Consciousness and Unconsciousness

Consciousness is one of the most basic concepts of psychology (as I understand psychology). No other psychological phenomena exist unless the person is conscious, at least to some degree.

The words consciousness and awareness are often used interchangeably, and I will use them this way also. Arousaland alertness are two other words often used as meaning the same thing as consciousness.

Dear Reader who is a Pre-Batterers,

(This is not meant as a replacement for psychotherapy! but as a thought that might be helpful for certain people at certain times who are already working in therapy.)

Here are some assumptions about batterers — people who have tendencies to hit people or animals (or yell at them or insult them, and the like) but who haven't done it yet.

Identification:

The idea of Identification is complex, deep, and muddy. There is a technical use and a less technical one. Both uses are based on and connected with the idea that we have basic mental abilities that include the ability to notice things, to discriminate one thing from another and to notice differences between things and similarities between them. We can recollect having seen something or having experienced it and can identify it as something we know and remember. This is connected to the ability to name things.

Projection:

Psychologists who focus on the behavior of their patients do not have use for this idea, but it is useful for people who are trying to learn about themselves.

The Unconscious:

The Idea of The Unconscious

Freud thought there is an area of our minds that is unconscious. We all speak of Consciousness and Unconsciousness, but Freud spoke of an area that he called the Unconscious. The Unconscious is filled with ideas, thoughts, feelings, fears and anxieties, angry emotions, fantasies and so on that we don't know are going on inside us. If we want to experience our own unconscious material, we can stop and try to pay attention to what is going on inside us, but, according to Freud, it is usually not enough to make a conscious effort.

The Law of Psychological Compensation:

Carl Jung thought dreams were often compensations for the attitudes of consciousness. In my experience, there is truth in this view. And the truth seems so widespread that I have come to think of it as a psychological law. I will try to put the difficult idea in my own words.

Law of Condensation:

Freud introduced the idea of condensation in his Interpretation of Dreams. Dreams, he found, condensed many aspects of the dreamer's experience into a single image.

An image from a dream of one of my patients is a good example. The dream consisted of a single image. The image was of the Mormon Temple in Los Angeles, California.

Longer observation (18): The Great Mystery: Whatever you think about the Great Mystery, the Answer, or the Secret, there are many people who spend much of their lives searching for such things. A portrayal of someone on a Search or Quest for such things is given by Somerset Maugham in his book, The Razor's Edge.

(Psychological Paradoxes & Puzzles — 8)

A Paradox regarding Consciousness

Short idea (17): An agitated, angry moment; an ecstatic, happy feeling; an itch in the right knee; a dream of a red fox walking in the snow; a thought of tomorrow's barbecue — all are made of the same "stuff." There is a common denominator.

Short idea (21): Everything passes including the awareness that everything passes.

Short idea (49):
1) Psychological Suffering = Suffering.
2) Psychological Suffering + Unconsciousness = Suffering x 2 (or possibly x 3).
3) Psychological Suffering + Consciousness + Time + Quiet + X + ? = Peace + Calmness.

Short idea (70): There are unknown events going on inside and outside our bodies that, at this very moment, are shaping our futures.

Short idea (190): Knowledge and Power: 
The Intellect thinks: "Knowledge is power."
The Imagination, when it experiences Self-Knowledge in itself or in others, thinks: "Super-Power!"
When the Imagination experiences Consciousness, it thinks: "Magic" or "God-like" or even "All-Powerful" ("Omnipotent") and "All-Knowing" ("Omniscient").
[This observations grew out my wife, Adelle Hersh's, thought that it is both a blessing and responsibility to have self-knowledge.]

Short idea (201): We can injure ourselves while we are sleeping.