Instinct Health Dictionary

A psychoanalytical term to describe that part of the mind which develops as a result of the individual’s interactions with the outside world. Freud (see FREUDIAN THEORY) describes the Ego as reconciling the demands of the Id (a person’s unconscious, instinctive mind), the Superego (moral conscience) and the reality of the outside world.... ego

Inhibition means arrest or restraint of some process e?ected by nervous in?uence. The term is applied to the action of certain inhibitory nerves: for example, the vagus nerve which contains ?bres that inhibit or control the action of the heart. The term is also applied generally to the mental processes by which instinctive but undesirable actions are checked by a process of self-control.... inhibition

A circular, complex system of NERVE pathways in the middle of the BRAIN. This connected cluster of neuronal nuclei is involved in the working of the AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM, helping to control the expression of instinct and mood in activities of the motor systems and the ENDOCRINE GLANDS of the body. The brain regions involved include the amygdala (an almond-shaped basal ganglion deep in each cerebral hemisphere), and the HYPOTHALAMUS. If the limbic system is impaired by injury or disease, the person may suffer abnormal emotional responses such as unprovoked rage, unreasonable fear and anxiety, depression, greater-than-normal sexual interest, and crying or laughing for no good reason.... limbic system

Instinctive closing of the eyelids when the surface of the cornea (see EYE) is lightly touched with a ?ne hair.... corneal reflex

Mental arousal that the individual may ?nd enjoyable or unpleasant. The three components are subjective, physiological and behavioural. The instinctive fear and ?ee response in animals comprises physiological reaction – raised heart rate, pallor and sweating – to an unpleasant event or stimulus. The loving relationship between mother and child is another wellrecognised emotional event. If this emotional bond is absent or inadequate, the child may suffer emotional deprivation, which can be the trigger for behavioural problems ranging from attention-craving to aggression. Emotional problems are common in human society, covering a wide spectrum of psychological disturbances. Upbringing, relationships or psychiatric illnesses such as anxiety and DEPRESSION may all contribute to the development of emotional problems (see MENTAL ILLNESS).... emotion

A craving for food or other substance necessary to bodily activity. Hunger for food is supposed to be directly produced by strong contractions of the stomach which occur when it is empty, or nearly so. (See also THIRST.)

Air hunger is an instinctive craving for oxygen resulting in breathlessness, either when a person ascends to great heights where the pressure of air is low, or in some diseases such as pneumonia and DIABETES MELLITUS which affect the body’s METABOLISM and therefore its need for oxygen – an essential constituent in this process.... hunger

A vague term applied to a person of nervous temperament, whose actions are largely determined by emotions or instincts rather than by reason.... neurotic

The term applied to the theories and practice of the school of psychology originating with Freud and developed by Jung and other psychotherapists (see PSYCHOLOGY). It depends upon the theory that states of disordered mental health have been produced by a repression in the subconscious of painful memories or of con?icting instincts, thus absorbing the individual’s mental energy and diverting attention from normal mental activities.

Psychoanalysis aims at discovering these repressed memories, which are responsible for the diversion of mental power and of which the affected person usually is only dimly aware or quite unaware. The fundamental method of psychoanalytical treatment is the free expression of thoughts, ideas and fantasies on the part of the patient. To facilitate this, the analyst uses techniques to relax the patient and maintains a neutral attitude to his or her problems. In the course of analysis the patient will re-explore his or her early emotional attitudes and tensions.

The fundamental conception of psychoanalysis, although hard to prove by orthodox scienti?c methods and therefore challenged by some psychiatrists, has been widely adopted and developed by other schools of psychology. Freud’s work changed the attitudes of the scienti?c community and the public to the problems of the neurotic, the morbidly anxious, the fearful and to the mental and emotional develoment of the child.... psychoanalysis

The conversion of a solid substance into a vapour and its recondensation. The term is also used in a mental sense for the process of converting instinctive sexual desires to new aims and objects devoid of sexual signi?cance.... sublimation

The process of imagining objects or events that are not actually occurring or present. The term also refers to the mental image. Fantasy can give the illusion that wishes have been met. In this sense, it provides satisfaction and can be a means of helping people to cope when reality becomes too unpleasant. Fantasy can also stimulate creativity. Psychoanalysts believe that some fantasies are unconscious and represent primitive instincts; these fantasies are presented to the conscious mind in symbols.... fantasy

