Definition of cerebral control

We can define cerebral control as an inherent faculty of normal persons to balance the functions of the conscious and subconscious parts of the brain. By normal cerebral balance we mean that each sensation, impression or idea can be controlled by reason, judgment and willpower, i.e. that it can be judged, modified or rejected.

This faculty is partly unconscious in normal persons; they maywell have the feeling of being in control, but the mechanism whereby this control is exercised is completely ignored. Persons who are ill have a more accurate perception of what is going on, since they feel that they are lacking something, and this “something” is cerebral control.

So the function of the faculty of cerebral control is to “regulate” each idea, each sensation that we experience. In some cases it acts as a brake, in others as a regulator, adjusting our psychological functions, and even (as we will see later on) the physiological functions of our brain: it influences action just as much as it influences ideas.

In normal persons, control is automatic - it intervenes on its own, without the person having to make any conscious effort of will. In addition, it develops progressively in accordance with age and education.

We can thus conclude that it is a natural and inherent part of every balanced human being. This faculty dominates an individual’s entire life, and we could even state that any person who lacks control is “sick” (of course weare not referring to cases where control is momentarily not exercised, as for example when persons become angry).

So this is our definition of what control should be. It will now be easier for you to understand what happens when an individual completely loses his or her faculty of control.