Personal Details

Department of Philosophy,
Principal Investigator Prof. A. Raghuramaraju
University of Hyderabad
Professor Emeritus,
Paper Coordinator Prof. Amita Chatterjee
Jadavpur University
Former Principal
Content Writer Dr. Pushpa Misra
Bethune College, Kolkata

Content Reviewer Prof. T. K. Nizar Ahmed Former Professor, SUSS Kalady

Language Editor Miss. Chitralekha Manohar Freelancer, Chennai

Description of Module

Subject Name Philosophy

Paper Name Philosophy of Mind
Module Name/Title Unconscious Mind
Module Id 13.17
Pre-requisites Mind, Consciousness
Objectives None
nature of unconscious, principle of psychic determinism, system of
Keywords
unconscious
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Unconscious mind
1. Introduction

It has happened to all of us – we all have, at sometime, forgotten where we have kept a gift given by a
friend, or have missed an appointment with someone or simply cannot remember a particular word or the
name of someone supposedly “close” to us. We usually consider such incidents as chance occurrences
and do not think much of them. But think about a newly wedded wife who cannot remember where she
has kept her wedding ring or her “mangalsutra” or of a bridegroom who is going to the church for his
wedding. He stops his car at what he thinks to be a redlight, only to find out that he has stopped at a green
signal. Again, we might tend to explain such incidents as “ordinary mistakes” – not having much
significance. Not so, says Sigmund Freud – the founding Father of Psychoanalysis. It was Sigmund Freud
(1856–1939) who established the existence of unconscious mental processes in a scientific way. The
insignificant incidents mentioned above are not insignificant according to him, nor are they chance
occurrences. Nothing in our mind or action is uncaused. And these trivial incidents may not be so trivial
at all. For example, an honest talk with the intending bridegroom may reveal that a part of his mind does
not want to get married or the housewife who cannot find her wedding ring actually is very dissatisfied
with her marriage and wants to go back to her unmarried state. The only thing is that they are not aware of
these desires.

Objective:

1. To have a clear idea of what Freud meant by the unconscious

2. What proofs did he furnish for the existence of the unconscious mind?
3. In what respects do the topographical and structural model differ
4. Does the cognitive unconscious differ from the dynamic unconscious?

1.1: Definition

What do we mean when we talk about the unconscious mind?

We mean that there are mental processes and contents about which we are not aware and which are not
available for introspection. Such contents include thoughts, wishes, beliefs, emotions, motivations and so
on. The unconscious mind not only has contents, but these contents have an impact on our conscious
decisions and behaviours.
 3

1.2: A bit of history

Though the name of Sigmund Freud is well-established, and justifiably so, with the discovery of the
unconscious, the word itself was in vogue in psychological and philosophical literature for a long time,
notwithstanding “Descartes’ catastrophy”. There is no doubt that Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum”, which
equated mental with conscious states, influenced modern Western philosophy for a long time. But
physicians, poets, litterateurs, even some philosophers have often enough talked about unconscious
mental processes. Ellenberger’s classic book, The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and
Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry (1970) traces the history of dynamic psychiatry rather than the history
of the unconscious. However, it gives some idea about unconscious mentation as used in psychological
therapy.

Gassner (1727–1779) was a priest and cured mental patients with the help of faith healing and
excorcising.

Mesmer (1734–1850) developed a theory and a technique of therapy, where, by applying magnets on
certain parts of the body, the quantity of universal fluid in the body of the patient could be altered. The
imbalance of this fluid, according to Mesmer, causes the disease. No direct reference to the unconscious
was ever made.

Peysegur (1775–1848) started real magnetism. By using magnets, he would put his patients to sleep and
they would be calm and would prescribe their own treatment. An amnesia regarding the treatment session
would follow after the session.

From animal magnetism, we come to hypnotism, which was started by James Braid. Hypnotism as a
method of therapy was followed by all later psychologists, including Charcot (1835–1893) and Freud
himself.

Liebault (1823–1904) and Bernheim (1840–1919) used suggestion, which, by implication, was working
unconsciously to bring about the cure. No direct use of the concept of the unconscious was made in these
forms of therapy, but it is clear that by implication, the cures occurred due to unconscious processes.

