They represent two sides of a single complex of the human psyche. These psychoanalytic concepts belong to the field of study general psychology. Usually the conscious is contrasted with the unconscious, but from the point of view of psychoanalytic research, these concepts are considered as a single whole, but at different levels.
Consciousness (or consciousness) is one of the forms of reflection of objective reality on the human psyche. From the point of view of the cultural-historical approach to the problem of the unconscious and the conscious, the latter is characterized by the presence of an intermediate link between consciousness and the perception of objective reality. This intermediate link is the elements of historical and social practice, which allow us to build an objective picture of the world around us.
The unconscious (or subconscious, unconscious) refers to mental processes that are not reflected in the human consciousness and are not controlled by it. Characteristic feature The unconscious is the absence of subjective control: this term can denote everything that is not an object of consciousness for a person.
In the theory of the conscious and unconscious, there are several types of manifestation of the unconscious:
- unconscious motivation (i.e., incentives to action), the true meaning of which is not realized due to its unacceptability from a social point of view or contradiction with other motives;
- behavioral stereotypes and atavisms, worked out to such a degree of automatism that their awareness in a familiar situation is unnecessary;
- subliminal perception, which defies awareness because it contains a large amount of information;
- supraconscious processes, which are intuition, inspiration, creative insight, etc.
Freud's theory of the unconscious
Famous Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist Sigmund Freud conscious and unconscious described based on the results of his experiments. Human behavior analytics have shown that large number actions in which a person is not aware, as a rule, are of an unreasonable nature and cannot be explained from the point of view of consciousness. It has been found that various types of motivations manifest themselves in neurotic symptoms, dreams and creativity. As a doctor who also worked in neurology, Freud was confronted with the special influence of unconscious experiences and motives on people's lives. He found that these processes can not only significantly burden the lives of the subjects, but also cause neuropsychiatric diseases. The results of the experiments directed Freud to search for a means that could save a person from conflicts between the conscious and unconscious. It was the search for a compromise between what the consciousness dictates and hidden, unconscious motives that led to the emergence of the method of psychoanalysis.
Jung's theory of the unconscious
The problem of the unconscious and the conscious excited the minds of many psychologists. Based on the results of research by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, the founder of depth analytical psychology, a description was given of the “collective unconscious.” Jung believed that there is not only the unconscious of the individual, but also racial, tribal, national, family, i.e. collective unconscious. It represents the totality of information from the mental world of a certain community of people, while the individual unconscious reflects only information from the mental world of a specific individual.
Jung's analytical psychology defined the unconscious in the form of established stereotypes, behavioral patterns that require updating, but are in fact innate.
The unconscious in Jung's interpretation was divided into the following processes and mental states:
- latent (hidden);
- temporarily unconscious;
- repressed beyond the limits of consciousness (i.e. suppressed).
Lacan's theory of the unconscious
In addition to Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, another researcher, the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Marie Emile Lacan, studied the conscious and unconscious. He formulated the hypothesis that the structure of the unconscious is similar to that of language. From this point of view, psychoanalysis can be considered as working with the patient's speech. The famous psychoanalytic technique developed by Lacan was called the “clinic of the signifier.” It is based on working with words, the necessity and possibility of translation, the so-called rewriting within the psyche. All of these actions can be used in therapy associated with complex mental disorders. However, not all authors studying the problem of the unconscious and the conscious agree with Lacan’s theory that the unconscious is a language, and psychoanalysis is a language game between the psychoanalyst and the patient. The unconscious is similar to language, it functions according to a similar algorithm, but at the same time the laws of linguistics do not apply to it.
Modern research into the unconscious
Formulated by Sigmund Freud conscious and unconscious is the basis modern research. Psychophysiological evidence is obtained by analyzing sleep, hypnotic trance, and manifestations of automatism in sports and work activities. Theories are being developed about the possible use of cybernetic methods for modeling the unconscious.
