Understanding Intellect — the first-year Psychology chapter on thinking and intelligence

You walk into a room and forget why you came. You read a page three times and nothing stays. You solve a hard problem on the bus and feel your mind click. Attention, memory, thinking. You use them every minute of every day. This chapter asks what they are.

The NCH syllabus gives this as chapter five of Fundamentals of Psychology in relation to Homoeopathy (HomUG-FPH). Its full title is “Understanding Intellect: Attention, memory and its function and expression in Repertory and Materia Medica”. The sheet lists six topics.

First, a gap to know about

Read the title again. It names attention and memory. Now read the six topic lines below. Neither word appears in them. The topics are about thinking and intelligence.

This piece does not guess what the missing lines would say. It tells you plainly, so it does not catch you out. Your textbook and your teachers will say how much of attention and memory they cover under this chapter. Ask early.

One more place helps. The first-year Repertory syllabus has a topic on “Rubrics related to emotions, intellect and memory in Mind chapter of Dr. Kent’s Repertory”. So memory is named on the sheet, in the Repertory paper, next to intellect.

Topics one and two: thinking

• “Basic concepts of Thinking”
• “Definition of Thinking and its types”

“Intellect” means the power of the mind to think, understand and reason. Thinking is that power at work.

The first topic asks for the basic ideas. The second asks for a definition and the types. Notice that chapter two had a topic with exactly the same words: “Definition of Thinking and its types”. The sheet repeats it here. You can use the same notes for both chapters, and add depth here.

Topic three: intelligence

“Intelligence and its measurement”.

Intelligence is the ability to learn, understand, reason and solve problems. People have tried for a long time to measure it. This topic asks how that is done. Your textbook will describe the tests and how their scores are worked out. It will also say what those tests can and cannot tell you. Learn that second part as carefully as the first.

Topic four: effects on mind and body

“Effects of Thinking / Thought (Cognition) on Mind and Body”.

“Cognition” means thinking and knowing. You met the word in chapter two. This topic asks how the way we think affects both the mind and the body. A worried thought can keep you awake. A calm one can help you settle. Your textbook will give the theory behind such links.

Topics five and six: thinking in the books

• “Representation of Thinking / Thought (Cognition) in Materia Medica”
• “Representation of Thinking / Thought in Repertory”

Materia Medica describes homoeopathic medicines one by one. Repertory is the index of symptoms that homoeopaths search. A rubric is one heading in that index.

Both books record changes in thinking, as well as physical complaints. The Repertory syllabus line quoted above shows where to look: the Mind chapter of Kent’s Repertory. The sheet names no medicine and no rubric in this chapter. Your Materia Medica and Repertory teachers will show you examples.

A bridge to Physiology

First-year Physiology has a topic called “Higher intellectual function” in its Central Nervous System chapter. It asks how the brain supports thinking, learning and memory. That chapter also covers sleep. This chapter asks what those same abilities mean for the person. Study the two side by side. One is about the brain. The other is about the mind.

How the chapter sits in the year

This is chapter five. Chapter two gave you the three parts of the mind: thought, feeling and behaviour. Chapter three took behaviour and chapter four took feeling. This chapter takes thought. After it, the paper moves on to motivation, learning, growth, personality and conflict.

What to take from it

1. Know the gap: the title names attention and memory, but the topics do not.
2. Define intellect and thinking, and know the types of thinking.
3. Explain how intelligence is measured, and the limits of those tests.
4. Describe how thinking affects mind and body.
5. Know that Materia Medica and Repertory both record the intellect.

The sheet is thin, and in one place it does not match its own title. The definitions, the tests and the examples come from your textbook and your teachers.

Where to go next on the platform

This piece sits in the first-year Psychology room. “Understanding Emotion — the first-year Psychology chapter on feeling, in mind, body and the books” comes just before it. “Central Nervous System — the first-year Physiology chapter on the brain and spinal cord at work” covers higher intellectual function. “Psychology in the First Year — the study of mind, for homoeopaths” gives the map of the whole paper.