Among the predecessors of Freud who have contributed to the idea of unconscious mentation, the name
of Pierre Janet needs special mention. He was a contemporary of Freud and his theory of “dissociation
of ideas” was propounded before Freud. This theory, for the first time, uses the idea of a sub-conscious
 4

mind – a level of mind about the contents of which we are not immediately aware. Freud himself has
many times acknowledged his debt to Pierre Janet.

Janet arrived at the idea of dissociation on the basis of his clinical observation. His clinical observations
broke the myth about the unity and integrity of consciousness. He introduced the notion of “field of
consciousness”. The focal point of this field of consciousness is occupied by our conscious activities that
are directed towards fulfilling our immediate needs. Our past and future, our “expectations, ideals, habits,
memories and acquired and inborn skills “are not intimately connected with the satisfaction of our
immediate needs; hence, they remain in and form the core of the sub-conscious level of mind (Von Der
Hart and Horst, 1989).

The sub-conscious consists of psychological automatism. Certain experiences, especially traumatic ones,
develop into very strong emotional experiences and develop into new nuclei of consciousness. These
nuclei often are unable to adapt to the outer reality and “as the central personality is weakened and the
tendency to dissociate becomes stronger, these alternative states of consciousness, orsomnabulistic states,
more often take over control of the body” (Ibid.).

These dissociated states of consciousness can be of varying degrees of complexity – the simplest being a
fixed idea (idée fixe), which could be an image, thought, bodily posture or some feeling or emotion. The
most complex of these are Multiple Personality Disorders (MPDs).

Stop here for a moment. Did you know?

That the famous mystery writer,
Do you remember the moviesThree Agatha Christie could not be traced
Faces of Eve or Sybil? They both for a few months soon after divorce
depict the Multiple Personality from her first husband? She was
Disorder. If you have not watched found living in a hotel in a
them, please do so at your earliest. neighbouring town in the name of
the lady whom her first husband
married. She was, however, not at all
aware of what she was doing.

Thus, before Freud, Janet has already given his idea of levels of consciousness. However, Freud’s idea of
unconscious mental processes is much more intricate, and throughout his career, Freud has continuously
developed and modified his idea of the unconscious mind. In order to clearly understand Freud’s view of
 5

the unconscious, we need to understand the fundamental hypotheses of psychoanalysis with which Freud
began the systemisation of his theory.

2. Sigmund Freud:
The two fundamental hypotheses of psychoanalysis are :(i) the principle of psychic determinism and (ii)
that the conscious mind occupies a very small part of our mental apparatus.

The Principle of Psychic Determinism: This principle is essentially a variety of the philosophical
principle of causal determinism. Just as nothing in the physical world occurs without a cause, nothing in
the psychical world occurs without a cause. Every mental phenomenon, however insignificant, is
determined by a cause. Just as there is no chance occurrence in the physical world, there is no chance
occurrence in the mental world.

So, what to do about the examples we cited at the beginning of this module? We forget names, misplace
gifts and articles, misspell words, mispronounce names and often say something that we do not want to
say (slip of tongue). There are apparently no causes for such occurrences. Here comes the need for the
second principle of psychoanalysis. Both the principles are inter-related.

The conscious mind occupies a very small, very insignificant part of the mind. The causes of the
apparently uncaused phenomena are not found in our conscious mind. But since nothing occurs without a
cause, the cause must be lying in an unconscious part of our mind.

Freud said that if we keep the mental functioning and processes limited to the conscious level, there will
be no continuity in our mental processes. For example, the causes of the trivial incidents (which Freud
termed “paraprexes”) mentioned at the beginning of this module are not available at our conscious level.
But a deeper inquiry reveals that I forgot a particular name because of some unpleasant association with
the name or I had a slip of the tongue because the hostile feeling that I harboured against the person could
no longer be kept under check. Thus, to maintain the continuity of our mental life, accepting the existence
of an unconscious level of mind is a sine qua non.
 6

Freud collected numerous

examples of such trivial incidents Stop here for a moment!
in his book,Psychopathology of Do this exercise.
Everyday Life. He has given a
detailed account of how some Think of any such “trivial” incident
unconscious conflict or unpleasant in your life – something that may
feeling/emotion was associated appear silly, but should not have
with each of such incidents, of happened.
which the agent was not aware, Allow your mind to float freely and
and it was this unrecognised allow all the ideas that are associated
feeling/emotion that caused the with the event come up to your
mistake. mind. See whether you can find any
conflict, unpleasant emotions,
feelings and so on that you would
have liked to avoid.

