The Mental Grounds for the Emergence of Objective Mental Reality
Objective Mental Reality- The 'Dark Matter' of the Social Sciences January 1, 2026 Sergey Ernestovich Polyakov
Mental reality is built from a hierarchy of progressively more complex phenomena, beginning with sensation and advancing through mental images, sensory mental constructions (integrative representations), notions (word-images with symbolic meaning), and finally verbal constructions capable of representing abstract entities. The primary outcome of the psyche is not merely creating complex mental structures but forming entities—physical, social, and mental—in the world. Verbal images differ from other mental images by acquiring symbolic significance, making them symbols of designated entities. Externalizing notions and verbal constructions as linguistic expressions allows transmission to others who share the language, serving as a mode of existence and expression of human reason.