Some links + research to help tease out some information
Science based research for the unconscious
http://www.lifetrainings.com/Your-unconscious-mind-is-running-you-life.html
It's now a proven fact - Your unconscious mind is running your life!
New perspective introduced by molecular biologists
Professor of medicine at Stanford University, Dr Bruce Lipton.
-Genes are in fact controlled and manipulated by how our minds perceive and interpret our environment.
Formerly believed our genes determine much about us, with this then it is how we interpret things that can.
E.g. if we interpret things in a positive way then we will be happier - better quality and healthier lives
Does away with old Newtonian concepts that the body is mechanical and accepts mind and spirit
Two minds
"The subconscious mind cannot move outside its fixed programs – it
automatically reacts to situations with its previously stored behavior
responses. AND (here’s the rub), it works without the knowledge or
control of the conscious mind. This is why we are generally unaware of
our behavior, in fact most of the time we are not even aware that we are
acting unconsciously."
"Studies from as far back as the seventies show that our brains begin to
prepare for action just over a third of a second before we consciously
decide to act. In other words, even when we ‘think’ we are conscious, it
is our unconscious mind which is actually making our decisions for us."
Unconscious mind much more powerful than the concscious
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"When making a decision of minor importance, I have always found it
advantageous to consider all the pros and cons. In vital matters however
. . . the decision should come from the unconscious, from somewhere
within ourselves."
— Sigmund Freud
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A little overview on unconscious
http://www.trans4mind.com/jamesharveystout/unc-mind.htm
What is the unconscious mind? it is
simply the psychological processes (and the archetypal-field
elements) of which we are not aware at any moment.
The
conscious mind is like a spotlight, illuminating
something which we are pondering; by default, the unconscious
mind is everything which is not in that spotlight. The "unconscious
mind" is the same as the "subconscious mind"; the first term
("unconscious mind") is preferred by psychotherapists, while the
second term ("subconscious mind') is preferred by writers of popular
psychology.
The relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind
contents can pass between them, such as when we remember something, or when we are aware of certain things we focus on one of them at a time, generally
Influence on each other
-The conscious mind influences the unconscious mind. As we
create thoughts and imagery and energy tones, this material is
registered in the corresponding archetypal fields; when our
attention moves to other subjects (i.e., when the conscious
mind's "spotlight" shifts), we say that the material is now in
the unconscious mind. Thus, we are continually generating the
material which will constitute the unconscious mind.
-The unconscious mind influences the conscious mind. While
the material is in the unconscious (i.e., when the conscious
mind's "spotlight" is focused on something else), that material
affects us in various ways:
- If affects us via the dynamic which is explained in the chapters regarding archetypal fields, archetypal field-work, and karma. Whenever we encounter an archetype, we leave a permanent record of the thoughts, images, energy tones, and actions which we created during that encounter. The record remains in what I call the "archetypal field" or "a-field." When we encounter that archetype again, we tend to "default" to the elements which have lingered in the a-field from previous encounters. Because this "default" is generally an act of habit and unconsciousness, we can say that it is the unconscious mind which is affecting us.
- It offers new possibilities for the conscious mind. When the conscious mind becomes barren in its habits and ruts, the material of the unconscious mind provides new energy, perspectives, options, and creative inspiration. Indeed, the unconscious mind offers a well-spring of useful material. However, it also contains material which can be very disturbing. When we explore the unconscious mind, we will surely discover both the pleasant and the unpleasant -- and we do need to be careful, because the material can disturb our narrow definition of "who we are," our familiar habits of behavior, our plans, and our sense of morality and aesthetics and rationality and protocol.
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What is the unconscious?
http://www.mindswork.co.uk/wpblog/what-is-the-unconscious/
Freudian Unconscious
"That is a dark place within all of our psyches that is unknowable to us. It is full of sexual longings and fantasies, violent wishes, aggressive tendencies, and selfish desires. For Freud, the unconscious was full of instinctual longings that are very basic, animal like, or at best, infantile. They exist outside of consciousness"
"In psychoanalytic treatment, Freud referred to this as “resistance” — however, once resistances are overcome, we can learn to be more conscious of our unconscious processes, and make better choices for ourselves in our lives."