Like Janet, for Freud too, hypothesising about the existence of an unconscious mind arose from practical
necessity. Without this hypothesis, many phenomena of the patients’ life as well as their symptoms
remain unexplained. Freud first used the word “unconscious” in a footnote while discussing the case of
Emma Von N. His detailed views about the unconscious are given in his seminal essay, “The
Unconscious”, published in 1915 in his book,Metapsychology.

2.1: Proofs for the existence of the unconscious

Freud begins by giving proofs for his assumption, thereby showing that his assumption of an unconscious
level of mind is legitimate and necessary. These are:

(2.2): The first argument that Freud provides is that unless we assume the existence of an unconscious
level of mind, many psychical acts in healthy and sick people cannot be explained. Such acts
include not only neurotic symptoms, paraprexes, but also many acts of our daily lives, including
many intellectual ideas whose origin we have no idea of. The assumption of an unconscious level
makes such acts and data intelligible. He pronounces, “A gain in meaning is a perfectly justifiable
ground for going beyond the limits of direct experience” (Metapsychology, P. 168).

To the objection that these latent recollections correspond to residues of physical processes and are
not psychical in origin, Freud replies that a latent memory is unquestionably psychical. He argues
that such an objection has its source in one’s pre-conceived notion that whatever is psychical must
be conscious. Such a notion limits the area of psychological research and overestimates the part
 7

played by consciousness. The tendency to consider unconscious phenomena as physical rather than
psychological comes from the fact that most of these phenomena have not been studied outside the
sphere of psychoanalysis. However, even before psychoanalysis, hypnotism and post-hypnotic
suggestions clearly demonstrate the existence of the unconscious and its impact.

(2.3):Post-hypnotic suggestion: In this kind of experiment, a subject is hypnotised and given some
instructions, for instance, “You are to close the windows of the hall exactly at 2:00pm”. Then, the
hypnotic trance is broken, but before that, the subject is also instructed that he would remember
nothing of what was instructed to him during the trance. Exactly at 2:00pm, the patient starts
closing all the windows. When asked the reason for doing so, he makes up some explanation, but
performs the task anyway. Thus, the cause of his closing the windows was not in his conscious
mind and was not available to him, but it was somewhere in his mind. Where else could it be except
in the unconscious mind?
This experiment shows not only that many of our thoughts and feelings are unconscious, but it also
shows that they are active too. They affect our conscious behaviour, and in many cases,
motivate us to take specific decisions.

(2.4): We are accustomed to think that our psychological symptoms – be they related to hysteria or to
obsession – are meaningless. But psychoanalysis has shown that that is not the case. Our symptoms
have sense, they have meaning and they are intimately related to the life-history of the patient. The
patient knows their meaning, but he does not know that he knows their meaning. A lot of
unconscious activity has gone before a symptom has been formed. Unravelling those unconscious
processes would reveal the meaning of the symptoms.
 8

Stop here for a moment!

In order to explain Freud’s contention, let me give a case history mentioned by Freud
himself.

Obsession neurosis is a neurosis in which the patient suffers from a particular thought,
which is alien to him, and which he does not want to think about, but the thought comes per
force in his mind. Sometimes, it is associated with some activities, which again the patient
finds compelled to perform.

A lady, nearly 30 years of age, suffered from a peculiar obsessive act. She would run from
her room to another many times, would take up a particular position beside the table that
was placed in the middle. She would ring the bell for her maid, would ask her to do some
trivial job or no job at all, and would run back into her room again.

After analysis, the lady related an incident: About 10 years earlier, she had married a
gentleman who was impotent on the wedding night. He would run from the neighbouring
room to the room of lady many times to try once more. Next morning, he had said angrily
that he would not be shamed before the maid and took a bottle of red ink and poured it over
the bedsheet. However, the stain did not occur at the right place.

The lady had identified with her husband, was repeating the same actions, but in a slightly
different way. She had kept the table (a substitute for the bed) in the middle and would stand
in such a way that the maid would see the stain, and this time, she had put the stain in the
right place.

