THE NOMENCLATURE OF man's spiritual anatomy is intricate and controversial. It is important nevertheless to make some attempt at definition in order to clarify our concepts of personal identity. At one extreme there is the behaviouristic psychologist who accepts only the physical body governed by the brain; he does not recognise mind as anything apart from the response of the brain to various stimuli and the conditioning it has undergone through experiences in the past. At the other extreme there is the theosophical view of personality, itself largely derived from Hindu metaphysics, that not only distinguishes non-material mind from the physical body through which it manifests itself during life on this earth, but also grades the mind into various hierarchies of perception up to the supreme awareness of ultimate reality. While I would not dismiss this view, and indeed find it fascinating to meditate upon, I have not been particularly helped by it in my own understanding of spiritual experience. It is a complex scheme which at the most is merely a final refinement.
The Aspects of Personality
Personally I respond to the Platonic concept of human nature with its tripartite division of "body", "soul", and "spirit". This still seems to me to be the most helpful approach in defining personality. As such it was used to masterly effect by St. Paul who was, amongst other qualities, a brilliant spiritual psychologist, as his letter to the Romans especially demonstrates. I would add the "mind" to this list, and define soul as its most exalted manifestation. The mind is the mental, behavioural component that feels emotionally, thinks rationally, and wills consciously (at least in properly integrated people). It is a matter of fundamental importance whether this essential part of human experience can be attributed entirely to the activity of the brain, for if this is indeed the case, as the behaviouristic psychologist would assert, it puts out of court any permanent aspect of personality such as might survive the death of the body. It also effectively demolishes any personal will that is independent of previous conditioning. The question is still an open one with most professional workers rejecting the dualism of mind and body, since this denial accords well with the current atheistic positivism dominant in many academic circles. But those who have thought more deeply about the matter are less sure. The finer nuances of personality that express themselves in ethical behaviour, aesthetic appreciation, and self-giving sacrifice in love do not fall easily into the range of mere behavioural responses to stimuli. It may yet be that the mind is separate from the body yet functioning in intimate connexion with it through the agency of the brain. The data of psychical research, against which there is great emotionally based opposition amongst many academicians, suggest strongly that a focus of consciousness may function at a distance from the body of a psychically sensitive person. My own inner experiences have confirmed a dualistic view of mind and body, but it must be stressed that the personality is a unified whole with the parts working in one accord.
In this connexion, the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a cosmic application of a similar unity in multiplicity, and as such is particularly valuable in envisaging the action of the one eternal Godhead in the world of form.
Properties of Mind
The fundamental quality of mind, however we conceive it, is its tendency to react to outer circumstances in the environment and inner sensations arising from the physical body that is associated with it. This response is the basis of consciousness, which reveals itself in feeling, thinking, and willing a deliberate action. To some people the word "mind" is synonymous with the thinking, or intellectual function, but it is preferable to extend it to embrace all aspects of consciousness manifesting themselves in volition, thought, and feeling. The other word that can be used in the same context is "psyche", which is sometimes equated with the soul, but whose application should preferably be extended to include all aspects of personal consciousness.
The Personal Self
The central focus of the conscious mind is the "personal self", or "existential self." It is the awareness we have of our own identity, but paradoxically it is hidden from most people. It makes itself felt most keenly during periods of crisis when choices are open to us and decisions have to be made. I speak here of decisions of a moral nature when the choices open, whatever they may be, are unpleasant but inescapable. The type of decision that brings the personal self into finest focus is one in which we have to choose between doing what we know in our deepest awareness is morally wrong but expedient in terms of the approval of those around us, and what is clearly morally right but in opposition to the general feeling of the society in which we live. The personal self can also be experienced during meditation when we have ceased to identify with our body, our emotions, and our thoughts, and are quiet within ourselves. The reason why we, as thoughtless individuals, are seldom aware of our inner identity is because we are all too often moved hither and thither by outside circumstances and inner drives and impulses that arise from bodily desires and the memories of past events that bear a strong emotional charge. The personal self can be identified with the "ego" of Freudian psychology, provided this is not seen simply as a flitting centre of consciousness by which we know ourselves at each moment of time, when it would be merely that identification we develop with an outer circumstance or inner drive that is dominating us at a particular moment.
The Unconscious
The range of the mind is much greater than merely the conscious self. This is, as it were, encompassed by a "field of consciousness" of which we are immediately aware: it consists of an incessant flow of ideas, impulses, thoughts, and feeling which we can observe and judge in detachment. This has been called the "mind-stream" by William James, and, as I have already observed, can easily be mistaken for the personal self by those who are not in command of themselves.