For modern man the concepts of “consciousness” and “unconsciousness” have become familiar, generally accepted, and do not raise questions. However, this was not always the case.
Initially, they refused to believe in the unconscious, considering all its manifestations in human activity to be the action of physiological processes. Somewhat later, humanity recognized: consciousness and the unconscious exist in parallel, and not all processes and actions depend on physiology or consciousness.
Today scientists are of the opinion that the unconscious is a huge world, as real as ordinary consciousness. The unconscious, despite the fact that it is beyond human control, is much wider and richer than consciousness.
There are unconscious sensations, for example, balance, visual, auditory, olfactory senses, which cause certain reactions in nervous system.
Plato was the first to study consciousness and the unconscious, then Freud, Jung, and other researchers. Both they and modern scientists working in this area are sure: the unconscious sends us signals that we often cannot or do not want to hear. If you listen to them, you can enrich your life with new, better content.
The unconscious is a way of reflecting reality, in which both it and the subjective attitude of a person appear as a monolithic whole. The unconscious is processes occurring in the psyche, but unconscious by a person, not so dependent on his will.
Consciousness is the highest form of mental reflection of the world generated in the course of social life, which is a generalized subjective template of the surrounding reality in the form of concepts, words, images. In other words, consciousness is a collection of images.
It is quite natural that consciousness, like any process, has its own characteristics.
Main characteristics of consciousness:
- Cognitive processes. These include the processes of perception, imagination, memory, and thinking. This includes sensations.
- Distinction between the concepts “I” - “not I”, subject and object. This characteristic is unique to humans. Only we, unlike other animals, are able to direct our mental activity towards self-knowledge.
- Goal setting, which ensures the rationality of activities. Human consciousness builds a scheme that takes into account the tasks of an activity, the methods of its implementation, and the results obtained.
- Attitude to reality: etc.
- Mastering speech. This is perhaps the most important characteristic of consciousness, characteristic only of humans. It determines all other characteristics of consciousness. Only by mastering speech can one acquire knowledge, form will, set goals, achieve them, and separate object and subject. Philosophers and psychologists are unanimous in their opinion: it is language that is human consciousness.
In addition to the main characteristics, there are components of consciousness. There are few of them:
- is responsible for everything related to cognition. It includes methods of cognition, attitudes, cognitive techniques and strategies, results
- Emotional. These are the affective and motivational components of the psyche: emotions, relationships, self-esteem, etc.
- Behavioral-activity component that determines the techniques, methods, mechanisms that ensure the functioning of a person in his own mental, interpersonal, external space.
Inextricably linked. It is consciousness that controls unconscious impulses, helps socialization, and dictates to a person the behavior recognized in a given society.
If it is impossible to influence the unconscious, then consciousness is successfully formed. In childhood, parents, educators, and teachers are responsible for this process. At an older age, a person himself influences the formation of his own consciousness.
The general idea of the unconscious, going back to Plato's ideas about knowledge - memory (anamnesis), remained dominant until modern times. The ideas of Descartes, who affirmed the identity of the conscious and the mental, served as the source of the idea that beyond consciousness only purely physiological, but not mental, activity of the brain can take place. The concept of the unconscious was first clearly formulated by Leibniz ("Monadology", 1720), who interpreted the unconscious as the lowest form of mental activity, lying beyond the threshold of conscious ideas, rising, like islands, above the ocean of dark perceptions (perceptions). The first attempt at a materialistic explanation of the unconscious was made by Hartley, who connected the unconscious with the activity of the nervous system. Kant connects the unconscious with the problem of intuition, the question of sensory knowledge (unconscious a priori synthesis). A peculiar cult of the unconscious as a deep source of creativity is characteristic of representatives of romanticism. The irrationalist doctrine of the unconscious was put forward by Schopenhauer, which was continued by E. Hartmann, who elevated the unconscious to the rank of a universal principle, the basis of being and the cause of the world process.