So, the symptom was not meaningless. It expressed the wish of the lady that everything was
right, that her husband was not impotent. It is the lady who revealed the incident though she
was not aware of the meaning of her symptom. (Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis,
Freud, Sigmund)

(2.5): In many cases, the motivation of a person’s behaviour remains unknown to him while it is very
clear to observers. One day, I was travelling in a bus and found a mother with a child of 5–6 years
sitting on the seat of the row ahead of me. The bus was not crowded and there was ample space for
the child’s movement. However, whenever the child moved even a little, the mother would sternly
ask him not to move, not even to go near the window, which was perfectly safe for the child to do.
In fact, he could enjoy the ride better if he were allowed to watch the scenes from the window. If
you ask the mother, she would say that she was concerned for the safety of the child. But there was
no doubt that she was extremely restrictive and was dominating the child almost to the point of
oppression. Her own real motivation was unconscious to her.

(2.6): The most celebrated book of Freud is Interpretation of Dreams, published in 1900. His theory of
dreams is also considered to be his most original contribution in the field of psychology. Dreams
 9

appear meaningless just as symptoms appear meaningless. But the meaning of a dream is dormant,
latent and not known to the dreamer. Freud devised a method with the help of which he was able to
analyse dreams and bring out their hidden meaning. If we believe in the law of psychic causation,
Freud says, we have to accept the existence of an unconscious mind. Without this assumption, the
dream material will remain unutilised and we will lose valuable material with which to help our
patients.

Stop for a moment!

Here’s a very simple example – just to explain the point. A lady reported that when she
was a child, she dreamt very often that God wore a paper cocked-hat on his head. When
Freud asked what thoughts come to her mind related to the dream. The lady said that
when she was a child, she was given to wear such a hat because she could never resist
looking at the plates of her brothers and sisters to see whether they have been given a
larger helping. So, the hat would restrict her vision and would act as blinkers. The
meaning of the dream became clear when the lady herself said that she had heard that God
was omniscient, He knows everything. So, this could only mean that I knew every thing
though “they tried to prevent me from knowing”.

Do this exercise.
Think of a dream of yours. Break it into a
number of elements. Take each element,
one by one, and allow your mind to float
freely and see what associated thoughts
come to your mind. If the associated
thought ends in harmoniously bringing out
some conflict, wish, solution, and so on –
that is the meaning of the dream. Your
mind is not aware of the meaning; you
have to discover it.

3: The system of the Unconscious

The term “unconscious” is used in at least two senses: (i) descriptive, and (ii) systematic.
In the descriptive sense, we simply describe the quality of the psychical act/content – it is either
conscious or unconscious.
In the systematic sense, we try to understand some of their characteristics and make them part of a
system. There are some unconscious acts that are merely temporarily unconscious and are in no way
 10

distinct from the conscious ones, and there are acts that are the products of repression and would stand out
“in crudest contrast to the rest of the conscious processes” (Dijksterhuis2015:174).

So, Freud decided to formulate a system – a topographical system that would help us characterise the
various types of unconscious contents of the mind.
The topographical division of mind, according to Freud, has three levels – the unconscious, the pre-
conscious and the conscious. For the sake of brevity, Freud called them the system Ucs, Pcs and the
system Cs.

The system Cs has the contents of which we are immediately aware. Right now, I am working on my
laptop and the images of the screen and the key board are in my system of Cs.

The system Pcs comprises those memories, thoughts, feelings, and so one of which I am not immediately
aware, but I can become aware if I wanted to or if I tried to. For example, I am not immediately aware of
my mobile number, but if someone asks me, I will be able to recall it. Everything that was in the Cs goes
to the system Pcs. Some of it is retained, and some discarded. The system Pcs is very important for living
our life safely and in dealing with our environment. It is the storehouse of all our learning and workable
memory.

The system Ucs comprises largely the repressed elements – thoughts, wishes, desires, and so on that our
conscious mind cannot accept as part of its repertoire because they are against our social and moral
training – are pushed back to the system Ucs. But banishing them in the Ucs does not mean that they are
dead or have become ineffective. These thoughts, wishes and desires remain alive, imbued with psychic
energy and strive to reach the level of consciousness. Reaching the level of consciousness is the only way
in which they can be gratified.

To prevent their entry into the system Cs and the system Pcs, our mind has created censorship. These
censorships are nothing but our social and moral values. They are also called the counter-cathetic forces.
These censors maintain a strict watch on the contents of the mind. The censor between Pcs and Ucs
ensures that no content of Ucs is allowed entry into the system Pcs. But, if by chance, some element is
able to deceive the censor of Pcs, it has to face another censor before it can enter the Cs. So, unlike the
contents of Pcs, we rarely get to know the contents of Ucs. A constant struggle is going on between the
three systems – the contents of Ucs strive hard to reach the system Cs and the censor has to keep constant
vigil so that they are not allowed entry.
 11

Unable to enter the system Cs, the contents of Ucs seek their hallucinatory gratification in dreams. During
sleep, our censorship is relaxed, and taking the opportunity of this relaxed state, the contents of Ucs try to
get entry in various disguised formsinto our mind to get partial wish-fulfilment.

4. Characteristics of the Ucs

The contents of the system Ucs have some important characteristics. These contents are our “instinctual
representatives”, that is, they consist of our wishful impulses, and this has given the system Ucs special
characteristics to its contents.

(4.1): These wishful impulses are coordinated with each other. They exist side-by-side, without
influencing each other. If there are two contradictory and incompatible impulses trying to become active
simultaneously, they do not destroy each other or diminish the strength of each other, but reach a
compromise so that partially, each of them will get some satisfaction.

(4.2): There is no sense of negation in the Ucs. Its contents represent the blind impulsive force that only
seeks gratification. Freud says, “Negation is a substitute, at a higher level, of repression” (P. 190, The
Unconscious). So, what we do not repress, we negate.

(4.3): There is no sense of temporality in the contents of Ucs, no sense of earlier or later, nor are the
desires altered by the passage of time. The sense of time is the product of the system Cs.

(4.4):The system Ucs is guided by the pleasure principle with scant regard to reality. It is only concerned
with the gratification of the impulses. Accordingly, the cathectic intensities of its contents are more
mobile. By the process of displacement, one idea may take the cathexis of another idea. For example, the
desire to have and love children may be displaced by the desire to love and have lots of pets. Similarly, by
the process of condensation, one idea may absorb the cathexes of several ideas. For example, by loving
one’s country, one may also be satisfying one’s desire to love one’s mother intensely.

Freud says, “To sum up: exemption from mutual contradiction, primary process (mobility of cathexes),
timelessness and replacement of external by psychic reality – these are the characteristics which we may
expect to find in processes belonging to the Ucs” (Footnote omitted) (Dijksterhuis2015:191).
 12

The above classification, at first glance, appears merely qualitative. The contents of the mind seem to be
divided on the basis of whether they possess the quality of being conscious or not. However, there are
elements of function in this division also. The functional basis for this classification is whether the
contents of the system are allowed to be part of the consciousness or are actively barred from the
consciousness. Those that are allowed to be part of the consciousness belonged to the system Pcs/Cs
and those that are actively barred are part of the system Ucs.The system Cs-Pcs are grouped together
because of their functional closeness whereas the system Ucs remained a distinct entity.

5. The structural theory of mental apparatus

In 1923, Freud proposed a new grouping of the three systems in a theory, which is known as the
Structural Theory of Mind, which, in his opinion, would result in a more homogeneous grouping of the
contents and processes of mind. Though the name of the theory is “Structural theory of mind”, it is based
upon groups of functions performed by each proposed “structure” and each structure is related to the other
through the groups of functions it performs. Freud, in this final version of his theory, proposed three such
structures: the Id, the Ego and the Super-ego. In this new theory, Freud has very ingeniously
accommodated his older topographical classification also.

The Id is the reservoir of the psychic representative of our primitive instinctual drives, which are present
in the organism since birth. It is guided by the pleasure principle – that is, it is driven by the tendency to
seek pleasure and avoid pain. The Id has two parts: a part that contains the drives and the other part that
houses the repressed wishes and desires. The second part is known as The Repressed.

While the drives are present since birth, repression obviously does not occur from birth itself. So, at birth,
the entire psychic apparatus is comprised of Id. Freud’s theory was that the Id coming in contact with the
reality becomes differentiated gradually into two other functional structures – the ego and the super-ego.
This view was later modified by Heinz Hartmann, who contends that the Ego too is present in the nuclear
form at the time of birth.

