unconscious ({{Top}}[[inconscient) Although the term ]]]]'unconscious' had been|-|| [[German]]: ''[[Unbewußte{{Bottom}}
==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]]. [[Freud]] distinguished between two uses of the term "[[unconscious]]."<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Unconscious]]." 1915e. [[SE]] XIV, 161</ref> 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]]. As a ''noun'', the ''noun-[[form]]'' designates one of the ''[[psychical]] systems'' described by [[Freud]] in his [[topology|topographical model]] of the [[psyche]], hisfirst [[theory]] of [[psyche|mental]] [[structure]].
work[[Image:Freudpsyche.gif|thumb|300px|right|[[Unconscious|Freud's Model of the Unconscious]]]]==="Topological Model"===The "'''[[topographical model]]'''" [[divides]] the [[mind]] or [[psyche]] into [[three]] [[separate]] component parts -- or "[[scene|psychical localities]]":* the '''[[conscious]]''' ('''[[conscious|Cs]]'''), in which it constitutes * the single most important concept.'''[[preconscious]]''' ('''[[preconscious|Pcs]]''') and* the [[unconscious]] ('''[[unconscious|Ucs]]''')
Freud distinguished between two uses of the term The [[unconscious|unconscious system]] is not merely that which is ''[[outside]]'unconscious' (Freudthe 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]].
19l5e). As an adjective==="Structural Model"===[[Freud]]'s second [[model]] of the [[mind]] or [[psyche]] -- the "'''[[Structural theory]]'''" -- consisted of three "'''[[agencies]]'''":* the '''[[id]]''',* the '''[[ego]]''', it simply refers to mental processes that are not and* the'''[[superego]]'''
subject of conscious attention at a given moment. As a noun (In this model, no one '''[[agency]]''' is identical to the [[unconscious]], since even the [[ego]] and the [[superego]] have [[unconscious;]] parts.
das Unbewuflte)==Jacques Lacan=====Early Work===[[Lacan]], it designates one of before 1950, uses the psychical systems which 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]].
described in ===Later Work===In the 1950s, however, as [[Lacan]] begins his first theory of mental structure ("[[return to Freud]]," the term appears more frequently as a ''noun'topographical model'), and [[Lacan]] increasingly emphasizes the originality of [[Freud]]'s concept of the [[unconscious]], stressing that it is not merely the opposite of [[consciousness]].
According <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 this theory, the mind is divided into three systems or 'psychicalunconscious in the [[Freudian]] sense."<ref>{{E}} p.163</ref></blockquote>
localities'; the conscious (Cs), the preconscious (Pcs) and He also insists that the [[unconscious]] cannot simply be equated with "[[unconscious|that which is repressed]]."
(Ucs)===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]]."<ref>{{E}} p. The 147</ref> Against this [[biology|biologistic]] mode of [[thought]], [[Lacan]] argues that "the unconscious system is not merely that which neither primordial nor [[instinctual]];"<ref>{{E}} p. 170</ref> it is outside the field ofprimarily [[linguistic]].
consciousness at ===Language===This is summed up in [[Lacan]]'s famous [[formula]], "[[unconscious|the unconscious is structured like a language]]."<ref>{{S3}} p.167</ref> [[Lacan]]'s analysis of the [[unconscious]] in [[terms]] of [[synchronic]] [[structure]] is supplemented by his [[idea]] of the [[unconscious]] opening and closing in a given [[time|temporal pulsation]].<ref>{{S11}} p. 143, but that which has been radically separated from204</ref>
consciousness ===Criticism===[[Lacan]] himself qualifies his [[linguistic]] approach by repression and thus cannot enter arguing that the conscious-preconscious[[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>
system without distortion===Discourse===[[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. 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.).
In Freud'===Symbolic===All the references to [[language]], [[speech]], [[discourse]] and [[signifier]]s second theory clearly locate the [[unconscious]] in the [[order]] of mental structure (the 'structural theory')[[symbolic]]. <blockquote>Indeed, "the unconscious is [[structured]] as a function of [[thesymbolic]]."<ref>{{S7}} p. 12</ref></blockquote>
omd The [[unconscious]] is divided into the three "agencies' determination of ego, superego and idthe [[subject]] by the [[symbolic order]]. In this model,
no one agency ===Exteriority===The [[unconscious]] is identical to not interior: on the unconsciouscontrary, since even the ego [[speech]] and [[language]] are [[intersubjective]] phenomena, the[[unconscious]] is "transindividual."<ref>{{E}} p.49</ref> The [[unconscious]] is, so to [[speak]], "outside."
superego have <blockquote>"This exteriority of the symbolic in relation to man is the very [[notion]] of the unconscious parts."<ref>{{Ec}} p.469</ref></blockquote>
LacanIf the [[unconscious]] seems interior, before 1950this is an effect of the [[imaginary]], uses which blocks the [[relationship]] between the [[subject]] and the [[Other]] and which [[invert]]s the [[message]] of the term 'unconscious' principally in its adjectival[[Other]].
form===Formations===Although the [[unconscious]] is especially [[visible]] in the [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]], making his early work seem particularly strange to "the unconscious leaves none of our actions outside its field."<ref>{{E}} p. 163</ref> The [[law]]s of the [[unconscious]], which are those who of [[repetition]] and [[desire]], are moreas 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]] [[metaphor]]s which [[Lacan]] draws on to conceptualize the [[unconscious]] ([[discourse]], [[language]], [[speech]]), he also conceives of the [[unconscious]] in other terms.
familiar with Freud'===Memory===The [[unconscious]] is also a kind of [[memory]], in the sense of a [[symbolic]] [[history]] of the [[signifier]]s writings. In that have determined the [[subject]] in the 1950s, however, as Lacan begins course of his[[life]].
