Consciousness & Coma Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Consciousness & Coma - Research Paper Example The words ‘consciousness’ and ‘coma’ are two different states of mind. If defined from a broader perspective, consciousness is the state of awareness of the self and coma is the state of complete unawareness. Psychologically ‘consciousness’ is deep rooted in man’s thought structure and his response to the surrounding. The faculty of the mind undergoes a subjective experience stimulating his senses. In the field of medicine, consciousness is determined by a patient’s response to medication and physical activities. Psychologically ‘coma’  is  the unconsciousness of the mind unable to perceive his own state and an unwilling suspension of the thought structure of the mind. To a doctor it is the patient’s nervous breakdown and retarding movement of the body and the mind due to any brain injury caused by a shock or accident. More specifically the patients in the situation of Coma tend to respond in a different man ner than as normal patients. The patients in the situation of Coma are found to communicate to the external world through some reflex movements of the body muscles. Coma patients are observed to make their muscle tendons stiff enough as to render some communicative signals to the outer world. This type of non-verbal communication patterns emerges from the patient’s increased involvement with the inner consciousness, which causes the happening of reflexive actions (Tomandl & Jacob, n.d.) The interplay between the conscious state of mind and the surroundings determine the consequences faced by the comatose patient. In order to understand the connection between the state of coma and consciousness it is important to identify the various states of the conscious human mind. The psychiatrists also deal with this joint study of consciousness and coma. Psychologists are interpreting these in various ways. Both the terms define opposite