Sigmund Freud's Theory of the Unconscious

Traditionally, scientists and most of the philosophers have considered that human behavior is governed by the conscious thought. The belief that we are capable of knowing all the important data about our environment and our body and that we decide how to behave by sticking to it This information has been very generalized, perhaps because rationality has been a central value in naturalists and thinkers for centuries. Recent

However, today we know that a very large part of the processes that influence our thinking and our actions are based on things that we do not know directly: that is, elements of the unconscious. Despite this discovery, it is easy to get confused when we talk about the unconscious, since this concept is defined differently by the freudian theory (and later trends psychodynamic) and the neuroscience of our days.

Where does this confusion come from? The precedent of Freudian theory

Even if Sigmund Freud He did not use the scientific method to investigate the processes by which thought is governed, it can be said that he noticed the existence of a type of

unconscious (or, rather, "the unconscious," according to their terminology) long before scientists got a glimpse of it. The inconsistent that Freud speaks of in his writings, however, is not the same that is studied today in the neurosciences. Among other things, because neither he nor the rest of the researchers of the mental processes were yet aware of the organic functioning by which higher mental processes are governed at the unconscious level, beyond having described certain principles general. Thus, Freud wove a network of hypotheses relatively independent of what theneurosciences.

It is important to be clear about this idea, since it is often understood that, as Freud tried to base himself on principles of physics and physiology to propose his explanations about the mind, these explanations are based on an exhaustive observation of the functioning of the body at the biological. Thus, although in the principles of psychoanalysis the brain was compared to a steam engine, it may be taken that image as little more than an analogy that served to better understand the explanation itself, rather than the brain.

Research limited by context

In short, Freud knew that he did not have the means to study the physical processes by which the functioning of the brain, and he believed that this topic was very relevant to understanding how thinking works and the unconscious proposed in the theory Freudian. Researchers of the mind had very few resources to study the functioning of the brain, and that he had clear implications when it came to understanding how what at that time was called "the mind". This can be sensed in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), in which Sigmund Freud said:

"Biological science is truly a domain of infinite possibilities. We must await the most surprising clarifications from it, and we cannot guess what answer it will give, in a few decades, to the problems raised by us. Perhaps these answers are such that they demolish our artificial building of hypotheses. "

The gap between psychoanalysis and the neurosciences

Both Freud and the disciples of Freudian theory who did not stray from the teachings of his teacher use the term unconscious to refer to the mental content that, at a given moment, it is outside the repertoire of thoughts of which the person is aware and that, somehow, remain hidden somewhere in his psyche. However, partly because of his approach and partly because of how little was known about the nervous system at the time, his explanations of the unconscious are divorced from fundamental principles about brain mechanics and consciousness-associated neural activation that study the neurosciences.

In short, the unconscious of which Freud spoke It served to refer to memories, perceptions and mixtures of feelings that, responding to a need, are inaccessible through conscious knowledge. It can be said that, although the current conception of the unconscious is not the one used by Freud, the latter remains competing with the other to be the first in which "the unconscious" occupies an important position in a corpus extensive theoretical.

The unconscious of the simple

The unconscious posited by Freudian theory is composed of rational elements and specific emotional emotions that remain repressed as having a problematic meaning for the mind aware. In other words, they are not kept hidden due to their complexity or their little relevance in the day-to-day life of the person. Quite the contrary, these repressed elements referred to by some psychoanalysts tend to be relatively simple ideas that can be "translated" into consciousness by means of symbolic operations and whose presence in the unconscious, despite going unnoticed, forms a kind of "glasses" to read reality through thoughts that, in a certain sense, are recurrent.

Freudian theory holds that the contents of the unconscious must be simple enough in themselves to be able to be questioned by a multitude of stimuli typical of everyday life, although the way in which consciousness blocks these thoughts is complex, since it uses original combinations between symbols to give expression to what is repressed. Dreams, for example, are for Freud a vehicle for the expression of repressed thoughts conveyed through symbolism.

