Difference between revisions of "Talk:Unconscious"

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=Freudian Dictionary=
  
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Although the term "[[unconscious]]" ([[Fr]]. ''[[inconscient]]'') had been used by writers prior to [[Freud]], it acquires a completely original meaning in his work, in which it constitutes the single most important concept.
 
  
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--
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<blockquote>The oldest and best meaning of the word "unconscious" is the descriptive one; we call "unconscious" any mental process the existence of which we are obliged to assume-because, for instance, we infer it in some way from its effects-but of which we are not directly aware .... If we want to be more accurate, we should modify the statement by saying that we call a process "unconscious" when we have to assume that it was active at a certain time, although at that time we knew nothing about it.<ref>{{NILP}} Ch. 3</ref></blockquote>
  
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[[Freud]] distinguished between two uses of the term "[[unconscious]]."<ref>1915e</ref>  
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<blockquote>Certainly, large portions of the ego and super-ego can remain unconscious, are, in fact, normally unconscious. That means to say that the individual knows nothing of their contents and that it requires an expenditure of effort to make him conscious of them. It is true, then, that ego and conscious, repressed and unconscious do not coincide.<ref>{{NILP}} Ch. 3</ref></blockquote>
  
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As an adjective, it simply refers to mental processes that are not the subject of [[conscious]] attention at a given moment.  
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===Unconscious and Preconscious===
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<blockquote>There are ''two kinds of unconscious'', which have not as yet been distinguished by psychologists. Both are unconscious in the psychological sense; but in our sense the first, which we call ''Ucs''., is likewise ''incapable of consciousness''; whereas the second we call ''Pcs''. because its excitations, after the observance of certain rules, are capable of reaching consciousness; perhaps not before they have again undergone censorship, but nevertheless regardless of the ''Ucs''. ''system''. The fact that in order to attain consciousness the excitations must pass through an unalterable series, a succession of instances, as is betrayed by the changes produced in them by the censorship, has enabled us to describe them by analogy in spatial terms. We described the relations of the two systems to each other and to consciousness by saying that the system ''Pcs''. is like a screen between the system ''Ucs''. and consciousness. The system ''Pcs''. not only bars access to consciousness, but also controls the access to voluntary motility, and has control of the emission of a mobile cathectic energy, a portion of which is familiar to us as attention.<ref>{{IoD}} Ch. 7</ref></blockquote>
  
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As a noun (the [[unconscious]]; [[Ger]]. ''[[das Unbewußte]]''), it designates one of the psychical systems which [[Freud]] described in his first theory of [[psyche|mental]] [[structure]] (the "[[unconscious|topographical model]]").
 
  
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According to this theory, the [[psyche|mind]] is divided into three systems or "psychical localities," the [[conscious]] ('''Cs'''), the [[preconscious]] ('''Pcs''') and the [[unconscious]] ('''Ucs''').  
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===UNCONSCIOUS MENTAL PROCESSES, TIMELESSNESS OF===
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<blockquote>We have found by experience that unconscious mental processes are in themselves "timeless." That is to say to begin with: they are not arranged chronologically, time alters nothing in them, nor can the idea of time be applied to them. <ref>{{BPP}} Ch. 4</ref></blockquote>
  
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The [[unconscious]] system is not merely that which is outside the field of [[consciousness]] at a given time, but that which has been radically separated from [[consciousness]] by [[repression]] and thus cannot enter the [[conscious]]-[[preconscious]] system without distortion.
 
  
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--
 
  
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In [[Freud]]'s second theory of [[mental]] [[structure]] (the "[[structural theory]]"), the [[mind]] is divided into the three "agencies" of [[ego]], [[superego]] and [[id]].
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{{Freudian Dictionary}}
  
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In this model, no one agency is identical to the [[unconscious]], since even the [[ego]] and the [[superego]] have [[unconscious]] parts.
 
  
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--
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=Below=
  
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[[Lacan]], before 1950, uses the term "[[unconscious]]" principally in its adjectival form, making his early work seem particularly strange to those who are more familiar with [[Freud]]'s writings.
 
  
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In the 1950s, however, as [[Lacan]] begins his "[[return to Freud]]," the term appears more frequently as a noun, and [[Lacan]] increasingly emphasizes the originality of [[Freud]]'s concept of the [[unconscious]], stressing that it is not merely the opposite of [[consciousness]].
 
  
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<blockquote>"A large number of psychical effects that are quite legitimately designated as unconscious, in the sense of excluding the characteristics of consciousness, are nonetheless without any relation whatever to the unconscious in the Freudian sense."<ref>{{E}} p.163</ref></blockquote>
 
  
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He also insists that the [[unconscious]] cannot simply be equated with "that which is repressed."
 
  
−
--
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==Sigmund Freud==
 +
Although the term "[[unconscious]]" had been used by writers prior to [[Freud]], it acquires a completely original meaning in his [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|work]], in which it constitutes the single most important concept.
 +
 
 +
===Definition===
 +
[[Freud]] distinguished between two uses of the term "[[unconscious]]."<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Unconscious]]." 1915e. [[SE]] XIV, 161</ref>
 +
 
 +
=====Adjective=====
 +
The adjective it is very widely used to refer to any element of mental or psychic activity that is not present within the field of [[consciousness]]; as an ''adjective'', it simply refers to mental or psychic processes that are not the subject of, that occur in the absence of, [[consciousness|conscious awareness, thought, attention, perception or control]].
 +
 