(in Jungian psychology) structures of the unconscious mind shared by all humans. Jung considered the collective unconscious to exist collectively amongst humans in addition to the personal unconscious mind postulated by Freud. He argued that the collective unconscious, populated by instincts and *archetypes, had a profound influence on the lives of individuals through symbols, rituals, and shared narratives.... collective unconscious

n. (in psychiatry) the expression of *conflict as physical symptoms. Psychoanalysts believe that the repressed instinctual drive is manifested as motor or sensory loss, such as paralysis, rather than as speech or action. This is thought to be one of the ways in which *conversion disorder is produced. An easier way to conceptualize conversion is as a physical expression of emotional distress.... conversion

This extensive, complex and ?nely tuned network of billions of specialised cells called neurones (see NEURON(E)) is responsible for maintaining the body’s contacts with and responses to the outside world. The network also provides internal communication links – in concert with HORMONES, the body’s chemical messengers – between the body’s diverse organs and tissues, and, importantly, the BRAIN stores relevant information as memory. Each neurone has a ?lamentous process of varying length called an AXON along which passes messages in the form of electrochemically generated impulses. Axons are bundled together to form nerves (see NERVE).

The nervous system can be likened to a computer. The central processing unit – which receives, processes and stores information and initiates instructions for bodily activities – is called the central nervous system: this is made up of the brain and SPINAL CORD. The peripheral nervous system – synonymous with the cables that transmit information to and from a computer’s processing unit – has two parts: sensory and motor. The former collects information from the body’s many sense organs. These respond to touch, temperature, pain, position, smells, sounds and visual images and the information is signalled to the brain via the sensory nerves. When information has been processed centrally, the brain and spinal cord send instructions for action via motor nerves to the ‘voluntary’ muscles controlling movements and speech, to the ‘involuntary’ muscles that operate the internal organs such as the heart and intestines, and to the various glands, including the sweat glands in the skin. (Details of the 12 pairs of cranial nerves and the 31 pairs of nerves emanating from the spinal cord are given in respective texts on brain and spinal cord.)

Functional divisions of nervous system As well as the nervous system’s anatomical divisions, the system is divided functionally, into autonomic and somatic parts. The autonomic nervous system, which is split into sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions, deals with the automatic or unconscious control of internal bodily activities such as heartbeat, muscular status of blood vessels, digestion and glandular functions. The somatic system is responsible for the skeletal (voluntary) muscles (see MUSCLE) which carry out intended movements initiated by the brain – for example, the activation of limbs, tongue, vocal cords (speech), anal muscles (defaecation), urethral sphincters (urination) or vaginal muscles (childbirth). In addition, many survival responses – the most powerfully instinctive animal drives, which range from avoiding danger and pain to shivering when cold or sweating when hot – are initiated unconsciously and automatically by the nervous system using the appropriate neural pathways to achieve the particular survival reaction required.

The complex functions of the nervous system include the ability to experience emotions, such as excitement and pleasure, anxiety and frustration, and to undertake intellectual activities. For these experiences an individual can utilise many built-in neurological programmes and he or she can enhance performance through learning – a vital human function that depends on MEMORY, a three stage-process in the brain of registration, storage and recall. The various anatomical and functional divisions of the nervous system that have been unravelled as science has strived to explain how it works may seem confusing. In practical terms, the nervous system works mainly by using automatic or relex reactions (see REFLEX ACTION) to various stimuli (described above), supplemented by voluntary actions triggered by the activity of the conscious (higher) areas of the brain. Some higher functions crucial to human activity – for example, visual perception, thought, memory and speech – are complex and subtle, and the mechanisms are not yet fully understood. But all these complex activities rest on the foundation of relatively simple electrochemical transmissions of impulses through the massive network of billions of specialised cells, the neurones.... nervous system

A psychological rather than physical method for the treatment of psychological and psychiatric disorders (see PSYCHOLOGY; PSYCHIATRY). Almost every type of disease or injury has a mental aspect, even if this relates only to the pain or discomfort that it causes. In some diseases, and with some temperaments, the mental factor is much more pronounced than in others; for such cases psychotherapy is particularly important. The chief methods employed all depend on the client-therapist relationship being of prime importance.

Suggestion is a commonly employed method, used in almost every department of medicine. It may consist, in its simplest form, merely of emphasising that the patient’s health is better, so that this idea becomes ?xed in the patient’s mind. A suggestion of e?cacy may be conveyed by the physical properties of a medicine or by the appearance of some apparatus used in treatment. Again, suggestion may be conveyed emotionally, as in religious healing. Sometimes a therapeutic suggestion may be made to the patient in a hypnotic state (see HYPNOTISM).

Analysis consists in the elucidation of the half-conscious or subconscious repressed memories or instincts that are responsible for some cases of mental disorder or personal con?icts.

Group therapy is a method whereby patients are treated in small groups and encouraged to participate actively in the discussion which ensues amongst themselves and the participating therapists. A modi?cation of group therapy is drama therapy. Large group therapy also exists.

