The Structure and Function of the Unconscious Mind

Overview

When it comes to the human mind, it’s a highly complex, yet fascinating system. While we may spend the entirety of our lives attempting to figure the inner workings of our own mind out, humanity still struggles to define the mind. What is even more difficult to comprehend, it seems, is a single piece of the puzzle: the unconscious mind.

In this article, we’re going to examine the unconscious aspect of the human mind. We’ll dive into how it operates and the way it differs from the subconscious. Then, we’ll take a look at many sources of leading research regarding the unconscious mind, including insights from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

The Mind & Consciousness

When it comes to the human mind, we have many questions. Considering the majority of them remain unanswered without tangible evidence, we continue to ask them. In order to understand the unconscious mind, it’s important that we first highlight consciousness as a whole.

First of all, consciousness is what gives us the ability to recognize our own thoughts, feelings, and actions. It helps us to determine that we are individuals, while simultaneously understanding that there are various other living beings that also contain consciousness. To be conscious is to have awareness.

Within our consciousness there are many layers. Each layer has a different set of functions and depending on the person, separate levels of awareness. These layers are known as:

The Conscious Mind: Most obvious and outward layer.
The Unconscious Mind: Internal layer, often unrecognized.
The Collective Unconscious: Unified consciousness that extends beyond any single individual.

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

-Carl Gustav Jung

The Unconscious Layer of the Mind

While the conscious mind refers to the part of our consciousness that we’re constantly aware of during our waking hours, the unconscious mind is much more elusive. It includes content that is not immediately accessible to the conscious mind. However, it’s capable of being triggered, directing our reactions to certain circumstances.

Furthermore, the Unconscious mind has a way of influencing our behavior subtly. Elements of our personality can be suppressed if our conscious mind sees them as unlikeable. Likewise, uncomfortable memories may be repressed to avoid pain. Either or both may direct our emotions and actions without our acknowledgement.

How the Unconscious Mind Works

The unconscious mind operates on principles that differ from those of our conscious mind. While our conscious thought processes are more linear and logical, the unconscious functions through pattern recognition and symbolic representations. It draws on a vast repository of experiences that help the conscious mind to craft unique interpretations of reality.

The workings of the unconscious mind can be illustrated through the concepts of automatic processing and implicit memory.

Automatic processing is the way our mind handles routine tasks. What’s important to note about this is that it happens without requiring active thought.
- For instance, when driving a familiar route, a person might find themselves daydreaming yet still successfully reach their destination.
- One might have an entire conversation while washing dishes. Having no active thoughts on cleaning them, the dishes still get done.
Implicit memory refers to the unconscious retention of information that affects behavior;
- For example, a person may be able to recall how to ride a bike even if they cannot consciously articulate it the way they understand it.
- Implicit memory may also involve natural responses that occur as a form of conditioning based on previous experiences; such as having a fear of dogs due to being attacked as a child.

Research on the Unconscious Mind

Modern neuroscience has made huge strides in uncovering how unconscious mechanisms operate in our brains. Techniques such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and electrophysiological recordings reveal that much of our mental processing occurs below the level of conscious awareness. These studies suggest that the brain continuously processes vast amounts of data automatically, enabling us to function effectively in our daily lives.

However, our knowledge of the deeper faculties of the mysteries of our minds began long ago. Around a century ago, there were two men who dedicated their lives to the work of psychology, paving the way to our modern understanding. Their names were Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

Sigmund Freud’s Work

The term “unconscious” found significant articulation in the early twentieth century through Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. He believed that the unconscious mind is the reservoir of our experiences, playing a vital role in shaping our character. His explanation was that the unconscious operates through mechanisms like repressing particularly traumatic memories to protect the individual from psychological pain.

Freud divided the mind into three parts: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. He emphasized that much of our behavior is driven by unconscious forces, often expressed through dreams and neuroticism. Regardless, his studies revealed that the unconscious mind significantly shapes our interactions with the world.

Freud’s demonstration of the unconscious mind and its influence over our actions has inspired many subsequent studies in psychology. Modern research, including cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral studies, provides empirical evidence supporting the existence and impact of the unconscious mind, as told by Freud.

Carl Jung’s Work

On the other hand, Carl Jung believed that consciousness contains various layers that have sublayers within them. However, he also expanded upon Freud’s theories, presenting a slightly different viewpoint about the unconscious. The self, the shadow, and the anima/animus were the sublayers Jung thought of as residing in the unconscious layers.

He distinguished between two, main layers of the unconscious. The first one aligns with Freud’s notion, which Jung called the personal unconscious. Second is the collective unconscious, a term Jung coined to describe structures of the unconscious shared among beings of the same species that contain universal memories, symbols, and archetypes.

