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Motivational urges, Motor System, and Neurological Correlates

 How can we measure the connection between human urges, the translation of those urges in the form of behavior, and the neurological mechanism of action? This is precisely the question Gupta and Aron set out to answer in their article, “Urges for food and money spill over into motor system excitability before action is taken.” No doubt, much of human behavior is driven by urges. In psychological jargon, the operational definition of an urge can be defined as how much someone desires an object, relative to its perceived value.

Wondering whether the urges for food and money are detectable by way of motor system excitability, the researchers in this article employed the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and concurrent electromyography to test their hypothesis. They hypothesized that stimuli associated with stronger urges, in this case food and money, would correspond to higher motor excitability and that this excitability would be evident before the participant consciously decided which motor response to make.

            As is typical, the experiment consisted of 17 young adults (9 male, mean age=21.9) who were instructed not to eat for 4 hours prior to the study. They were presented with 60 food items ranging from candy bars to clam juice, and were told to rate them on a 5 point likert scale. Two other similar experiments were conducted using a monetary paradigm instead of food. For all three experiments, there was a randomized presentation of food items (the stimuli), and each trial began by simple priming: either a picture of food or an empty rectangle. A choice screen followed, providing the participants with a Yes/No option corresponding to either the left or right index finger. Further, this Yes/No option was randomized—that is, participants would not always be presented with the “yes” option corresponding to the right index finger.

            This is interesting since it negates the possibility simple response preparation. Nor can this be simply a matter of increased arousal, since the effect was present only when action was required. Concerning this, the researchers note that “it must also reflect motivational processing that is upstream from the corticospinal system…[that] likely involves brain systems such as the orbital frontal cortex and associated limbic circuitry, including the ventral striatum ⁄ nucleus-accumbens and ventral pallidum.” (Gupta, 2010, p. 186).

            The article mentions its contribution to the growing literature of embodied cognition. Indeed, with the sensitive testing method they used, they provide the ability of observing the so called motivational “spill-over” into the motor system, even before the motor system knows exactly what to do.

            Further research is needed to investigate the action the researchers anticipated, namely that the motivational spill-over will correspond to heightened activation of motor regions of the basal ganglia.

by Phillip J. Kuna

for John G. Kuna, PsyD and Associates 

Licensed Psychologist

http://drjohngkuna.com

References

Gupta, N., & Aron, A. R. (2011). Urges for food and money spill over into motor system

excitability before action is taken. European Journal Of Neuroscience, 33(1), 183-188. doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2010.07510.x

Schizophrenia and Adolescent Substance Abuse

 The classic Carlson text on the physiology of behavior does an excellent job providing a review of the literature concerning the pharmacology, neurology and epidemiology of schizophrenia. I was a bit disappointed, however, with a distinct lack of treatment concerning the (possible) relationship between schizophrenia and substance abuse. More specifically, I was interested in any correlations between schizophrenia and adolescent substance abuse. Carlson makes the following observation, but leaves the reader hanging: “MRI studies suggest that schizophrenia is not caused by a degenerative process as are Parkinson’s disease…Instead, a sudden rapid loss of brain volume typically occurs during young adulthood… [This process] begins prenatally and then lies dormant until puberty, when some unknown mechanism triggers degeneration of some neurons (p. 565).”

            What, then, is the role of substance abuse of adolescents who later exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia? Fortuitously, research revealed a 2005 article: “Adolescence, schizophrenia and drug abuse: a window of vulnerability.” As a review of the literature, this article also provided a copious bibliography to sift through later.

The authors argue that since adolescence is a time for significant brain development as well as engagement in psychosocial development (peer group dynamics, sensation seeking, anhedonia, etc.), that this population is at risk for both a “psychotic episode and substance abuse disorders in predisposed people” (emphasis mine).

            Certainly, the authors would be remiss not to mention the neural pruning theory of schizophrenia. Indeed they do, and follow through noting how excessive pruning of neurons in the prefrontal cortex and the parahippocampal cortex could be responsible for decreased Dopamine function in the PFC. This, in turn, would lead to over activity of Dopamine in the mesolimbic system, because of the inhibitory feedback. That process, in turn, could be responsible for the positive symptoms of Schizophrenia.  