In the 19th century, the actual psychological study of the unconscious began (I. F. Herbart, G. T. Fechner, W. Wundt, T. Lipps). The dynamic characteristic of the unconscious is introduced by Herbart (1824), according to which incompatible ideas can come into conflict with each other, and the weaker ones are forced out of consciousness, but continue to influence it without losing their dynamic properties.
A new stimulus in the study of the unconscious was given by work in the field of psychopathology, where specific methods of influencing the unconscious (initially hypnosis) began to be used for therapeutic purposes. Research, especially from the French psychiatric school (J. Charcot and others), made it possible to reveal mental activity of a pathogenic nature, different from conscious, and unconscious to the patient.
A continuation of this line was the concept of S. Freud, who began with the establishment of direct connections between neurotic symptoms and memories of a traumatic nature, which are not realized due to the action of a special protective mechanism - repression. Refusing physiological explanations, Freud presented the unconscious as a powerful force antagonistic to the activities of consciousness. Unconscious drives, according to Freud, can be identified and brought under the control of consciousness using the technique of psychoanalysis. Freud's student Jung, in addition to the personal unconscious, introduced the concept of the collective unconscious, the different levels of which are identical among individuals of a certain group, people, and all of humanity. Freud's teaching about the unconscious received a purely irrationalistic interpretation in a number of modern philosophical and psychological concepts.
Z. Freud was the first in science to admit and develop the idea that consciousness is not the only link in the human psyche that determines his behavior and activity. He put forward and proved a scientific hypothesis that in addition to consciousness, there is the unconscious and preconscious, which greatly influence human life and behavior. In S. Freud, most of the theory is based on human sexuality, which is the main driving force in the development of the individual, on the exaggeration of sexual desire. This earned him misunderstanding from many of his scientific contemporaries. His theories were ridiculed and his books were burned. Now Freudianism is one of the directions in modern psychoanalysis. Modern psychoanalysis helps to understand and reveal the secret sides of a person, as it reveals the unconscious and allows you to find there the root cause of all the problems of a given person. In the history of psychology there have been many theories of the unconscious. They are all similar and at the same time very different. Some psychologists refined and supplemented the ideas of others.
Until the second half of the 19th century, philosophy was dominated by the belief that man in his actions is guided by consciousness, the defining element of which is reason. In the most full form this idea is expressed in .
IN late XIX century, a new direction in philosophy appears, based on the discoveries of Z. Freud. Freud proved that in the inner world of a person there are areas the content of which a person cannot or does not want to be aware of. It is necessary to distinguish between two types of unconscious actions. The first type includes actions that were previously conscious, under the control of consciousness, and then became automatic. For example, when a person learns to walk or write, his consciousness is directed to every effort in this direction, and when these operations are mastered, the person performs them unconsciously. The second type of unconscious actions never passed through the sphere of consciousness. It is this type that is called unconscious in psychology. The unconscious plays an important role in the life of a person and society, as it largely determines human behavior.
Freud offers the following classification of the structure of the human psyche:
- superconsciousness— the individual’s perception of the requirements of society: rules of conduct, parental prohibitions, moral censorship, etc.;
- unconscious- unrealized desires of the individual, which, due to a conflict with social norms, are repressed from consciousness and make themselves felt in the form of fears, complexes, neuroses, instincts, especially sexual, and are found in dreams, slips of the tongue, etc.;
- consciousness- the intermediate part of the psyche. It is supported from below by fears and instincts, from above by the demands of society. You cannot give in to instincts - this will lead to conflicts in society, you cannot suppress them either - this will lead to complexes, neuroses, and mental illnesses. A person must maneuver between these extremes throughout his life.
Freud tried to explain the whole of human history from the point of view of psychoanalysis. Society creates prohibitions on the manifestations of human sexuality. The energy, which remains unclaimed, is forced to be directed in another direction, to be sublimated, i.e. transform. This leads to the fact that a person turns to socially acceptable forms of activity: industrial, religious, political, artistic, etc. For example, in art the energy of sexual desire is transformed into the energy of artistic activity, the artist replaces forbidden actions with legal images. A striking form of sublimation is religion. In the image of God, people find a father whom they love and fear.