 +
=====Noun=====
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[[Image:Freudpsyche.gif|thumb|300px|right|[[Unconscious|Freud's Model of the Unconscious]]]]
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As a ''noun'', the ''noun-form'' designates one of the ''psychical systems'' described by [[Freud]] in his [[topology|topographical model]] of the [[psyche]], his first theory of [[psyche|mental]] [[structure]].
 +
 
 +
==="Topological Model"===
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The "'''[[topographical model]]'''" divides the [[mind]] or [[psyche]] into three separate component parts -- or "[[scene|psychical localities]]":
 +
 
 +
* the '''[[conscious]]''' ('''[[conscious|Cs]]'''),
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* the '''[[preconscious]]''' ('''[[preconscious|Pcs]]''') and
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* the [[unconscious]] ('''[[unconscious|Ucs]]''')
 +
 
 +
The [[unconscious|unconscious system]] is not merely that which is ''outside'' the field of [[consciousness]] at a given time, but that which has been radically [[separation|separated]] from [[consciousness]] by [[repression]] and thus cannot enter the [[conscious|conscious-preconscious system]] without [[distortion]].
 +
 
 +
==="Structural Model"===
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[[Freud]]'s second model of the [[mind]] or [[psyche]] -- the "'''[[Structural theory]]'''" -- consisted of three "'''agencies'''":
 +
* the '''[[id]]''',
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* the '''[[ego]]''', and
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* the '''[[superego]]'''
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In this model, no one '''agency''' is identical to the [[unconscious]], since even the [[ego]] and the [[superego]] have [[unconscious]] parts.
 +
 
 +
==Jacques Lacan==
 +
===Early Work===
 +
[[Lacan]], before 1950, uses the term "[[unconscious]]" principally in its ''adjectival form'', making his early work seem particularly strange to those who are more familiar with [[Freud]]'s [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|writings]].
 +
 
 +
===Later Work===
 +
In the 1950s, however, as [[Lacan]] begins his "[[return to Freud]]," the term appears more frequently as a ''noun'', and [[Lacan]] increasingly emphasizes the originality of [[Freud]]'s concept of the [[unconscious]], stressing that it is not merely the opposite of [[consciousness]].
  
−
[[Lacan]] argues that the concept of the [[unconscious]] was badly misunderstood by most of [[Freud]]'s followers, who reduced it to being "merely the seat of the instincts."<ref>{{E}} p.147</ref>
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<blockquote>"A large number of psychical effects that are quite legitimately designated as unconscious, in the sense of excluding the characteristics of consciousness, are nonetheless without any relation whatever to the unconscious in the Freudian sense."<ref>{{E}} p.163</ref></blockquote>
  
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Against this [[biology|biologistic]] mode of thought, [[Lacan]] argues that "the unconscious is neither primordial nor instinctual;"<ref>{{E}} p.170</ref> it is primarily [[linguistic]].  
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He also insists that the [[unconscious]] cannot simply be equated with "[[unconscious|that which is repressed]]."
  
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This is summed up in [[Lacan]]'s famous formula, "the unconscious is structured like a language."<ref>{{S3}} p.167</ref>
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===Biological Reductionism===
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[[Lacan]] argues that the concept of the [[unconscious]] was badly misunderstood by most of [[Freud]]'s followers, who reduced it to being "merely the seat of the instincts."<ref>{{E}} p. 147</ref>
  
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[[Lacan]]'s analysis of the [[unconscious]] in terms of [[synchronic]] [[structure]] is supplemented by his idea of the [[unconscious]] opening and closing in a temporal pulsation.<ref>{{S11}} p.143, 204</ref>
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Against this [[biology|biologistic]] mode of thought, [[Lacan]] argues that "the unconscious is neither primordial nor instinctual;"<ref>{{E}} p. 170</ref> it is primarily [[linguistic]].
  
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--
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===Language===
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This is summed up in [[Lacan]]'s famous formula, "[[unconscious|the unconscious is structured like a language]]."<ref>{{S3}} p.167</ref>
  
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Some [[psychoanalyst]]s have objected to [[Lacan]]'s [[linguistic]] approach to the [[unconscious]] on the grounds that it is overly restrictive, and on the grounds that [[Freud]] himself excluded ''word-presentations'' from the [[unconscious]].<ref>{{S7}} p.44</ref>
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[[Lacan]]'s analysis of the [[unconscious]] in terms of [[synchronic]] [[structure]] is supplemented by his idea of the [[unconscious]] opening and closing in a [[time|temporal pulsation]].<ref>{{S11}} p. 143, 204</ref>
  
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[[Lacan]] himself qualifies his [[linguistic]] approach by arguing that the reason why the [[unconscious]] is [[structure]]d like a [[language]] is that "we only grasp the unconscious finally when it is explicated, in that part of it which is articulated by passing into words."<ref>{{S7}} p.32</ref>
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===Criticism===
  
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---
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[[Lacan]] himself qualifies his [[linguistic]] approach by arguing that the reason why the [[unconscious]] is [[structure]]d like a [[language]] is that "we only grasp the unconscious finally when it is explicated, in that part of it which is articulated by passing into words."<ref>{{S7}} p. 32</ref>
  
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[[Lacan]] also describes the [[unconscious]] as a [[discourse]]: "The unconscious is the discourse of the Other."<ref>{{Ec}} p.16</ref>
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===Discourse===
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[[Lacan]] also describes the [[unconscious]] as a [[discourse]]: "[[unconscious|The unconscious is the discourse of the Other]]."<ref>{{Ec}} p. 16</ref>
  
 
This enigmatic formula, which has become one of [[Lacan]]'s most famous dictums, can be understood in many ways.  
 