            Overall, I was more than pleased to come across this review of the literature concerning schizophrenia and substance abuse in adolescents. While the findings presented were not new, nor did they deviate much (if at all) from the findings presented in previous research (cf. Carlson’s work referenced below), they nonetheless provide ample food for thought and as well as a thorough and helpful bibliography.

References

Carlson, N. R. (2010). Physiology of behavior. Boston, MA: Pearson.

van Nimwegen, L., de Haan, L. L., van Breveren, N. N., van den Brink, W. W., &

Linszen, D. D. (2005). Adolescence, schizophrenia and drug abuse: A window

of vulnerability. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 111(s427), 35-42. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2005.00543.x

By +Phillip J. Kuna

For John G. Kuna, Psy.D. and Associates Counseling

Drjohngkuna.com

The Central Nervous System: Correlates of Dreams and Waking Hallucinations

In a previous entry, I explored the connection between the visual system and visual hallucinations reported by individuals with schizophrenia. Since dreams can be understood as the nervous system’s processing of endogenous information, I was interested to understand and explore the correlation between dreams and hallucinations as they are processed by the nervous system.

            Research revealed a fruitful article by Mahowald, Woods, and Schenck titled, “Sleeping Dreams, Waking Hallucinations, and the Central Nervous System.” The authors note that the study concerns the critical evaluation of “the similarities and differences between dreams and hallucinations, with particular reference to the role of the central nervous system in each and with consideration of their patho-physiologic implications.” More of a review of the literature  than an empirical study, the article had 6 major headings: 1) dream mechanisms, 2) hallucination mechanisms, 3) dreaming and hallucinations: state disassociation models, 4) hallucinations (spontaneous and induced) in the non-psychiatric population, 5) dreams and hallucinations as a manifestation of consciousness, 6) hallucinations in neurological disorders.  For the astute reader, a copious and valuable four pages of references follows the article.

            The first section was standard enough. Their presentation of hallucinatory mechanisms stressed a view of endogenous brain activity being released when the individual is dissociated from stimuli: for instance, West’s theory argues that we are always in a dream state; we just are not attending to it because we are constantly stimulated—we can’t see the stars during the day, though they are still there.

            Section 4, while interesting, wasn’t my main interest in the article, as it presented topics such: fasting and sleep deprivation induced hallucinations (especially in religious/mystics), and drug induced hallucinations. Skipping ahead, the final section (6) provided more substance to several related areas, including: hallucinations in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, phantom limb syndrome, and Charles Bonnet Syndrome.

            Finally, the fifth section (dreams and hallucinations as a manifestation of consciousness) had interesting correlates to schizophrenic hallucinations. We know that the brain is active during both REM and non REM sleep. Further, we can define consciousness as the brains awareness of all available data presented to it. While awake, this information is our environment, external stimuli. While asleep, however, this stimulus is internally generated. Further, we know from neuroimaging that during REM sleep there is a decrease in PVC (primary visual cortex) and Frontal Association activity. From this information, the researchers hypothesize that “the extrastriate cortices and paralimbic areas may be operating as a closed system, functionally disconnected from the primary visual and the frontal regions responsible for the integration of visual information.”

            Further evidence for this hypothesis that consciousness is maintained by the brain’s spatial and temporal mapping that integrates multiple brain areas can be seen in the fact that both during REM and the wake state there is a 40 Hz oscillatory rhythm throughout the cortex. Such a rhythmic oscillation may provide a continuous “neuronal humming” whereby internal or external irregularities would be conspicuous. What is most interesting is that this rhythm is reset during the wake state by sensory stimuli…but it is not reset during REM sleep.

            The theory, then, is that some deviation of either the spatial or temporal regularity of this rhythm may be at the root of some hallucinations—specifically those experienced by individuals with schizophrenia. Much of the literature uncovered, however, focused squarely on the differences between dreams and hallucinations. The convergence of these themes proved fertile, and we can most certainly anticipate further research involving this intersection. More so as our neurobiological techniques and understanding increases. For instance, it was only 40 years ago that the REM phasic event intrusion hypothesis was offered as an explanation for waking hallucinations in schizophrenia, but this theory was never verified because the prevailing assumption at the time was that dreaming was confined to REM sleep only!

