The unconscious mind (or subconscious) is the aspect or aspects of the mind of which we are not directly conscious or aware. The mind is the term most commonly used to describe the higher functions of the human brain, particularly those of which humans are subjectively conscious, such as personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... In biological psychology, awareness describes an animals perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event. ...

The unconscious mind should not be confused with "being unconscious" and unconsciousness which is loss of consciousness. Unconsciousness is the absence of consciousness. ...

History

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 Leibniz and Schopenhauer developed ideas foreshadowing the subconscious. 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. Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 - September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. ... Gottfried Leibniz Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (also Leibnitz) (Leipzig July 1, 1646 – November 14, 1716 in Hannover) was a German philosopher, scientist, mathematician, diplomat, librarian, and lawyer of Sorb descent. ... Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher. ... See drugs, medication, and pharmacology for substances that are used to treat patients. ... Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods which attempt to elucidate unconscious relations in a systematic way through an associative process. ... For the Peruvian rock group, see Libido (band). ... In Greek mythology, Thanatos (θάνατος, death) was the personification of death (Roman equivalent: Mors). ... The Oedipus complex is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud, who was inspired by Carl Jung (he described the concept and coined the term Complex), to explain the maturation of the infant through identification with the father and desire for the 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 dreaming, which Freud called the "royal road to the unconscious". Dreaming is the subjective experience of imaginary images, sounds/voices, thoughts or sensations during sleep, usually involuntarily. ...

In another of Freud's systematizations, the mind is divided into the Conscious mind or Ego and two parts of the Unconscious: the Id or instincts and the Superego. Freud used the idea of the unconscious in order to explain certain kinds of neurotic behavior. (See psychoanalysis.) eGO is a company that builds electric motor scooters which are becoming popular for urban transportation and vacation use. ... In his theory of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud sought to explain how the unconscious mind operates by proposing that it has a particular structure. ... Instinct is the word used to describe inherent dispositions towards particular actions. ... In his theory of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud sought to explain how the unconscious mind operates by proposing that it has a particular structure. ... Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods which attempt to elucidate unconscious relations in a systematic way through an associative process. ...

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. Missing image Carl Gustav Jung Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of a neopsychoanalytic school of psychology, which he named Analytical Psychology. ... Collective unconscious is a term of analytical psychology, and was originally coined by Carl Jung. ... Archetype is defined as the first original model of which all other similar persons, objects, or concepts are merely derivative, copied, patterned, or emulated. ...

There are other views. Jane Roberts (in the Seth books) presents a rich portrait of consciousness in which the unconscious mind is described as being clairvoyant and in communication with all other minds. The self that each of us experiences day-to-day is described as being but one facet of a richer and very complex multi-dimensional entity. Jane Roberts, a poet and psychic, wrote a number of books including The Education of Oversoul Seven and Adventures in Consciousness. ... Clairvoyance is defined as a form of radio waves). ...

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 Watson, considered to be the first American behaviourist. Among philosophers, Karl Popper was one of Freud's most notable contemporary opponents. Popper claimed that Freud's theory of the unconscious was not falsifiable. John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 - September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism. ... Behaviorism (or behaviourism) is an approach to psychology based on the proposition that behavior is interesting and worthy of scientific research. ... Karl Popper Sir Karl Raimund Popper (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994), was an Austrian-born, British philosopher of science. ... This page discusses how a theory or assertion is falsifiable (disprovable opp: verifiable), rather than the non-philosophical use of falsification, meaning counterfeiting. ...

Still, many, perhaps most, psychologists and cognitive scientists agree that many things happen in our mind that we aren't conscious of.

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.

Terminology

Somewhat related to the unconscious are nonconscious psychic events. The term nonconscious seems to be used in various ways – some appear to use the term to avoid the somewhat value-laden term “unconscious” or “subconscious” (but basically for the same purpose); some use it to refer to events that can only be observed indirectly (e.g. certain acts of short-term memory); some use it to point to events such as brain activity controlled mostly by the autonomic nervous system (e.g. emotional reactions to certain smells). Not surprisingly, there are no sharply delineated conventions for distinguishing exactly between the nonconscious and the unconscious – partly because they interact with each other, and partly because, as is so often the case, psychologists are unable to agree on the definitions. Memory is a property of the human mind: the ability to retain information. ... In the anatomy of animals, the brain, or encephalon, is the supervisory center of the nervous system. ... Anatomy and Physiology of the A.N.S. In contrast to the voluntary nervous system, the involuntary or autonomic nervous system is responsible for homeostasis, maintaining a relatively constant internal environment by controlling such involuntary functions as digestion, respiration, and metabolism, and by modulating blood pressure. ... Olfaction, the sense of smell, is the detection of chemicals dissolved in air (or, by animals that breathe water, in water). ... A psychologist is a researcher and/or a practitioner of psychology. ...

