Consciousness and Unconsciousness
Consciousness and unconsciousness are know to exist in the human mind. The unconscious keeps our most painful feelings hidden until we are able to bring them out and give validity to our suffering.
We have known for many years that consciousness is a counter balance to unconsciousness. Psychology has shown us all the proof we need of this, but no practical conclusions have been drawn from it. Our unconscious goes right along covering up hurtful unpleasant feelings just as before. The human mind is not simple and psychology shows us that we have this duality of awareness within us.
Photo by author
We all posses many unconscious abilities. Dreams demonstrate this and show us we are acutely aware of what is out of reach of our conscious thoughts. Freud said, ” The ego tends to avoid feelings and awareness it finds difficult to integrate, while it seems ever willing to indulge itself in feelings and fantasies it finds comforting and pleasing. As a result, the unconscious becomes, in part, a repository for feelings and awareness that the ego, in its effort to mold and protect the image of the self, excludes from its realm of awareness.” It seems our consciousness and unconsciousness have an opposite pull on each other rather than one of harmony.
Unconsciously we know everything that’s going on inside us. It’s our conscious mind that refuses to accept it. Freud said, We are momentarily conscious of anything that causes us great anxiety and avoid it by quickly preventing it from entering the consciousness again. Our unconsciousness does not want us to know we are avoiding anything because then we will wonder what we are avoiding. And do we really want to open up that can of worms, or step out of this single minded navigation of our lives?
Photo by author
To work to make unconscious feelings conscious, is to use our intellectual abilities to identify all our feelings and give up all our illusions and fantasies. We must experience truthfulness, no matter how painful, and be accepting. When we acknowledge our pain we are giving it validity and respect. Not listening is a censorship on ourselves and denial of our self worth. The pain of acknowledgement may seem to outweigh the good which will come of it but it’s the only process to prevent our escapism and unify our whole being.
http://socyberty.com/psychology/consciousness-during-dreams/
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User Comments
lindalulu
On September 3, 2009 at 7:09 am
Nice article Ruby and I love the pics!
cutedrishti8
On September 3, 2009 at 7:18 am
Nice one to share…Nice work…Nice pics
gianne
On September 3, 2009 at 7:43 am
Love this! Great article and use of visuals.
bumapatria
On September 3, 2009 at 9:01 am
I love it, I love the way you put it, and beautiful photography, I looked at your how to take pictures article, and I used it to make my photos better! Thanks !
Christine Ramsay
On September 3, 2009 at 9:18 am
A thought provoking article. I too love the photography.
Christine
MMV Abad
On September 3, 2009 at 9:40 am
Nice words to ponder. Thank you. And the pics are great
hfj
On September 3, 2009 at 10:06 am
Nice article Ruby. I don’t want my conscious to interfere with my unconscious. That would definitely create a mess in my life. Well done Ruby.
Mark Gordon Brown
On September 3, 2009 at 10:14 am
Our concious often does not want to know, we have trained ourselves to hide things in the corners of our minds.
I also liked your pictures, the first one in particular showed depth and hidden places of the forest, much like our minds.
Papa Sparks
On September 3, 2009 at 10:28 am
Nice article Ruby. Enjoyed reading this one a lot.
Jenny Heart
On September 3, 2009 at 11:02 am
I agree with Christine. Thought provoking indeed. I just think I had my spirit lifted. I needed this!
Melody Arcamo Lagrimas
On September 3, 2009 at 11:23 am
Thought-provoking and very well-expressed.
Uma Shankari
On September 3, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I loved the last para. We need more input on how to make it happen.
Good job.
Guy Hogan
On September 3, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I don’t think the human race can function without illusions and fantasies. Much of what we believe simply is not true.
PR Mace
On September 3, 2009 at 1:13 pm
You have given me many thoughts to ponder. A well presented piece.
Atikin
On September 3, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Another interesting article from you Ruby and you do have some interesting thoughts. Humans do have an amazing brain and I think conciousness and unconciousness together make us who we are really. Like always, you have some good work there.
Vikram Chhabra
On September 3, 2009 at 2:38 pm
This is a very valuable article Ruby. I have often wondered about my own illusions and fantasies that have prevented me from experience truthfulness. I am still learning. Many thanks for this great article!!
unown971
On September 3, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Great article Ruby!
Lostash
On September 3, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I think that we NEED to keep them separate for as much of the time as possible, otherwise what is the point? I like the two states for what they are, if the boundaries blurred I don’t think I could cope!
ken bultman
On September 3, 2009 at 6:47 pm
The subconscious is a wonderful thing. Most would not make it through life sane in a total conscious state all the time. Giving up all dreams and fantasies in order to identify my feelings–I don’t know.
Joe Dorish
On September 3, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Interesting article Ruby and your pictures are great!
livemike
On September 3, 2009 at 8:07 pm
I have witten an article in response to yours..It will be posted shortly…A key subject here…
B Nelson
On September 3, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Something dark lies in my subconcious.. I dont know what it is and sometimes wish more things were hidden there. I remember very little of my childhood. I do not remember more than 2 or 3 of my teachers names, even up into High School.