This enigmatic formula, which has become one of [[Lacan]]'s most famous dictums, can be understood in many ways.  
  
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Perhaps the most important meaning is that "one should see in the unconscious the effects of speech on the subject."<ref>{{S11}} p.126</ref>
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Perhaps the most important meaning is that "one should see in the unconscious the effects of speech on the subject."<ref>{{S11}} p. 126</ref>
  
 
More precisely, the [[unconscious]] is the effects of the [[signifier]] on the [[subject]], in that the [[signifier]] is what is [[repressed]] and what returns in the [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]] ([[symptom]]s, [[jokes]], [[parapraxes]], [[dream]]s, etc.).
 
More precisely, the [[unconscious]] is the effects of the [[signifier]] on the [[subject]], in that the [[signifier]] is what is [[repressed]] and what returns in the [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]] ([[symptom]]s, [[jokes]], [[parapraxes]], [[dream]]s, etc.).
  
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--
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===Symbolic===
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All the references to [[language]], [[speech]], [[discourse]] and [[signifier]]s clearly locate the [[unconscious]] in the order of the [[symbolic]].  
 
All the references to [[language]], [[speech]], [[discourse]] and [[signifier]]s clearly locate the [[unconscious]] in the order of the [[symbolic]].  
  
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Indeed, "the unconscious is structured as a function of the symbolic."<ref>{{S7}} p.12</ref>
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<blockquote>Indeed, "the unconscious is structured as a function of the symbolic."<ref>{{S7}} p. 12</ref></blockquote>
  
 
The [[unconscious]] is the determination of the [[subject]] by the [[symbolic order]].
 
The [[unconscious]] is the determination of the [[subject]] by the [[symbolic order]].
  
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--
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===Exteriority===
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The [[unconscious]] is not interior: on the contrary, since [[speech]] and [[language]] are [[intersubjective]] phenomena, the [[unconscious]] is "transindividual."<ref>{{E}} p.49</ref>
 
The [[unconscious]] is not interior: on the contrary, since [[speech]] and [[language]] are [[intersubjective]] phenomena, the [[unconscious]] is "transindividual."<ref>{{E}} p.49</ref>
  
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If the [[unconscious]] seems interior, this is an effect of the [[imaginary]], which blocks the relationship between the [[subject]] and the [[Other]] and which [[invert]]s the [[message]] of the [[Other]].
 
If the [[unconscious]] seems interior, this is an effect of the [[imaginary]], which blocks the relationship between the [[subject]] and the [[Other]] and which [[invert]]s the [[message]] of the [[Other]].
  
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--
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===Formations===
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Although the [[unconscious]] is especially visible in the [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]], "the unconscious leaves none of our actions outside its field."<ref>{{E}} p.163</ref>  
 
Although the [[unconscious]] is especially visible in the [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]], "the unconscious leaves none of our actions outside its field."<ref>{{E}} p.163</ref>  
  
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The [[unconscious]] is irreducible, so the aim of [[analysis]] cannot be to make [[conscious]] the [[unconscious]].
 
The [[unconscious]] is irreducible, so the aim of [[analysis]] cannot be to make [[conscious]] the [[unconscious]].
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−
---
 
−
 
  
 
In addition to the various [[linguistic]] [[metaphor]]s which [[Lacan]] draws on to conceptualize the [[unconscious]] ([[discourse]], [[language]], [[speech]]), he also conceives of the [[unconscious]] in other terms.
 
In addition to the various [[linguistic]] [[metaphor]]s which [[Lacan]] draws on to conceptualize the [[unconscious]] ([[discourse]], [[language]], [[speech]]), he also conceives of the [[unconscious]] in other terms.
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Since it is an articulation of [[signifier]]s in a [[signifying chain]], the [[unconscious]] is a kind of [[knowledge]] ([[symbolic]] [[knowledge]], or ''[[savoir]]'').  
 
Since it is an articulation of [[signifier]]s in a [[signifying chain]], the [[unconscious]] is a kind of [[knowledge]] ([[symbolic]] [[knowledge]], or ''[[savoir]]'').  
  
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More precisely, it is an "unknown knowledge."
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More precisely, it is an "[[unconscious|unknown knowledge]]."
  
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==See Also==
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===See Also===
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{{See}}
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* [[Biology]]
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* [[Consciousness]]
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* [[Discourse]]
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||
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* [[Desire]]
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* [[Drive]]
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* [[Instinct]]
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||
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* [[Knowledge]]
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* [[Language]]
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* [[Linguistics]]
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||
 
* [[Memory]]
 
* [[Memory]]
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* [[Knowledge]]
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* [[Repetition]]
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* [[Signifier]]
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||
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* [[Speech]]
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* [[Structure]]
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* [[Symbolic]]
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{{Also}}
  
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==References==
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===References===
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
  
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[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
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[[Category:Terms]]
 
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[[Category:Concepts]]
 
 
[[Category:Dictionary]]
 
[[Category:Dictionary]]
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[[Category:Jacques Lacan]]
 
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[[Category:Symbolic]]
 
  
  
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__NOTOC__
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-----
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=Critical Dictionary=
 +
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As a ''noun'', it designates one of the ''psychical systems'' which [[Freud]] described in his first theory of [[psyche|mental]] [[structure]] (the "[[unconscious|topographical model]]").
  
 +
The noun-form is now usually used in the psychoanalytic sense, and refers to the unconscious system described by [[Freud]]'s first [[topography]] of the [[psyche]].
  