.return <blockquote>"What we teach the subject to Freud', the term appears more frequently recognize as a noun, and Lacanhis unconscious is his history."<ref>{{E}} p.52</ref></blockquote>
increasingly emphasises the originality ===Knowledge===Since it is an articulation of Freud'[[signifier]]s concept of in a [[signifying chain]], the [[unconscious]] is a kind of [[knowledge]] ([[symbolic]] [[knowledge]],or ''[[savoir]]''). More precisely, it is an "[[unconscious|unknown knowledge]]."
stressing that it is not merely the opposite of consciousness; 'a large number of==See Also=={{See}}* [[Biology]]* [[Consciousness]]* [[Discourse]]||* [[Desire]]* [[Drive]]* [[Instinct]]||* [[Knowledge]]* [[Language]]* [[Linguistics]]||* [[Memory]]* [[Repetition]]* [[Signifier]]||* [[Speech]]* [[Structure]]* [[Symbolic]]
psychical effects that are quite legitimately designated as unconscious, in the{{Also}}
sense of excluding the characteristics of consciousness, are nonetheless with==References==<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small"><references/> out any relation whatever to the unconscious in the Freudian sense' (E, 163). He also insists that the unconscious cannot simply be equated with 'that which is repressed'. 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' (E, 147). Against this biologistic mode of thought, Lacan argues that 'the unconscious is neither primordial nor instinctual' (E, 170); it is primarily linguistic. This is summed up in Lacan's famous formula, 'the unconscious is structured like a language' (S3, 167; see LANGUAGE, STRUCTURE). 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</div>
(S11, 143, 204).{{OK}}[[Category:Dictionary]]
Some psychoanalysts 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 (S7, 44; for
Lacan's refutation of these objections, see THING). Lacan himself qualifies his
linguistic approach by arguing that the reason why the unconscious is struc-
tured 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' (S7,
32).
Lacan also describes the unconscious as a discourse: 'The unconscious is the
discourse of the Other' (Ec, 16; see OTHER). 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' (Sll, 126). More pre-
cisely, 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.).
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' (S7, 12). The unconscious is the
determination of the subject by the symbolic order.
The unconscious is not interior: on the contrary, since speech and language
are intersubjective phenomena, the unconscious is 'transindividual' (E, 49);
the unconscious is, so to speak, 'outside'. 'This exteriority of the symbolic in
relation to man is the very notion of the unconscious' (Ec, 469). 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.
Although the unconscious is especially visible in the formations of the
unconscious, 'the unconscious leaves none of our actions outside its field'
(E, 163). 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
conceptualise the unconscious (discourse, language, speech), he also conceives
of the unconscious in other terms.
g 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' (E, p. 52).
e 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'.
==def==
''For the physiological state of "being unconscious", as when knocked-out or asleep, see [[unconsciousness]].''
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]].
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.
As defined by [[Sigmund Freud]], the [[psyche]] is composed of different levels of consciousness, often defined in three parts as
*preconsciousness
*the waking [[consciousness]]
*and beneath both of these, the unconscious.
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]].
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.
==The psychoanlytic unconscious==
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]].
===Freud's definition===
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.
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).
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]].)
Freud's theory of the unconscious was substantially transformed by some of his followers, among them [[Carl Jung]] and [[Jacques Lacan]].
===Jung's [[collective unconscious]]===
[[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.
===Lacan's linguistic unconscious===
[[Jacques Lacan]]'s [[psychoanalytic theory]] contends that the unconscious is structured like a language.
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]]).
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.
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 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]].
==Controversy==
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]].
Still, many, perhaps most, psychologists and cognitive scientists agree that many things of which we are not conscious happen in our mind(s).
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.
The argument seems to be about ''how'' mind will be studied, not whether there is anything that happens unconsciously or not.
==Pre-Freudian history of the idea==
The idea originated in antiquity, and its more modern history is detailed in Henri F. Ellenberger's ''Discovery of the Unconscious'' (Basic Books, 1970).
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.
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".
==See also==
* [[Carl Jung]]'s concept of a [[collective unconscious]]
* [[Jacques Lacan]]'s assertion that "the unconscious is structured like a language".
* [[consciousness]]
* [[mind's eye]]
* [[transpersonal psychology]]
* [[Unconscious communication]]
* [[Psychology of religion]]
==External links==
*[[Donald Olding Hebb|Hebbian]] [http://cogprints.org/1652/00/hebb.html Unconscious]
*[http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrm/rediscovery.htm The Rediscovery of the Unconscious]
*[http://cogprints.org/2130/00/dennett-chalmers.htm Unfelt Feelings]
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Terms]][[Category:Concepts]][[Category:Psychoanalysis]]__NOTOC__