References

Mahowald, M. W., Woods, S. R., & Schenck, C. H. (1998). Sleeping dreams, waking

hallucinations, and the central nervous system. Dreaming, 8(2), 89-102.

doi:10.1023/B:DREM.0000005899.59224.17

by +Phillip J. Kuna

for John G. Kuna, Psy.D. and Associates

drjohngkuna.com

Is Psychology a Science? (Part IV, Conclusion)

Bernard Lonergan

Method, then, is defined as “a normative pattern of recurrent and related operations yielding cumulative and progressive results” (Lonergan, 1972, p. 4). Here, cumulative results entail a sustained succession of discoveries and progress results indicate synthesis of each new insight that builds upon previously validated insights. Yet transcendental method is more than a mere prescription, a set of rules to follow. Increasing a set of regulations associated with a methodology does not necessarily increase cumulative and progressive results. What is needed, Lonergan argues, is a “prior, normative pattern of operations from which rules may be derived” (Lonergan, 1972, p. 6). Lonergan’s cognitional structure and intentionality analysis provide such an a priori structure with which to inform a methodology.

            The implications for such a methodology are nothing short of staggering. If correct, Lonergan’s transcendental method provides the basis for integrating first person data with third person data into a unified theory. As Lonergan explains,

Transcendental method offers a key to unified science…in harmony with all development is the human mind itself which effects the developments. In unity with all fields, however disparate, is again the human mind, which operates in all fields and in radically the same fashion in each (Lonergan, 1972, p. 24).   

The process of heightening one’s conscious intentionality, directing one’s awareness to one’s own conscious and cognitional operations is what Lonergan terms self-appropriation. Indeed, the first four chapters of Lonergan’s Insight are nothing short of exercises in self-appropriation. Guiding the reader though a series of thought experiments, the beginning of Insight is meant to allow the reader to reach that eureka moment, and to form an awareness of what happens within themselves during such cognitional procedures. Such self-appropriation is the basis for transcendental method, and is indeed the only way in which to assure accurate first person data as well as a secure methodological foundation:

The derivation of the categories is a matter of the human…subject effecting self-appropriation and employing this heightened consciousness both as a basis for methodological control…as well as an a priori whence he can understand other men [women], their social relations, their history, their religion, their rituals, their destiny (Lonergan, 1972, p. 292).

            Further, self-appropriation necessarily implies the employment of Lonergan’s transcendental precepts that correspond to the above cognitional operations: be attentive, be intelligent, be reasonable, and be responsible. Providing an experiential, first person data for these cognitional structures not only enables the duplication and reiteration of these structures, but again, also provides an invariant and structured methodology:

Despite the doubts and denials of positivists and behaviorists, no one, unless some of his [or her] organs are deficient is going to say that never in his life did he have the experience of seeing…of imagining or perceiving, of feeling or moving; or that if he appeared to have such experience, still it was mere appearance, since all of his lifelong he has gone about like a somnambulist without any awareness of his own activities (Lonergan, 1972, p. 16-17).

            Finally, Lonergan’s method is trans-cultural. He argues that the rational self-consciousness that can be derived from intentionality analysis is not only normative but also innate to each individual regardless of their cultural milieu. That is, these cognitional features are present in each person, and are the stabilizing feature throughout even, say, a differentiation from a classicist perspective to an empirical one (Lonergan, 1967). The classicist views culture as perennial, absolute, whereas the empiricist is able to adapt to the changing tide of human living, while nonetheless retaining truth (Lonergan, 1972, p. 333). Such a cross cultural methodology would surely be of great interest to many psychologists.

