Re: Is there "an unconscious"?


Tim McNamara wrote:
> "Greg Alexander" <galexand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Tim McNamara wrote:
> > > "Greg Alexander" <galexand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > We unconsciously perceive the world a certain way, our attention
> > > > focuses unconsciously in certain ways, and we may change how we look at
> > > > things both unconsciously and consciously.
> > >
> > > Well, we perceive the world in the way our biological heritage
> > > predisposes us to see it. I don't think I would call that
> > > "unconscious," at least in the psychodynamic use of the term.
> >
> > Not just our biological heritage, but also what we've learned from past
> > experiences, our current attention, and tightly held beliefs - these
> > all affect how we perceive the world. Even what we've been doing
> > recently affects how we see the world now (for example, if you've just
> > had an amazing day with a real buzz, and you go to a family party,
> > you'll perceive it differently to if you'd been totally bored before
> > hand).
>
> Perception is not passive, contrary to the assumptions of thousands of
> experiments in perception carried out by psychologists for the past 150
> years.

I always thought of perception as an active/dynamic process, but now
that I think about it I don't think my lecturers ever taught it with
that distinction. Are you saying the active nature is only a recent
development?

> > As far as unconscious goes - I'd call it unconscious anytime we aren't
> > consciously aware of it.
> >
> > Though just as you said mind is activity of the brain, I would not
> > define conscious or unconscious as parts of the BRAIN, but as parts of
> > the activity of the brain. Moreso that we have constant activity of our
> > brain, and some of that activity we're aware of.
>
> That's different than there being "an" unconscious as a repository of
> repressed and suppressed contents. It's more of a process model in
> which some processes happen outside the range of awareness.

That sounds about right.

Certainly I have no interest in discussing unconscious as a chunk of
the brain that stores the bad stuff. I don't think it has a basis in
reality, and I don't think it's useful in counselling (2 distinct ways
of judging!)

> > > One of the things a Gestalt therapist does is to help the client
> > > explore figure/ground relationships and to look for
> > > disregarded information in the background.
> >
> > And in this case, is background defined as information they hadn't
> > considered important?
>
> Hadn't considered important, had decided to try to ignore, simply hadn't
> paid attention to because their awareness was captured by something
> else, etc.

Cool. It makes the background/foreground distinctions a part of our
active perceptual processes, not passive. Thanks for the clarification.

> One of my favorite things to do back in training was the "Now I
> am aware" game. You'll find it in Perls, Hefferline and Goodman (1951)
> _Gestalt therapy: excitement and growth in the human personality_.
> Basically it is saying "now I am aware..." and adding in whatever you
> are aware of at that moment. It is interesting to see how awareness
> shifts and what patterns evolve.

I'm sure I learned something like that as an Ericksonian trance
induction :)

> > the circle of assuming somethings going on the child is unaware
> > of, but being unaware of our own assumptions regarding what's
> > going on that cloud our perception.
> >
> > Is this circular only because we're watching from one perspective, and
> > by dropping that perspective and trying a different angle we'd find
> > something new?
>
> Well, it's logically circular because the Unconscious is impenetrable
> and cannot be elucidated except by surmise and speculation. It's like
> trying to look at the back of your own head or to bite your own teeth.

Ahh, but you can look at the back of your head if you have the right
tool!
And you can't bite your own teeth, but you can bite someone elses! (not
recommended)

Once we define the unconscious more as a process model, there are
several other ways of breaking it down beyond "processes we are not
aware of".

Some unconscious processes may be unconscious simply because we haven't
looked (eg background information). Other unconscious processes may be
quite obvious to someone else but blind to ourselves. And processes we
believe are conscious can be incorrect explanations of an unconscious
process. Also, so long as the unconscious process is interacting with
the world, we can interact with it in some way.



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