Sigmund Freud’s Theory of the Unconscious (and new theories)

Differences between "the unconscious" and the modern unconscious.

Traditionally, scientists and most philosophers have considered that human behavior is governed by conscious thought. conscious thought. The belief that we are capable of knowing all the important facts about our environment and our body and that we decide how to behave according to this information has been widespread, perhaps because rationality has been a central value in the naturalists and thinkers of recent centuries.

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

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

Although Sigmund Freud 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 his terminology) long before scientists came to glimpse it. The unconscious that Freud speaks of in his writings, however, is not the same as the unconscious that is studied today in neuroscience. Among other things, because neither he nor the rest of the researchers of mental processes still did not know the organic functioning by which higher mental processes are governed at the unconscious level, beyond having described certain general principles. Therefore, Freud wove a web of hypotheses, Freud wove a web of hypotheses relatively independent of what is studied today by the neurosciences. neurosciences.

It is important to be clear about this idea, since it is often understood that, as Freud tried to rely on principles of physics and physiology to propose his explanations of the mind, these explanations are based on an exhaustive observation of the functioning of the body at the Biological level. Thus, although in the early days of psychoanalysis the brain was compared to a steam engine, this image can be taken 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 that govern the functioning of the brain, and he believed that this topic was very relevant to understanding how thought and the unconscious proposed in Freudian theory work. Researchers of the mind had very few resources to study the workings of the brain, and this had clear implications for understanding how what was then called "the mind" works. This can be intuited in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), in which Sigmund Freud said:

"Biological science is really a domain of infinite possibilities. We must expect from it the most astonishing elucidations, and we cannot guess what answer it will give, in a few decades, to the problems posed by us. Perhaps these answers will be such that they will shatter our artificial edifice of hypotheses".

The gap between psychoanalysis and neurosciences

Both Freud and the disciples of Freudian theory who did not depart from the teachings of their master use the term unconscious to refer to the mental content which, at any given moment, is outside the repertoire of thoughts of which the person is aware and which, in some way, remains 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 the neural activation associated with consciousness that neuroscience studies.

Ultimately, the unconscious that Freud spoke about served to refer to memories, perceptions and mixtures of feelings which, responding to a need, are inaccessible by means of conscious awareness. It can be said that, although the current conception of the unconscious is not the one Freud used, the latter still competes with the other for being the first in which "the unconscious" occupies an important position in an extensive theoretical corpus.

The unconscious of the simple

The unconscious posited by Freudian theory is composed of concrete rational and emotional elements that remain repressed as having problematic significance for the conscious mind. That is, they are not kept hidden because of their complexity or their little relevance to the person's day-to-day life. On 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 sufficiently simple in themselves to be interpellated by a multitude of everyday stimuli The Freudian theory holds that the contents of the unconscious must be simple enough in themselves to be interpellated by a multitude of everyday stimuli, although the way in which the consciousness blocks these thoughts is complex, since it uses original combinations of symbols to give expression to what is repressed. Dreams, for example, are for Freud a vehicle of expression of repressed thoughts conveyed through symbolism.

A touch of mystery

Of course, this definition of the unconscious is problematic and confusinglanguage itself can be considered a way of filtering the unconscious. filtering the unconscious by means of symbols (words), which means that unconscious thoughts, by their very nature, never fully come to light and therefore we cannot know them completely, since they are in constant transformation in their journeys to consciousness. This kind of obscurantism is to be expected due to the complexity of the object of study of psychoanalysts, the issues addressed by Freudian theory and their research methodology.

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

The New Unconscious

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

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

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 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 human body. Nowadays, however, the tables have turned in the world of neuroscience and the vast majority of researchers dismiss conscious thought as the primary driver of our behavior.. The investigation of the unconscious by neuroscientists is something that has appeared only recently, but has borne fruit very quickly.

Distinguishing terms on the basis of new findings

The unconscious currently referred to by neuroscientists and psychologists is far from the concept of the unconscious presented by Freudian theory. In order 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 the New Unconscious.

While the unconscious of Freudian theory exists as a redoubt to which to limit thoughts that are difficult for consciousness to digest, which blocks them by keeping them away from itself, the New Unconscious is not based on forces of motivation and drive, nor on forms of repression or "blocking" of thoughts according to their content. The relationship between the conscious and unconscious processes of which scientists now speak is not based on defense mechanisms, but rather on the architecture of the brainIt is simply not made so that everything that occurs in it has a transcription into 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) of which we are not interested in knowing everything. We are not interested in instantly memorizing each and every aspect of the person we have just met, and so we look for one or two references of his identity unconsciously: for example, his hairstyle. Nor is it in our interest to devote ourselves to carefully study all the subjects on which we have to make a decision, and so we decide to unconsciously follow the paths of heuristics, nor is it necessary to be aware that the left shoe presses very lightly, 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 with discretion not because of their content, but because of their nature, because they are something that can be managed automatically, leaving free space in the consciousness for special tasks. In Freudian theory, on the other hand, that which is unconscious is so precisely because of its significanceits importance.

The New Unconscious is distinguished from the term used by Freudian theory because it does not respond to a personal history nor to the problematic internalization of past experiences.. In any case, its raison d'être lies 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 may be able to 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 in the street and the memories of the last vacation in Barcelona, respond to the same mechanics by which the processes responsible for making us blink are usually unconscious for most of the time. This is the logic that governs the New Unconscious: pure biological pragmatism. biological pragmatism.

While the unconscious of Freudian theory is based on motivational mechanisms, the New Unconscious is not a prison of emotions and inappropriate thoughts, but a place where we find all the series of operations that we are not particularly interested in controlling and whose automatism makes life easier for us.