But much of the contents of the mind are not within the field of immediate consciousness at all, and this is called the "unconscious". Some of the contents of the unconscious resemble that of the field of consciousness and are under easy recall by the memory. But by far the greater part of the unconscious consists of psychic elements that are so powerfully submerged, or repressed, that they are hidden persistently from the field of consciousness. This realm of the mind is the place of action of the psycho-analyst, for in it are stored the primitive urges and basic drives of survival, sex, and self-assertiveness that are part of our animal inheritance, as well as painful personal memories too unpleasant to be confronted in full consciousness. But these elements are not completely latent, for they tend to be released during sleep when they may be brought to full awareness, usually in the form of symbols, as vivid dreams. It is evident that this part of the unconscious is related to our animal nature and the darker personal experiences we have undergone in the past. It can, in terms of values, be called the "lower unconscious".
In this valuation the "lower unconscious" can be contrasted with the "higher unconscious", or the "superconscious." This too is unconscious, inasmuch as its contents are normally beyond easy recall to the field of consciousness, but its nature is high and spiritual inasmuch as its drives are exalted and ennobling. They tend in their action to fulfil the realisation of our full humanity, and encompass humanitarian, ethical, altruistic, and even heroic actions and ideals, and they include aesthetic performance and self-sacrifice for other people. There is a tendency to explain away these exalted impulses as mere sublimations of elements of the lower unconscious which have been thwarted: religious actions could be an outlet for a failed self-assertion in power or sex, and altruism a way of dealing with the frustrated will to power over other people. But superconscious impulses are as spontaneous and unexpected as those of the lower unconscious, and they break into the field of consciousness suddenly in the form of intuition, inspiration, illumination, creative imagination, and universal love. The sudden scientific discovery is often due to a superconscious inspiration, and it is not surprising that geniuses are most in contact with this area of the mind. In most geniuses it would seem that one particular superconscious impulse (such as artistic creativity, scientific research, or mathematical under-standing) impinges on their field of consciousness, whereas the great universal geniuses who are gifted in many fields, appear to have their field of consciousness in permanent communication with the superconscious part of the mind.
It should be noted here that while the Freudian "id" can be equated with the lower unconscious in terms of animal and purely personal contents, the Freudian "super-ego" is different from the contents of the superconscious. The super-ego arises from the conditioning that the developing child undergoes at the hands of its parents and the society in which it lives and is educated. The values of that society are impressed on the growing person as the end of proper behaviour and living, and he then accepts them, albeit unconsciously, as the ideal for his own life. In this way he may be crippled psychologically, and prevented from realising his own real identity. The "super-ego" is an imposed dictatorship from sources outside oneself that dominate one's attitudes to life and interfere with one's own judgment. Of course, we cannot learn the ways of worldly life except by conditioning from those more experienced in those ways than we are as little children. This is the basis of education, but if our own identity is completely overshadowed by outer conditioning, we can never grow into full people. At this stage the super-ego becomes a destructive force in our lives.
Likewise the lower unconscious is not in itself evil. Without its drives we would neither survive nor procreate. But it becomes demonic when it is dominant in our personalities, for its drives are selfish and enclosed. St. Paul in the seventh chapter of his letter to the Romans contrasts the law of the flesh and its tendency to destruction with the law of the spirit which is life-giving. Even when there is an earnest desire to live nobly according to the spirit, the selfish law of the flesh finally wins. If only the spirit could triumph over the flesh, not so as to diminish it, but to resurrect it from corruptibility to everlasting life! It is the balance between the "lower" and "higher" aspects of the unconscious that is to be sought. A domination of the lower leads to selfish gratification and eventual death; a domination of the higher leads to an impractical other-worldliness that prevents the proper functioning of the physical body. St. Paul rightly sees that the power of Christ alone can ensure spiritual life and bodily resurrection.
The Spiritual Self and the Soul
If the painful process of knowing ourselves, as enjoined on us all by the Delphic oracle, is pursued, we find that we are not simply the outer appurtenances that we show to the world: age, sex, race, profession, and social class. Nor are we the emotional responses or ideas that assail us continually: these vary in intensity and are evanescent, and cannot be equated with a permanent focus of identity. It is when we have discovered the personal self within us, usually at the height of a moral crisis, that we are beginning to establish our unique identity. At the same time unconscious depths are revealed in us during dreams or when we react perversely in sudden unexpected situations. The technique of psycho-analysis helps to define elements, or "complexes", in the unconscious that are interfering with our inner knowledge of our own identity. These are comparable to moving clouds that obliterate the sun's rays, the sun being the true self of the person, which is normally deeply placed in the superconscious. There are moments given by grace, when a greater reality of our being is revealed to us. In these blessed periods, the personal self, with its enclosed isolation, lonely and fighting for its preservation, seems to open out and becomes luminous, extensive, loving, all-embracing and yet free. From the grim separateness of personal selfhood, there is a participation of an intimate communion with all other selves. And yet the identity of the person is not only unchallenged; it is clearer and more complete than ever. This is the experience of the "true", "spiritual", or "higher self ", and it is the essence of the "soul" of the person. Nowadays it is also often called the "transpersonal self ". The experience of the radiant, all-pervading spiritual self is the path of mysticism: the aim of the mystic journey is the discovery of one's true self, and gaining an understanding of its relationship with the cosmos and with God.