Education and employment may be important factors in rehabilitative psychotherapy.

Supportive therapy consists of sympathetically reviewing the patient’s situation with him or her, and encouraging the patient to identify and solve problems.... psychotherapy

utilizing therapies on the basis of clinical studies of their effectiveness, rather than instinct or personal experience.... evidence-based medicine

a curved band of cortex lying within each cerebral hemisphere: in evolutionary terms one of the brain’s most primitive parts. It forms a portion of the *limbic system and is involved in the complex physical aspects of behaviour governed by emotion and instinct.... hippocampal formation

n. (in psychoanalysis) a part of the unconscious mind governed by the instinctive forces of *libido and the death instinct (governing aggression, etc.). These violent forces seek immediate release in action or in symbolic form. The id is therefore said to be governed by the pleasure principle and not by the demands of reality or of logic. In the course of individual development some of the functions of the id are taken over by the *ego.... id

This is carried out by closing the mouth, holding the nose and attempting to blow hard. The manoeuvre raises pressure in the chest – and, indirectly, the abdomen – and forces air from the back of the nose down the EUSTACHIAN TUBES to the middle ear. This latter e?ect can be used to clear the tube during descent in an aircraft, when it sometimes becomes blocked or partially blocked, producing di?erential pressures on the two sides of each eardrum, usually accompanied by temporary pain and deafness.

Valsalva’s manoeuvre is involuntarily performed when a person strains to open his or her bowels: in these circumstances the passage of air to the lungs is blocked by instinctive closure of the vocal cords in the LARYNX. The resultant raised abdominal pressure helps to expel the bowel contents. The manoeuvre is also used in the study of cardiovascular physiology because the rise in pressure in the chest restricts the return of venous blood to the right atrium of the HEART. Pressure in the peripheral VEINS is raised and the amount of blood entering and leaving the heart falls. This drop in cardiac output may cause the subject to faint because the supply of oxygenated blood to the brain is reduced.... valsalva’s manoeuvre

Twitch. Triticum repens. Agropyron repens (Beauvais). German: Quecke. French: Chiendent. Spanish: Grama. Italian: Caprinella. Dried or fresh rhizome.

Constituents: volatile oil, Vitamin A.

Keynote: bladder and kidneys. This is the grass to which a dog is said to go instinctively when sick, hence its name – dog grass.

Action: Soothing demulcent diuretic for simple inflammation of the urinary tract. Uric acid solvent. Laxative. Urinary antiseptic. Nutritive, emollient. Anti-cholesterol.

Uses: Cystitis, nephritis, urethritis, painful and incontinent urination, liver disorder, renal colic, kidney stone, gravel, gout, rheumatism, backache. Reduction of blood cholesterol. Chronic skin disorders.

Combines with Hydrangea (equal parts) for prostatitis.

Herbal tea for kidneys and bladder: Couchgrass 15 per cent; Buchu 15 per cent; Wild Carrot 15 per cent; Bearsfoot 15 per cent; Alfalfa 45 per cent. 2 teaspoons to each cup water, gently simmer 5 minutes. Half-2 cups thrice daily.

Preparations: Thrice daily.

Decoction. 2-3 teaspoons to each cup water, gently simmer 5 minutes. 1-2 cups.

Liquid Extract BHP (1983) 1:1 in 25 per cent alcohol. Dose: 4-8ml.

Tincture BHP (1983) 1:5 in 40 per cent alcohol. Dose: 5-15ml (1-3 teaspoons).

Powder. 250mg in capsules; 3 capsules thrice daily. (Arkocaps)

Kasbah remedy. Alpine herb teabags.

Antitis tablets (Potter’s) ... couch grass

A rare, inherited condition in which the skin is dry, thickened, scaly, and darker than normal due to abnormal production of keratin. It usually appears at or shortly after birth and improves during childhood. Commonly affected areas are the thighs, arms, and backs of the hands. Lubricants, emulsifying ointments, and bath oils are helpful. icterus A term for jaundice. ICSI See intracytoplasmic sperm injection. id One of the 3 parts of the personality (together with the ego and superego) described by Sigmund Freud. The id is the primitive, unconscious energy store from which come the instincts for food, love, sex, and other basic needs. The id seeks simply to gain pleasure and avoid pain. (See also psychoanalytic theory.)... ichthyosis

n. 1. (in psychoanalytic theory) the life instinct or, specifically, the sexual instinct. The libido (like the death instinct) is said to be one of the fundamental sources of energy for all mental life. 2. sexual desire. Reduced or low libido may be caused by psychological or physical factors, or by mental illnesses, such as depression.... libido