A distinction needs to be made between The Unconscious (or the unconscious mind, or the subconscious), which are concepts in psychoanalysis and related fields, and unconscious or nonconscious events in the mind, which are of great interest in cognition and perception. There are connections and similarities between the two but it would be quite wrong to use these two concepts interchangeably. Wiktionary has a definition of: Cognition The term cognition is used in several different loosely related ways. ... In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. ...

Unconscious mental processes

(Note: The next section does confuse the two but has not been removed because of the interesting examples that it gives)

The unconscious is arguably not the most intuitive idea, so why bother with it? What's the evidence? What might the unconscious explain?

• The fact that most bodily processes are not consciously controlled eg breathing, blood circulation, blinking
• The fact that something - not the conscious mind - creates the dreams that we wander around in at night
• The mind spontaneously moving from one idea or recollection to another
  • Creative ideas that do not appear to come from conscious thinking
  • Waking up in the morning with an insight or solution to a problem
  • All memory is unconscious. The act of remembering something means bringing the information stored outside our conscious mind into awareness.
  • The fact that we forget certain things but later spontaneously recall them
  • Intuition
• That we learn certain skills so that they become largely automatic eg driving a car, playing a sport
  • The fact that we can run downstairs without thinking where we place each footfall
• The instincts, such as self-preservation and sex, originate on an unconscious level
• The origin of all the bodily urges, such as hunger and thirst, lies outside the conscious mind
• Physical reflexes
• Subliminal perception. It is known that only a very tiny proportion of our bodily stimuli actually reach consciousness. Otherwise we would be swamped by billions of stimuli.
• Perception - a baby is not born able to recognise shapes but has to build up what is called perceptual stability during the first six months of life.
• The mental reaction of responding to a stimulus is not conscious but a pattern that is part of our conditioning eg our response to music
• Hypnosis and trance
• Psychological processes such as denial, introjection and psychological projection
• Our own motivation tends to be something we are not consciously aware of, a good example of which is: Falling in love
• With perhaps a few exceptions, nearly all our emotions are caused without our being aware of why at the time, though we may analyse them later
• We speak our native tongue without looking for words or consciously constructing grammatical phrases - this is done for us on an unconscious level

• Since without memory both thinking and learning would be impossible, the importance of the unconscious is far greater than may appear.

Human anatomy or anthropotomy is a special field within anatomy. ... For the play Breath by Samuel Beckett, see Breath (play). ... The circulatory system or cardiovascular system is the organ system which circulates blood around the body of most animals. ... This article refers to the sight organ. ... Dreaming is the subjective experience of imaginary images, sounds/voices, words, thoughts or sensations during sleep, usually involuntarily. ... The mind is the term most commonly used to describe the higher functions of the human brain, particularly those of which humans are subjectively conscious, such as personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. ... An idea (Greek: ιδέα) is the result of thinking. ... Recollection is retrieval of memory. ... One can define creativity as a tool to develop innovation. ... Insight is: the act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively; Power of acute observation and deduction; penetration; discernment; perception; introspection; Insight (magazine); A graphical user interface to GDB, the GNU Debugger written in Tcl/Tk by people working at Red Hat, Inc. ... This article or section should be merged with solvent, soluble, and solubility equilibrium Dissolving table salt in water In chemistry, a solution is one or more substance (the solute) dissolved in another substance (the solvent) forming a homogenous mixture. ... Problem refers to a situation, condition, or issue that is unresolved or undesired. ... Memory is a property of the human mind: the ability to retain information. ... Recollection is retrieval of memory. ... In biological psychology, awareness describes an animals perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event. ... Recollection is retrieval of memory. ... Intuition has many meanings across many cultures, including: quick and ready insight seemingly independent of previous experiences and empirical knowledge immediate apprehension or cognition knowledge or conviction gained by intuition the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference. ... A skill is an ability, usually learned, to perform actions. ... Driving is the controlled operation of a vehicle, which is usually a motor vehicle such as a truck, bus, motorcycle, or car. ... The word run can mean several things: Run has many dictionary definitions such as moving swiftly by foot. See Running, and Run in Wiktionary. ... Instinct is the word used to describe inherent dispositions towards particular actions. ... Hunger is applied literally to the need or craving for food; it can also be applied metaphorically to cravings of other sorts. ... Drinking is the act of consuming a liquid through the mouth, almost always largely consisting of water. ... A reflex action or reflex is a biological control system linking stimulus to response and mediated by a reflex arc. ... A subliminal message is a signal or message designed to pass below (sub) the normal limits of perception. ... In psychology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. ... Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul and logos = word) is the study of mind, thought, and behaviour. ... A stimulus is the following: In physiology, a stimulus (physiology) is something external that elicits or influences a physiological or psychological activity or response. ... A response is the following: Often a response is the result of a stimulus. ... Hypnosis does not have a single definition that is universally applicable. ... Trance is an altered state of consciousness. ... Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul and logos = word) is the study of mind, thought, and behaviour. ... Psychological projection (or projection bias) can be defined as unconsciously assuming that others share the same or similar thoughts, beliefs, values, or positions on any given subject. ... In psychology, motivation is the driving force (desire) behind all actions of an organism. ... In biological psychology, awareness describes an animals perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event. ... In psychology and common terminology, emotion is the language of a persons internal state of being, normally based in or tied to their internal (physical) and external (social) sensory feeling. ... Speech: (n. ... Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires. ... Learned redirects here. ...

