Sidney Rolla, age 10, of Sparks, Nev., for his question:
WHAT IS THE MIND?
Psychologists can't agree on the exact nature of the mind. Many views on the subject are held. But basically they agree that the mind is the ultimate source of sensations, images, feelings and thoughts.
Most agree that a practical separation between mind and the body is impossible. The mind can move the body, as when a man decides to flex his muscles. Almost any huyman reaction has both physical and mental sides, so that men smile with pleasure, frown in anger, or quiver in fear.
Doctors tell us that mental states can actually produce heart disease, ulcer of the stomach, kidney trouble and other diseases.
Early theories of mind held that man was made up of two different substances: mind and matter. Matter was something that could be seen and felt. It occupied space and had weight. Mind, on the other hand, took up no space. It was divided into several faculties, such as will, reason and memory.
Some believed that the mind was a mass of thoughts, memories, feelings and emotions.
Later theories suggest that the mind is the foundation and the source of feeling, thinking and willing. This foundation is distinct from the acts which it produces. The mind is the ultimate source of sensations, images, feelings and thoughts.
The soul is an even broader concept. It is the source of both mental and other life activities, such as breathing and walking.
The body can also affect the mind. Everyone can note for himself the difference in his mental state when he is hungry or well fed, cold or warm, sick or well. It is definitely known also that certain glands have a profound effect upon emotions, attitudes and behavior.
No one statement of the nature of mind is acceptable to all authorities.
The influence of the mind and the body on each other is difficult to explain. Some people explain it by discarding the mind. Others discard matter in order to explain it. A more common sense view insists that they both exist and interact.
According to the interaction theory, each human being is composed of both body and mind. However, the body and mind are incomplete until they form a unity called a "person" or "ego."
The theory goes on to say that man is a single composite substance made up of two distinct principles. It is the person who thinks and remembers, not the mind and not the body.
Another theory: at a given moment, there may be only a few things in a person's consciousness, the things to which a person was giving attention. Below this level of consciousness would be a whole vast mass made up of all conscious states an individual had experienced since birth.
Whenever a new idea or impression made its way into a person's consciousness, all the earlier impressions that were like it or in some way related to it were supposed to rise up into consciousness and welcome the newcomer. In this way, the mind kept growing and rearranging itself.