What is a mentality? This word is used quite often, we hear it from TV screens from psychologists, sociologists, journalists and politicians. It is used in the context of discussing the distinctive features of individuals or their associations at various levels. It is also used by foreigners, who especially like to speculate about the mystery of the Russian soul. In this article we will try to talk about the fact that this is a mentality, in simple words.
Origin of the term
This word came from the Latin root, in the broad sense denoting the soul, spirit, and in a narrower sense - the mind. The concept of mentality can be briefly described as a kind of non-material formation inherent in a particular social group - people, nation, state, collective.
It is a combination of a number of features, such as mental, cultural, emotional, as well as moral attitudes and value orientations.
Initially, the essence and significance of the mentality was revealed by historians, today it is often used by sociologists and psychologists. The first to introduce it in the 20th century was Sorbonne professor Lucien Levy-Bruhl, philosopher and ethnologist.
From science to journalism
The scientist used it with respect to the tribes that lived during the primitive communal system, believing that their thinking was radically different from the thinking of modern people, since it lacked such a component as logic. Recall that the meaning of the word “mentality” goes back to the soul, spirit, that is, the primitive representatives of the human race, according to Levy-Bruhl, lived by the soul, not by the mind.
The transition to the mass use of the term was due to supporters of the French historical school, the so-called Annals school. They understood him as a trait inherent in the collective, that is, as that “composition” that unites royal people and ordinary soldiers.
Over time, the term “mentality” has shifted from the scientific community to the field of journalism and is considered both an individual and a collective trait, but the first always stems from the second.
Modern understanding
What is the mentality in today's interpretation? Sociologists define it as a special form of mental activity that allows you to realize the world around us, social phenomena.
It is formed in the process of processing social experience, which is produced by both individual and collective consciousness. The mentality expresses the values demanded by one or another collective formation and having a great influence on relations and communications in society.
This concept reflects the underlying processes taking place in the collective and individual consciousness and in the field of the unconscious, as a result of which concrete stable attitudes and ideas are created that reflect the special views characteristic of particular social groups. Having formed, they are a guideline in the social behavior of people.
Briefly about human consciousness
For a deeper understanding of what mentality is, it would be advisable to briefly consider the concepts of the conscious and unconscious in the human psyche.
Consciousness is one of the most difficult objects to study, since it is impossible to perceive it with feelings. However, no one doubts that it exists and is characterized by a special being - mental and spiritual. Today, there are two views on its essence - materialistic and idealistic.
According to the first, consciousness is a product of “thinking” matter, an instrument of brain activity that helps reflect and comprehend the surrounding world. According to the second, only consciousness is reality, and the rest of the world is just an illusion.
Scientific is the first point of view that divides consciousness into the individual (the inner world of the individual) and the public. The second includes: science, politics, law, religion, morality.
And also consciousness is divided into the ordinary, which is based on life experience and common sense, and scientific, which is systematized, based on a theoretical foundation and tested practice. That is, it necessarily contains a clear understanding, analysis and conclusions.
Area of the unconscious
The unconscious is understood as a complex of mental states and processes that occur in addition to consciousness, in addition to logic. In their functioning, a person does not realize any report. This concept, as applied to one person, was introduced into science in the 20th century by Sigmund Freud, a psychologist and psychiatrist from Austria.
According to the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, in addition to the unconscious of each individual, there is a collective one. It contains archetypes - unconscious images that are common to all people. They find their manifestation in fairy tales, parables, proverbs and sayings, myths and legends in which patterns of behavior are formed in various situations. From childhood, these patterns are assimilated by people, and in subsequent years of their life they are reproduced in activity in an unconscious mode.
What is the mentality
From the foregoing, we can conclude that the mentality is formed through the unconscious, it does not have clear boundaries and forms. In addition to the indicated elements of folk art, its source is representations of the elite strata of society, developing political ideals, values, stereotypes and other phenomena of public consciousness.
Gradually, a dogmatic program is formed in social groups - a mentality that determines a certain susceptibility of a people, nation, class to one or another type of ideology, political values, and cultural norms.
There are several types of mentality, depending on the political, historical and social approaches. These are its varieties such as aristocratic and slavish, lordly and peasant, bourgeois and proletarian, elite and mass, democratic and bureaucratic.
Moreover, there is always a dominant type of mentality that ensures continuity in politics, the unity of the nation, traditions, ideals and values. The mentality features are a long period of its formation, stability and complexity in the formation of qualitative changes.
Russian mentality according to I. I. Ilyin
As for the Russian mentality, the Russian philosopher and publicist, whose activities fell on the first half of the 20th century, Ilyin Ivan Alexandrovich, spoke very well about him. He wrote that Russian culture primarily rests on the heart and feelings, on contemplation, on freedom of conscience. They are followed by will, legal consciousness, conscious thought.
Thus, the Russian people are a people of conscience and heart. And in this sequence lies the source of all its advantages and disadvantages. In contrast to Westerners, Russian nature is based on kindness and daydreaming, patience, dignity and simplicity. Having given such a characterization to the Russian mentality, Ilyin fully revealed its deep essence.
V. S. Barulin on Russian patience
The well-known Soviet and Russian philosopher Barulin Vladimir Semenovich also wrote about what the mentality of a Russian person is, how it was formed. He believed that the Russian mentality took shape over many centuries and had a double effect on the people. On the one hand, it is positive and constructive, and on the other, it is destructive and destructive.
With particular vividness, destructiveness manifested itself in a choice made in 1917. Due to the establishment of the priority of the state-party dictatorship in the mentality of the people, a complex of patience, a charismatic leader and the priority of power developed. Thus, the values that concern not individual self-realization, but the socio-social principle came to the fore.