“THE MANY FACES OF CONSCIOUSNESS”

 

by Prof. Dr. Shulamith Kreitler
Professor of Psychology, Tel-Aviv University, School of Psychological Sciences; Head of Psychooncology Research Center, Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel

The PowerPoint presentation is available here.

ABSTRACT

It is generally assumed that there are only two kinds of consciousness: the normal regular one and the so-called subconscious one. However, this seems to be a limited conception that does not do justice to the multi-facetted nature of consciousness.
A new conception of consciousness and altered states of consciousness will be presented. It is grounded in the empirically tested theory of meaning (Kreitler & Kreitler) which considers cognition as a meaning-dependent and meaning-generating system. Meaning is defined as an input-centered pattern of contents, characterized in terms of five kinds of meaning variables. Specific clusters of meaning variables may become prominent at different times, due to factors intrinsic or extrinsic to the system of meaning. Hence, the functioning of the cognitive system depends on the kinds of meaning variables prominent at a given time which dominate its structure and modulate the kinds of information available at that time, how they are organized and used, and what the cognitive outputs will be. These cognitive contents and processes affect also perception of reality, the sense of self, emotions, and indirectly behavior too.
Accordingly, a state of consciousness can be defined as the state of the cognitive system as a whole functioning in a way determined by the relative salience of specific meaning variables. Thus, many different states of consciousness exist and many more are possible. To some extent they are accessible to manipulation by experimental means of different kinds. Examples will be provided of studies describing changes in cognitive and emotional functioning when the cognitive system is dominated by different clusters of meaning variables, such as those representing personal-subjective meaning, or interpersonally-shared meaning or the concrete approach.

 

BIOGRAPHY

Shulamith Kreitler was born in Tel-Aviv, has studied psychology, philosophy and psychopathology in Israel, Switzerland and the USA. She got her PhD in Bern Switzerland. Has worked as a professor of psychology in Harvard, Princeton and Yale in the USA, as well as in Argentina and Vienna, Austria. She has lectured in Moscow University, The University of Brno, The University of Frankfurt, Beigin University, and other universities. She has been a professor of psychology at Tel-Aviv University since 1986. She is a certified clinical and health psychologist. Currently she teaches psychology at Tel-Aviv University and is the head of the psychooncology research center at Sheba Medical Center. Has published about 250 papers and 23 books in motivation, cognition, psychopathology and health psychology. She has created the theory of meaning, and the cognitive orientation theory of behavior, health and wellness. Some of her publications: The Psychology of Art (1972) (together with Hans Kreitler), Cognitive Orientation and Behavior (1976), The Cognitive Foundations of Personality Traits (1990), Handbook of Chronic Pain (2007), Pediatric Psycho-Oncology: Psychosocial Aspects and Clinical Interventions (2004, 2012 2nd Edition By Blackwell/Wiley), Systems of Logic and the construction of Order (with Fleck, Ropolyi and Eigner, 2012), Cognition and motivation (Cambridge University Press) Consciousness: Its nature and functions ( together with Oded Maimon), Conceptions of meaning (together with Tomas Urbanek), The construct of Meaning (Nova, 2022), Spheres of Meaning (Nova, 2022), New Frontiers in Creativity (Nova, 2020) and New Horizons in Creativity (Nova, 2022).
She has been married with Hans Kreitler (1916-1993), has one son Ron Kreitler, and two grandchildren Jonatan and Tamara.