The Structure of Mind and the Role of Consciousness

The term mind is used here to refer to all of the mechanisms in the brain that generate one’s responses including thinking and experiencing. These mechanisms may be innate, or they may be learned but based on innate abilities. Most of these mechanisms respond in a rapid but flexible way to situations that one confronts frequently; some respond to occasional threats or opportunities; some are temporary mechanisms for responding to expected situations, or for controlling intended behavioural sequences; and some are capable of more generalised problemsolving. All of these mechanisms are unconscious; there is no evidence of conscious processing, and much evidence— based on psychological research, evolutionary principles, and theoretical considerations—confirming that no mental processing occurs in consciousness. Consciousness is a changing array of information in various forms; such as sights, sounds, and felt experiences, but consciousness is adaptive, and this can only be because conscious information enhances its possessor’s responses in some situations. The mechanisms of mind generally operate with unconscious information, but they sometimes benefit from access to conscious information, and some mechanisms may have evolved to function solely with conscious information or use only conscious information in some situations.