Implications

            One may contend that all this philosophy is well and good, but how would one proceed to utilize transcendental method in concrete or therapeutic situations. Brannick (2006) offers a unique voice to the contribution. His unpublished Master’s thesis wove together strands of Lonergan’s thought with emergent probability theory. He concluded by presenting the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM) as a possible psychometric instrument with which to empirically validate Lonergan’s claim to unification of the objective and subjective dimensions of human conscious operations. Theoretically, Brannick’s argument is sound. Yet, as he notes in his conclusion, the restructuring of the RIM needed to adapt it to Lonergan’s scheme has yet to be undertaken. I heartily second Brannick’s recommendation for further work on this front.

            Further applications of transcendental method are nearly limitless. For instance, one could see how social psychologists would be particularly interested in such a methodology. Answers to questions as how does one conduct a social survey on current topics such as race relations, abortion, or the legal status of gay marriage without being influenced by one’s personal values are neatly answered in Lonergan’s system. Clearly, value-free systems are illusory—either by those conducting the survey or by those surveyed. And while the study of values may properly belong to ethicists, one cannot realistically divorce value-laden systems from human behavior. In that vein, a more appropriate, more Lonerganian approach would be an explicit recognition and divulgence of one’s values. Such values would indicate one’s approach to the survey, and would also dictate why certain questions are raised and not others. Through self-appropriation, values become explicit, enabling a secure and unambiguous foundation for experimentation.

Conclusion

            Having situated the topic within the framework of both the historical and emerging paradigms of psychology, we preceded to provide an over-view of the general nature of scientific inquiry. Such an explication was necessary, not only to again situate the discussion of psychology within the other sciences, but more importantly to provide a heuristic basis to the way in which I argued that psychology should view and subsequently proceed as a scientific discipline. The subsequent discussion on the nature and extent of objective-subjective divide within psychology provided concrete instances, which I later implied how Lonergan’s transcendental method would be applicable to such instances. Finally, Lonergan’s transcendental method based both from his cognitional theory and his theory of conscious intentionality was presented as a viable alternative to the pluralistic epistemological accounts now operating in mainstream psychology.

            Alarcon (1997) has argued that a unifying paradigm for psychology should be based on 1) philosophical anthropology, 2) the domains within which psychology ought to operate and 3) methodological avenues.  Indeed, by grounding objectivity within one’s own subjectivity and rational self-consciousness, Lonergan’s method provides a plausible, reliable and indeed first person empirical alternative to the varied methodological approaches to the study of psychology. As Meynell (1994) has noted,

According to one extreme view of the matter, a true science of humanity would reduce the explanation of human behavior to natural scientific laws. At the other extreme, it is protested that one needs for the human sciences a kind of ‘divinization’, ‘empathy’ or whatever, which is wholly distinct from any procedure to be employed by the natural scientist. Lonergan’s position on the matter at once mediates between these two extremes, and is perfectly consistent within itself. What is particular to the human sciences, in his view, is that the object as well as the subject of inquiry is to be assumed to be more or less intelligent, reasonable and so on, and its behavior to be explained accordingly…in the natural as in the human sciences, one has intelligently and creatively to hypothesize; but in the human as in the natural sciences, one has reasonably to judge one’s hypotheses to be probably true or false according to their corroboration or falsification by relevant observable data (p. 121-122).

            I offer one final anecdote in conclusion. Max Planck, the scientist responsible for the revolutionary and fundamental discoveries regarding quantum theory, put forth this question in his autobiography: how is it that a new scientific paradigm becomes accepted within the larger community? Is it the lucidity of the observations? Perhaps it is the exactness of measurements? Or yet still, it may be decisiveness of the experimental results? No, in fact none of these are the cause. The real reason for the advancement of a new scientific revolution, Plank says, is when the present generation of professors is retired (Planck, 1949, p. 33-34). In other words, in the context of paradigmatic shifts, both the social and the hard sciences share the common ground of a rethinking of the basic axioms and postulates inherent to their study—a transformation of the object of their study. In the social sciences, however, and particularly within psychology, the human person is the object of study. What I urge is needed, then, is nothing short of the radical transformation of the human person—who is at once both the subject and object of scientific investigation. Lonergan’s self-appropriation of interiority provides an empirically, self-verified methodology that bridges the subjective—objective dichotomy.  As Lonergan puts it, “authentic objectivity is the fruit of authentic subjectivity.” (Lonergan, 1972, p. 292).

