Traditionally, the term “Mentality” signifies a world view or perception of environment related to a person, community, a whole nation, ethnos or an epoch. Generally, it’s correct, but when we talk about individual’s mentality, we talk about his or her way of thinking, feeling and activity. However “way of thinking” does not mean WHAT I think, feel or do, it means HOW it occurs in my conscience and in my reality, the manner in which I do everything in my life. Therefore «the way» is not a content of an activity but the mode of action.
What does “the way of activity” mean? In this case the term has subject matter that is different from conventional one. It is not about techniques, technologies and other means of life activity but their bases. In other words, this is not exactly what I do or feel and not about what instruments and means I use for it. But in this case mentality is the basis which determines and presets a content and means of my activity, my choice of one or another content and mean. Let’s call this basis a mental mindset.
The majority of mental mindsets is our core values, principles and beliefs that dictates the choice of all our activity (theoretical and practical), inferences, estimations of reality, reasoning, existence, our life. The mental mindsets act as standards, templates, references, stereotypes or habits. Most of them are formed in our conscience in childhood and youth by surrounding (natural and cultural), by our perception, upbringing, education, reasoning and individual psychical processes. On this phase of person development the reasoning follows from reality and mentality becomes the reflection of this reality. But then generated image of reality, called mentality, becomes a filter which defines the way you see and perceive the reality and yourself in this reality. It means that your reality is now defined by your reasoning and follows from it.
This reversion causes some serious challenges. These mindsets are not only aprioristic, but also may be both conscious and unconscious, including repressed and latent in psychic. Generally, these mental mindsets have been formed before your present activity and have no reasonable ground. In this case some mental mindsets can be absolutely inappropriate in your present-day life what may result in local or full blocking or inefficiency of your activity.
Common person isn’t aware of his own mentality, its contents and bases on the whole, he can’t understand his own mental mindsets because the common person thinks about it within the limits of his mentality. And if there is no conscious of these mental mindsets, than there is no validation for accordance to desirable way of activity.
Nevertheless, undecided mental problems cause not only existential but also mental conflicts (problems in individual’s mentality), such as conflicts between different ways of thinking, feeling and activity of a person. In general terms mental problem is unresolved or insolvable conflict in the mind.
In modern life the scale of individual’s mentality problems is growing because of key processes, trends and prospects in our culture and civilization development.
As long as all human challenges are ultimately resulted by some mental bases or mindsets, mental changes have paramount importance. Mental techniques are not psychotherapy so they have fewer restrictions concerning its usage. Mental changes have pronounced educational, personal growth effect and psychotherapeutic effects as well.
Mental approach has some advantages compared to psychotherapy (including existential psychotherapy). The dialog in individual’s mental sphere takes less time, has deeper effect, induces fewer emotions and affects. The point is that the techniques address to mental mindsets behind the personal life experience not to this experience or feelings caused by it. Therefore, mentology operates in sphere, different from psychology, because psychology has no instruments to operate in sphere of mentality. Psychologist addresses to symptoms and influences on them to remove these symptoms and return and adapt the person to a social life. Mentologist doesn’t perform any alterations in person psyche or consciousness, but builds up a special space where these alterations become possible and provides a specific “tool set” to operate with an individual’s mentality for such kind of alterations.
In conclusion, mentality as a phenomenon lies outside of the intellectual sphere but it is an existential entity in every sense of the word. Existence determines mentality and mentality determines existence. It means that individual’s mentality presets the whole complex of personal existence characteristics and all difficulties in life are mental problems or have mental mindsets in their basis.