Understanding the Unconscious Mind
The unconscious mind is probably the most mysterious concept in Psychology but also one of the most fascinating. It is thought that there is a side of the mind, outside of conscious awareness, called the ‘unconscious’ that holds pretty much all of our past experiences, thoughts, desires and feelings which are not available to our conscious and outside of our control, however, there is no conclusive or scientific evidence to fully support this. In contrast to our conscious mind, in which we are well aware of every mental process occurring inside of it, we have no conscious awareness or knowledge of what exactly is happening in our ‘unconscious mind’ and what it could be storing, because of this it cannot be directly measured or scientifically tested. Therefore, we can only construct theories and hypotheses with empirical evidence to help us understand what could possibly be occurring in this seemingly significant part of the mind that could be influencing our behaviour more than we would think. This article will briefly explain a couple of the theories that have helped to create and influence our idea of an unconscious mind.
A very well-known and major theory that popularized the concept of the unconscious and proposed an explanation to what it is and its purpose was brought about by Sigmund Freud. Largely using his theory of the unconscious, he developed the famous technique of Psychoanalysis. Freud was one of the first people to properly introduce and bring a lot of attention to the idea of an unconscious mind and his work on it effectively had a great impact on Psychology. According to Freud, there are three levels to human consciousness; the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. To better explain his idea Freud compared the mind to an iceberg.
The tip of the iceberg represents the conscious level (1) of the mind where all the mental processes that we are aware of exist, such as feelings and thoughts. Notice that the conscious mind is represented as being just the tip of the iceberg and the only part which we can see from the surface suggesting the idea that the conscious is but a fraction of the mind and the only side which we can experience. Next, we have the preconscious (2) which is the middle section of the iceberg located just below the water surface showing that it is just outside of conscious awareness. The preconscious holds everything we are not actively aware of but which has the ability to be brought into the conscious when triggered. Then there is the unconscious level (3). This is represented as the largest and most important part of the iceberg, as portrayed as being deep underwater where it is not visible and therefore shows it is far below conscious awareness. This level, unlike the conscious, holds all the mental processes from thoughts and memories to desires and feelings which are unavailable to the conscious. Freud believed that a lot of what is held in the unconscious is too unbearable and threatening to be allowed into conscious awareness, such as traumatic memories or unsuitable desires, and therefore repressed and stored in the unconscious which is a form of defence mechanism. He further suggested that the unconscious also contains our primitive instincts and drives such as the life or death instinct which are not approved of by our rational conscious and therefore kept in the unconscious quietly influencing our behaviour. Although it has been said that the contents of the unconscious are unavailable to the conscious, Freud also believed that the unconscious can express itself through dreams and in what is known as the ‘Freudian slip’ which is essentially a random slip of the tongue where you may say something by mistake or unintentionally. Especially for dreams, Freud proposed that it was a way to access our unconscious thoughts and to learn more about its contents which led to the method of dream interpretation which is a large part of psychoanalysis. Furthermore, Freud believed that the interactions between the three parts of the mind mentioned above are a major factor in influencing behaviour and personalities. It could be said that the core of Freud's Theory of the unconscious had a very significant impact on our idea and understanding of the unconscious. Although some are sceptical of Freud’s theory largely due to the lack of scientific evidence, Freud still had notable experiential proof to support his theory through his work with individual patients using the technique of psychoanalysis.
Another popular theory about the unconscious is the concept of a ‘collective unconscious' which was proposed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung who also worked with Sigmund Freud, with whom he had eventually fallen out with over their contrasting ideas of the unconscious. Jung believed in what he called the ‘collective unconscious’. According to Jung, the collective unconscious is made up of a collection of innate knowledge and memories which have been passed down from our ancestors and which we, as humans, are all born with. Unlike Freud, Jung suggested that the collective unconscious is the deeper layer of the unconscious mind which is shaped by these hereditary memories and not by an individual's personal experiences. All human beings possess the collective unconscious. Jung created this theory as a result of his realization that ancient myths and symbols within different cultures and societies all around the world mysteriously shared many similarities. Due to this strange alikeness, Jung believed that the common symbols found within different cultures and societies must hold a place in the human psyche which led to his theory of the collective unconscious and how these symbols are a part of the inherited knowledge and memories within it. Jung further suggested that these ancestral memories within the collective unconscious express themselves in the form of symbols and images which he calls ‘Archetypes’ and this is the reason as to why symbols and myths are similar between different cultures as they have been derived from these universal Archetypes shared by all humans. We supposedly use these Archetypes in order to understand and make sense of our own experiences, they act as a template or substructure of the human psyche and play a key role in how we perceive the world around us. Jung pointed out that there are many archetypes and they can often overlap and merge as seen in different cultures around the world, often appearing in art and literature but can also appear in our dreams. Some of the most important archetypes include the Persona, the Shadow, the Self and the Anima. For example, Jung describes the Persona as the part of us that we choose to present to the public, it is how others view us and can also be referred to as the mask.
Additionally, Jung also believed, similar to Freud, that the human psyche is made up of many different parts which interact with each other. He suggested that the three main parts were: the ego, the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The ego is the conscious mind containing all the mental processes we are aware of. The personal unconscious holds all the individual’s memories and urges that have been repressed and forgotten. The collective unconscious, as explained above, is the part of the unconscious that holds the archetypes. Jung’s theory of a collective unconscious and archetypes can be seen as quite mystical and unclear compared to Freud’s and because of this, it has not been as popular and also criticised within Psychology. However, a lot of the archetypal images that Jung talks about as a part of the Collective unconscious can be seen to recur throughout human history, in myths and legends for example, and therefore suggest a long-lasting part of the human collective unconscious rather than the personal unconscious as well as important patterns of human behaviour. Similar to Freud and his theory, there is not much scientific reasoning and evidence behind it but Jung did work with many patients in which he identified recurring themes and images.
Although we have many theories and some empirical evidence on the unconscious mind in the sense of its purpose and contents, it is still a very much unknown notion within Psychology. As mentioned before, the nature of the unconscious mind makes it almost impossible to be able to scientifically prove its very existence and let alone its contents and the activities that may be going on within it. Currently what we understand about the unconscious mind may not be entirely true but hopefully in the future we will find more ways to learn about what is happening outside of our conscious awareness and possibly prove the existence of an unconscious mind along with the theories we have behind it. The unconscious still remains a large part of Psychology which continues to be open to further exploring and advancements.
References:
Cherry, K. (2020). What Is the Unconscious (and Why Is It Like an Iceberg)?. Verywell Mind. Retrieved 10 April 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-unconscious-2796004.
Cherry, K. (2020). The Structure and Levels of the Mind According to Freud. Verywell Mind. Retrieved 10 April 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/the-conscious-and-unconscious-mind-2795946.
Mcleod, S. (2009). Unconscious Mind | Simply Psychology. Simplypsychology.org. Retrieved 10 April 2021, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html.
Mcleod, S. (2018). Carl Jung | Simply Psychology. Simplypsychology.org. Retrieved 10 April 2021, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/carl-jung.html.
Fritscher, L. (2020). How the Collective Unconscious Is Tied to Dreams, Beliefs, and Phobias. Verywell Mind. Retrieved 10 April 2021, from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-collective-unconscious-2671571.
Benson, N., Collin, C., Ginsburg, J., Weeks, M., Lazyan, M., & Grand, V. (2012). The Psychology Book (pp. 94-99 104-107). DK.
List of sources for images found in this article:
