Psycho-analysis and its Developments

1926 ◽  
Vol 72 (299) ◽  
pp. 542-573
Author(s):  
W. A. Potts
Keyword(s):  
Free Association ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Conscious Mind ◽  
Royal Road ◽  
Personal Consciousness ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Past Experiences ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Unconscious Mind

There is in the mind a mass of past experiences which cannot be readily remembered. We also know that while the individual is aware of some of the processes of elaboration going on in his mind, there are other mental processes which elude his observation. Both forgotten experiences and unrealized mental processes constitute material of which the individual was said to be “not personally conscious.” The modern psychologist says the forgotten memories and the hidden mental processes are in the unconscious or subconscious mind, a stratum of the mind below the threshold of personal consciousness. He bases this statement on the conception that while the mind is a complete entity, it is so disposed that while the contents of one portion can be at once investigated by the individual, the rest is not so easily explored. The accessible portion is called the conscious mind, the rest the unconscious. Dr. G. Stanley Hall compared the mind to an iceberg, floating in the ocean with one-ninth visible above the water and eight-ninths below, the visible ninth corresponding to the conscious mind, and the larger submerged portion to the unconscious mind. Before the time of Freud there was no satisfactory method of exploring the unconscious. Freud, when dealing with neurotic and mental patients, was dissatisfied with the results obtained by hypnotism. But he noticed that some experienced relief, and also improved, when encouraged to talk frankly about their anxieties and difficulties. He worked out a method of exploring the unconscious mind, called psycho-analysis, founded on the theory that dreams are not accidental or meaningless; interpreted by the method of free association, they constitute the royal road to the unconscious mind. Free association means that when the analysand is asked of what a particular item in the dream makes him think, he gives the idea that first occurs to him, however far-fetched or absurd it may seem, and then allows one idea to call up others without let or hindrance.

Language and the subconscious

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan M Cyna ◽  
Suyin GM Tan
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
External Environment ◽  
Conscious State ◽  
Routine Activities ◽  
Logical Thinking ◽  
Verbal Cues ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Extreme Stress ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Mind

Many of the communications commonly encountered in anaesthetic practice elicit subconscious responses, and, because this is so, they frequently go unrecognized. This form of communication involves verbal and non-verbal cues also known as suggestions that can elicit automatic changes in perception or behaviour. Much of this chapter is based on language structures that are thought to make subconscious changes in perception, mood or behaviour more likely, both with patients and anaesthetists themselves. Recognizing subconscious responses will facilitate communication. As is discussed later, anaesthetists can communicate with patients and colleagues in ways that utilize subconscious functioning. To all intents and purposes this looks like intuitive communication, when in reality it has structure and therefore can be learned and taught. The conscious and unconscious states are familiar to all anaesthetists. However, it is frequently unappreciated that all patients, whether in an unconscious or conscious state, will also be functioning subconsciously. In the unconscious patient it is well recognized that subconscious activities still occur—for example, in implicit awareness. Most people would appreciate that there are times during consciousness when they switch off the ‘logical brain’ and enter ‘daydream’-type thinking or they ‘tune out’. People including anaesthetists tend to function subconsciously most of the time—for example, during routine activities such as driving home on ‘autopilot’ and arriving home without realizing it consciously. The ability we all have to function automatically—that is, subconsciously—frees up the conscious part of the mind to focus on other things such as planning tomorrow’s ‘neuro’ case. The teleological basis for this ability lies in being able to filter the massive amount of information continuously presented to the individual. This allows the conscious mind to focus on what it perceives to be important—facilitating learning, logical thinking and problem solving. During activities where logical thinking is not a requirement, the subconscious comes to the fore. This is characterized by dissociation from the external environment—being ‘in your own world’. Paradoxically, at times of extreme stress, the subconscious tends to take over when the conscious part of the mind becomes so overwhelmed by external inputs it ceases to function logically.

Defense Mechanisms

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phebe Cramer
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
Defense Mechanism ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Everyday Functioning ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Loss Of Self ◽  
Mental Operations ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Unconscious Mind

Defense mechanisms are mental operations that function outside of awareness. In this sense, they operate in the unconscious mind. Such mechanisms were first identified by Sigmund Freud in connection with psychopathology but later were understood to be part of normal everyday functioning. Defenses serve the purpose of protecting the individual from excessive anxiety and loss of self-esteem. Defense mechanisms have been found to change with age, based on the complexity of the mental operations involved. Once a child understands how a defense mechanism functions, the mechanism tends to be used less frequently and a cognitively more complex mechanism is adopted.

scholarly journals The Dream World of Wonderland

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany Teska
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Lewis Carroll ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Salvador Dali ◽  
Original Illustrations ◽  
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Alice’S Adventures In Wonderland ◽  
Unconscious Mind

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll creates a whimsical, alternative reality based on arbitrary rules and nonsense to express his ideas regarding the nature of dreams. While the original illustrations of the text were created by 19th-century English artist and satirist John Tenniel, famed surrealist Salvador Dalí provides a more expressionistic and psychological exploration of the mind through his own illustrations of Carroll’s work in the 1969 Maegenus Press edition of Alice. In order to understand Dalí’s interpretation of the text, it is important to trace his interests in dreams back to its origins in Sigmund Freud and Surrealism, which came to light during the early 20th-century and focused on new forms of expression that sought to unhinge the supposed creativity trapped in the unconscious mind. Although Carroll, Dalí, and Freud were all from different time periods, their individual beliefs about the nature of dreams allow for a better understanding of how to analyze Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a whole.

