were offered to consciously perceive their work as training; experiments on improving human vision; research on the influence of conscious perception of reality on the processes of healing wounds of a persons and the duration of their sleep; both the effects of a person's conscious attention to the variability of environmental signals/stimuli and the determinants/factors of female leadership were also studied. Studies of the state of consciousness in various spheres of human activity and life are outlined, which indicate a profound positive impact of the state of consciousness on a person in the context of his/her harmonious multifaceted development, as well as spiritual-intellectual, psychosomatic, social health, creativity and longevity.