Changes

In [[psychoanalytic theory]], the '''[[unconscious]]''' refers to that part of [[mental ]] functioning of which [[subject (philosophy)|subjects]] make themselves 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 (psychology)|psyche]] is composed of different levels of consciousness, often defined in [[three ]] parts as

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.

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]].

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 ]] [[drive (psychoanalysis)|drive]] 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.

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]].

[[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 [[symbol]]s that appear in the [[mythologies]] of nearly all peoples.

[[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]] of [[Anna Freud]] and her American followers.

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]].

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 [[scientific]]. 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]].

The argument seems to be about ''how'' mind will be studied, not whether there is anything that happens [[unconsciously ]] or not.

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".