Our behavior, thoughts and emotions are driven in great part by forces we are only vaguely aware of at best, our unconscious (UCS) minds. Though this may be considered by some to be a daring statement (some would even say untrue), I have found it, in both my personal and professional experience, to be the case. I will attempt to demonstrate my point to you, but first, a little background.
The notion of the UCS was a topic of discussion among 19th century philosophers. Many erroneously credit Freud with the discovery, and while his theories certainly popularized the concept, he was not the first to hypothesize its existence. Later social scientists took his thinking about the UCS in two different directions. Karl Jung expanded the notion of the UCS mind from a personal one to a collective (universal) one, citing as evidence certain symbols, myths and concepts that are to be found present in all cultures. On the other hand, John Watson, the father of American Behavioralism, roundly condemned the concept as nonsense because it could not be measured and scientifically studied.
Watson’s point is well taken; how can you come to understand something that, by definition, is not accessible to our conscious minds? The answer is, by inference. We can infer meaning by taking a step back and considering that not everything that is true must be totally perceived or measurable. The chief problem with this line of thought is that it effectively opens the door for a wide range of personal and communal philosophies that may not bear up under even a modicum of ration scrutiny. That being said, it is no reason not to search for hidden truth.
Try this small example: imagine you are boarding a bus or a train. You can choose any unoccupied seat. As you walk down the aisle, you are scanning your fellow passengers, deciding which ones are good bets to sit down next to and which ones are not. At a moment’s glance you process what you see and translate that into a virtual psychological profile and use those conclusions as a basis for deciding where to sit. Do you understand the processes at work? Probably not. Could you explain your choice if asked? Probably so. Was there a complex process that took place below the range of your conscious mind? Yes. You were probably processing hundreds of bits of information in the three seconds it took you to arrive at your solution.
This, by the way, is why I am opposed to speed dating and other quick modalities whereby one’s suitability as a prospective date gets sorted out in twenty-five words or less. That may work well for the duration of a bus ride, but for longer term relationships the process, although basically identical, needs to be carried out over a period of a few trials to obtain more detailed and accurate results.
I am always interested in piquing people’s curiosity about things psychological and I hope I am piquing yours now. Here is a simple way to learn something about what UCS factors motivate you. You can do it right at home, but it is going to require some small sacrifice. What do you think drives your appetite for food, for example? We all know that, at base, we need food to fuel our bodies. But what other meanings does eating hold for you? How important are those meanings? Is it something you share with others around you or is it something more idiosyncratic? The answers to these and other questions can be found in a scant 3-5 days. How? Simply stop eating.
You can do a juice fast, which provides the energy you need to get you through your day, or, if you are more daring and have the time in your schedule, you can do a water fast, which will slow you down considerably, but provide much more information concerning your relationship to food. (If you have a medical condition, you should check first with your doctor before fasting.) You will be amazed by the types and intensity of thoughts and feelings that disrupting your established routine will yield. You may want to keep a journal of the experience so you can capture them all. You can do the same by temporarily relinquishing alcohol or even human interaction: imagine a weekend at home where you do not speak to anybody, watch TV, listen to music, or read a book, a weekend of just silent being. You will learn a lot about yourself and the meaning human contact and pleasant diversions have for you, I guarantee it.
This may all sound a bit extreme, but were you to try it, I am confident I will have made the point in my opening sentence. We understand very little about our UCS and yet it drives so much of who we are, what we think and do and how we feel and react. Who we think of ourselves as being and how we perceive and interact with others is all profoundly influenced by our hidden aspects. And I have not mentioned a thing about dreams, which Freud described as the “royal road to the unconscious” but we will save that discussion for another time.