Editing Unconscious mind (section)

==Psychology==

===Nineteenth century===

According to historian of psychology Mark Altschule, "It is difficult—or perhaps impossible—to find a nineteenth-century psychologist or psychiatrist who did not recognize unconscious cerebration as not only real but of the highest importance."<ref>Altschule, Mark. ''Origins of Concepts in Human Behavior''. New York: Wiley, 1977, p.199</ref> In 1890, when psychoanalysis was still unheard of, [[William James]], in his monumental treatise on psychology (''[[The Principles of Psychology]]''), examined the way [[Schopenhauer]], [[Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann|von Hartmann]], [[Pierre Janet|Janet]], [[Alfred Binet|Binet]] and others had used the term 'unconscious' and 'subconscious.'"<ref>Meyer, Catherine (edited by). ''Le livre noir de la psychanalyse: Vivre, penser et aller mieux sans Freud''. Paris: Les Arènes, 2005, p.217</ref> German psychologists, [[Gustav Fechner]] and [[Wilhelm Wundt]], had begun to use the term in their experimental psychology, in the context of manifold, jumbled [[sense data]] that the mind organizes at an ''unconscious'' level before revealing it as a cogent totality in conscious form."<ref>Wozniak, Robert H. ''Mind and Body: Rene Déscartes to William James''. Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 1992</ref> [[Eduard von Hartmann]] published a book dedicated to the topic, ''[[Philosophy of the Unconscious]],'' in 1869.

===Freud===
[[File:Structural-Iceberg.svg|thumb|right|240px|The iceberg metaphor proposed by G. T. Fechner is often used to provide a visual representation of Freud's theory that most of the human mind operates unconsciously.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Green |first=Christopher D. |date=2019 |title=Where did Freud's iceberg metaphor of mind come from? |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31633371 |journal=History of Psychology |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=369–372 |doi=10.1037/hop0000135_b |issn=1939-0610 |pmid=31633371|s2cid=204815187 }}</ref>]]
[[Sigmund Freud]] and his followers developed an account of the unconscious mind. He worked with the unconscious mind to develop an explanation for mental illness.<ref>Freud, S. (1940). An outline of psycho-analysis. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 21, 27–84.</ref>

For Freud, the unconscious is not merely that which is not conscious. He refers to that as the ''descriptive unconscious'' and it is only the starting postulate for real investigation into the psyche. He further distinguishes the unconscious from the ''pre-conscious'': the pre-conscious is merely latent – thoughts, memories, etc. that are not present to consciousness but are capable of becoming so; the ''unconscious'' consists of psychic material that is made completely inaccessible to consciousness by the act of [[Repression (psychoanalysis)|repression]]. The distinctions and inter-relationships between these three regions of the psyche—the conscious, the pre-conscious, and the unconscious—form what Freud calls the ''topographical'' model of the psyche.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Freud |first1=Sigmund |title=The Unconscious |url=https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Freud_Unconscious.pdf |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |access-date=30 April 2025}}</ref> He later sought to respond to the perceived ambiguity of the term "unconscious" by developing what he called the [[Id, ego and superego|''structural'' model]] of the psyche, in which unconscious processes were described in terms of the ''id'' and the ''superego'' in their relation to the ''ego''.

In the psychoanalytic view, unconscious mental processes can only be recognized through analysis of their effects in consciousness. Unconscious thoughts are not directly accessible to ordinary introspection, but they are capable of partially evading the censorship mechanism of repression in a disguised form, manifesting, for example, as dream elements or neurotic [[symptom]]s. Such symptoms are supposed to be capable of being "interpreted" during psychoanalysis, with the help of methods such as [[free association (psychology)|free association]], dream analysis, and analysis of verbal slips and other unintentional manifestations in conscious life.<ref>{{cite web |title=Psychoanalysis |url=https://dictionary.apa.org/psychoanalysis |website=APA Dictionary of Psychology |publisher=American Psychological Association |access-date=23 April 2025}}</ref>

===Jung===
{{Main|Carl Jung|Collective unconscious}}
Carl Gustav Jung agreed with Freud that the unconscious is a determinant of personality, but he proposed that the unconscious be divided into two layers: the [[personal unconscious]] and the [[collective unconscious]]. The personal unconscious is a reservoir of material that was once conscious but has been forgotten or suppressed, much like Freud's notion. The collective unconscious, however, is the deepest level of the psyche, containing the accumulation of inherited psychic structures and [[archetypal]] experiences. Archetypes are not memories but energy centers or psychological functions that are apparent in the culture's use of symbols. The collective unconscious is therefore said to be inherited and contain material of an entire species rather than of an individual.<ref>"collective unconscious (psychology) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia." Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/125572/collective-unconscious>.</ref> The collective unconscious is, according to Jung, "[the] whole spiritual heritage of mankind's evolution, born anew in the brain structure of every individual".<ref>Campbell, J. (1971). Hero with a thousand faces. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich</ref>

In addition to the structure of the unconscious, Jung differed from Freud in that he did not believe that [[Human sexuality|sexuality]] was at the base of all unconscious thoughts.<ref>"Jung, Carl Gustav." The Columbia encyclopedia. 6th. ed. Columbia: Columbia University Press, 2000. 1490. Print.</ref>