Buddhism, Ābhidharmika schools of

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Collett Cox
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
Individual Factors ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
Textual Exegesis ◽  
Cause And Effect ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Material Form

During the first centuries after the Buddha, with the development of a settled life of scholarly study and religious practice, distinct schools began to emerge within the Buddhist community. In their efforts to organize and understand the Buddha’s traditional teachings, these schools developed a new genre of text, called ‘Abhidharma’, to express their doctrinal interpretations. More importantly, the term ‘Abhidharma’ was also used to refer to the discriminating insight that was not only requisite for the elucidation of doctrine but also indispensable for religious practice: only insight allows one to isolate and remove the causes of suffering. Abhidharma analysis is innovative in both form and content. While earlier Buddhist discourses were colloquial, using simile and anecdotes, Abhidharma texts were in a highly regimented style, using technical language, intricate definitions and complex classifications. The Abhidharma genre also promoted a method of textual exegesis combining scriptural citation and reasoned arguments. In content, the hallmark of Abhidharma is its exhaustive classification of all factors that were thought to constitute experience. Different schools proposed different classifications; for example, one school proposed a system of seventy-five distinct factors classified into five groups, including material form, the mind, mental factors, factors dissociated from material form and mind, and unconditioned factors. These differences led to heated doctrinal debates, the most serious of which concerned the manner of existence of the individual factors and the modes of their conditioning interaction. For example, do the factors actually exist as real entities or do they exist merely as provisional designations? Is conditioning interaction always successive or can cause and effect be simultaneous in the same moment? Other major topics of debate included differing models for mental processes, especially perception.

Paradoxical Breathing in Reflex Yoga

1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-29
Author(s):  
Brian Lynn
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Research ◽  
Traditional Authority ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Conscious Mind ◽  
Paradoxical Breathing ◽  
Unconscious Mind

Reflex Yoga is based on the observation that the unconscious mind has far greater control of behavior, posture and breathing than the conscious mind. There is an immense amount of unconscious activity involved in standing, sitting and breathing. With perseverance we can "stand up straight" and "breathe deeply and evenly," and these instructions can be internalized and habitualized. But we must ask if this is the purpose and goal of yoga, even when backed by scientific research and traditional authority.

Pedagogical Interaction in the Context of Individual Adjustive Behavior

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-22
Author(s):  
Кондратьева ◽  
Olga Kondrateva
Keyword(s):  
The Unconscious ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Mind

The article discusses the content and structure of pedagogical interaction as the realization of unconscious and conscious activity from the standpoint of the individual adjustive behavior. The structure of the "adjustment" concept is discovered. Stages of pedagogical interaction in the system of consistent accentuation of psychological formations of the unconscious and conscious regions of the mind are identified. Analysis of demands of a teacher’s individual adjustive behavior is provided.

The Influence of Nietzsche on Freud's Ideas

1995 ◽  
Vol 166 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. Chapman ◽  
Mirian Chapman-Santana
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Friedrich Nietzsche ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Unconscious Mind

BackgroundThe striking analogies between the ideas of Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche, whose works were published from one to three decades before those of Freud, have been commented upon, but no previous systematic correlation of the ideas of Nietzsche and Freud has been made.MethodThe major works of Nietzsche were read, and each possible analogy to an idea later broached by Freud was correlated by a systematic review of his works. Any references to Nietzsche in Freud's writings and reported conversation were culled.ResultsConcepts of Nietzsche which are similar to those of Freud include (a) the concept of the unconscious mind; (b) the idea that repression pushes unacceptable feelings and thoughts into the unconscious and thus makes the individual emotionally more comfortable and effective; (c) the conception that repressed emotions and instinctual drives later are expressed in disguised ways (for example, hostile feelings and ideas may be expressed as altruistic sentiments and acts); (d) the concept of dreams as complex, symbolic “illusions of illusions” and dreaming itself as a cathartic process which has healthy properties; and (e) the suggestion that the projection of hostile, unconscious feelings onto others, who are then perceived as persecutors of the individual, is the basis of paranoid thinking. Some of Freud's basic terms are identical to those used by Nietzsche.ConclusionFreud repeatedly stated that he had never read Nietzsche. Evidence contradicting this are his references to Nietzsche and his quotations and paraphrases of him, in casual conversation and his now published personal correspondence, as well as in his early and later writings.

