the unconscious

Examples of the unconscious in the following topics:

• Psychodynamic Psychology

  • The concept of the unconscious was central: Freud postulated a cycle in which ideas are repressed but continue to operate unconsciously in the mind, and then reappear in consciousness under certain circumstances.
  • The id is the unconscious part that is the cauldron of raw drives, such as for sex or aggression.
  • The ego, which has conscious and unconscious elements, is the rational and reasonable part of personality.
  • Like the ego, the superego has conscious and unconscious elements.
  • Jung created some of the best-known psychological concepts, including the archetype, the collective unconscious, the complex, and synchronicity.

• Unconscious Perception and Influences on Behavior

  • The words were inserted so that they would flash only long enough to be noticed by the unconscious mind, but not long enough that the movie goers would realize it was there.
  • There is debate about whether or not hypnosis targets the conscious or unconscious mind.
  • Many believe that that hypnosis is a form of unconsciousness resembling sleep, and that because the information is internalized on an unconscious level during a trance, the person may not be consciously aware of it .
  • These concepts were introduced into hypnotism at the end of the 19th century by Sigmund Freud, whose psychoanalytic theory describes conscious thoughts as being at the surface of the mind and unconscious processes as being deeper in the mind.
  • Some hypnotists view suggestion as a form of communication that is directed primarily to the subject's conscious mind, rather than the unconscious.

• Freud

  • Freud went on to develop theories about the unconscious mind and the mechanism of repression and established the field of verbal psychotherapy by creating psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.
  • The liberation from the effects of the unconscious material is achieved through bringing this material into the consciousness.
  • Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the "analysand" (the analytic patient) verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst induces the unconscious conflicts.
  • Through the analysis of conflicts, including those contributing to resistance and those involving transference onto the analyst of distorted reactions, psychoanalytic treatment can hypothesize how patients unconsciously are their own worst enemies: how unconscious, symbolic reactions that have been stimulated by experience are causing symptoms.
  • The id is the completely unconscious, impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche that operates on the "pleasure principle" and is the source of basic impulses and drives; it seeks immediate pleasure and gratification.

• Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic Therapy

  • The primary focus of psychodynamic therapy is to uncover the unconscious content of a client's psyche in order to alleviate psychic tension.
  • This theory is especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious and unconscious motivation; it asserts that behavior is the product of underlying conflicts of which people often have little awareness.
  • The primary focus of psychodynamic therapy is to uncover the unconscious content of a client's psyche in order to alleviate psychic tension.
  • It is especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation.
  • The focus on interpretations of defense mechanisms (often unconscious coping techniques that reduce anxiety arising from unacceptable or potentially harmful impulses), transference (a phenomenon in which a patient unconsciously redirects their feelings onto the therapist or another person), and current symptoms.

• Evaluating the Psychodynamic Approach to Personality

  • The id is present at birth, completely unconscious, and seeks after pleasure, or human drives, desires, and impulses.
  • The superego operates in both the conscious and the unconscious.
  • The ego also operates both consciously and unconsciously.
  • The psychodynamic model states that psychological disorders stemmed from maladaptive defenses against unconscious, internal conflicts.
  • On this diagram, the portion above the water signifies the conscious mind, while the portion below the water illustrates the unconscious mind.

• A History of Theories of Consciousness

  • Freud divided human consciousness into three levels of awareness: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
  • Freud saw the preconscious as comprised of thoughts that are unconscious at the particular moment in question, but that are not repressed and are therefore available for recall and easily capable of becoming conscious (for example, the tip-of-the-tongue effect).
  • The unconscious consists of things that are outside of conscious awareness, including many memories, thoughts, and urges of which we are not aware.
  • Much of what is stored in the unconscious is thought to be unpleasant or conflicting; for example, sexual impulses that are deemed unacceptable. 
  • The part above water is known as the conscious level; the top level of waves just below the surface and above the white line is the preconscious level; and the bottom level is the unconscious.

• Introducing the Perception Process

  • Perception is the set of unconscious processes we undergo to make sense of the stimuli and sensations we encounter.
  • All stages of the perception process often happen unconsciously and in less than a second.
  • Thus, the first step of perception is the (usually unconscious, but sometimes intentional) decision of what to attend to.
  • Once we have chosen to attend to a stimulus in the environment (consciously or unconsciously, though usually the latter), the choice sets off a series of reactions in our brain.
  • This happens unconsciously thousands of times a day.

• Autonomic Reflexes

  • Autonomic reflexes are unconscious motor reflexes relayed from the organs and glands to the CNS through visceral afferent signaling.
  • Within the brain, the ANS is located in the medulla oblongata in the lower brainstem.
  • General visceral afferent sensations are mostly unconscious, visceral motor reflex sensations from hollow organs and glands that are transmitted to the CNS (see the following illustration for a depiction of a typical nerve fiber, including general visceral afferent fibers).
  • While the unconscious reflex arcs are normally undetectable, in certain instances they may send pain sensations to the CNS, masked as referred pain.
  • If the peritoneal cavity becomes inflamed or if the bowel is suddenly distended, the body will interpret the afferent pain stimulus as somatic in origin.

• Unconscious Perception

  • We encounter more stimuli than we can attend to; unconscious perception helps the brain process all stimuli, not just those we take in consciously.
  • The perceptual learning of unconscious processing occurs through priming.
  • Priming occurs when an unconscious response to an initial stimulus affects responses to future stimuli.
  • Priming the participants with words prior to the interview activated the neural circuits associated with reactions to those words.
  • A number of studies have examined how unconscious stimuli influence human perception.

• Detail on Types of Long-Term Memory

  • Long-term memory consists of conscious explicit (declarative) and unconscious implicit (procedural) memory; both can be stored indefinitely.
  • Long Term Memory can be subdivided into different types based on whether the information is conscious (i.e., explicit) or unconscious (i.e., implicit) to the individual .
  • In other words, the individual must actively think about retrieving the information from memory.
  • You get the menu, you order your meal, you eat it, and then you pay the bill.
  • Also known as unconscious or procedural memory, these actions develop with practice over time.