Introduction

the flow of human experience

Kenneth S. Pope

Jerome L. Singer

pp. 1-6

in: Kenneth S. Pope, Jerome L. Singer (eds), The stream of consciousness, Berlin, Springer, 1978

Abstract

The stream of consciousness—that flow of perceptions, purposeful thoughts, fragmentary images, distant recollections, bodily sensations, emotions, plans, wishes, and impossible fantasies—is our experience of life, our own personal life, from its beginning to its end. As scientists, we may approach the subject for the joy of discovering how it works. As clinicians, therapists, and social engineers, we may study it in order to reduce human suffering. But simply as people, we are drawn to it precisely because it is that portion of our being at once most familiar and most mysterious.