Objective Mental Reality: The 'Dark Matter' of the Social Sciences: The Psychological and Specialized Parts of Objective Mental Reality.

This book explores the concept of Objective Mental Reality (OMR)—a fundamental, intersubjectively formed symbolic layer of consciousness. In Part I, it delves into foundational psychological constructions such as the soul, mind, consciousness, and intelligence, as well as the nuanced roles of personality, beliefs, and cultural codes. These entities are examined not only as subjective experiences but as components of a shared mental reality that can be studied objectively. The section further investigates the processes through which the entities of the psyche are constituted and reveals their role in shaping OMR.

Parts II and III address specialized domains of OMR — including religious faith, mathematics, art, and media — as well as OMR’s relationship to time, language, and artificial intelligence. The book proposes a new scientific paradigm in which the anthropomorphic world is understood as a product of collective mental creativity constituted within the OMR of society. Through and by means of OMR, humanity comprehends the universe and becomes aware of its own nature, while the psyche transforms from a passive mirror of being into its active co-creator. 

Sergey Ernestovich Polyakov (b. 1956) is a psychiatrist and psychologist with more than forty years of clinical and research experience. After graduating with honors from the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University in 1979, he combined clinical practice with psychiatric research. In 1986, he defended his Candidate of Sciences (PhD-equivalent) dissertation in psychiatry and subsequently served as senior and later principal research fellow at the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry. In 1991, he founded and directed a private multidisciplinary medical clinic in Moscow.

Since the early 2000s, Polyakov has focused on developing a comprehensive original theory of phenomenological psychology. This theory represents a coherent scientific system that explains the nature of mental phenomena. One of its key components is the concept of Objective Mental Reality—an intersubjective layer of the psyche shaped by society, which defines the human worldview, thinking, and patterns of behavior.

At the heart of his approach lies the conviction that the psyche does not merely reflect the world but actively constitutes it in the form of stable entities and constructions. This perspective has made it possible to integrate disparate experimental data, empirical findings, and observations into a unified system, with a particular emphasis on verbal and mixed representations that ensure shared understanding and collective knowledge.

He is the author of several monographs, including Myths and Reality of Modern Psychology (2004), Phenomenology of Mental Representations (2011), Concepts and Other Constructions of Consciousness (2017), The “Dark Matter” of the Social Sciences (2024), Phenomenology of Sensory Representations (2024), and Phenomenology of Symbolic Representations (2025). Together, these works establish the foundations of a new phenomenological psychology and highlight its significance for the social sciences and the humanities.