Topic > The Unconscious - 1348

Human beings believe they live their lives consciously; who are aware of their surroundings and know at all times what is happening around them. Yet a deeper analysis of the word “conscious” leads to a more confusing thought process than a human being may be able to understand. Carl Jung's Personal and Collective Unconscious believes that "the unconscious contains only those parts of the personality which could well be conscious and which are actually suppressed only through education" (344). In a more simplistic form, it states that the human brain is actually a more unconscious thought process, and that what the brain produces as conscious can actually be described as unconscious. Francis Crick's The General Nature of Consciousness similarly agrees that "people are not aware of all the processes going on in their heads" (405). Both of these scientists argue on the same side of the psychological debate that the average human belief in consciousness is not what it is thought to be. The other perspective on the debate is that the unconscious and the conscious represent totally different aspects of our mind. Human beings in fact live most of their lives consciously, as a scientist named K. Koffka believes. Koffka states that “the mind is specifically conscious, so everything mental must be thought of in terms of consciousness, even if it is not itself conscious” (Koffka). If taken in detail, Koffka firmly believes that everything we say and do in a day is under the total control of the conscious part of our mind. However, he makes it clear that he believes unconsciousness also exists. “Therefore, when it was deemed necessary to go beyond consciousness in the description and exploration of the mind, the mind was imagined to be non-conscious, fundamentally the same, that is, in all its aspects or properties except being conscious” (Koffka). Jung rightly argues that what we believe to be conscious is actually what the unconscious describes to us. When we delve deeper into a topic, our brain receives a message from our senses and then transmits the information to us. We believe we consciously created these thought processes. The real question is: have you actually stopped and become unaware of your surroundings, consciously, however... middle of paper... many doctors who believe that the unconscious is our conscious self far outweigh that of those who believe in total consciousness. In the case of consciousness versus unconsciousness, it is fair to say that we live a life of what we believe to be conscious, but in reality it is more of an unconscious effort to maintain what we describe to ourselves as consciousness. The truth behind all these facts is that these two scientists have put a lot of work into their theories and believe that the blank among all the writing is that we actually practice a life of unconsciousness almost all at once and that that little consciousness actually bears witness to it's all the human race really needs to deal with that experience in all normal daily activities. Work Cited Jacobbus, Lee A. A World Of Ideas. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2002. 344-354; 399-408. Whyte, reads Lancelot. The unconscious before Freud. 1st ed. New York: Basic Books Inc, 1960(Whyte 17-30) Koffka, k. "On the structure of the unconscious." The unconscious: a symposium. And. . Freeport: Books for Libraries Press Inc, 1966. 43-68. (Koffka)