Freud's followers developed the doctrine of the unconscious and continued to work on finding methods to overcome its destructive effects. Thus, Jung discovered a new level of the unconscious, which he called collective unconscious. This level can never be realized, but it manifests itself in the form of mythological images characteristic of all cultures of the world. Jung called them archetypes, which receive different interpretations in myths, fairy tales, poetry, and appear in dreams and characteristics of human behavior. Archetypes are certain ideas encoded in the structure of the brain; they do not have a uniquely negative content, but are, as it were, the foundation of the conscious, however, they are irrational and cannot be understood by a person. Moreover, an attempt to directly comprehend archetypes can lead to tragedy. The psychic energy contained in archetypes can destroy the human psyche. To prevent this from happening, religious symbols stand between consciousness and the unconscious, which, as it were, transform the energy of the unconscious into human meanings. The “disenchantment” of religious symbolism in our time, according to Jung, can lead to tragic consequences, to the death of culture.
Consciousness
- one of the most difficult objects for scientific study. It is not perceived by the senses, i.e. invisible, intangible, has no mass or shape, is not located in space, etc. Nevertheless, no one doubts that consciousness exists and we can say that it has a special, mental or spiritual existence. The concept of consciousness unites various forms and manifestations of spiritual reality in human life; it is the highest of the individual's abilities. At the moment, the essence of these forms is interpreted from two positions - materialistic and idealistic.
IN materialistic interpretation, consciousness is declared secondary in relation to material world and is understood as a special property of matter - a “tool” of the brain, its function. In this regard consciousness There is the property of highly organized biological matter (the human brain) to reflect the world.
IN idealistic In the interpretation, consciousness is understood as the only reliable reality. The concept of matter is questioned, and the things we perceive are declared to exist only in our consciousness (since they can only be an illusion, a dream, and it is not possible to prove their reality and objectivity).
There are three main properties of consciousness:
- ideality(consciousness cannot be measured or studied using instruments);
- focus(consciousness is always directed at an object or at oneself);
- activity(consciousness not only reflects the world, but also produces various ideas).
Consciousness is divided into individual(the inner world of an individual) and public(spiritual world of society - science, religion, morality, politics, law, etc.), as well as ordinary(based on common sense and everyday experience) and scientific(systemic, theoretical consciousness based on objective data).
You can imagine the structure of consciousness consisting of four sectors (Fig. 2.4)
- sector I - sensations, ideas obtained through the senses;
- sector II - thinking, logical operations;
- sector III - emotions, feelings, experiences;
- sector IV - higher motives - values, imagination, creativity.
Rice. 2.4 Structure of consciousness
External cognitive activity (sectors I and II) and emotional-value activity (sectors III and IV) are responsible for the activity of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, respectively. The upper segment (sectors II and IV) is responsible for the superconscious (rules of behavior, social norms), the lower (sectors I and III) is responsible for the unconscious (mental processes not represented in the subject’s consciousness).
Unconscious
The concept of the unconscious was introduced into science by the Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). In the most general form, according to Freud, the structure of the psyche can be represented as three levels:
- superconscious - prohibitions, norms, traditions, morality, laws, public opinion;
- consciousness- clearly conscious thoughts, desires, etc.;
- unconscious- secret, unconscious desires, thoughts, complexes, automatisms.
According to Freud, everyone experiences antisocial desires. In childhood, a person learns to suppress them out of fear of punishment (embodied in the superconscious). However, even suppressed and forgotten desires do not disappear, but are concentrated in the unconscious, where they await their time. Repressed experiences can be combined into stable groups - complexes. For example, an inferiority complex is a set of feelings about one’s shortcomings and a desire to compensate for them. Unconscious desires and complexes, according to Freud, are usually of a sexual or aggressive nature. Although a person is not aware of them, they often make themselves known in dreams, humor, and slips of the tongue.
