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One of the questions Professor Grobstein posed during class is, “Can the I-function be aware of something and yet incapable of influencing it?” This reminded me of the example someone gave in class about watching oneself lock one’s keys in the car and yet not fully “realizing” until the door has already slammed shut. This speaks to the limits of our perceptual abilities. If one’s I-function is thinking about something else, like daydreaming to use Jackie’s example, then one cannot simultaneously use one’s I-function to remove the keys from the ignition. In terms of psychiatric “illness,” I wonder if in certain circumstances, the I-function is somehow relegated to an observer’s position. Or else, where do feelings of helplessness and hopelessness stem? Is it a “choice” to stir oneself from such a state once the I-function has been made aware? Or is the I-function simply unable to mediate at all times? In what cases can the I-function mediate? Do humans have varying perceptual abilities? If one is made more aware of one’s surroundings, does one’s perception change?

Angel brought up the mind-body medicine philosophy, which makes even more sense in the context of the inextricable link between mind and body we have been discussing in class. If sight, pain, etc. are an interplay between mind and body, are the limits we experience self-imposed limits? Do hope and optimism as states of mind change our perceptions? Do we “see” the world through a pre-determined (genetic) set of lenses or do we have the “power” to shape our perceptions by involving our I-function consciously?

In terms of dreaming, how is that, at times, we are able to wake ourselves from dreams? Sometimes dreaming is like watching a movie of one’s own life and when there is a scary or dissatisfying part, one can get up and leave the theater (or in this case wake oneself up). Is there a way to involve the I-function more? Would that make us more or less aware? Dreams, also, at times, are cryptic and full of symbolism and fragments of our unconscious intertwined, if we were more attuned to our dreams, would our perceptions be enhanced, or does the I-function have no role in the unconscious?