"One of the most powerful aspects of the unconscious is “transference”. In transference, we unconsciously transfer experiences and ideas we have from previous relationships onto current ones. In the simplest of terms, this is how you might respond to authority (your boss, teacher, or therapist) as if they were your father or your mother. Transference happens all the time, especially in close relationships — so if you think your relationship with your partner often seems to uncannily resemble your parents’ relationship, this is transference in action. We don’t just “marry our mother or father” we actually tend to make our partners into our mothers or fathers!"
"Freud understood this as a “repetition compulsion.” The compulsion to repeat is one of Freud’s most difficult to understand concepts — but in its simplest terms, it means that until we learn better, we are likely to repeat over and over again relationships and responses to the world that simply do not work for us. Because this process is unconscious, it can be very difficult to shift. It’s pretty much the aim of psychoanalysis to make ourselves as conscious as we can of our repetition compulsions, so we can be freer to make decisions in the world that work better for us"
"Another term Freud used was “reality testing” — this is very important. If we let ourselves be led only by our transferences and our repetition compulsions, we will never see the world as it really is — that is, instead of seeing your (male) boss, you’ll see remnants of your persecuting father and respond accordingly, for example; or instead of seeing the potential for a warm relationship with a female friend or lover, you will see your overbearing mother and run for cover. These two examples are intentionally “gendered” to make the example as clear as possible — but it’s important to know that transferences transcend gender."
Freud no longer rules the roost when it comes to the unconscious, and there are few therapists or analysts left today who believe the limited version of unconsciousness that Freud gave us.
Melanie Klein developed Freud’s theory by teaching us how the unconscious forms from the very earliest of life experience –right from birth and the very important experiences of feeding and weaning. Klein’s unconscious is pretty dark too — involving all sorts of violent aggressive fantasies (though for Klein these are described as “phantasies” with the “ph” distinguishing unconscious phantasy from daydreaming or sexual fantasies).
Carl Jung, who worked alongside Freud for a long while until he went off in his own direction, was very interested in how the unconscious of all of us could be linked in some way — he referred to this as the “collective unconscious” and laid out how our shared human experience was also shared unconsciously. Elements of this collective unconscious were described to be “archetypes” and such archetypes are available to all of us. Rather than being simply aggressive or negative (which Jung assigned to a part of the unconscious he referred to as “the shadow”) the help us to “individuate” that is, to become more deeply ourselves. This idea brings us out of Freud’s individual unconscious into a worldview that links all human experience as shared on the level of the collective unconscious.
Many researchers coming out of experimental psychology don’t really buy a great deal of what is discussed above. This, for them, is all about speculation. They ask what can be proven about the unconscious — and there is a great deal of work happening in this area
Jonah Lehrer’s excellent book How we Decide is an excellent introduction into how the unconscious informs our decision-making. It can be very strange to read as it makes the reader feel, at times, that we are rather “determined”: meaning that we don’t have as much free-choice as we think we might. How is it, asks Lehrer, that a running-back in American football knows to deviate left, rather than right, to catch a ball? There is no time to consciously make such a decision. How does the professional poker player know that the other player is thinking? While there is some degree of conscious thought here, a great deal of visible and invisible cues are also being processed unconsciously. What results is a development of what could be called “intuition” that, rather than simply being a “hunch” is actually informed by the unconscious assimilation of lots of clues.
This next link could be interesting for later... social networks
Another recent book, Connected by Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler, while not talking specifically about the unconscious, talk very interestingly about how our social networks affect us more deeply than we might think — they affect us through a form of social unconsciousness. While this is not quite what Jung was talking about, it is a fascinating insight into how we as humans are deeply affected by things that we may not even be aware of. Steven Pinker (one of my favourite popular science authors) has a lot to say about the relationship between evolution and psychology. The field of Evolutionary Psychology has some problems with psychoanalytic perspectives of the unconscious, yet proposes its own notion of the unconscious as a function of our biological heritage. It tries to make sense of human behaviour through the influence of our genes.
Simon Johnson www.thephilosophicalphotographer.co.uk
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