Russell (1921) Recent criticisms of "consciousness"

Since psychotics have disordered thoughts and out-of-whack belief system, a question I did not know that I had:.What exact is a belief and what does it mean to believe in something? Also, what's the relationship between my belief and my disordered thoughts?

In the next few posts, I shall share with you the notes I take after reviewing belief-related writing.  BTW, I don't have any background in philosophy and much of the content I come across will be simply new ideas to me.

Russell, B. (1921). Recent criticisms of "consciousness" The Analysis of Mind. London: G. Allen & Unwin.

"We may end our preliminary catalogue with belief, by which I mean that way of being conscious which may be either true or false." (P. 13)

Though I prefer to think not, I think the following is a beautiful paragraph

" thinking, however it is to be analysed, is in itself a delightful occupation, and that there is no enemy to thinking so deadly as a false simplicity. Travelling, whether in the mental or the physical world, is a joy, and it is good to know that, in the mental world at least, there are vast countries still very imperfectly explored." (p. 16)

Since I am so very confused about what thinking means, let along what belief is, I find comfort in "I breathe" appearing in the Russell's direct quote of William James. lol

"I am as confident as I am of anything that, in myself, the stream of thinking (which I recognize emphatically as a phenomenon) is only a careless name for what, when scrutinized, reveals itself to consist chiefly of the stream of my breathing. The 'I think' which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the 'I breathe' which actually does accompany them" (pp. 24).

So this is what psychotics were called... the insane.  Though, to date, insanity is a legal term.

"it has been found that there is much in the lives of ordinary men and woman who bears a humiliating resemblance to the delusions of the insane." (p. 33)

When speaking of the unconscious and desire...

"The resulting delusions in very many cases disappear if the hysteric or lunatic can be made to face the facts about himself." (p. 34)

It surely is possible that I am not yet 100% true to myself and this is why symptoms remain.

I love Russell's description on what "unconscious" is like...

"Thus "the unconscious" becomes a sort of underground prisoner, living in a dungeon, breaking in at long intervals upon our daylight respectability with dark groans and maledictions and strange atavistic lusts. The ordinary reader, almost inevitably, thinks of this underground person as another consciousness, prevented by what Freud calls the "censor" from making his voice heard in company, except on rare and dreadful occasions when he shouts so loud that every one hears him and there is a scandal." (p. 37-38)