Consciousness for Freud is a field of struggle between the unconscious and the prohibitions of the superconscious. Antisocial desires and complexes periodically “pop up” into consciousness, prohibitions and norms suppress them, pushing them back into the unconscious. However, constant suppression of desires can lead to breakdowns (as in a steam boiler where it does not open safety valve) - neuroses, hysteria, etc. Therefore, all desires must be either “released” (realized in actions), or sublimated, i.e. transferred to other, sublime objects, for example, to creativity.
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) believed that in addition to the individual unconscious, there is also a collective unconscious, containing unconscious images common to all people - archetypes. They manifest themselves in the “dreams” of all humanity - myths, legends, fairy tales, parables, where basic patterns of behavior in different situations are set. These patterns are learned from childhood and then automatically, unconsciously reproduced in social activity.
In addition to desires, complexes and archetypes, the unconscious also includes simple automatic actions, the execution of which does not involve consciousness (for example, the basic skills of driving a car).
Consciousness and the collective unconscious
Individual consciousness can only exist on the basis of the collective unconscious. The relationship between consciousness and the collective unconscious was revealed by K.G. Jung.
The collective unconscious is a huge spiritual heritage that is reborn in each individual brain structure. Consciousness, as Jung writes, on the contrary, is an ephemeral phenomenon that carries out all momentary adaptations and orientations, which is why its work can most likely be compared to orientation in space. The unconscious contains the source of forces that sets the soul in motion. Movement of the soul, i.e. the content of mental life is regulated by archetypes: “All the most powerful ideas and ideas of humanity can be reduced to archetypes.” This applies not only to religious ideas, but also to central scientific, philosophical and moral concepts, which can be considered as variants of ancient ideas that took their modern form as a result of the use of consciousness.
Consciousness is in constant interaction with the individual unconscious.
A small part of the signals simultaneously coming from the external and internal environment of the body is reflected in the zone of consciousness. Signals that enter the zone of consciousness are used by a person to consciously control his behavior. Other signals are also used by the body to regulate certain processes, but at a subconscious and unconscious level.
The unconscious and subconscious are those phenomena, processes, properties and states that, in their effect on behavior, are similar to conscious ones, but are not actually reflected by a person, i.e. are not realized.
The difference between the unconscious and the subconscious is that the unconscious itself is a mental formation that under no circumstances becomes conscious, and the subconscious is those ideas, desires, aspirations that have currently left consciousness, but can later come to consciousness or be restored.
The unconscious principle is one way or another represented in almost all mental processes, properties and states of a person.
Unconscious sensations - These are sensations of balance, muscle sensations that cause involuntary reflexive reactions in the visual and auditory central systems.
Unconscious Images of Perception manifest themselves in a feeling of familiarity that arises in a person when perceiving an object or situation.
Unconscious memory - This is a memory that is associated with long-term memory, which controls, on an unconscious level, a person’s thinking, imagination, and attention at a given moment in time. Genetic memory is also unconscious.
Unconscious thinking manifests itself in the process of solving creative problems by a person, when template solutions are exhausted.
Unconscious speech acts as inner speech.
Unconscious Motivation influences the direction and nature of actions.
The unconscious in personality of a person are those qualities, interests, needs, etc. that a person is not aware of in himself, but which are inherent in him and manifest themselves in a variety of involuntary reactions, actions, and mental phenomena.
The unconscious and the preconscious play everyday life a person has a much more significant role than it seems at first glance. It should be borne in mind that consciousness is much less resistant to stress factors compared to the unconscious and subconscious. In a life-threatening situation, conflict, under the influence of alcohol, etc. the influence of consciousness on human actions decreases.
Individual and collective unconscious
Not all processes occurring in the human psyche are conscious, since in addition to consciousness, a person also has the sphere of the unconscious.
Unconscious presented in the form of the individual unconscious and the collective unconscious.
