Humans have been aware for quite some time that the unconscious—a powerful yet mysterious force that exerts some degree of control over us—must exist. Over time, often competing theories of the unconscious have clouded our understanding of what it does, what its purpose is, and what’s actually in it.
Although there is still some disagreement, as well as much more to be learned, about how the unconscious functions and what it does, we now know quite a lot more about it than we did 20, 30, or 40 years ago.
It’s a jungle in there.
The notion of the unconscious existed before Freud, but his model is the one most closely associated with it. He was correct about the powerful impact the unconscious has on our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. We are not entirely aware of what we think and often have no idea why we do some of the things we do.
His “tip of the iceberg” view of the conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind is still used today.
But he based his model of the unconscious on case studies involving “abnormal thought and behavior.” It was not arrived at by scientific experimentation, many of the tools of which were unavailable to him.
As a result of primarily anecdotal observations, Freud concluded that the unconscious contained repressed thoughts, feelings, and memories that were too disturbing to admit to consciousness. He didn’t think people repressed things intentionally. He thought the unconscious, at least in part, determined what was repressed. He believed we could become aware of some unconscious motivations indirectly through dreams, slips of the tongue, and free association.
It’s a mystical, magical place—but what does it all mean?
While Freud was a religious skeptic, Carl Jung studied a number of different religions and believed in the soul—an immaterial, immortal aspect of a person.
Jung believed it was possible to link consciousness to the unconscious through the process of individuation (self-realization). He suggested we present a persona—a mask or a false self—to others and to ourselves, but it is not our true or authentic self. Only by “becoming conscious of the unconscious,” which includes facing our shadow—or dark side—can we become who we are meant to be and thus “fulfill our unique promise.”
Jung believed “the unconscious had in mind” this process of individuation or self-realization.
In addition to the personal unconscious, Jung posited another layer he called the collective unconscious, which contained elements that aren’t developed from our personal experiences but are inherited by everyone. The components of the collective unconscious include symbolic motifs, especially in the form of archetypes.
It’s just a different kind of thinking.
William James refuted Freud’s concept or model of the unconscious. But he was an excellent observer and—without any of the tools now available to researchers—arrived at several conclusions about how our minds and brains function that have since been confirmed.
His book, Habit, written in the late 1800s, is worth reading today. He says, “habit diminishes the conscious attention with which our acts are performed.” And, “not only is it the right thing at the right time that we thus involuntarily do, but the wrong thing also, if it be an habitual thing.”
James is one of the first proponents of the dual-process theory of thinking—the idea that our thinking consists of associative thinking as well as “true reasoning.” In that regard, he drew a pretty good bead on the unconscious (associative thinking), whether or not he knew it or intended it.
It’s a vast web of intricate, automated processes running under the hood.
The new psycho-neurological model of the unconscious is a more mechanical model than the models of Freud or Jung. But it’s also a very dynamic model that more accurately describes and explains how and why we do the things we do, think the things we think, and feel the things we feel.
It’s a model that eliminates the blame game and offers a straightforward practical approach to changing undesirable behavior, understanding ourselves and others, and creating more of the life we want to have and a world we want to live in.
This is the model we’ll be working from at the next Monthly Meeting of the Mind (& Brain) as we explore our ulterior motives and attempt to determine what really drives us. If you missed the previous article, you can read it here, and if you’re in the area, please join us!