The Unconscious

4 Commentsby   |  05.02.11  |  The Schools of Psychology (Part IV)

Being a very concrete and realistic person makes accepting subjective data very hard for me.    Behavioral therapy is probably my most favorite because of the objectivism and empirical evidence that can be drawn from it.  But at the same time, the unconscious aspect of the mind intrigues me greatly.  I also find techniques that attempt to tap into and evaluate the unconscious very interesting.  I greatly enjoy reading about and trying to understand techniques such as hypnosis, dream analysis, free association, and even ink blot tests.  It makes me think of the old saying, “We only use 10% of our brains.”  Although this statement is widely disregarded by the scientific community, I think that it sheds light onto the vast and relatively unexplored unconscious.  I think that Freud and his followers did a great job of raising awareness and attempting to explain this unconscious portion of the mind.  I think that as technology advances and our understanding of the mind becomes more complete, that we will see some astonishing progress in this area.  I for one would love to see more of these techniques that are supported by sufficient objective facts.  I am interested in whether or not you guys think that objective data will ever be able to measure the dynamics of the unconscious.

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4 Comments

  1. Anna Brinkman
    11:15 pm, 05.02.11

    I think that sometimes Freud’s ridiculous-ness overshadows some good findings he made. The unconscious really is an interesting thing to study. The fact that it isn’t concrete and there aren’t simple answers to questions about it is what is intriguing. The unconscious probably plays a much bigger role in our lives than some of the anti-Freudians care to believe.

    I don’t know that objective data will ever be able to measure the dynamics of the unconscious because the unconscious is subjective. I don’t feel that it can be interpreted easily, nor to the extent to which it goes (if that makes any sense..maybe vastness is a better word).

  2. Alison
    11:24 pm, 05.02.11

    This reminds me of the Maslanka talk we listened to last Wednesday. The composer talked in depth about his own experiences in exploring his unconscious self. Although at times I felt like the things he was saying got a little new-agey and questionable, mostly what I took from it was that the mind is a very powerful thing, and that there is so much to tap in to that we usually ignore.

    However, who knows how much of this we’ll be able to actually measure. I’d like to think that as our understanding grows and our technology improves, there will be some way to pin this down more.

  3. Lindsey Fleming
    11:44 pm, 05.02.11

    I think that the unconscious is something that will always be almost completely subjective. It is one of those miraculous things that is between us and God and no one else can ever completely empathize or understand your every thought and feeling, no matter how much we try to relate these things. There is just so much diversity in our understanding of life and existence and our interpretation of each and every thing we see, hear and feel. I think it was meant this way to allow us to appreciate diversity and also to be reminded how small we truly are.

  4. Terry Osborne
    11:46 pm, 05.02.11

    Yeah, I can’t get into all that unconscious stuff myself! It is really hard for me to wrap my arms around!

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