A touch of mystery

Of course, this definition of unconscious it's troublesome and confusing, since language itself can be considered a way of filter the unconscious by means of symbols (words), which means that unconscious thoughts, by their very nature, never come out to the light at all and therefore we cannot know them completely, since they are in constant transformation in their travels to the consciousness. This kind of obscurantism is to be expected due to the complexity of the psychoanalysts' object of study, the themes dealt with by Freudian theory and its research methodology.

The unconscious always has a side that cannot be accessed by the simple word: That is why psychoanalysts claim the importance of the interaction between patient and therapist over reading books of self-help, which contain principles codified a priori by means of a series of symbols that the author has chosen and ordered without knowing the reader or reader.

The New Unconscious

Although Freud may be considered the "discoverer" of the unconscious, he is so insofar as introduced a way of thinking of the human being as an animal that does not know all the processes that guide its action, but not for having found the unconscious through a systematic and detailed investigation of it.

Freudian theory is the daughter of its time, and is constrained by the technical limitations. Both Freud and some of the psychologists of his time speculated on the existence of unconscious aspects of human thought and behavior, but their study methodology (introspection, observation of patients with mental disorders, etc.) only gave them an indirect knowledge of these. Fortunately, despite the limitations with which Freudian theory was forged at the time, nowadays Neurosciences and the technological developments that accompany them allow a much more complete study of this theme.

Freudian theory introduced for the first time a more or less detailed conception of the unconscious as a determining element in human behavior, while the The scientific community of the second half of the 20th century, curiously, continued to believe in the primacy of conscious thought processes over the rest of the body human. Today, however, the tables have turned in the world of neuroscience and the vast majority of researchers dismiss conscious thinking as the main driver of our behavior. The investigation of the unconscious by neuroscientists is something that has appeared recently, but it has paid off very quickly.

Distinguishing terms based on new discoveries

The unconscious that neuroscientists and psychologists refer to today is far from being the concept of the same that Freudian theory presented. To distinguish between these two ideas, that of the unconscious of psychoanalysts and that of the unconscious of scientists, the latter concept has been given the name of New Unconscious.

While the unconscious of Freudian theory exists as a redoubt to which to limit thoughts that are difficult to digest by consciousness, which blocks them. keeping them away from itself, the New Unconscious is not based on motivational and drive forces or on forms of repression or "blocking" of thoughts according to its contents. The relationship between the conscious and unconscious processes that scientists now speak of is not based on defense mechanisms, but on the brain architecture, which is simply not made so that everything that happens in it has a transcription to human consciousness. The New Unconscious is truly unconscious, and cannot be known indirectly by analyzing its "manifestations."

The unconscious aspects of thought exist as part of a cycle (the Perception-Action cycle) about which we are not interested in knowing everything. We are not interested in instantly memorizing each and every aspect of the person that we have just know, and so we look for one or two references to his identity unconsciously: for example, his hairstyle. Nor are we interested in dedicating ourselves to carefully study all the issues on which we have to make a decision, and that is why we decided to unconsciously follow the paths of the heuristicIt is not necessary to be aware that the left shoe squeezes very slightly, nor is it essential to consciously direct the movements of the right arm when looking out the window of the bus.

These processes must be carried out with discretion not because of their content, but because of their nature, because they are something that can be managed automatically by leaving free space in consciousness for tasks specials. In Freudian theory, on the other hand, what is unconscious isprecisely because of its significance, its importance.

The New Unconscious is distinguished from the term used by Freudian theory because does not respond to a personal history or problematic internalization of past experiences. In any case, its reason for being is found in a brain structure designed so that only some tasks and functions are part of the conscious, while the rest is delegated to a set of automatic operations, some of which we can partially control if necessary (such as breathing).

New Unconscious and Freudian theory, united only by appearances

In short, the unconscious aspect of the most abstract thoughts, such as the automatic association that can occur between the perception of a dog on the street and the memories of the last holidays in Barcelona, ​​respond to the same mechanics by which the processes in charge of making us blink tend to be unconscious for most of the time. weather. This is the logic by which the New Unconscious is governed: the pure biological pragmatism.

While the unconscious of Freudian theory is based on motivational mechanisms, the New Unconscious is not a prison of inappropriate emotions and thoughts, but a place where they are all the series of operations of which we do not have a special interest in controlling and whose automatism facilitates the lifetime.