The human mind develops from acts of intention. A human being at the beginning of life uses the senses to direct towards outer reality and seek pleasure from it. Success or failure in finding pleasure, i.e. the response of outer reality to the search, creates the basic tone of the psyche and the action. The environment provides the basis for early development of the mind. When an infant receives sufficient, repeated and regular care, reality becomes organised as other people. Instead of pleasure, the infant begins to intend towards human beings. In the course of development, inter-psychic activity begins to take shape by the side of concrete intention and action. As the psyche develops further, people and human relationships settle or are internalised as the theatrical structure of the human mind.

In the present text I suggest an interpretation of how the mind unfolds from corporeality and study the formation of the unfolding mind as well as the structure of the developing psyche. To serve as a tool in my interpretation, I put forward a three-level model of the mind and mental activity mind based on intention towards objects. I will also show how the terms needed to describe the human mind and those related to the action of the psyche intertwine. These terms are sensation, perception, desire, wish, experience, longing and imagination. I also present an interpretation of how the term drive plays a role in the shaping of the psyche.

My method is phenomenological and theoretical. In other words, I study the phenomenon of mind by means of individual cases and descriptions. I primarily mirror my presentation of the human mind and psyche to the philosophy of the mind of Jean-Paul Sartre and the psychoanalytical views of Sigmund Freud.