Human Consciousness: Role of the unconscious (Humans)

by David Turell , Tuesday, February 09, 2016, 15:34 (3208 days ago) @ David Turell

Freud's 'unconscious' Makes a comeback:-http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/30/sigmund-freud-unconscious-theories?CMP=fb_gu-" Yet it could be the case that far from being past its sell-by date, the time of the unconscious is yet to come.
 
"The reasons are twofold: science and necessity. First, neuroscience has demonstrated conclusively that there's far more going on in the mind than the owners of those minds are generally aware. Mark Solms, a professor of neuropsychology and psychoanalyst who has pioneered much of the effort to test Freud's findings against the neuroscientific, often points out that the conscious mind is capable of attending to six or seven things at once, while the rest of the nervous system is performing thousands. In that light, it seems perverse to deny that much of psychic life lies over the horizon of our awareness, doubly so when you consider experiences such as dreaming and slips of the tongue, or ordeals from infancy that can't be remembered and yet demonstrably shape adult life.-***-"So the real debate, today, is whether the mechanisms that Freud ascribed to the unconscious - the so-called dynamic unconscious - were right.-***-"The science, though, is building to challenge this view. One line of research examines certain amnesic conditions in which patients fabricate memories and deny they can't recall what actually happened. Such confabulations have been shown to follow the rules that Freud identified in a dynamic unconscious. They carry meaning. Alternatively, there are those who suffer from paraphasia, a syndrome in which forgotten words are substituted by others. The substitutions similarly show patterns that mirror those Freud detected in dreams and slips. The evidence is that repression is a key characteristic of the unconscious.-***-"The unconscious is one candidate, and conversion disorders provide a case in point. Also known as hysteria, these too are remarkably prevalent. -***-"But Freud's central idea on conversion disorders - namely that a trauma, or perceived trauma, lies at the origin - is now routinely shown to have clinical efficacy.....When you examine patient histories carefully - which of course takes time, training and money - the dissociations and meaning of the symptoms often emerge. ... As Kanaan put it, if Freud had referred to PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) rather than hysteria, he would now be remembered as a pioneering hero.-***-"Further, psychoanalysis has itself radically revised Freud's original conclusions. But it now holds a century of wisdom on engaging this hidden and sometimes devastatingly powerful part of ourselves. Freud believed his work was only a beginning. Scientific research and sheer human need suggest we should energetically continue what he started."-Comment: From my own experience and training, repressed memories and ego defense mechanisms built up over the years can play very unwanted roles. But today talking and even studying dreams can play a role in helping the patient. Our brain is more complex than initially realized.