Human consciousness is based on the electrical and chemical interaction between neurons and it is material fundamentally. A small set of neurons is not able to create consciousness although it has the reflection property of all matter. Hence the rise of consciousness from the interaction of neurons is one example of transformation of quantity into quality.
Consciousness is based on reception of sensations, transmitting them to the parts of brain taking care of thinking, memory and other functionality of the brain on lower level than consciousness. Formation of human consciousness on top this lower level functionality of the brain is also transformation of quantity into quality. Here we have two levels in the operation of the brain: the higher level of consciousness and the lower neuropsychological level. Below the neuropsychological level there is the neurophysiological level consisting of physical operation and interaction of the neurons.
Psychiatry represents occasionally pure mental problems as diseases, i.e. as the same thing as physical diseases, and on the other hand it sometimes claims that mental illnesses are physical diseases of the brain. In the former case psychiatry is wrong because only physical illnesses, i.e. lesions or disturbances of some tissue, are real diseases. In the latter case psychiatry is representing phenomena in the level of consciousness as diseases in the neurophysiological level. Therefore the obvious fact that all thinking derives from the material operation of the human brain does not make mental illnesses real diseases.
Page created 22.9.2007
Page updated 15.11.2007
Tommi Höynälänmaa