The Ego represents the group of functions that help us in dealing with our environment. It is guided by
the reality principle. It has at its disposal the sensory organs, the musculature, the intelligence, memory
and other such abilities. With the help of these, the Ego decides, in consonance with the reality, which of
the desires of the Id are to be gratified, postponed or rejected completely.
 13

The Super-ego develops even later than the Ego. Freud thinks that the Super-ego does not start
developing before the age of five or six. The Super-ego is the representative of our moral sense or what
we commonly call our conscience. It is formed by incorporating the moral dictates of our parents and our
society and culture.

Both the Ego and the Super-ego undergo a process of development. Our Ego matures through coming in
contact with various aspects of reality. We constantly learn and unlearn and constantly adjust our needs
and demands to the changing reality. Our Super-ego, though less subject to modification, is also
susceptible to change in light of more developed rationality and changed cultural environment.

Do this exercise. Do this exercise.

Take a sheet of paper and pencil. Write down your moral view about
Think about some ideas of your certain ideas, such as theft, sexual
childhood or recent adulthood. morality and so on. See whether there
Find out whether you now look has been any change in those ideas
at the phenomena in question over time.
with a more rational, more Also write down those ideas where no
mature outlook. Find out also change has occurred.
ideas that have remained
unchanged.

How does the structural model accommodate the topographical model? Freud has represented this in a
diagram.
 14

bicas.co.uk
Retrieved on 12. 4. 2015

The Pcpt-cs system represents the immediate perceptual consciousness. Whatever we are perceiving at the
moment remains in the Pcpt-cs system. Whatever was part of the Pcpt-Cs system at one moment becomes
part of the Pcs (pre-conscious) system the next moment. The Pcs system, as before, remains the reservoir
of our learning and memory and the Ego works largely through the Pcs system. Then comes the Ucs
system, which comprises the Id and The Repressed. A large part of the Ego and Super-ego functions are
unconscious. Hence, the domain of the Ego is not confined merely to the Pcs system. It also works in the
Ucs system.
 15

The structural theory and functional grouping greatly helped Freud to explain the various complicated
functions of the Ego, like taking various defences (such as reaction formation, projection, sublimation,
displacement etc.) unconsciously. The Super-ego, as the image shows, is nearer to the Id rather than to the
Ego, which is natural because of its relation with the Oedipus complex. Freud, however, cautions about
one thing. In the diagram, the area of various structures has been shown by drawing a boundary line
between them. In reality, no such line can bound the psychical processes. These structures are more like a
painting, where the shades of one colour gradually fade off into another colour, making the boundary
invisible.

6. The significance of the theory of unconscious

As we have already mentioned, the theory of unconscious arose from practical experience of treating
mental patients. The insights that it gave us did not merely explain the abnormal mental processes. They
also helped us to explain and understand normal mental processes. They helped us to understand:

(6.1): Where our memories and learned materials are stored;

(6.2): How we can access them when we need them;
(6.3): Why can’t we access some of the memories and events, especially those that are traumatic;
(6.4): It helps us in bridging the gap in our conscious mental life by explaining the paraprexes, giving us a
better understanding of the human mind;
(6.5): It helps us to explain dreams, which were considered meaningless for a long time. The
understanding of dreams gives us an unprecedented advantage in understanding the repressed
conflicts and desires of the human mind.
(6.6): It, for the first time, helped us understand the origin of mental symptoms through the functioning of
the Ego and its various defences.

7. is there scientific evidence supporting the existence of unconscious mental activity?

Though historically, it was psychoanalysis which focused on the existence and importance of unconscious
mental activities, its experimental evidence could be obtained only after the emergence of cognitive
psychology. There is no doubt that psychoanalytic argument for unconscious mental activities were more
speculative and their arguments were largely transcendental arguments. Cognitive research, on the
contrary, is based on empirically verifiable experiments with very few theoretical assumptions.
 16

These researches have clearly established that a great amount of our information processing is done
automatically without any conscious awareness. A lot of decision-making activity as well as problem-
solving activity are also done without conscious awareness.

Cognitive psychology is not merely performing experiments to determine the role of the unconscious in
our cognitive decision-making process, but a great amount of research work is going on in the social
psychological areas – to find out its role in prejudice, bias and in the formation of attitudes.