Individual unconscious mainly related to instincts, which are understood as innate ways of human behavior that arise under the influence of conditions environment without prior training. So, the instincts of self-preservation, reproduction, territorial, etc. appeared because in the process of evolution the need for such forms of behavior arose constantly, contributing to survival. Instincts include such forms of the psyche that generally cannot be realized and rationally expressed.
The doctrine of the individual unconscious was created, as noted above, by the Austrian philosopher and psychologist Sigmund Freud.
Concept collective unconscious was developed by a student and follower of Freud, a Swiss psychologist Carl Jung(1875-1961), who claimed that in the depths human soul The memory of the history of the entire human race lives on in man. In addition to the personal properties inherited from his parents, the properties of his distant ancestors also live on.
Collective unconscious, in contrast to the individual, personal unconscious, is identical for all people and forms the universal basis of the mental life of every person, the deepest level of the psyche. K. Jung figuratively compares the collective unconscious with the sea, which is, as it were, a prerequisite for each wave. The collective unconscious, according to Jung, is a prerequisite for each individual psyche. Processes of “psychic penetration” occur all the time between an individual and other people.
The collective unconscious is expressed in archetypes- the most ancient mental prototypes, such as images of father, mother, wise old man, etc. All the most powerful ideas and ideas of man can be reduced to archetypes.
The identification of levels in the structure of the psyche is associated with its complexity. The unconscious is a deeper level of the psyche compared to consciousness. However, in the psyche of a particular person, there are no strict boundaries between its different levels. The psyche functions as a single whole. Nevertheless, a special consideration of individual levels and forms of the psychosphere contributes to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of the psyche as a whole.
Unconscious- this is a set of mental processes, acts and states caused by influences, the influence of which a person is not aware of. The unconscious includes mental processes over which there is no subjective control. Everything that does not become the subject of special actions of awareness turns out to be unconscious.
While remaining mental (hence it is clear that the concept of “psyche” is broader than the concept of “consciousness”), the unconscious is a form of reflection of reality in which the completeness of orientation in time and place of action is lost, and speech regulation of behavior is disrupted. In the unconscious, as opposed to consciousness, targeted control is impossible It is impossible for a person to evaluate the actions he performs and evaluate their results.
The area of the unconscious includes: 1) mental phenomena that occur during sleep (dreams); 2) responses that are caused by imperceptible, but actually affecting stimuli (subsensory or subceptive reactions); 3) movements that were conscious in the past, but due to repetition have become automated and therefore more unconscious; 4) some motivations for activity in which there is no consciousness of purpose, etc.
Unconscious phenomena also include some pathological phenomena that arise in the psyche of a sick person: delusions, hallucinations, etc.
Experimental development of the concept of the unconscious was begun Z. Freud(1856–1939), Austrian psychologist, psychiatrist and neurologist, creator of psychoanalysis, who showed that many actions, the implementation of which a person is not aware of, are meaningful and cannot be explained by the action of instincts. He examined how this or that motivation manifests itself in dreams, neurotic symptoms, and creativity. Based on material obtained through interpretation of associations, dreams, and erroneous actions of the patient, S. Freud created three-membered energy structure of the personality (unconscious, conscious and superconscious).
Subsequently, the concept of the unconscious was significantly expanded. There are several main classes of manifestations of the unconscious: 1) unconscious motives, the true meaning of which is not realized due to their social unacceptability or contradiction with other motives; 2) behavioral automatisms and stereotypes that operate in a familiar situation, the awareness of which is unnecessary due to their development; 3) subliminal perception, which due to the large amount of information is not realized. Subliminal perception is a form of objective perception that occurs without conscious control. In the works V. G. Gershuni and his colleagues have experimentally shown that the development of conditioned reflexes to unconscious stimuli is possible.
The problem of the unconscious continues to be developed in line with various psychological schools. The development of ideas about the nature of the unconscious, the specifics of its manifestations, mechanisms and functions in the regulation of human behavior is a necessary condition creating a holistic objective picture of the mental life of the individual.