Psychology of Mind (POM)

Psychology of Mind (POM) Psychology of Mind (POM) is a new psychological theory derived from the work of Banks (1983, 1989); Mills (1990a,b, 1993); Mills & Pransky (1993); Suarez (1985); Suarez & Mills (1982); and Suarez, Mills, & Stewart (1987). In a recent article (Kelley, 1990), the author described the principles of Psychology of Mind and revealed how virtually all forms of delinquent and criminal behavior could be explained using the logic of these principles. In additional writings (Kelley, 1993a,b,c), the author applied these same principles to prevention and early intervention programs with at-risk youth and suggested how an accurate understanding of POM could advance the field of criminology. Since these writings, the distinctions of Psychology of Mind have been clarified and simplified into three major principles: Mind, Consciousness, and Thought (Mills & Pransky, 1993). The present paper first describes the refined principles of POM and shows how their logical interaction can help explain the comparative amounts of both deviant and conforming behavior engaged in by youthful offenders.(1) Then the logic of these principles is used to examine the major assumptions of social bonding and control theory of delinquency focusing predominantly on the formulations of Walter Reckless (1956) and Travis Hirschi (1969). The Principle of Mind According to POM, mind is the source of an offender's thinking (how he interprets life), his emotions (how he feels about life), his perceptions (how things look to him), and his ability to experience his world through his senses. Practically speaking, the mind, according to POM, works like a movie projector through which an offender's thoughts are projected from the inside out to form his moment-to-moment idiosyncratic experience of life. Mills and Pransky (1993) warn of the difficulty in grasping a complete understanding of mind: It is impossible to provide an easy-to-grasp description of the mind, because mind is the source of how things look to us. As such, it generates how we think about things. It operates before our thinking. Therefore, it is impossible to intellectually have a complete picture or accurate model of the mind. Such a model would be a product of the mind's workings (p. 5). Psychology of Mind defines an offender's mind as the neutral projector of all of his thoughts. POM proposes that, left to its own devices, each offender's mind is designed to work in a healthy way, operating as a neutral force toward innate mental health, which includes a natural wisdom, intelligence, intrinsic motivation, and high self-esteem. The Principle of Consciousness According to POM, consciousness is the offender's ability to be aware of external reality. Consciousness brings an offender's thoughts to life via his senses. Through consciousness, his thoughts are converted into his experience. Consciousness would be similar to the light in an activated movie projector. Thought creates images in an offender's head. Consciousness is the faculty or the power that makes these images appear real to his senses. The mind combines consciousness with thought to produce his ongoing moment-to-moment reality. Consciousness goes where an offender's thoughts go via his senses. It always brings to light what an offender is thinking. The Principle of Thought The power of consciousness would not exist without thought, or the offender's ability to think, sourced by the mind. In the POM paradigm, mind is a constant as the source of his thinking and experience. Consciousness is also a constant, as it brings to life whatever he is thinking. Thus, according to POM, the only variable in an offender's psychological functioning is thought. If mind is the projector, and consciousness the light, then thought represents the film which comes to life when the light shines through it. Psychology of Mind defines thought as an offender's ability to create images within his own head. For all human beings, including offenders, thinking, like breathing, is a natural life function. This continuous process of thought is the source of his changing experience of life from moment to moment. Unconditioned and Conditioned Thinking POM proposes two different and observable modes of thinking by which thoughts are generated and used by all offenders. These two distinct thought processes are called original or unconditioned thought, and reactive or conditioned thought. Original, or unconditioned thought is an innate, rational, and insightful thought process. It is also the source of positive change, high mental health, perspective, common sense, and understanding. Mills and Pransky (1993) describe their recognition of this thought process: From observing the ups and downs of our clients, we concluded that there are two noticeably different processes by which thoughts are generated and used. People at times exhibited a rational, common sense, insightful thought process. This natural flow of thoughts that occur to people and simply come and go, appeared to be virtually unnoticed by most people. In that thought process, people experience insights and practical ideas about their lives. They have perspective and an intelligence that leads to understanding. They take for granted the wisdom available to them. They might make the observation that they have "nothing on their mind" because their thinking is effortless and objective. This is the thought process we refer to as "original thought." Peoples' experiences from this original thought process will be fresh, impersonal, and interesting (p. 8). According to Psychology of Mind, the original or unconditioned thought process has generally been overlooked and unacknowledged by most researchers because it is innate and ordinary. However, according to POM, original thought represents the way an offender's mind was intended to work. When engaged in this thought process, the offender learns primarily by a process of insight and realization. Once something is understood, his mind will utilize the brain's information processing, storage and retrieval mechanisms, in an objective and functional manner to store learned information in memory for later use at an appropriate time and manner. When original thought predominates, the primary process of learning is unconditioned (by insight). Mills and Pransky (1993) describe the second process, which they refer to as reactive or conditioned thought: The other thinking process, when people are actively drawing on experience or memories or attempting to apply their conditioned learning to circumstances, is what people generally describe as "thought" because it is noticeable; it requires deliberate effort. In that thought process people are working to find understanding and solutions, but they are not assessing creative ideas, objectivity, or a clearer perspective, because they are focused on what they already know, on …