By Phillip J. Kuna

For John G. Kuna, Psy.D. and Associates

Drjohngkuna.com

References

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Is Psychology a Science? (Part III)

Bridging the gap: Lonergan’s Theory of Conscious Intentionality

  

Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) is perhaps best known for his philosophical and theological 

contributions. By his own admission, his academic career was carried out "under impossible conditions," within a system that was "hopelessly antiquated" (Lonergan, 1973, p. 15). It was a system that, in neglecting the need for specialization in modernity, relied too heavily on the outdated concept of the homo universale while simultaneously operating within both an insufficient philosophy and a classicist notion of culture (Lonergan, 1974, pp. 209-210)

            The archaic and perennial philosophy to which Lonergan revolted was the metaphysical system developed by St. Thomas Aquinas, who in turn relied heavily on Aristotle. It was a metaphysical system based on the archaic notion of a faculty psychology. Faculty psychology suggests that the mind consists of different powers, or faculties: the intellect, the will, and the emotions—all the while presupposing a Cartesian mind-body dualism. Indeed, faculty psychology’s grip was so strong that it remained the prevailing learning theory until the early 20^th century when Edward Thorndike, the student of William James, published groundbreaking studies on learning in animals and humans (Thorndike, 1932). Clearly, such a faculty psychology would not be sufficient to address the emerging concerns of the 20^th century.

            Lonergan’s project, then, was an attempt to take into account the Enlightenment’s turn to the subject while at the same time constructing a methodology that would avoid the Kantian epidemic of collapsing in on itself. Thus, Lonergan asserts that while metaphysics may still be first in itself, it is no longer the foundation that it once was. Rather, he takes cognitional operations and intentionality analysis, as his starting point (intentionality analysis refers here to the philosophy of Lonergan’s Transcendental Method, of which his cognitional theory forms the basis).  It has as its basis the following pre-suppositions: 1) humans have an unrestricted, unlimited, detached and disinterested desire to know (as is evidenced in the constant questioning, that any parent of a toddler is familiar with), 2) a normative and fixed pattern of recurring mental and cognitional operations involved in the process of inquiry and investigation, and 3) immanent norms of intelligence, reasonableness and responsibility that guide the cognitive dimension of human consciousness (Lonergan, 1992).

            What Lonergan provides then, is a cognitional theory that informs a theory of consciousness, which in turn informs a metaphysics and an ethics. The decisiveness of Lonergan’s theory can be seen in sharp distinction to the many conflicting and often overwhelming theories of consciousness currently in vogue. Even a brief survey of the psychological literature on consciousness studies reveals multifaceted methodologies often based on inaccurate or incomplete foundations. Searle (1997), for instance, appeals to perceptual models to describe the imperceptibleness of consciousness. Others (Dennett, 1991; Griffin, 1991; Hay, 2007) maintain that mental images and representations are necessary to explain the invisibleness of consciousness. Finally, still others (Chalmers, 1996) argue that while attempts to explain the invisible are all well and good, but what is physical is ultimately real. The irony of course is that even those in the hard sciences—say, particle physics for instance—understand that the particles they are discussing are often times simply constructs of human intelligence. Such constructs, while not ultimately tangible, are ways to explain what must indeed be so if they are to offer an explanation of what has actually been observed. In other words, the future of the science of psychology may be contingent upon the integration of both the objective and subjective components inherent in human cognition.

            While Lonergan’s method has received great attention in the fields of philosophy, theology, ethics (Melchin, 1987), feminist studies (Crysdale, 1994) and even economics (McShane, 1996), there is a notable lack of application of his method in the field of psychology. Proceeding now to summarize Lonergan’s account of the unfolding of human consciousness, the explication and defense of each unique and distinct philosophical position will be clearly untenable. I refer the curious to his original works.   

Non-reflexive Consciousness

            Lonergan distinguishes between what he terms reflexive consciousness and non-reflexive consciousness. Generally, consciousness is defined here as an “interior experience, of oneself and one’s acts, where experience is taken in the strict sense of the word” (Lonergan, 2002, p. 157). It is the strict sense insofar as it differs from an undefined knowledge. It is experiential insofar as it is a direct awareness of data, which initiates a process of intellectual inquiry to understand what has been experienced and to pronounce judgment on its reality.