Ap Dijksterhuis of RadboudUniversity,Nijmegen cites quite a few such experiments. Libet’s experiment

is quite famous in this respect. “He showed that conscious decisions follow unconscious preparation and
only precede the actual execution of the action by about 200 milliseconds. In other words, the
unconscious decides to act, we then become consciously aware of wanting to execute the action, and
finally we act” (Dijksterhuis 2015).

Hasher and Zacks also demonstrated that individuals register information about the frequency of events
automatically, regardless of the instructions given to them and regardless of the age difference. This
shows that certain procedural knowledge and experience are acquired truly unconsciously.

However, there still remains one important question: Is the unconscious of cognitive psychology in any
way similar to the dynamic unconscious of Freud? The dynamic unconscious, as we have outlined above,
is the storehouse of our instinctual drives, of our unaccepted wishes and desires, which constantly strive
to achieve gratification. It represents blind instinctual forces where intellect and reason have little role to
play. At the same time, this unconscious has a very strong influence on our conscious decision-making
process and on our choices. The image of the unconscious of cognitive psychology is more serene and
more rational, as if it is more geared to help the organism survive by reducing conscious control on a lot
of action/psychical processes.

The answer to this question is difficult to arrive at. We will have to wait for more experiments.
Psychoanalysis also has, to some extent, changed its emphasis from the days of Freud. While Freudian
psychoanalysis used to dig deep into the unconscious to find out the “buried trauma”, the present-day
psychoanalysis deals more in the “here and now” and tries to find out the hidden sources of conflicts in
interpersonal relationships. So, we simply wait to see where, if at all, the unconscious of cognitive
psychology and psychoanalysis meet.
 17

8. Summary

Research and discussion about unconscious mental processes had remained suspended for centuries
because of the influence of the French philosopher, Descartes, who equated the mind with consciousness.
But practical necessity, especially treatment of mental patients, motivated philosophers and psychologists
to study unconscious mental processes.

Though unconscious mental process was not directly mentioned or its concept developed, the therapeutic
work of Gassner, Mesmer, and later on, of Liebolt and Bernheim’s suggestion theory implicitly indicated
the existence of the unconscious.

As a full-fledged system, it was developed fully by Sigmund Freud, the founding Father of
Psychoanalysis. He borrowed the concept of dissociation from Pierre Janet, who had first proposed the
idea of the sub-conscious mind, where traumatic memories or fixed ideas may reside, independent of the
mainstream of consciousness.

Freud believed in the: (i) Principle of Psychic Determinism, which states that nothing in the psyche is
uncaused. (ii) Since there are many events that are appear uncaused, Freud hypothesised that their causes
must reside in an unconscious level of mind. This assumption made things much more intelligible. Freud
cited (i) post-hypnotic suggestion, (ii) the meaningfulness of dreams, (iii) the meaningfulness of mental
symptoms and (iv) the emergence of repressed memories as proofs for the existence of an unconscious
level of mind. According to him, our mind is like an iceberg, only one-tenth of which is seen over the
water and the remaining nine-tenths remain under the depth of the sea.

He first gave a topographical theory of mind in which he systematised the various contents and processes
of unconscious mind into three levels: the system Cs (conscious), the system Pcs – the contents of which
we are not conscious of always, but which can be made conscious at will or with some effort; the system
Ucs – which largely comprises the repressed memories and wishes and its content cannot be made
conscious easily.

Later on, Freud gave the final version of his theory known as the Structural Theory of Mind. Here, three
structures– the Id, the Ego and the Super-ego– were theorised, where each structure performs a group of
function. The Id is the reservoir of our instinctual drives and repressed material and is totally unconscious.
It is driven by the pleasure principle and its contents constantly try to reach the level of consciousness.
The Ego is representative of the reality. Guided by the reality principle, it decides which of the desires of
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the Id can be gratified or fulfilled or postponed or to be summarily rejected. The Super-ego represents our
moral sense.

With the emergence of cognitive psychology, the concept of the unconscious is now on more solid
grounds. Cognitive psychology, with its many experiments, has proved that most of our decisions, our
problem-solving, formation of most of our social attitudes and so on are unconscious. But whether these
proofs support the dynamic concept of unconscious as enunciated by Freud is a matter of controversy and
we have to wait some time before a more definitive answer is available.