automatism

Noun

automatism (countable and uncountable, plural automatisms)

1. (uncountable) Automatic or involuntary action.
   • 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...1877, George Henry Lewes, The Physical Basis of Mind, London: Trübner & Co., pages 329-330
2. (uncountable) The power of initiating vital processes from within the cell, organ, or organism, independent of external stimulus.
3. (uncountable) The 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
   • 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

   Synonyms:

   epiphenomenalism

4. (uncountable) A 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. (countable) An action performed subconsciously, without any apparent direction from the mind; a thought which appears spontaneously in one's consciousness.
   • [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...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