Unconscious: The Secret Driver of Your Decisions
Quantum Self Discovery, Friday Edition, 4-min read.
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Is it possible that every question we ask is followed by an unconscious answer?
The metaphor of the iceberg:
The unconscious is made up of repressed elements (rational and emotional) that are stored throughout our lives (it never stops forming) without the subject's knowledge and to which the conscious mind cannot gain access.
They are a problem for the conscious mind (= distress for the individual) and are therefore blocked by the mechanism of repression.
Basically it is like the black box that is connected on an interdimensional level with past/simultaneous lives and ancestral lineage.
It is a defence mechanism that helps to ignore and deny desire in order to avoid neurotic conflict.
The Unconscious: This is where repressed memories or painful and negative thoughts reside (an area inaccessible to our conscious mind). It would be the base of the iceberg / the invisible part.
The Preconscious: the place where the memories are that we can access if we make an effort (what we can remember and bring back to our consciousness). It would be the body of the iceberg that is submerged / the semi-visible.
The Conscious: It is what we think in each moment and the conscious part (the part that we can access without any problem). It would be the top of the iceberg / the visible part.
"The unconscious can reserve essential messages for those ears that know how to listen.”
Carl Gustav Jung
The unconscious part manages 90% of what we do without disturbing the conscious part, without paying attention.
The unconscious is much faster, much quicker.
It allows us to process things in a much shorter time.
It is estimated that the unconscious is capable of absorbing 11 million units of information simultaneously, while the conscious perceives a maximum of 40 units.
This means that the former processes 200,000 times more data, which is due to the fact that the conscious part of our brain is limited to the cerebral cortex, the most superficial area, about one millimetre thick.
However, conscious processes consume most of the energy it uses.
You could say that the unconscious is a filter that selects relevant information for conscious processing and ignores irrelevant information.
Thalamus.
The structure responsible for deciding what is new and important enough to share with us is the thalamus.
This filter allows us not to be saturated with all the information around us and helps us to adapt to our environment.
Since it's impossible for us to pay attention to everything we perceive, our brain blocks out the touch of our watch or a necklace and we don't even feel that we're wearing it.
Present, Past, Future.
We are constantly thinking about things that have happened and planning things to do, but rarely do we consciously focus on the present.
The unconscious is in charge of functioning in the present moment while our mind wanders through the past or future.
The Unconscious Self, the Conscious Self and the Superego.
The central idea at the heart of psychoanalysis is the belief that all people have unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires and memories.
With quantum physics we can go so far as to say that there are irrefutable connections to the whole universe.
Sigmund Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic approach to psychology.
This school of thought emphasised the influence of the unconscious on behaviour.
Freud believed that the human mind is made up of three elements: the unconscious self, the conscious self and the superego.
Freud's theories of psychosexual stages, the unconscious mind and the symbolism of dreams remain popular with psychologists and lay people, although his work is viewed with scepticism by many today.
Through dreams we can observe unconscious patterns and manipulation on other levels (if you are interested in another post on dreams, let me know in the comments).
"The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to the knowledge of the unconscious.”
Sigmund Freud
Many of Freud's observations and theories were based on clinical cases and case studies, making it difficult to generalise his findings to a wider population.
However, Freud's theories changed the way we think about the workings of the mind and human behaviour, and have had a lasting impact on psychology and culture.
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PoppyBloom.M