But in fact there is only one self; the personal self, or ego, that we are aware of when we come to ourselves in a crisis or during meditation is the dull reflection of the superconscious spiritual self in the tarnished mirror of our conditioned personality and in the world around us. If we lived in the abundance that Christ spoke of and witnessed to in His life, the personal self would glow in spiritual radiance as does the spiritual self, and indeed the two selves would coincide. In the unitive life, the ultimate state of mysticism, the mystic lives perpetually at the level of the spiritual self.
The soul of a person is that quality that proclaims his uniqueness, and shows itself primarily in terms of value judgments. It is seen most radiantly in the form of the spiritual self, but its influence is far from absent in the more earthy personal self. The quality of soul penetrates the lower reaches of the mind, and brings with it a regeneration of the body. It permeates the whole personality in the mature person. The soul is paradoxically not only the unique quality of every man, but is also shared and reaches its fullest development in giving of itself absolutely in love to others.
The Spirit
The main qualities of the soul, which is the most exalted manifestation of the mind, or psyche, are creative imagination, intuitive understanding, and spiritual realisation. This last is a direct illuminative apprehension of the nature and destination of the journey that the soul has to undergo for its own completion. According to the teachings of the mystics there is an aspect of the soul which they call "the spark", "the centre of the soul", or "the apex of the soul" which is the highest and holiest part of the spiritual self. It is called the "spirit" (St. Paul speaks of "pneuma"), and by it, or in it, the reality of God, however we perceive Him (whether personally as in Western theistic religion, or transpersonally as in Eastern mystical religion), is known. The mystic would affirm that God is immanent in the Spirit. The Quakers speak of "that of God in every man". Other more theologically orientated religionists who see God only in a transcendent category would describe the spirit as the organ whereby the soul can attain a knowledge of God. Personally I favour the first view, that God is present in His immanent mode in all creation, and especially self-conscious mankind. It is by this fact that we may become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), when we are really spirit-infused persons.
The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord (Proverbs 20:27). It is that which dares us to develop into full persons. In undeveloped men this power of the spirit that comes through God's Holy Spirit (the lord and giver of life) is used selfishly and destructively through a perverted will. But as a person comes more under the domination of the spiritual self, or soul, so the spirit in him shines more brightly and leads him on to spiritual realisation. Then he lives more for others and less for himself alone; eventually the great injunction to love one's neighbour as oneself becomes possible. It does not mean self-denial so much as a real concern for all people, including oneself, all of whom are seen to be made in the image of God.
The Person
A person is an individual in whom body, mind, and soul are integrated into a working whole under the guidance of the spirit. The concept of a person is a very high one, and there are few of us who are real persons. To be a person does not require great intellectual understanding, or psychic magnetism, or physical strength, or social eligibility. It requires only the integrity to be oneself, which in turn requires one to know oneself. Our life on earth is one of fashioning the body and mind that our parents have bequeathed to us into a unified organism under the control of the soul, or spiritual self, which in all probability is not inherited but has had experience of a previous existence. The integrating centre is the spirit, through which the Holy Spirit performs His sanctifying work.
A person is not perfect, just as the soul itself is not perfect. Its experience in the limitation of a physical body and the lower unconscious is one of chastening and suffering. It is the spirit alone that is perfect, for it is our inner image of God. But most of us are a very great distance from a knowledge of the spirit, and are therefore incomplete persons.
The incarnate Christ is our measure of a complete person; in Him in truth does the Godhead shine as uncreated light through an organism that transmits that light unsullied and undimmed. St. Paul sees this state of full humanity as one of coming to the unity inherent in our faith and of our knowledge of Christ, so that we attain to full manhood measured by nothing less than the full stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).
If we see a person in this light, the Persons of the Holy Trinity become clearer. They are not merely attributes of God but full representatives of the ineffable Godhead in the world of becoming.