Is the Unconscious real?

[arlin]

I am starting to study psychology of personality so, the many theories in regart to how personality is formed and influenced.

In regard to Sigmund Freud, many believe that the unconscious is pure fiction. If it is so, there is no need to study it as it is irrelevant in one's life.

Freud Theories are accused to be unscientific, since you can't really study something that it is not accessible and hidden.

What are your thoughts about this? 

Should i study psychodynamic theory, will it serve me in discovering what are my emotional blocks, and why they are there?

[tsuki]

What do you mean by 'real'?

[Truth Addict]

@tsuki Just transcend the mind already 

Edited June 27, 2019 by Truth Addict

[tsuki]

4 minutes ago, Truth Addict said:

@tsuki Just transcend the mind already 

Whose mind?

[arlin]

41 minutes ago, tsuki said:

What do you mean by 'real'?

I mean does it actually exist?

[tsuki]

2 minutes ago, arlin said:

I mean does it actually exist?

It is as real as everything else. Study psychology and see for yourself.
I prefer Jungian psychology because it does not treat the subconscious as a separate entity and gives you tools to deal with it (shadow work, as linked by @Truth Addict).

[Commodent]

It's very real. It's the supercomputer of your brain that you are minimally aware of. The conscious mind is very slow and very limited in comparison.

If you want to discover your emotional blocks you need to get in touch with your reality. You need to become acutely aware of what feelings are holding you back from what you want to do. You do not get in touch with you emotions simply by reading about fanciful concepts like id, superego etc. You get in touch with them by connecting with your own experiences. You recognize that these recurring emotions are remnants of (often several) bad experiences, maybe even from very early parts of your life which you cannot remember.

How would you help a child that has suffered and is feeling bad? Deny his experience and conclude that his feelings are invalid? Or would you acknowledge his experience and do your best to make him feel loved and secure? What do you think would help the most? That's what you have to do to yourself, because the part of your brain that was dominant during your childhood (often referred to as the Inner Child) is still there, and it might not be feeling so good.

Other than that I can highly recommend the book "Eastern Body, Western Mind" by Anodea Judith. It highlights the many ways blockages can manifest themselves.

[arlin]

1 hour ago, tsuki said:

It is as real as everything else. Study psychology and see for yourself.
I prefer Jungian psychology because it does not treat the subconscious as a separate entity and gives you tools to deal with it (shadow work, as linked by @Truth Addict).

Allright

 

1 hour ago, Commodent said:

Other than that I can highly recommend the book "Eastern Body, Western Mind" by Anodea Judith. It highlights the many ways blockages can manifest themselves.

I find your answer very complete, also, i like reading new books. So thank you for taking your time for helping me  

[Hellspeed]

The unconscious is the limbic system and internal organs etc. 

On the mainstream college they teach only the mind. 

The awakened human being is able to use it. And in the process be able to use more than 10% of the human capacity.

To tap into the whole, we use breath as main focus. Then everything unfolds into a dramatic entrance.

[bmcnicho]

Oh, the unconscious is definitely real, but Freud only scratched the surface of it.  He was only aware of the personal unconscious, but Carl Jung discovered the collective unconscious.  He discovered univeral archetypes common to the mythologies of all human cultutes.  He saw these archetypes express themselves in the dreams of his patients.

In essence: the gods are real and they live inside your mind.  These archetypes are what govern most of our behavior, and until we make the unconscious conscious, then they will rule over us and we will call them destiny.

Jung created the Individuation Process, so that we could integrate the shadow and achieve psychic wholeness.  But he wasn't a mere western rationalist, he was very aware of the traditions of the East.  Inspired by Gnosticism and mystical traditions around the world, he formulated the archetype of the Self, his understanding of God, the Absolute, Enlightenment.

This was the ultimate goal of Carl Jung's psychology of the collective unconscious.

[arlin]

3 hours ago, Hellspeed said:

To tap into the whole, we use breath as main focus. Then everything unfolds into a dramatic entrance.

Im going to do research on the breath and breathwork soon,thank you.

 

6 minutes ago, bmcnicho said:

Oh, the unconscious is definitely real, but Freud only scratched the surface of it.  He was only aware of the personal unconscious, but Carl Jung discovered the collective unconscious.  He discovered univeral archetypes common to the mythologies of all human cultutes.  He saw these archetypes express themselves in the dreams of his patients.

In essence: the gods are real and they live inside your mind.  These archetypes are what govern most of our behavior, and until we make the unconscious conscious, then they will rule over us and we will call them destiny.

