Freud's Conception of the Unconscious
If you were to go out and ask anyone on the street to name a psychologist Sigmund Freud would be the overwhelming response. Sigmund Freud is known for many of his remarkable theories such as psychosexual development, but Sigmund Freud's most well noted theory pertains to the unconscious mind.
Freud was not the inventor of the theory of us humans having a conscious and unconscious part of our brain, but he made great strides to popularize the theory. He theorized that us humans have a small portion of our brains that has our conscious mind. Freud believed that beneath our awareness we have a much larger unconscious mind that holds wishes, feelings, thoughts, and memories. He believed that the memories we could recall were temporarily stored in the "preconscious area." These memories can be retrieved and brought back into consciousness. Freud also believed that in the unconscious brain we repress inappropriate passions because they would be to unsettling to acknowledge. Without our awareness these ideas would powerfully influence us in hidden forms such as the beliefs we hold, the work we do, and our daily habits.
Sigmund Freud was undoubtedly far ahead of his time when it came to psychology. His ideas on the unconscious mind were truly evolutionary and are still being used and confirmed to this day. For example his hypothesis that we could only access a limited portion of our brain has been confirmed many times most recently by Norman in 2010. This is truly remarkable idea for a man to come up with who died nearly seventy five years ago.
Below I have posted two links. The first is a journal entry from Simply Psychology. In this particular article I especially enjoyed the portion on the unconcious mind and the explanation it provided. I also enjoy the picture next to this section comparing his theory to an iceberg. Below I have added a similar picture to show this comparison.
Freud was not the inventor of the theory of us humans having a conscious and unconscious part of our brain, but he made great strides to popularize the theory. He theorized that us humans have a small portion of our brains that has our conscious mind. Freud believed that beneath our awareness we have a much larger unconscious mind that holds wishes, feelings, thoughts, and memories. He believed that the memories we could recall were temporarily stored in the "preconscious area." These memories can be retrieved and brought back into consciousness. Freud also believed that in the unconscious brain we repress inappropriate passions because they would be to unsettling to acknowledge. Without our awareness these ideas would powerfully influence us in hidden forms such as the beliefs we hold, the work we do, and our daily habits.
Sigmund Freud was undoubtedly far ahead of his time when it came to psychology. His ideas on the unconscious mind were truly evolutionary and are still being used and confirmed to this day. For example his hypothesis that we could only access a limited portion of our brain has been confirmed many times most recently by Norman in 2010. This is truly remarkable idea for a man to come up with who died nearly seventy five years ago.
Below I have posted two links. The first is a journal entry from Simply Psychology. In this particular article I especially enjoyed the portion on the unconcious mind and the explanation it provided. I also enjoy the picture next to this section comparing his theory to an iceberg. Below I have added a similar picture to show this comparison.
The next link obviously pertains to the same thing. This article is very similar to the first, but in this certain article I really enjoy the explanation is provides on the preconscious area of our brain in the second paragraph.
Links:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/cindex/g/def_conscious.htm
Links:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/cindex/g/def_conscious.htm