ABSTRACT
Inherent in the different names is a difference in the connotations of the two types of processes. The term ‘mental’ connotes a ‘higher’ level and confers privileged status on the processes to which it is applied, so that these tend to be seen as independent of other psychic phenomena – which, for their part, are placed on a lower, secondary level in the mental economy, subordinated to the ‘higher’ functions. However, this subordination is contradicted both by experience and by common sense, which is perfectly prepared to acknowledge that feelings, affects and emotions often constrain the so-called higher mental processes, and may even actually inspire or govern them. Yet even if the interdependence of the two kinds of psychological phenomena is granted,
they are often still contrasted with each other – as, for example, the phrase ‘to be overwhelmed by passion’ indicates. Here the affective processes (passion) – seen as ‘lower’ than the processes that ‘ought’ to be in charge of the human mind and behaviour – are felt to become so much stronger than these ‘higher’ processes that they overwhelm them; the antithesis between affect and reason is obvious. This opposition is reflected in usage, where the term ‘mental’ is often felt to be inapplicable to the affective processes.