I remember blips.. that is all, where as many people I talk to remember their classmates, teachers, and so forth. I do not think anything hideous happened to me, so much as the way my mind handled all the small things thrown my way. I was bullied in school, I know that, my mother was prone to fits of rage, I know that too.. thats all I need to know.
My conscious keeps my mind very busy these days. I think too much.
CA Johnson
On September 3, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Very interesting article Ruby! I loved the pics that you provided too. It might be hard to turn fantasy into reality because of some of the things that go through my mind sometimes (LOL!), but it would be worth a try.
chitragopi
On September 3, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Yes, by giving up illusions we can be more focussed and achieve more. Great article.
Collette Edwards
On September 3, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Rudy the pictures are awesome very well done, I too think the conciousness and unconciousness should stay seperate. sometimes not knowing what is hidden in the unconciousness is better left unknow, I have a couple years in my childhood i remember nothing about, but knowing how my life was if they are blocked then they are best left that way .. Great artical and well put together, Keep it coming
Ruby Hawk
On September 3, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Thank you everyone of my friends, I see we have different opinions and it’s good we are not all alike else we wouldn’t have anything to talk about.
B, I remember some things when I was 2 years old but I have a very selective memory. Some things my sisters or family talk about I can’t remember at all. i would probably be bombarded if I suddenly remembered everything. I had a mother who had fits of rage too. and so many other things that I wouldn’t want to remember.
Duff D Moss
On September 3, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I think acknowledging our feelings is an important thing you mention there. All to much we are taught to suppress them – so either we become detached completely, or unable to deal with them. I was reading a book recently that also talks about acknowledging the feelings, and in fact, by doing so, make them less painful. If we suppress them, they become more damaging in the long run.
athena goodlight
On September 3, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Very true! I once encountered the saying “There’s no slip of the tongue, but rather, a slip of the heart.” We do what our subconscious tells us because we formulate our decisions in our mids first, whether our conscious self does it or not. Eventually, we manifest what we will in our mind.
thanks for sharing.
Daisy Peasblossom
On September 3, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Another insightful write. The pictures are lovely, and blend nicely with the topic.
CHAN LEE PENG
On September 3, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Interesting insight here. I think consciousness and unconsciousness do not always go together. When one of them overides the extreme border, it can’t be GOOD.
Steven West
On September 3, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Very insightful article. Gives someone much to think about.
Anne Lyken Garner
On September 4, 2009 at 4:30 am
Even though I’m not a fan of Freud (my psychology studies have turned me against a lot of his outlantish, outdated theories), I think that you’ve put this forward very well indeed, Ruby.
agriculi
On September 4, 2009 at 6:32 am
Great article. Very intresting. People who are unable to make their unconsious feelings consious might get hallucinations and disillusions. Because of the extreme transformation teenagers are going through, these often start then. This doesn’t mean that they have to suffer from Schizophrenia for the rest of their life. These are ways of the brain of dealing with anxiety and unconsious feelings. Read more about schizophrenia here: http: healthmad.com/mental-health/the-truth-about-schizophrenia-part-one/
Judy Sheldon
On September 4, 2009 at 9:24 am
You have given us much to ponder. Thank you, Ruby. I like things that help me think and grow and your pictures are stunning.
jdalexandrovich
On September 4, 2009 at 12:49 pm
awesome
Mystify
On September 4, 2009 at 4:07 pm
As always ruby you have created an excellent article that has created a lot of discussion! I am more a follower of Jung,Freuds ex discipe.I completely agree that we have to acknowledge our pain in order to deal with it,otherwise it will become repressed and eventually haunt us. Wonderful work Ruby,a highly enjoyable read!
Sourav
On September 4, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Very interesting article!
cebuanaeyez
On September 4, 2009 at 4:21 pm
This is so true Ruby! Thanks for sharing.
Lauren Axelrod
On September 5, 2009 at 12:13 am
I love this piece Ruby. What’s interesting I think that all of us have deep seeded dark emotions somewhere in our brains, which explains why man will eventually destroy their own in the end.
oldster
On September 5, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Good stuff Ruby. If you can’t face the truth–you’ll create so many more problems. Mind you I think Freud was a supercillious ass.
Goodselfme
On September 5, 2009 at 9:59 pm
At times my great memory heeds my present or future.Tx for this introspection I can now contemplate
Aktoastmaster
On September 6, 2009 at 12:09 am
Nice article
pretty pictures too.
Poetic Angel
On September 7, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Thanks for sharing. It’s a very interesting article. Somethimes we do repeatious things unconsciously until someone points it out to us then we become conscious of it. There are some things we don’t want to think about especially if has some kind of negativeness about it, but it always deep within the back of our mind.
Literati
On September 8, 2009 at 5:23 am
Haha! the pictures were good! I just hoped (just a very humble suggestion) that the title be changed…
Uhmm you know, the article’s great but the title (for me) seems a bit boring..
^^just a suggestion
Leonardo davinci Evans
On November 17, 2009 at 12:45 pm
I suspect we store informations in bits and pieces even from our childhood,they are emotions underneath which are still capable of coming to the surface and causing changes in our motivations and reactions.
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