Jung created the Individuation Process, so that we could integrate the shadow and achieve psychic wholeness.  But he wasn't a mere western rationalist, he was very aware of the traditions of the East.  Inspired by Gnosticism and mystical traditions around the world, he formulated the archetype of the Self, his understanding of God, the Absolute, Enlightenment.

This was the ultimate goal of Carl Jung's psychology of the collective unconscious.

You offered a very good description of his work. Now i am actually exited to study it ahaha thanks  

[bmcnicho]

@arlin Yes, it's very fascinating!  I've read 5 of his books so far.  He is very difficult to understand though, so I'd recommend the YouTube channel Uberboyo to help make sense of it.  Their videos could also serve as a good introduction.

[winterknight]

11 hours ago, arlin said:

I am starting to study psychology of personality so, the many theories in regart to how personality is formed and influenced.

In regard to Sigmund Freud, many believe that the unconscious is pure fiction. If it is so, there is no need to study it as it is irrelevant in one's life.

Freud Theories are accused to be unscientific, since you can't really study something that it is not accessible and hidden.

What are your thoughts about this? 

Should i study psychodynamic theory, will it serve me in discovering what are my emotional blocks, and why they are there?

I have a master’s degree in psychology and have studied the topic extensively: Freud and psychoanalysis and the unconscious have plenty of evidence for them, and they are far subtler than competing schools of thought. 

Look at the psychoanalysis section of my reading list to learn more, though by far the best way to understand it in the context of your emotional blocks is to enter analysis yourself. It’s an amazing thing for anyone who values self-understanding and is willing to commit serious time and effort to it. Google a local psychoanalytic institute in your city and ask for a referral, PM me if you have questions. 

(Jung though you might want to treat with a more skepticism. He tends to make claims that just aren’t as well supported.)

[LastThursday]

@arlin The unconscious only exists in your conscious experience. 

If the unconscious really exists outside of conscious experience, then where is its boundary? In other words, where does it reside? The brain? The body? The whole universe? How can you know for sure?

[DrewNows]

@winterknight I have a journal sharing "holistic psychology" from an instagram page made by a psychologist who's converging spirituality with psychology. Would you mind taking a look? 

Cheers 

[bmcnicho]

@LastThursday This is a complex question that I'm still trying to understand myself, but I'll go ahead and take a crack at it.

The conscious and unconscious together form a unified psychic totality.  Ego consciousness is but the surface of the much larger psyche, but it emerges from, and is heavily influenced by, the unconscious.  This makes sense from a biological perspective, as the prefrontal cortex is stacked on top of the mamalian brain, which is stacked on top of the reptillian brain. 

This means that other animals aren't fully conscious in the human sense, and are almost exclusively ruled by unconscious instincts.  However, animals still possess a psyche, it's just that it's an uncounscious one.  It's important to note that I'm not making a materialistic claim here, rather I'm invoking the paradoxical notion that something can simultaneously be both numinous (i.e. non-physical) and unconscious.

Even though the unconscious is distinct from ego consciousness, you can still become aware of it in your experience, just not directly.  The unconscious can only be known symbolically, for a symbol bridges the gap between the conscious and unconscious minds by containing aspects of each.  For example, take the symbol of a snake.  The conscious component is the literal image, and the unconscious component is its viseral, hard to define significance.

Mythology in essence is a collection of these symbols.  Symbols also appear in dreams and in the imagination.  The meaning of symbols can be made more conscious through conceptual interpretation, however, no interpretation can fully explain the unconscious content, and thus the orignial symbol must not be arrogently dispensed with.

So, from Jung's perspective, enlightenment is when the distinction between conscious and uncounscious breaks down, and you become aware of the totality of your psyche, which Jung refers to the archetype of the Self.

Edited June 28, 2019 by bmcnicho

[Shadowraix]

Being Conscious comes from our ability to self reference in terms of being able to reprogram. 

[ajasatya]

@arlin Emotional triggers exist because people have toxic unconscious mental patterns.

[arlin]

13 hours ago, bmcnicho said:

I'd recommend the YouTube channel Uberboyo

I will check it out

12 hours ago, winterknight said:

Look at the psychoanalysis section of my reading list to learn more,

Very useful list i will check it out carefully.

 

12 hours ago, winterknight said:

Google a local psychoanalytic institute in your city and ask for a referral, PM me if you have questions. 

Im in italy. I don't know what you really mean by that.

 

10 hours ago, ajasatya said:

@arlin Emotional triggers exist because people have toxic unconscious mental patterns.

Do you know any books that can help me expand this subject? Thank you  

[ajasatya]

2 minutes ago, arlin said:

Do you know any books that can help me expand this subject? Thank you

Nope...

The best book is the one written with the words of your mental experience, though. Read it carefully.