introspection

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n.

Contemplation of one's own thoughts, feelings, and sensations; self-examination.

introspectional in'tro·spec'tion·al adj.

Looking into one's own mind, to find what one thinks and feels. The idea that this process is rather like that of perception, only turned inwards, is rejected by most current philosophers of mind. Instead of perceiving what one thinks and feels, the process is probably better thought of in terms of wondering what to say, or rehearsing a narrative that could be made public: ‘How do I know what I think until I hear what I say?’ Introspection was a particular target of behaviourism in psychology, but the opposition may have been misconceived, since making reports of one's mental life is itself a piece of behaviour, and one that can be studied as objectively as any other. See heterophenomenology.

The process of looking inward and describing one's own experiences.

The etymology of the term introspection gives a clear indication of its meaning: the mental activity of a subject who is attentive to her/his own psychic processes (who looks inside).

Late nineteenth-century psychologists (Alfred Binet in France, the Würzburg school in Germany, Edward Bradford Tiltchener in the United States, to name but a few) considered introspection to be the sovereign method until its throne was usurped by objectivism and behaviorism.

The word has had a bad press in psychoanalysis. However, psychoanalysis was born from just such an effort at self-observation, with Freud's self-analysis (Anzieu). Unlike introspection, however, which focuses only on conscious processes, that self-analysis opened the way for the "Freudian revolution" (Robert): Freud's discovery, below the conscious level, of wishes and the obstacles in their way, of the roundabout processes such wishes use to achieve fulfill-ment—in a word, the unconscious.

Introspection should be clearly distinguished from the "capacity for insight," the patient's ability in the course of treatment to experience his or her own psychic dynamics in a new way—a major feature of the psychoanalytic approach (Blacker).

Bibliography

Anzieu, Didier. (1986). Freud's self-analysis (Peter Graham, Trans.). London: Hogarth and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. (Original work published 1975)

Blacker, Kay Hill. (1981). Insight (panel). Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 29, 659-672.

Robert, Marthe. (1964). La Révolution freudienne. Paris: Payot.

—ROGER PERRON

Looking into one's own mind. Used as a psychological technique it has great dangers of misinterpretation, even though introspections may seem to provide the most direct knowledge of ourselves that we have. It has, however, become clear that very little that goes on in the brain associated with the mind is accessible to conscious introspection, and we regard the mind as a much broader concept than awareness, conciousness, or what is known by introspection.

(Published 1987)

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Quotes:

"What is interesting about self-analysis is that it leads nowhere -- it is an art form in itself." - Anita Brookner

"But when the self speaks to the self, who is speaking? The entombed soul, the spirit driven in, in, in to the central catacomb; the self that took the veil and left the world -- a coward perhaps, yet somehow beautiful, as it flits with its lantern restlessly up and down the dark corridors." - Virginia Woolf

"One receives as reward for much ennui, despondency, boredom --such as a solitude without friends, books, duties, passions must bring with it --those quarter-hours of profoundest contemplation within oneself and nature. He who completely entrenches himself against boredom also entrenches himself against himself: he will never get to drink the strongest refreshing draught from his own innermost fountain." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"The mind can weave itself warmly in the cocoon of its own thoughts, and dwell a hermit anywhere." - James Russell Lowell

"The terrible fluidity of self-revelation." - Henry James

"The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings. If he loves, it is not to give himself, to blend in fecund union with another being, but to meditate on his love. His passions are mere appearances, being sterile. They are dissipated in futile imaginings, producing nothing external to themselves." - Emile Durkheim

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - navlebeskuelse, selvanalyse, introspektion

Nederlands (Dutch)
introspectie, zelfbeschouwing

Français (French)
n. - introspection

Deutsch (German)
n. - Selbstbeobachtung, Introspektion

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ενδοσκόπηση

Italiano (Italian)
introspezione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - introspecção (f)

Русский (Russian)
самоанализ

Español (Spanish)
n. - introspección

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - introspektion (psykol.), själviakttagelse

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
内省, 自省, 反省

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 內省, 自省, 反省

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 내성 , 자기반성

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 自己を見つめること, 内観, 内省

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الاستبطان : فحص المرء أفكاره ودوافعه ومشاعره‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮הסתכלות פנימית, אינטרוספקציה, התבוננות נפשית עצמית‬

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