The stream of consciousness
Richard J Hallam
Clinical Psychology Forum June 1, 2019 DOI: 10.2307/j.ctvpj751t.7 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the stream of consciousness—the constant succession of knowledge, feeling, desire, and deliberation—is the primal fact and essential problem of psychology. Proposes that psychological inquiry operates on two levels: a descriptive or analytic level that classifies and traces conscious states, and an explanatory level that asks about their origin and nature. |
Abstract
Now the fact which psychology, the science of mind, has to study is also the most general fact. It is the fact that in immediate each of us, when awake (and often when asleep), some kind of consciousness is always going on. There is a stream, a succession of states, or waves, or fields (or of whatever you please to call them), of knowledge, of feeling, of desire, of deliberation, etc., that constantly pass and repass, and that constitute our inner life. The existence of this stream is the primal fact, the nature and origin of it form the essential problem, of our science. So far as we class the states or fields of consciousness, write down their several natures, analyze their contents into elements, or trace their habits of succession, we are on the descriptive or analytic level. So far as we ask where they come from or why they are just what they are, we are on the explanatory level.