The Discovery Of The Unconscious: The History And Evolution Of Dynamic Psychiatry

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Fitzsimons GM, Bargh JA, Baumeister RF, Vohs KD. Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications. Guilford Press; New York: 2004. Automatic self-regulation; pp. 151–170. [ Google Scholar] Freud divided the mind into the conscious mind (or the ego) and the unconscious mind. The latter was then further divided into the id (or instincts and drive) and the superego (or conscience). In this theory, the unconscious refers to the mental processes of which individuals are unaware. [33] Freud proposed a vertical and hierarchical architecture of human consciousness: the conscious mind, the preconscious, and the unconscious mind—each lying beneath the other. He believed that significant psychic events take place "below the surface" in the unconscious mind. [34] Contents of the unconscious mind go through the preconscious mind before coming to conscious awareness. [35] He interpreted such events as having both symbolic and actual significance. Kiefer M, Brendel D (February 2006). "Attentional modulation of unconscious "automatic" processes: evidence from event-related potentials in a masked priming paradigm". J Cogn Neurosci. 18 (2): 184–98. doi: 10.1162/089892906775783688. PMID 16494680. Such simulacra (i.e., the products of simulation) are worthless without some capability of evaluating them. If a general had no idea regarding what constitutes a favorable battle outcome, there would be no utility in simulating battle formations. Simulation can construct simulacra, but by itself cannot evaluate them. Evaluating potential actions is challenging because it depends on taking diverse considerations into account (e.g., physical or social consequences). Most knowledge regarding what is favorable is already embodied in the very agentic systems that, before the advent of suppression, controlled behavior directly. These now suppressed agents respond to simulacra as if they were responding to real, external stimuli. These internalized reflexes furnish the evaluative judgment or gut feelings that simulations require.

Carl Gustav Jung agreed with Freud that the unconscious is a determinant of personality, but he proposed that the unconscious be divided into two layers: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious is a reservoir of material that was once conscious but has been forgotten or suppressed, much like Freud's notion. The collective unconscious, however, is the deepest level of the psyche, containing the accumulation of inherited psychic structures and archetypal experiences. Archetypes are not memories but energy centers or psychological functions that are apparent in the culture's use of symbols. The collective unconscious is therefore said to be inherited and contain material of an entire species rather than of an individual. [36] The collective unconscious is, according to Jung, "[the] whole spiritual heritage of mankind's evolution, born anew in the brain structure of every individual". [37] Subsequent to the emergence of the Vichy government, Ellenberger emigrated to Switzerland in 1941. There he went through a training analysis with Oskar Pfister between 1949 and 1952, before becoming a member of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society (SSP). The notion that there are different types of conscious and unconscious processes that operate at different levels is an enduring one and as useful a proposal today as it was 100 years ago. Although the notion of an instinctual energy base for the unconscious seems not to be supported, there is clearly a need for innate temperament- and emotion-related factors that provide developmental starting points.

This was a decisive turning point in psychoanalysis: Freud found that in the unconscious it is impossible to distinguish fantasies from memories, and from that time on he was not so much concerned with the reconstruction of events from the past through the uncovering or suppressed memories, than with the exploration of fantasies” (p 657). I thought when reading this that we need care around ‘recovered’ memories. I have memories that I am not sure of the veracity of, and have been corrected by my Mother around memories of my childhood. I noted in the work of Kezelman in “Practice Guidelines for Clinical Treatment of Complex Trauma” was advocating returning the legitimacy of recovered memories with amnesia for the disasters this caused in the 1990’s. Especially in therapy we must be mindful of the infallibility of memory and what Freud recognised as the difficulty in distinguishing memory from fantasy. Later I will argue that we should believe people in the therapy context, and this is something I believe. What comes up in therapy should not be the basis for a legal case. Therapists should not become witnesses. Meltzoff AN, Meltzoff AN, Prinz W. The imitative mind: Development, evolution, and brain bases. Cambridge University Press; New York: 2002. Elements of a developmental theory of imitation; pp. 19–41. [ Google Scholar] Jean-Paul Sartre offers a critique of Freud's theory of the unconscious in Being and Nothingness, based on the claim that consciousness is essentially self-conscious. Sartre also argues that Freud's theory of repression is internally flawed. Philosopher Thomas Baldwin argues that Sartre's argument is based on a misunderstanding of Freud. [50] a b "Micale, M.S., ed.: Beyond the Unconscious: Essays of Henri F. Ellenberger in the History of Psychiatry". Archived from the original on 2006-02-14 . Retrieved 2006-08-12. Christopher John Murray, Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850 (Taylor & Francis, 2004: ISBN 1-57958-422-5), pp. 1001–1002.

Chartrand TL, Maddux W, Lakin J. Beyond the perception-behavior link: The ubiquitous utility and motivational moderators of unconscious mimicry. In: Hassin R, Uleman J, Bargh JA, editors. The new unconscious. Oxford University Press; New York: 2005. pp. 334–361. [ Google Scholar] Breger, Louis (2000). Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0-471-31628-8.

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Bargh JA, Gollwitzer PM, Lee-Chai A, Barndollar K, Troetschel R. The automated will: Unconscious activation and pursuit of behavioral goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2001; 81:1004–1027. [ PMC free article] [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar] Meyer, Catherine (edited by). Le livre noir de la psychanalyse: Vivre, penser et aller mieux sans Freud. Paris: Les Arènes, 2005, p.217

Dijksterhuis A, Bargh JA. The perception-behavior expressway. In: Zanna M, editor. Advances in experimental social psychology. Vol. 33. Academic Press; San Diego, CA: 2001. pp. 1–40. [ Google Scholar] Ellenberger, H. F. (1970). The discovery of the unconscious: The history and evolution of dynamic psychiatry. New York: Basic Books. See "The Problem of Logic", Chapter 3 of Shrinking History: On Freud and the Failure of Psychohistory, published by Oxford University Press, 1980. Bargh JA, editor. Social psychology and the unconscious: The automaticity of higher mental processes. Psychology Press; Philadelphia: 2006. [ Google Scholar]Damasio AR. The somatic marker hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences. 1996; 351:1413–1420. [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar] Augusto, L.M. (2010). "Unconscious knowledge: A survey". Advances in Cognitive Psychology. 6: 116–141. doi: 10.2478/v10053-008-0081-5. PMC 3101524. PMID 21814538.