Questions about Unconscious mind

The subconscious is 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 psychotherapy. Thoughts, feelings and urges that are repressed are all present in the subconscious mind and "issues" need to be "worked out" with professionals skilled in the field of mental health and mental illness. Introspection is the direct observation or rumination of ones own heart, mind and/or soul and its processes, as opposed to extrospection, the observation of things external to ones self. ... Association is the following: A voluntary association (also sometimes called an association) is a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement, explicit or implicit, to form or act as a body (or organization) to accomplish a purpose. ... Dreaming is the subjective experience of imaginary images, sounds/voices, thoughts or sensations during sleep, usually involuntarily. ... Broadly conceived, linguistics is the study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. ... The Freudian slip is named after Sigmund Freud, who described the phenomena he called faulty action (Fehlleistung or parapraxis) in his 1901 book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. ... Psychotherapy is a set of techniques believed to cure or to help solve behavioral and other psychological problems in humans. ... Thought or thinking is a mental process which allows beings to model the world, and so to deal with it effectively according to their goals, plans, ends and desires. ... Issues can refer to: plural of issue 1999 album titled Issues by Korn This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Mental health, mental hygiene and mental wellness are all terms used to describe the absence of mental illness. ... The Scream, the famous painting commonly thought of as depicting the experience of mental illness. ...

Is the unconscious altogether inaccessible, or is it just hard to access?

As some of the above examples indicate, material is constantly moving from the conscious mind to the unconscious and vice versa. The conscious mind only holds a small amount of information at any given time. In many cases information - especially easily accessible memories - can be called into awareness at will.

Some psychics also believe that the unconscious mind possesses a kind of "hidden energy" or "potential" that can realise dreams and thoughts, with minimal conscious effort or action from the individual. Some also believe that the subconscious has an "influencing power" in shaping one's destiny. All such claims, however have so far failed to stand scientific scrutiny. Parapsychology is the study of the evidence involving phenomena where a person seems to affect or to gain information about something through a means not currently explainable within the framework of mainstream, conventional science. ...

Application of unconscious

Knowledge of the unconscious has been exploited by marketing strategists employed by corporations to either play on hidden fears and secret desires buried in the common subconscious. Teams of psychologists are hired to do market research and understand the psychology of buying in order to use subliminal messages in advertising campaigns. Traditionally, Marketing has been a term applied to the craft of linking the producers (or potential producers) of a product or service with customers, both existing and potential. ... A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. ... A psychologist is a researcher and/or a practitioner of psychology. ... Research Research covers the search for and retrieval of information for a specific purpose. ... A subliminal message is a signal or message designed to pass below (sub) the normal limits of perception. ... Generally speaking, advertising is the paid promotion of goods, services, companies and ideas by an identified sponsor. ...

See also

• mind's eye
• hypnosis
• transpersonal psychology
• Unconscious communication

Hypnosis does not have a single definition that is universally applicable. ... Transpersonal psychology is a school of psychology, considered by proponents to be the 4th force in the field (after the first three: Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism, and Humanistic). ... Unconscious communication (or intuitive) is the transfer of information unconsciously between humans. ...

External links

• The Rediscovery of the Unconscious (http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrm/rediscovery.htm)