By Paul Edge

The purpose of this essay is to offer a new perspective on your unconscious mind, to redefine the conscious complex still held and promoted by many psychological scientists, namely, that your unconscious mind is the shadow of a “real” conscious mind, despite the fact that there now exists substantial evidence that the unconscious is not identifiably less flexible, complex, controlling, deliberative, or action-oriented than is its counterpart. This “conscious-centric” bias is due in part to the operational definition within cognitive psychology that equates unconscious with subliminal. An article in a special issue of American Psychologist (Loftus & Klinger, 1992) once asked the question, “Is the unconscious smart or dumb?” Because unconscious was treated as subliminal—or how smart people are when reacting to stimuli of which they are unaware (Greenwald, 1992)—the consensus reached by the contributors and issue editors was that the unconscious is actually rather dumb as it is capable only of highly routinized activities and it perceives little without the aid of consciousness (Loftus & Klinger, 1992).

Consider the following:

“And, of course, the Freudian model of the unconscious is still with us and continues to exert an influence over how many people think of “the unconscious,” especially outside of psychological science. Freud’s model of the unconscious as the primary guiding influence over daily life, even today, is more specific and detailed than any to be found in contemporary cognitive or social psychology. However, the data from which Freud developed the model were individual case studies involving abnormal thought and behavior (Freud, 1925/1961, p. 31), not the rigorous scientific experimentation on generally applicable principles of human behavior that inform the psychological models. Over the years, empirical tests have not been kind to the specifics of the Freudian model, though in broad-brush terms the cognitive and social psychological evidence does support Freud as to the existence of unconscious mentation and its potential to impact judgments and behavior (see Westen, 1999). Regardless of the fate of his specific model, Freud’s historic importance in championing the powers of the unconscious mind is beyond any doubt.”

The Freudian Distortion

The challenge of course with the above viewpoint, is that it is a throwback to Freud's theories a little over 150 years ago. From Freud to the early Kahuna psychology, the unconscious mind was seen as the central unit for everything. However, whereas interpretations of the Kahuna theory on the nature of the unconscious mind was that it was a lower life form, unable to rationalize, obstinate, rebellious and needed to be controlled, like a child, Freud postulated in his psychoanalytic theory of personality, that the id is the personality component made up of unconscious psychic energy that works to satisfy basic urges, needs, and desires and that the id operates based on the pleasure principle, which demands immediate gratification of needs. Whilst Jung divided the unconscious into two parts, he also did not differ too much with Freud when referring to the “personal unconscious”.