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==def==
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In the second [[topography]], the unconscious system is replaced by the agency of the [[id]], but [Freud]] continues to use "[[unconscious]]" as an adjective.
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''For the physiological state of "being unconscious", as when knocked-out or asleep, see [[unconsciousness]].''
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 +
Although [[Freud]] is often credited with the discovery of the [[unconscious]], it is clear tha tthe notion of a non-conscious part of the mind has a long history in both [[philosophy]] and the psychological sciences.
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 +
A distinction has been made between the [[Freud]]ian [[unconscious]] and [[Jung]]'s concept of a 'collective unconscious'.
 +
 
 +
---
  
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In [[psychoanalytic theory]], the '''unconscious''' refers to that part of mental functioning of which the [[subject (philosophy)|subject]] makes himself unaware.  The psychoanalytic unconscious is similar to but not precisely the same as the popular notion of the [[subconscious]].
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[[Freud]]'s initial desriptions of the [[unconscious]] are based upon his analysis of dreams (1900).
  
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For psychoanalysis, the unconscious does not include all of what is simply not conscious - it does not include e.g. motor skills - but rather, only what is actively [[psychological repression|repressed]] from conscious thought.
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Dreams are described as the royal road the the [[unconscious]] because they represent the fulfilment of [[unconscious]] [[wish]]es that are inadmissible to the [[preconscious]]-[[conscious]] system, usually because of their sexual nature.
  
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As defined by [[Sigmund Freud]], the [[psyche]] is composed of different levels of consciousness, often defined in three parts as
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Further confirmation of the existence of an unconscious system is provided by [[Freud]]'s study of phenomena such as [[parapraxis]] (101) and jokes (1905b); everyday phenomena such as slips of the tongue, bungled actions, lapses of memory and the inability to recall names all point to the existence of the [[unconscious]].
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*preconsciousness
 
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*the waking [[consciousness]]
 
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*and beneath both of these, the unconscious.  
 
  
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For Freud, the unconscious was a depository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of mind by the mechanism of [[psychological repression]]. However, the contents did not necessarily have to be solely negative. In the psychoanalytic view, the unconscious is a force that can only be recognized by its effects - it expresses itself in the [[symptom]].
+
---
  
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At the present stage, there are still fundamental disagreements within psychology about the nature of the unconscious mind (if indeed it is considered to exist at all), whereas outside formal psychology a whole world of pop-psychological speculation has grown up in which the unconscious mind is held to have any number of properties and abilities, from animalistic and innocent, child-like aspects to [[savant]]-like, all-perceiving, [[mysticism|mystical]] and [[occult]]ic properties.
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The contents of the [[unconscious]] are described as representatives of the [[drive]]s and as [[unconscious]] [[wish]]es and [[desire]]s that are organized into imaginary scenarios and narratives.
  
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==The psychoanlytic unconscious==
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Many of these elements have been subjecte to [[repression]] or have been refused entry to the conscious mind.
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Unconscious thoughts are not directly accessible to ordinary [[introspection]], but it is capable of being "tapped" and "interpreted" by special methods and techniques such as random association, dream analysis, and [[verbal]] slips (commonly known as a [[Freudian slip]]), examined and conducted during [[psychoanalysis]].  
 
  
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===Freud's definition===
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Others relate to [[fantasies]] or [[memories]] relating to the [[primal scene]] or the [[Oedipus complex]].
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Probably the most detailed and precise of the various notions of 'unconscious mind' - and the one which most people will immediately think of upon hearing the term - is that developed by Sigmund Freud and his followers, and which lies at the heart of psychoanalysis. It should be stressed, incidentally, that the popular term 'subconscious' is not a [[Freudian]] coinage and is never used in serious psychoanalytic writings.
 
  
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Freud's concept was a more subtle and complex psychological theory than many. Consciousness, in Freud's topographical view (which was his first of several psychological models of the mind) was a relatively thin perceptual aspect of the mind, whereas the subconscious (frequently misused and confused with the unconscious) was that merely autonomic function of the brain. The unconscious was indeed considered by Freud throughout the evolution of his psychoanalytic theory a sentient force of will influenced by human drives and yet operating well below the perceptual conscious mind. Hidden, like the man behind the curtain in the "Wizard of Oz," the unconscious directs the thoughts and feelings of everyone, according to Freud. This unconscious mind is the primitive instinctual hangover we all suffer from and which we must overcome in a healthy way in order to become fully and normally developed, i.e., not [[neurosis|neurotic]] or [[psychosis|psychotic]] but merely unhappy (See Frank Sulloway's ''Freud, Biologist of the Mind'', Basic Books, 1983).  
+
At times, [[Freud]] further speculates that the [[unconscious]] also contains elements of a phylogenetic heritage made up of residual elements of the vicissitudes of human history.<ref>1915d</ref>
  
−
In another of Freud's systematizations, the mind is divided into the conscious mind or [[Ego]] and two parts of the Unconscious: the [[Ego, Superego and Id|Id]] or [[instinct]]s and the [[Superego]]. Freud used the idea of the unconscious in order to explain certain kinds of neurotic behavior. (See [[psychoanalysis]].)
+
---
  
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Freud's theory of the unconscious was substantially transformed by some of his followers, among them [[Carl Jung]] and [[Jacques Lacan]].
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Insofar as it is a system, the [[unconscious]] is described by [[Freud]] as having a number of special characteristics.
  
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===Jung's [[collective unconscious]]===
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It is governed by the primary processes of the free circulation of energy and [[libido]], and characterized by the mobility of [[cathexis]].
  
