automatism

plural automatisms

1. uncountableAutomatic or involuntary action.

   1 more example

   The automatism of the primary constitution is such that previous experience and conscious effort are not needed; nor will any experience or any effort alter the mode of reaction. If a strong light falls on the eye, the iris contracts; if the eyeball is dry, the eyelid drops; if the soundwaves beat upon the tympanum, the stapedius muscle contracts; if the lining of the throat be tickled, the muscles involved in coughing or in vomiting contract. No experience is necessary for these actions[…]

   1877, George Henry Lewes, The Physical Basis of Mind, London: Trübner & Co., pages 329-330

2. uncountableThe power of initiating vital processes from within the cell, organ, or organism, independent of external stimulus.
3. uncountablehuman sciencesThe doctrine that all living beings are entirely controlled by physical or physiological causes, where consciousness is a noncontrolling accessory.

   Whatever is done from Blind Impulse is Automatism rather than Action. Whatever is done from motives of Happiness,—whether it be Indolentia, Pleasure, or Interest,—can be calculated with Mathematical precision.

   1857, Thomas E. Webb, The Intellectualism of Locke, Dublin: William McGee & Co., page 154

   2 more examples

   Mr. Lewes thinks that Automatism vanishes if it can be shewn that Man's feelings exercise causal power over his actions; but this alone is far from satisfying Dr. Carpenter. He would still continue to regard Man as an Automaton, unless there is ground for the assurance that Free-will is no illusion.

   1877 July, Charles B. Upton, “Human Automatism”, in The Theological Review, number 58, page 411

   For any doctrine which removes our thoughts from the control of a hypothetical agent which is independent of external influences, and confines them to certain channels in which they are propelled, directly or indirectly, by stimuli (external or internal) is practically automatism.

   1885, Morton Prince, The Nature of Mind and Human Automatism, Philadelphia; London: J. B. Lippincott Company, page 100

   Synonyms: epiphenomenalism

4. uncountableartA surrealist painting technique whereby one attempts to move the brush, pen etc. without conscious control over it.

   Overcoming the gravity of representation and the figurative, automatism and acquired reflexes, she mixes brute force and translucid emotions to paint an ontological, disquieting, enigmatic human figure free from artifice, universal in its expression.

   2013, Alice Fabre, Metal Language

5. countablehuman sciencesAn action performed subconsciously, without any apparent direction from the mind; a thought which appears spontaneously in one's consciousness.

   1 more example

   [G]eneralising this phenomenon, Mr. Myers has given the name of automatism, sensory or motor, emotional or intellectual, to this whole sphere of effects, due to 'uprushes' into the ordinary consciousness of energies originating in the subliminal parts of the mind. The simplest instance of an automatism is the phenomenon of post-hypnotic suggestion, so-called.

   1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 234

   Synonyms: telergy