Conscious and Unconscious

Mind Shift ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 171-184
Author(s):  
John Parrington
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Brain Function ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Traumatic Memories ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Unconscious Mind

This chapter determines the relationship between the conscious and unconscious aspects of brain function. The unconscious consists of those mental processes that occur automatically and are not available to introspection. Increasingly, studies of brain function are revealing that a surprising amount of that function is automatic, and therefore, unconscious. However, there are controversial aspects to discussions about the unconscious, particularly the idea that it may play a far more contradictory role in consciousness, even acting in opposition to conscious thoughts. Such a viewpoint sees the unconscious as a force that may suppress unwelcome thoughts, but which might also make us carry out actions that do not appear to have been planned by our rational minds, and may even appear wholly irrational. This view of the unconscious mind is most associated with Sigmund Freud. Freud viewed the unconscious as the epicentre of people's repressed thoughts, traumatic memories, and fundamental drives of sex and aggression. This chapter reconsiders this view of the unconscious by relating to Mind Shift’s central theme about the importance of language in shaping consciousness.

4. Treatment of Insanity

1920 ◽  
Vol 66 (274) ◽  
pp. 307-308
Author(s):  
C. W. Forsyth
Keyword(s):  
Word Association ◽  
Free Association ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Christian Science ◽  
Word Association Test ◽  
Established Fact ◽  
Excessive Secretion ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

The author considers that pain and its analogues, malaise, discomfort, ill-being, etc., whether of functional or organic origin, being forms of sensation, are essentially mental phenomena arising in the brain, and can be removed by psychotherapy. That the mind can act upon the body and influence every function is a well-established fact. It is possible, too, that certain organic changes, vascular disease, heart disease, etc., may be traced to certain mental processes—anxiety—causing, excessive secretion by the adrenals. In every case of illness some of the symptoms are due to suggestion either from within or from without. This was seen in many of the “slow recoveries” in the war due to auto-suggestion. In organic disease psychotherapy cannot effect a cure, but in every case it can assist and give relief to suffering, e. g. pain in cancer. In earlier days suggestion was employed unconsciously in the use of charms, amulets, religious relics, etc., in later days in mind-cures and Christian Science. The relief of symptoms shows that faith alone is a potent curative agent, and that the majority of the ordinary symptoms are mental in nature and removable. The methods employed in psychotherapy are suggestion under hypnosis, suggestion in the waking state, persuasion and re-education, and psycho-analysis. In “superficial” cases immediate results often follow suggestion, but in the more chronic cases the removal of a symptom by suggestion is often followed by relapses, a new symptom taking the place of the rejected one, as the underlying condition of morbid suggestibility has not been removed. To overcome this condition Dubois introduced the method of persuasion. He thinks that an appeal should be made to the intellect by talks with the patient on the subject of his nervous symptoms. Persuasion is to some extent a form of suggestion, as in all degrees of belief feeling as well as the intellect is involved. Upon re-education largely rests the completeness of the cure; the connection between the mental antecedents and the symptoms are explained to the patient; when these are understood and acted upon his mal-adaptation ceases. Freud has shown that the patient may be most profoundly influenced by feelings and ideas of which he is quite unconscious. No persuasion avails until the unconscious motive of his mental or nervous symptoms has been uncovered. The process by which this can be done is known as psycho-analysis. Three methods of probing the unconscious mind are mentioned—the word-association test, the free association of ideas, and the analysis of dreams. Psycho-analysis has its limitations. It is not usually successful in curing persons above middle age; even when successful the treatment may take months. Robertson thinks that in many cases it is unnecessary. No successful physician who has not given attention to this subject has the faintest idea of the extent to which he employs psychotherapy unconsciously. Every practitioner and student of medicine must be taught the part the mind plays in the chief symptoms of disease, and he must consciously use psychotherapy in the treatment of these. His success will depend on the depth of his convictions.

Consciousness and Lesser States: the evolutionary foothills of the mind

Philosophy ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 331-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Gillett
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Biological Science ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Brain Circuits ◽  
Mental Acts ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Self Production ◽  
Unconscious Mind

Consciousness and its relation to the unconscious mind have long been debated in philosophy. I develop the thesis that consciousness and its contents reflect the highest elaboration of a set of abilities to respond to the environment realized in more primitive organisms and brain circuits. The contents of the states lesser than consciousness are, however, intrinsically dubious and indeterminate as it is the role of the discursive skills we use to construct conscious contents that lends articulation and clarity to the mental acts which cumulatively make up our mental lives. I lay out a tripartite structure for the formation of mind in which the ongoing interaction between brain and world, the formative effect of socio-cultural context and the self production of a relatively coherent narrative all play an important part in making a mind. The latter two influences clearly transcend biological science and suggest that human minds have features which broadly align with certain Freudian insights but do not support the reification of the causally structured unconscious that Freud envisaged.

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