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[[Carl Jung]] developed the concept further. He divided the unconscious into two parts: the personal unconscious and the [[collective unconscious]]. The first of these corresponds to Freud's idea of the subconscious, though unlike his mentor, Jung believed that the personal unconscious contained a valuable counter-balance to the conscious mind, as well as childish urges. As for the collective unconscious, which consists of [[archetypes]], this is the common store of mental building blocks that makes up the psyche of all humans. Evidence for its existence is the universality of certain symbols that appear in the mythologies of nearly all peoples.
+
The [[unconscious]] is timeless, indifferent to external reality, oblivious to the notions of negation and doubt, and obeys only the [[pleasure principle]].
  
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===Lacan's linguistic unconscious===
+
---
−
[[Jacques Lacan]]'s [[psychoanalytic theory]] contends that the unconscious is structured like a language.
 
  
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The unconscious, Lacan argued, was not a more primitive or archetypal part of the mind separate from the conscious, linguistic ego, but rather, a formation every bit as complex and linguistically sophisticated as consciousness itself.  (Compare [[collective unconscious]]).
+
Virtually all post-Freudian [[psychoanalysis]] may be regarded as contributing to an understanding of the [[unconscious]], but the most extensive reworking of the concept is that propounded by [[Lacan]].
  
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If the unconscious is structured like a language, Lacan argues, then the self is denied any point of reference to which to be 'restored' following trauma or 'identity crisis'. In this way, Lacan's thesis of the structurally dynamic unconscious is also a challenge to the [[ego psychology]] that [[Freud]] himself opposed.
+
In his celebrated "Rome Discourse" on the field and function of [[language]] and [[speech]] in [[psychoanalysis]] (1953), [[Lacan]] describes the [[unconscious]] as the censored chapter in the history of the individual subject.
  
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Lacan's idea of how language is structured is largely taken from the [[structural linguistics]] of [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] and [[Roman Jakobson]], based on the function of the [[signifier]] and [[signified]] in [[signifying chain]]s.  This may leave Lacan's entire model of mental functioning open to severe critique, since in mainstream linguistics, Saussurean models have largely been replaced by those of e.g. [[Noam Chomsky]].
+
The [[truth]] of this censored chapter can, however, be found elsewhere; it exists in the form of 'monuments' such as the nuclei of a [[neurosis]], the [[symptom]]s that can be read like some strange [[language]].
  
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The starting point for the linguistic theory of the unconscious was a re-reading of Freud's ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]''.  There, Freud identifies two mechanisms at work in the formation of unconscious fantasies: condensation and displacement.  Under Lacan's linguistic reading, condensation is identified with the linguistic trope of [[metonymy]], and displacement with [[metaphor]].
+
It can be found in the 'documents' of infantile memories, in the indivudal's character traits, and in the fragments that link the censored chapter to the chapters that precede and follow it.
  
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==Controversy==
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[[Lacan]] remarks that [[psychoanalysis]] is quite literally a [[talking cure]], with speech as its sole medium, and goes on to describe the [[unconscious]] as being structured like a [[language]] (1957).
  
−
Many modern philosophers and social scientists either dispute the concept of an unconscious, or argue that it is not something that can be scientifically investigated or discussed rationally. In the social sciences, this view was first brought forward by [[John B. Watson|John Watson]], considered to be the first American behaviourist. Among philosophers, [[Karl Popper]] was one of Freud's most notable contemporary opponents. Popper argued that Freud's theory of the unconscious was not [[Falsifiability|falsifiable]], and therefore not scientifical. However, critics of Popper have underlined that Popper's exclusion of psychoanalysis from the normal domain of science was a direct consequence of his specific definition of science as being constituted by what may be falsifiable. In other words, Popper defined science in terms which necessarily led to the exclusion of psychoanalysis. Thus, defining science in another way may lead to including psychoanalysis into this domain of [[knowledge]].
+
Drawing on the [[linguistics]] of [[Saussure]] and [[Jakobson]]'s work on 'aphasia', [[Lacan]] argues that [[symptom]]s and [[unconscious]] [[formation]]s such as the [[dream-work]] display the same formal properties as the rhetorical devices of [[metaphor]]/[[metonymy]], which he likens to the mechanisms of [[condensation]] and [[displacement]].
  
−
Still, many, perhaps most, psychologists and cognitive scientists agree that many things of which we are not conscious happen in our mind(s).
+
=Quotes=
 +
<blockquote>The division of mental life into what is conscious and what is unconscious is the fundamental premise on which psycho-analysis is based; and this division alone makes it possible for it to understand pathological mental processes, which are as common as they are important, and to co-ordinate them scientifically. Stated once more in a different way: psycho-analysis cannot accept the view that consciousness is the essence of mental life, but is obliged to regard consciousness as one property of mental life, which may co-exist along with its other properties or may be absent.<ref>{{F}} "[[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|Consciousness and the Unconscious]]." pp. 9-10</blockquote>
  
−
John Watson criticizes the idea of an "unconscious mind," because he wanted scientists to focus on observable behaviors, seen from the outside, rather than on introspection. Karl Popper objected not so much to the idea that things happened in our minds that we are unconscious of; he objected to investigations of mind that were not falsifiable. If Freud could connect every imaginable experimental outcome with his theory of the unconscious mind, then no experiment can refute his theory.
+
Consciousness
  
