In everyday life, we often talk about the soul. At the same time, everyone knows what the term means – a definition, on the other hand, is difficult. In the field of psychology, the concept of soul is widely equated with the psyche. Other scientific disciplines distinguish it from the psyche.
What is the soul?
In everyday life, people often talk about the soul. Yet everyone knows what the term means – a definition, on the other hand, is difficult. There are theories about the origin of the word soul, which go back to ancient Germanic terms for “lake” and “realm of the dead”. The term psyche, which is usually used synonymously with soul in psychology, comes from ancient Greek and means “breath” or “breath”. The term soul is used in various teachings and traditions. In religion, the soul is what remains after the decay of the earthly body. But it is also used in the field of philosophy. In psychology, the soul is equated with life. Breathing is a sign of vitality and life force and thus an indication of the presence of a soul. On the other hand, the soul refers mainly to the out-of-body that keeps a person alive. It is difficult to give an exact definition, because the soul mainly describes what scientists and philosophers have been puzzling over for centuries. It is possible to recreate the human body by biological and chemical methods. Nevertheless, this body will never live, because it lacks what man generally calls soul. Often the term is equated with spirit, thinking faculty and mind. Today’s common attempt at a definition represents the soul as the entirety of all life impulses that are accompanied by feelings and thoughts. Accordingly, this includes the entire perception of living beings, behavior, fantasies, dreams and consciousness. Psychosomatic diseases affect the soul. They can trigger symptoms that are not detectable in the physical body. However, conversely, they can also become the reason for physical illnesses.
Function and task
On the basis of these approximations to a definition, the task of the soul is not only to give life to man, but also to make him understand and act. According to Sigmund Freud, everything that drives man lies conditioned in the psyche. Motives and motivations come from desires that arise through perceptions and thoughts. Every person has emotional motives on the one hand and rational motives on the other, which drive him. In the overall mechanism of the body, these motives are triggered by a mixture of psychological and hormonal physical reasons. According to Freud’s structural model of the psyche, humans possess three distinct structures in the realm of the soul: the ego, the superego, and the id. Said id has the function of directing drives, affects and needs. These are understood as psychic organs and guide the body. Freud’s superego names that psychic structure responsible for worldviews and ideals, while the ego relates all these claims, norms, and values through rationality and critical thinking. Thus, the ego can be seen as a mediating instance that includes perception, thought, and memory. These approaches are not only abstract, but equally unprovable. In fact, however, psyche and body interact with each other, are mutually dependent and cannot be separated from each other. In the sense of the saying “In a healthy body lives a healthy mind”, the physical condition is decisively responsible for the mental condition and vice versa. The soul can be as sick as the body. Such illnesses and physical connections are increasingly being considered by medical professionals in addition to psychologists and psychiatrists.
Diseases and ailments
There is a whole range of diseases attributed to the psyche. Mental and emotional disorders are associated with impaired social relationships, behaviors, feeling and thinking, and perception. However, not every mood fluctuation can be equated with an illness. In many cases, a diagnosis that is actually needed objectively requires a subjective assessment by the person experiencing it. Mental illnesses include behavioral disorders, schizotypal and delusional disorders, and neurotic and affective disorders. Various disorders are strikingly often gender-related.Women, in particular, are affected with surprising frequency by phobic anxiety disorders, panic, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders. Men, on the other hand, show alcoholism, ADHD, autism and disturbed social behavior more frequently in percentage terms. These phenomena are mostly related to the nature of the different upbringing of boys and girls, and the resulting different demands on them. For example, it is socially okay for women (the supposedly “soft” sex) to be afraid of spiders, but for men it makes them weak in the eyes of others. The mentioned diseases comes the burnout syndrome. This is an overload disorder. Also depressions became in the today’s time the people illness and occur not rarely already in the youth age. They are characterized by listlessness, inner restlessness, anxiety and irritability. Feelings of hopelessness, difficulty concentrating and sleep disturbances often go hand in hand with depression. Several million people in Germany are affected. The trend is increasing. In addition, stress factors or emotional pressure can trigger physical complaints such as headaches or stomach aches. Panic attacks or anxiety disorders are also predestined to drive the pulse up and lead to nausea and muscle cramps. This shows the close interrelationship between psyche and physique.
