Summary The concept of the psyche

74 • Part I. Introduction to General Psychology
(ontogeny). Therefore, the process of formation of consciousness is strictly individual, due to both the characteristics of social development and genetic predisposition.
There is another question in the study of mental phenomena that we need to highlight in this section. What are the functions of the psyche? It seems that the answer to this question is very simple. However, you will not find a direct answer to it in any textbook of psychology, because it really is one of the most difficult questions among those studied by modern psychology. Manifestations of the psyche are so multifaceted that it is very difficult to give an unequivocal answer. For example, if we confine ourselves to the statement that the psyche provides adaptation to environmental conditions, then how can one explain such a phenomenon as human creativity? Should creativity be considered as a form of adaptation to social conditions, since very often creativity is not so much conducive to solving problems of a person as it gives them problems? Another example:
Why does a person experience special feelings when meeting an outstanding work of art, be it a book, a painting, music or anything else? This can hardly be explained only by adaptive reactions of a person. And there are a lot of such examples when manifestations of various forms of mental cannot be explained from the position of expediency.
Apparently, in order to determine all the functions of the psyche, it is necessary to list all the forms and the nature of its manifestation. This is currently unlikely to succeed. More precisely, we can determine the functions of the psyche, perhaps, only in one area. This is the sphere of interaction between living organisms and the environment (Figure 3.1). From this point of view, we can distinguish three main functions of the psyche: a reflection of the surrounding reality, the preservation of the integrity

Fig. 3.1. The main functions of the psyche