−
The argument seems to be about ''how'' mind will be studied, not whether there is anything that happens unconsciously or not.
+
<blockquote>The term 'conscious' is, to start with, a purely descriptive one, resting on a perception of the most direct and certain character. Experience shows, next, that a mental element (for instance, an idea) is not as a rule permanently conscious. On the contrary, a state of consciousness is characteristically very transitory; an idea that is conscious now is no longer so a moment later, although it can become so again under certain conditions that are easily brought about.<ref>{{F}} "[[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|Consciousness and the Unconscious]]." p. 10</ref></blockquote>
  
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==Pre-Freudian history of the idea==
+
<blockquote>We obtain our concept of the unconscious, therefore, from the theory of repression. The repressed serves us as a prototype of the unconscious. We see, however, that we have two kinds of unconscious-that which is latent but capable of becoming conscious, and that which is repressed and not capable of becoming conscious in the ordinary way. This piece of insight into mental dynamics cannot fail to affect terminology and description. That which is latent, and only unconscious in the descriptive and not in the dynamic sense, we call preconscious; the term unconscious we reserve for the dynamically unconscious repressed, so that we now have three terms, conscious (Cs), preconscious (Pcs), and unconscious (Ucs), which are no longer purely descriptive in sense. The Pcs is presumably a great deal closer
−
The idea originated in antiquity, and its more modern history is detailed in Henri F. Ellenberger's ''Discovery of the Unconscious'' (Basic Books, 1970).  
+
</blockquote>
 +
=Unsorted=
  
−
Certain philosophers preceding Sigmund Freud, such as [[Gottfried Leibniz|Leibniz]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]], and [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]], developed ideas foreshadowing the modern idea of the unconscious. The new [[medical]] science of [[psychoanalysis]] established by Freud and his disciples popularized this and similar notions such as the role of the [[libido]] (sex drive) and the self-destructive urge of [[thanatos]] (death wish), and the famous [[Oedipus complex]], wherein a son seeks to "kill" his father to make love to his own mother.
+
While the notion of a non-conscious part of the mind or psyche has a long history in both philosophy and the psychological sciences, Sigmund Freud is often credited with the discovery of the unconscious.
  
−
The term was popularized by Freud. He developed the idea that there were layers to human consciousness: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.  He thought that certain psychic events take place "below the surface", or in the unconscious mind. A good example is [[dreams|dreaming]], which Freud called the "royal road to the unconscious".
+
The "[[unconscious]]",  
  
−
==See also==
+
The concept of the [[unconscious]] lies at the center of [[psychoanalysis]].
  
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==External links==
+
[[Freud]] is credited with the discovery of the "[[unconscious]]", the concept of which lies at the center of [[psychoanalysis]].
  
 +
---
 +
Freud recognized that the term ‘unconscious’ was better used as a descriptive adjective rather than as a topographical noun.
  
−
<ref>unconscious 12-13, 19-36, 39-41, 43, 45-8, 56, 56-60, 68, 72, 76, 79, 82-3, 100, 102, * 104, 119, 125-31, 133-50, 152-5, 156-7, 161-2, 174, 176, 181, 187-8, 197, 199-200, 203, * 207-8, 217, 221, 224, 231-2, 235, 242, 247, 249-52, 257, 260, 263, 267, 274 [[Seminar XI]]</ref>
+
=References=
 +
unconscious 12-13, 19-36, 39-41, 43, 45-8, 56, 56-60, 68, 72, 76, 79, 82-3, 100, 102, * 104, 119, 125-31, 133-50, 152-5, 156-7, 161-2, 174, 176, 181, 187-8, 197, 199-200, 203, * 207-8, 217, 221, 224, 231-2, 235, 242, 247, 249-52, 257, 260, 263, 267, 274 [[Seminar XI]]
  
 +
=Links=
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* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_mind
  
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== References ==
 
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<references/>
 
  
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[[Category:Terms]]
 
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[[Category:Concepts]]
 
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[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
 
  
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[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
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{{Encore}}
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: [[Unconsciously|Unconscious]], 4, 14, 21-22, 34, 99, 104-5, 115, 131, 135, 137, 139, 141, 144-45
 +
:: as [[language]], 15, 48, 56, 67, 96, 100, 135, 139, 142
 +
:: [[language]] of, 51,110
 +
:: [[meaning]] and, 88
 +
:: [[signifying chain]] and, 135
 +
:: [[subject]] and, 21, 37, 81, 87-88

Latest revision as of 07:28, 8 November 2006

Freudian Dictionary

The oldest and best meaning of the word "unconscious" is the descriptive one; we call "unconscious" any mental process the existence of which we are obliged to assume-because, for instance, we infer it in some way from its effects-but of which we are not directly aware .... If we want to be more accurate, we should modify the statement by saying that we call a process "unconscious" when we have to assume that it was active at a certain time, although at that time we knew nothing about it.[1]

Certainly, large portions of the ego and super-ego can remain unconscious, are, in fact, normally unconscious. That means to say that the individual knows nothing of their contents and that it requires an expenditure of effort to make him conscious of them. It is true, then, that ego and conscious, repressed and unconscious do not coincide.[2]

Unconscious and Preconscious

There are two kinds of unconscious, which have not as yet been distinguished by psychologists. Both are unconscious in the psychological sense; but in our sense the first, which we call Ucs., is likewise incapable of consciousness; whereas the second we call Pcs. because its excitations, after the observance of certain rules, are capable of reaching consciousness; perhaps not before they have again undergone censorship, but nevertheless regardless of the Ucs. system. The fact that in order to attain consciousness the excitations must pass through an unalterable series, a succession of instances, as is betrayed by the changes produced in them by the censorship, has enabled us to describe them by analogy in spatial terms. We described the relations of the two systems to each other and to consciousness by saying that the system Pcs. is like a screen between the system Ucs. and consciousness. The system Pcs. not only bars access to consciousness, but also controls the access to voluntary motility, and has control of the emission of a mobile cathectic energy, a portion of which is familiar to us as attention.[3]


UNCONSCIOUS MENTAL PROCESSES, TIMELESSNESS OF

We have found by experience that unconscious mental processes are in themselves "timeless." That is to say to begin with: they are not arranged chronologically, time alters nothing in them, nor can the idea of time be applied to them. [4]


Below

Sigmund Freud

Although the term "unconscious" had been used by writers prior to Freud, it acquires a completely original meaning in his work, in which it constitutes the single most important concept.

