Topic Consciousness vs. Unconscious: Who is in charge? These subliminal aspects of everything that happens to us may seem to play very little part in our lives. but are the invisible roots of our unconscious thoughts.-Carl Jung. I have talked about the unconscious mind in several other stories, but would like to have a insightful discussion about this strange phenomenon that we are never aware of. The unconscious mind is the work horse of the brain and mind. After you have learned a task and mastered it that task now is delegated to the unconscious. Remember the first time you drove a car. You were conscious of everything from the brakes, gas pedal, lights, other cars, etc. You drove careful and slow because you had to take the time to serial process all this information in your consciousness. Multitasking is a misnomer and doesnt exist. You are able to focus deliberate attention on one task at a time, however, you can get really fast at this. But once it becomes learned and ingrained it becomes unconscious and automatic. But this is all hidden from you except on occasions when you leave to go to the store and end up at your mothers or something, then something does seem amiss. Even when that happens, you employ motivated reasoning to make sense of it, we are experts at it. This also occurs at work or any routine behavior you are doing in life. Without this ability you would never be able to function it is a necessary function for survival. However, it is a little distressing to realize that most of your life is ran by an unknown agent: albeit your agent. A loose analogy would be compared to zombies, however, we are alive of course. There have been numerous studies on this subject. But what I want to address is a bizarre case that is eerie as any Steven King horror story. What I want to ascertain is how much control does the unconscious have over us? What are the limits of control over us? The case of a real life body snatcher: Mrs. Seizemore walked into a psychiatrist office complaining of severe and blinding headaches which were sometimes followed by blackouts. Mrs. Seizmore was normal young mother in a bad marriage. Her demeanor reserved, circumspect, and meticulously truthful. Over several months of therapy the Doctors evaluation was that she had not lost consciousness or that she suffered from any serious mental condition. Then one day during therapy, she had gone a a recent trip but had no memory of it. Her doctor hypnotized her, and the amnesia cleared. She was cured? Several days later the doctor received a unsigned letter. He recognized the penmanship as Mrs Seizmores. In the letter she wrote that she had been disturbed by the recovered memory-how could she be sure she remembered everything, and how could she know the memory loss wouldnt happen again? There was also another sentence scrawled at the bottom of the letter, in a different handwriting that was difficult to decipher. On her next visit Seizmore denied sending the letter, although she admitted to starting one. She began to get agitated and anxious-if hearing an imaginary voice meant she was insane. As the therapist though about it, Seizmore altered her posture, crossed her legs, and took on a childish daredevil air he had never seen exhibited by her before. The Doctor later described it, A thousand minute alteration of manner, gesture, expression, posture, of nuances in reflex instinctive reaction, of glance, of eyebrow, all argued that this was another woman. then that other woman began to speak of Seizmore and her problems in the third person, using she or her in every reference. When asked her identity, Seizmore now replied with a different name. It was she, this person who suddenly had a new name, she said, who had found the unfinished letter, added a sentence and mailed it. The Doctor now administered several psychological personality tests while she was in each of her two roles. He submitted the tests to independent researchers, who were not told they came from the same woman. The analysts concluded that the two personalities had markedly different self-images. the woman who had origianl entered therapy saw herself as passive, weak, and bad. She knew nothing of her other half, a woman who saw herself as active, strong, and good. The new half eventually took over. Mrs. Seizmore was cured. Now this is an extreme case, that really freaked me out. The Mrs Seizmore that first entered was gone, taken over, but also probably saved. What about the memories I wondered. Furthermore, the other half did now Seizmore existed but Mrs. Seizmore did not. Strange happenings. But the reality is so do we have multiple personalities. We are not the same person we were 30 years ago. You would not even know that individual if you were to go back in time. In fact we even change throughout the day, depending on circumstances and our social environment, as well as hormonal levels. Our character is not indelibly stamped on us but is in dynamic and changing. Most people assume they know who they are and that they act consistently, as a result of conscious deliberation. The greatest trick evolution has pulled off in my opinion. In every study they have done to test the constant self performance has resulted this was not the case. So how far can the unconscious intrude in what we think is our lives? Of course it is the unconscious we just have no access to , which is also why it is so difficult to treat post traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and so forth. Due to the fact that the unconscious stores the memories all over the brain and there is no way to locate where a every traumatic event is located. The good thing about this is that if you are aware of this fact you con use your conscious part to work with the unconscious, this is called mindfulness. Difficult to do, but not impossible. This also relates to; guess what? Existentialism. To know oneself is the the hardest thing a person can do. Why? Because most go about there days in zombie mode being lead by a leash by the other half. This is why I always say there are different levels of consciousness, not only among other species, but between humans. I have numerous studies of this happening to people and it is hilarious. One of the tests, and this one is not funny, is that they used to perform on ascertaining just how powerful the unconscious is was fake open hearts. Basically a placebo surgery,( side note, it is still done today on people and works) Yes. They would go under anesthesia, crack the chest, just look at the heart and close it back up. I forget how many where in the control and experimental studies but quite a few. The outcomes were revealing. For the ones who actually had the by-pass reported the same percentage of chest pain relief and comfort as the ones who had the fake ones. The reason they had to go through with opening the chest is that the unconscious is no dummy and if it smells somethings up it will not work. In conclusion, I believe the first thing someone has to do, if they are an existentialist or not, is know thyself first and foremost. Because what use is authenticity going to do for you if the other half has it? It is also, in my opinion, a way out of determinism which is analogous to being a puppet. I know i dont! Afterword: watching television, playing video games, being on the computer places you in a state of hypnosis and the you have less and less control. The Zombie part of you is living your life believe it or not. I knew there was a reason that zombie shows are so popular they remind us of someone we know but cant place a finger on it. By Mark Miller Resources: Subliminal: How the Unconscious mind rules your behavior, by Leonard Mlodinow
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 06:58:57 +0000
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