            Non-Reflexive consciousness, then, is conscious awareness of awareness. Such a cognitional act does not imply an object. Rather, it is an experiential awareness of one’s own subjectivity. Again, such awareness is not found by naval-gazing introspection. Introspection would only reveal the subject as object. To discern the subject as subject one has merely to increase one’s level of activity. “If one sleeps and dreams, one becomes present to oneself as the frightened dreamer. If one wakes, one becomes present to oneself, not as moved but as moving.” (Lonergan, 1967, p. 227)

            Inasmuch as it is an experience of one’s acts, Lonergan argues that while one performs their daily tasks of living they are aware, not only of the sensations and data of experience, but also aware of the acts themselves. For example, right now as I hear my dog bark, I can recognize not only the sounds, but I am also able to attend to the fact that I am hearing. Again, I can decide that my dog needs to be taken outside. In this instance, I am aware not only of the decision to take him out, but also of my own cognitional state of deciding and finally of myself as deciding (Lonergan, 1967, pp. 175-176).                

            A further clarification rests on Lonergan’s distinction between consciousness and reflexive knowledge. Consciousness is not to be confused with reflexive knowledge. Consciousness, in Lonergan’s terms, comes prior to reflexive self-knowledge, and as such, is the subject’s experience of oneself as subject. Reflexive self-knowledge, on the other hand, completes the direct awareness of consciousness by forming and verifying concepts through the subject’s self-experience (Lonergan, 1967, pp. 177-178).        

            A comparative analysis should yield further clarification. Lonergan demarcates his own line of thought from the many prevailing opinions that consider consciousness to be some sort of introspection, or positions that describes or implies that conscious awareness involves some sort of inward looking.[1] Termed Conscientia-perceptio[2] by Lonergan, this view supposes that consciousness is the same process as direct knowing. Yet such analogies fail here, for in non-reflexive consciousness, there is no subject-object relationship governing the cognitive processes. Rather, it is simply objectless awareness, with no objectified aspect of self. That is to say, my knowledge of my dog is not equivalent to the way in which I am aware of myself. In both cases there is knowledge of an object. Notable is that in the second case that subject knows oneself as an object. The problem with conscientia-perceptio, Lonergan argues, is that a cognitive act does not constitute any effect in its object. That is, if consciousness is direct self-knowledge, then it would have no constitutive effect on the self, thereby reducing the subject’s psychological unity to beyond the object in one’s range of knowledge. This distinction between non-reflexive and reflexive consciousness is crucial for Lonergan, for it is “the difference between conscious and unconscious acts” (Lonergan, 1992, p. 322). That is, it is from the subjective and conscious awareness (non-reflecting consciousness) from which the objectification of cognitional acts of reflecting consciousness emerge. The following section describes Lonergan’s account of reflexive consciousness—the intentional acts of human consciousness that enable us to grasp the inherent intelligibility of both internal and external stimuli.

Reflexive Consciousness and Intentionality Analysis

            For Lonergan, the objectification of subjective stimuli, both external and internal, occurs as one’s reflexive consciousness unfolds through four distinct levels. Levels here should be understood metaphorically. Spatial and temporal analogies of human conscious tend to fail since they imply an ocular component to consciousness. Further, unlike the direct awareness of self-provided by non-reflexive consciousness, reflexive consciousness always intends an object (Lonergan, 1967).

            The acts of reflexive consciousness that intends both internal and external objects, Lonergan argues, are governed by four distinct levels of intentionality. The four levels of intentionality—conscious awareness (attention), intelligent understanding (intelligence), reasonable judgment (reasonableness), and responsible decision (responsibility)—are proposed to be the normative and recurrent pattern of human cognition. That is, in conjunction with the ongoing and non-objectified self-awareness of non-reflexive consciousness, cognitive operations experienced in the form of questioning, provide an orientation toward objectification of an attended to stimuli—again, whether external or internal.