Definition

Freud distinguished between two uses of the term "unconscious."[5]

Adjective

The adjective it is very widely used to refer to any element of mental or psychic activity that is not present within the field of consciousness; as an adjective, it simply refers to mental or psychic processes that are not the subject of, that occur in the absence of, conscious awareness, thought, attention, perception or control.

Noun
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Freud's Model of the Unconscious

As a noun, the noun-form designates one of the psychical systems described by Freud in his topographical model of the psyche, his first theory of mental structure.

"Topological Model"

The "topographical model" divides the mind or psyche into three separate component parts -- or "psychical localities":

The unconscious system is not merely that which is outside the field of consciousness at a given time, but that which has been radically separated from consciousness by repression and thus cannot enter the conscious-preconscious system without distortion.

"Structural Model"

Freud's second model of the mind or psyche -- the "Structural theory" -- consisted of three "agencies":

In this model, no one agency is identical to the unconscious, since even the ego and the superego have unconscious parts.

Jacques Lacan

Early Work

Lacan, before 1950, uses the term "unconscious" principally in its adjectival form, making his early work seem particularly strange to those who are more familiar with Freud's writings.

Later Work

In the 1950s, however, as Lacan begins his "return to Freud," the term appears more frequently as a noun, and Lacan increasingly emphasizes the originality of Freud's concept of the unconscious, stressing that it is not merely the opposite of consciousness.

"A large number of psychical effects that are quite legitimately designated as unconscious, in the sense of excluding the characteristics of consciousness, are nonetheless without any relation whatever to the unconscious in the Freudian sense."[6]

He also insists that the unconscious cannot simply be equated with "that which is repressed."

Biological Reductionism

Lacan argues that the concept of the unconscious was badly misunderstood by most of Freud's followers, who reduced it to being "merely the seat of the instincts."[7]

Against this biologistic mode of thought, Lacan argues that "the unconscious is neither primordial nor instinctual;"[8] it is primarily linguistic.

Language

This is summed up in Lacan's famous formula, "the unconscious is structured like a language."[9]

Lacan's analysis of the unconscious in terms of synchronic structure is supplemented by his idea of the unconscious opening and closing in a temporal pulsation.[10]

Criticism

Lacan himself qualifies his linguistic approach by arguing that the reason why the unconscious is structured like a language is that "we only grasp the unconscious finally when it is explicated, in that part of it which is articulated by passing into words."[11]

Discourse

Lacan also describes the unconscious as a discourse: "The unconscious is the discourse of the Other."[12]

This enigmatic formula, which has become one of Lacan's most famous dictums, can be understood in many ways.

Perhaps the most important meaning is that "one should see in the unconscious the effects of speech on the subject."[13]

More precisely, the unconscious is the effects of the signifier on the subject, in that the signifier is what is repressed and what returns in the formations of the unconscious (symptoms, jokes, parapraxes, dreams, etc.).

Symbolic

All the references to language, speech, discourse and signifiers clearly locate the unconscious in the order of the symbolic.

Indeed, "the unconscious is structured as a function of the symbolic."[14]

The unconscious is the determination of the subject by the symbolic order.

Exteriority

The unconscious is not interior: on the contrary, since speech and language are intersubjective phenomena, the unconscious is "transindividual."[15]

The unconscious is, so to speak, "outside."

"This exteriority of the symbolic in relation to man is the very notion of the unconscious."[16]

If the unconscious seems interior, this is an effect of the imaginary, which blocks the relationship between the subject and the Other and which inverts the message of the Other.

Formations

Although the unconscious is especially visible in the formations of the unconscious, "the unconscious leaves none of our actions outside its field."[17]

The laws of the unconscious, which are those of repetition and desire, are as ubiquitous as structure itself.

The unconscious is irreducible, so the aim of analysis cannot be to make conscious the unconscious.

In addition to the various linguistic metaphors which Lacan draws on to conceptualize the unconscious (discourse, language, speech), he also conceives of the unconscious in other terms.

Memory

The unconscious is also a kind of memory, in the sense of a symbolic history of the signifiers that have determined the subject in the course of his life.

"What we teach the subject to recognize as his unconscious is his history."[18]

Knowledge

Since it is an articulation of signifiers in a signifying chain, the unconscious is a kind of knowledge (symbolic knowledge, or savoir).

More precisely, it is an "unknown knowledge."

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Template:NILP Ch. 3
  2. ↑ Template:NILP Ch. 3
  3. ↑ Template:IoD Ch. 7
  4. ↑ Template:BPP Ch. 4
  5. ↑ Freud, Sigmund. "The Unconscious." 1915e. SE XIV, 161
  6. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.163
  7. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 147
  8. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 170
  9. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book III. The Psychoses, 1955-56. Trans. Russell Grigg. London: Routledge, 1993. p.167
  10. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p. 143, 204
  11. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-60. Trans. Dennis Porter. London: Routledge, 1992. p. 32
  12. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 1966. p. 16
  13. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p. 126
  14. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-60. Trans. Dennis Porter. London: Routledge, 1992. p. 12
  15. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.49
  16. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 1966. p.469
  17. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.163
  18. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.52






Critical Dictionary

As a noun, it designates one of the psychical systems which Freud described in his first theory of mental structure (the "topographical model").

