Abstraction

ABSTRACTION (from Latin abstrahere - to detach), a complex psychic process by means of which we detach from a series of concrete perceptions their individual features and create abstract (general) concepts. Abstraction is an important instrument of thought. The primitive psyche is characterized by very weak development of abstraction; thus, a child perceives things as whole concrete images and cannot isolate from them individual particular features; on the other hand, he is unable to create a general concept about the essential features of a series of observations from observation of a series of phenomena, and is helpless where it is necessary to detach from the less valuable in this or that case concrete features, e.g., a child who can correctly count his own fingers is unable to indicate the number of fingers of another person, or, being able to determine his own right hand, cannot, however, determine the right side of some object (Piaget). Phenomena of a similar character are observed in imbeciles and in organic brain injuries; such patients cannot, for example, choose items similar to the one shown in color, without each time applying the sought item to the given one and comparing their concrete identity; sometimes they are unable to classify objects by their form, whereas classification by color succeeds. The study of such deficiencies in the process of abstraction thus acquires diagnostic significance. Insufficiency of abstraction is also observed in the primitive thinking of savages. Thus, it is known that in some primitive languages there is no word to denote a cow, although there are special words to denote a black cow, a white cow, a red cow, etc.; in the language of the Indians of North America there is no general word "to eat," but there are words with concrete meaning: to eat bread, to eat meat, to eat fruits, etc. Apparently, abstraction is a process that appeared late in the history of the development of psychic functions.