            The first level of conscious intentionality, attending to the stimulus at hand, implies more than mere looking. In Lonergan’s system, conscious awareness and attention imply the “detached, disinterested desire to know” (Lonergan, 1992, p. 10). It implies a thrust of wonder, of curiosity, of marvel. Such is the wonder Aristotle spoke of, citing it as the beginning of all philosophy and scientific knowledge. Such is the wonder of the young child, who with innocent and unwavering curiosity interrogates his parents with questions ad infinitum.[3]

            Lonergan describes the second level of conscious intentionality, intelligent understanding, in this way: “an intellectual level on which we inquire, come to understand, express what we have understood, and work out the presuppositions and implications of our position” (Lonergan, 1992, p. 9). The understanding and insights produced by intelligently probing the data received through conscious awareness opens up then further questions that can only be answered by advancement to the third level of reasonable judgment.

            Reasonable judgment answers to the question, “Is it so? Is it not so? Is it?” In Lonerganian terms: the insights, hypotheses, and theories propounded in the second level of conscious intentionality, intelligent understanding, are put to the strict demands of rational judgment. As Lonergan (1992) explains, the third level contains

The effective operation of a single law of utmost generality, the law of sufficient reason is where the sufficient reason is the unconditioned. It emerges as a demand for the unconditioned and the refusal to assent unreservedly on any lesser ground. It advances to a grasp of the unconditioned. It terminates in the rational compulsion by which grasp of the unconditioned commands assent (p. 346).

Here, the unconditioned simply means that all pertinent questions have been answered. If a person comes home after a long day at work, see smoke in the air and water on the floor, can he assume there was a fire? Have all pertinent questions been answered? According to Lonergan, he has not yet answered all pertinent questions, and therefore cannot be said to have grasped the virtually unconditioned. All one say in the above scenario is that there is smoke in the air and water on the floor, and something has happened.

            Finally, Lonergan’s fourth level of conscious intentionality, responsible decision, entails the raising and answering of questions that imply a reasonable and responsible course of action. Similar to personal agency, such an concept of responsible decision implies that human beings can freely choose a course of action that is either consistent or inconsistent to what has been determined to be reasonable understanding (second level) of the attended (first level) to data (Lonergan, 1972).        

            Attempts to deny Lonergan’s cognitional structure and theory of conscious intentionality would imply that the commentator has not attended to the data, is unintelligent, unreasonable, or sound asleep. That is, any attempts to refute Lonergan’s claims would necessarily involve the operations outlined above, namely—attending to the data presented, grasping the intelligibility of the theory, and making a reasonable judgment of its veracity (Lonergan, 1972, p. 17).

Up to this point, we have outlined in broad strokes the basis for Lonergan’s methodology.

Thus far, we have looked to the success of the natural sciences to gather a preliminary understanding of methodology. We have taken a detour behind the techniques of the natural sciences to the fundamentals of the cognitional operations of the human mind. From those basic processes of the human mind, a transcendental method[4] can be discerned—basic patterns and operations that are employed, cross culturally, in every cognitional enterprise. From there, the formulation of such a transcendental method can be accurately applied to special methodologies appropriate for particular fields of study (Lonergan, 1972, p. 4). As Lonergan (1972) notes,

However true it is that one attends, understands, judges, decides differently in the natural sciences, in the human sciences, as in theology, still the difference in no way imply or suggest a transition from attention to inattention, from intelligence to stupidity, from reasonableness to silliness, from responsibility to irresponsibility (p. 23).

Part IV of this post will conclude by outlining an application of Lonergan’s  method to the science of psychology.

By Phillip Kuna

For John G. Kuna, Psy.D. and Associates Counseling

Drjohngkuna.com 

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[1] A select few of psychology’s prevailing theories of consciousness that employ such perceptual models were covered earlier, if but briefly.

[2] Lonergan, 2002, p. 181. The phrase can be loosely translated from the Latin as “perceptive consciousness”.

[3] For more on this orientation of wonder, and its subsequent decline with age, see Lonergan (2012), chapters 6 and 7.

[4] The method is transcendental because it goes beyond (transcends) itself by the raising of further questions.