The noun-form is now usually used in the psychoanalytic sense, and refers to the unconscious system described by Freud's first topography of the psyche.

In the second topography, the unconscious system is replaced by the agency of the id, but [Freud]] continues to use "unconscious" as an adjective.

Although Freud is often credited with the discovery of the unconscious, it is clear tha tthe notion of a non-conscious part of the mind has a long history in both philosophy and the psychological sciences.

A distinction has been made between the Freudian unconscious and Jung's concept of a 'collective unconscious'.

---

Freud's initial desriptions of the unconscious are based upon his analysis of dreams (1900).

Dreams are described as the royal road the the unconscious because they represent the fulfilment of unconscious wishes that are inadmissible to the preconscious-conscious system, usually because of their sexual nature.

Further confirmation of the existence of an unconscious system is provided by Freud's study of phenomena such as parapraxis (101) and jokes (1905b); everyday phenomena such as slips of the tongue, bungled actions, lapses of memory and the inability to recall names all point to the existence of the unconscious.

---

The contents of the unconscious are described as representatives of the drives and as unconscious wishes and desires that are organized into imaginary scenarios and narratives.

Many of these elements have been subjecte to repression or have been refused entry to the conscious mind.

Others relate to fantasies or memories relating to the primal scene or the Oedipus complex.

At times, Freud further speculates that the unconscious also contains elements of a phylogenetic heritage made up of residual elements of the vicissitudes of human history.[1]

---

Insofar as it is a system, the unconscious is described by Freud as having a number of special characteristics.

It is governed by the primary processes of the free circulation of energy and libido, and characterized by the mobility of cathexis.

The unconscious is timeless, indifferent to external reality, oblivious to the notions of negation and doubt, and obeys only the pleasure principle.

---

Virtually all post-Freudian psychoanalysis may be regarded as contributing to an understanding of the unconscious, but the most extensive reworking of the concept is that propounded by Lacan.

In his celebrated "Rome Discourse" on the field and function of language and speech in psychoanalysis (1953), Lacan describes the unconscious as the censored chapter in the history of the individual subject.

The truth of this censored chapter can, however, be found elsewhere; it exists in the form of 'monuments' such as the nuclei of a neurosis, the symptoms that can be read like some strange language.

It can be found in the 'documents' of infantile memories, in the indivudal's character traits, and in the fragments that link the censored chapter to the chapters that precede and follow it.

Lacan remarks that psychoanalysis is quite literally a talking cure, with speech as its sole medium, and goes on to describe the unconscious as being structured like a language (1957).

Drawing on the linguistics of Saussure and Jakobson's work on 'aphasia', Lacan argues that symptoms and unconscious formations such as the dream-work display the same formal properties as the rhetorical devices of metaphor/metonymy, which he likens to the mechanisms of condensation and displacement.

Quotes

The division of mental life into what is conscious and what is unconscious is the fundamental premise on which psycho-analysis is based; and this division alone makes it possible for it to understand pathological mental processes, which are as common as they are important, and to co-ordinate them scientifically. Stated once more in a different way: psycho-analysis cannot accept the view that consciousness is the essence of mental life, but is obliged to regard consciousness as one property of mental life, which may co-exist along with its other properties or may be absent.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag

We obtain our concept of the unconscious, therefore, from the theory of repression. The repressed serves us as a prototype of the unconscious. We see, however, that we have two kinds of unconscious-that which is latent but capable of becoming conscious, and that which is repressed and not capable of becoming conscious in the ordinary way. This piece of insight into mental dynamics cannot fail to affect terminology and description. That which is latent, and only unconscious in the descriptive and not in the dynamic sense, we call preconscious; the term unconscious we reserve for the dynamically unconscious repressed, so that we now have three terms, conscious (Cs), preconscious (Pcs), and unconscious (Ucs), which are no longer purely descriptive in sense. The Pcs is presumably a great deal closer

Unsorted

While the notion of a non-conscious part of the mind or psyche has a long history in both philosophy and the psychological sciences, Sigmund Freud is often credited with the discovery of the unconscious.

The "unconscious",

The concept of the unconscious lies at the center of psychoanalysis.

Freud is credited with the discovery of the "unconscious", the concept of which lies at the center of psychoanalysis.

--- Freud recognized that the term ‘unconscious’ was better used as a descriptive adjective rather than as a topographical noun.

References

unconscious 12-13, 19-36, 39-41, 43, 45-8, 56, 56-60, 68, 72, 76, 79, 82-3, 100, 102, * 104, 119, 125-31, 133-50, 152-5, 156-7, 161-2, 174, 176, 181, 187-8, 197, 199-200, 203, * 207-8, 217, 221, 224, 231-2, 235, 242, 247, 249-52, 257, 260, 263, 267, 274 Seminar XI

Links


Index
Unconscious, 4, 14, 21-22, 34, 99, 104-5, 115, 131, 135, 137, 139, 141, 144-45
as language, 15, 48, 56, 67, 96, 100, 135, 139, 142
language of, 51,110
meaning and, 88
signifying chain and, 135
subject and, 21, 37, 81, 87-88
  1. ↑ 1915d
    2. Retrieved from "https://nosubject.com/index.php?title=Talk:Unconscious&oldid=21180"