Jung’s interpreation of the unconscious layer is that it’s also a source of creativity and insight, suggesting a more positive view of the unconscious compared to Freud’s. He believed that exploring the collective unconscious could lead to profound psychological insights and personal growth. His emphasis on archetypes, such as the Hero or the Shadow, underscores the shared human experiences that influence thoughts and behavior across cultures.

Stereotypes and the Unconscious Mind

An interesting realm of research has emerged around unconscious bias. It highlights how hidden preferences can affect perceptions and decision-making, particularly concerning race, gender, and socioeconomic status. Implicit Association Tests (IAT) have revealed that unconscious biases may drive people to form stereotypes or make judgments, even when they consciously endorse equality and fairness. (Nosek, 2007).

Another significant domain of research is the study of automatic processes. This is when individuals react to stimuli based on ingrained behaviors or learned stereotypes without engaging in conscious thought. For example, a person might unconsciously associate certain traits with specific genders or ethnicities, while denying racist or sexist displays within their personality.

Studies Regarding the Unconscious Mind

The study of the unconscious mind has evolved significantly, with contributions from various fields, including neuroscience, cognitive psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry. Here are a few notable studies:

Subliminal Perception Studies: Research in this area, particularly in the 20th century, examined how stimuli can be presented below the threshold of conscious awareness, influencing people’s choices and attitudes—illustrating the impact of the unconscious mind on behavior. A famous study by Merikle and Daneman (1998) illustrated that subliminal messages can affect cognitive processing.
Implicit Bias Research: Projects investigating implicit biases, such as the work of Greenwald and Banaji (1995), introduced the IAT, which explores how people’s unconscious preferences manifest in their social judgments.
Memory and Consciousness: Research by Freed and Corkin (2015) concerning amnesic patients showed how unconscious memories can inform behaviors despite a lack of conscious recollection, suggesting a complex interplay between different memory systems.
Decision-Making Studies: Research by Dijksterhuis and van Olden (2006) highlighted the effectiveness of “unconscious thought” in making complex decisions, positing that the mind can unconsciously process a significant amount of information, resulting in better decision outcomes compared to those derived purely through conscious deliberation.
Emotional Processing: Studies have also highlighted how the unconscious processes emotional stimuli before conscious awareness. For instance, work by Öhman and others has shown that threats perceived unconsciously can trigger immediate physiological responses, often before the conscious mind acknowledges the threat.

The Difference Between Unconscious and Subconscious

While the terms “unconscious” and “subconscious” are frequently used interchangeably, they refer to different concepts in psychological theory.

Subconscious

Considered to be a layer of mental activity just below the threshold of consciousness.
Contains thoughts that are not actively in our mind but can be readily accessed.
Subconscious Examples May Include:
- Forgetting someone’s name, but recognizing their face.
- Whenever something is on “the tip of our tongue.”
- Trying to recall where we sat our keys or phone.

Unconscious

Involves deeper cognitive processes that influence and direct our actions, while we oftentimes remain oblivious of their existance.
Contains memories, desires, unresolved trauma, biases, fears, and motivations that exist outside of our conscious awareness.
We may recognize unconscious characteristics within another individual whenever we percieve them as being “in denial” about something.
Unconscious Examples May Include:
- Unresolved trauma that can trigger an intense emotional reaction.
- Repressed memories from painful experiences.
- Suppressed desires that bring us shame.
- Beliefs formed through the conditioning of society.
- Unrecognized biases or stereotypes.
- Actions taken due to motivations unaware of.
- Unacknowledged fears that influence behavior.

References

Öhman, A. (2005). The role of unconscious processes in emotional responding. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28(1), 25-26.
Freud, S. (1915). The Unconscious. Standard Edition.
Merikle, P. M., & Daneman, M. (1998). Subliminal extinction: Availability of the past when reported and demonstrated. Consciousness and Cognition, 7(2), 162-185.
Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (1995). Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological Review, 102(1), 4-27.
Freed, D. B., & Corkin, S. (2015). Amnesic patients exhibit intact implicit memory for spatial context. Neuropsychology, 29(3), 391-397.
Dijksterhuis, A., & van Olden, Z. (2006). On the benefits of thinking unconsciously: Unconscious thought can increase choice accuracy. Journal of Consumer Research, 33(4), 474-481.
Freud, S. (1923). The Ego and the Id.
Jung, C.G. (1968). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.
Bargh, J.A., & Morsella, E. (2008). The Unconscious. In The Handbook of Social Psychology (5th ed.).
Nisbett, R.E., & Wilson, T.D. (1977). The Halo Effect: Evidence for Unconscious Alteration of Judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Kosslyn, S.M., & Pascual-Leone, J. (2005). Theories of the Brain: From the Renaissance to the Present. In Philosophy of Mind: Contemporary Readings.
Kahneman, Daniel. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow.