Freud’s definitions of the conscious, unconscious, and subconscious mind have been contested and misunderstood. The unconscious is a repository of information that is not easily accessible to the conscious mind and can guide and control it. The subconscious sits just below consciousness and is easily accessible if attention is paid to it. Other psychologists have had different or expanded definitions of the unconscious and subconscious. Cognitive behaviorists help clients evaluate behavior to arrive at their core belief system, which initiates a cognitive process of change.
Sigmund Freud structured the mind into metaphorical sections. These “sections” are contested and not exactly demonstrable. Yet many other psychiatrists and psychologists have since used his terminology to discuss the way the mind works and have suggested changes. These definitions of the sections of the mind: conscious, unconscious and subconscious are the basis of significant misunderstandings.
Some people use the terms unconscious and subconscious interchangeably, but this is not accurate by Freud’s definition. Unconscious, first of all, does not mean, as it is used in medical terminology, “knocked out”, nor does it mean anesthetized. Yet these ideas have a bearing on Freud’s conception of the unconscious.
Simply put, the unconscious is the repository of gathered information that has been removed and is not easily brought to the conscious mind. These memories unacknowledged by the conscious mind can be memories of trauma, or even simply memories, thought patterns, desires, and sensory impressions that remain far below the accessible surface. Because they are essentially inaccessible without psychoanalysis, they can guide and control the conscious mind at unseen levels. Much of Freud’s id and superego work against the background of the unconscious, creating disease, mental problems, neuroses, and a host of other problems.
The unconscious and the subconscious are very different, although non-psychiatric professionals often misuse the subconscious. In contrast to the unconscious, the subconscious mind sits just below consciousness and is easily accessible if you pay attention to it. For example, you might know someone’s phone number. This information is not stored in your conscious mind, but in your subconscious mind. If you think about it, you may produce the phone number, but it’s not just floating around in your conscious mind. You have to direct your attention to memory in order to trace the phone number. Those memories that you can recall easily are not conscious unless you pay attention and concentrate. When someone asks you to describe your perfect day, reach into your subconscious mind for these memories.
However, if someone asked you to describe the worst day you’ve ever had, especially if it was particularly traumatic, you might not really be able to describe the worst. You would be able to discuss memories in your subconscious mind that were memorably bad, but a truly traumatic day could be partially or completely repressed. Thus, one of the differences between the unconscious and the subconscious is that, at least in Freud’s estimation, the unconscious functioned as a protective force over the mind, even though this protection was misdirected. Truly finding the most traumatic day of your life could mean significant therapy to access buried layers of memory from both the conscious and subconscious, deeply hidden in the mind.
Other leading psychologists and psychiatrists have had different or expanded definitions of the unconscious and subconscious. For Carl Jung, the unconscious mind was the repository of all non-integrated aspects of the personality, such as the shadow and anima/animus. To become a fully individualized person, these things had to be brought into consciousness and integrated into the personality so that they served the person rather than hindered him. Under the unconscious, Jung further defined the collective unconscious, a group of shared images and ideas that were present in all people regardless of cultural background.
Yet other psychiatrists and psychologists dismiss the unconscious as nonsense. They claim that the system described by Freud, and which others have subsequently expanded on, cannot be tested. Behaviorists, for example, of the old behavioral school tend to criticize Freud’s view of the “levels” of the mind. Cognitive behaviorists, in contrast, have tried to bring the idea of repressed ideas into the unconscious into a new terminology.
Instead of the unconscious and subconscious, cognitive behaviorists help clients evaluate behavior to arrive at their core belief system, those thoughts and ideas, that really drive the person. In some ways this is separate from Freud’s original ideas because it emphasizes that although these core beliefs can be repressed, bringing them to light does not necessarily bring about instant change. Instead, identifying these beliefs initiates a cognitive process of change. Furthermore, these core beliefs are not tied to terms like “Oedipus complex” or id.
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