Have you ever introspected, as to why we fail to reason out the rationale behind our behavior? For a number of years, Psychologists were dazzled by the very same question. Sigmund Freud’s topographic model (which dealt with the structure and function of the mind), out of many contributions made by various other psychologists in the same field proved to be helpful in finding possible answers to the same.
According to the above model, we have three levels at which our mind exists. On one hand, our conscious mind consists of the thoughts, feelings, desires that we are aware of at present. While on the other hand, our unconscious mind consists of mental activity that we are unaware of. It consists of sexual and aggressive desires and impulses which act as possible sources of psychological conflict. This is because the person struggles to either keep those desires and impulses repressed or find a way that would be acceptable to society to express them openly. As the unconscious forces are capable of causing psychological warfares, they are kept hidden from our conscious awareness. Lastly, our mind also has its ‘middleman’ popularly known as the preconscious or subconscious mind. As the name suggests, our preconscious mind is responsible for mediating between our conscious and unconscious mind. It contains all the information that is hard to recall immediately. We might become aware of the constituents of our subconscious mind if we put some amount of effort into recalling the matters i.e. by attending to them closely.
According to Freud, while our unconscious mind provides the highest constituent gradient to our mind, our conscious mind is just the tip of the iceberg. Therefore, the above model of the mind is conclusive enough of the enormous role played by our unconscious or repressed desires in determining our behavior.
Furthermore, Freud also proposed a structural model of the mind consisting of the id, ego, and superego which reside as forces inside our unconscious mind. While the id is the storehouse of our instinctual energy, primitive needs as well as our sexual and aggressive desires and operates on the ‘pleasure principle’, the ego operates on the ‘reality principle’. Digging deeper, the id works unreasonably and unrealistically because of its extensive focus on the satisfaction of instinctual needs. The id is moderated by the watchful nature of the ego as it focuses on finding a suitable way to gratify a person’s desires. Lastly, the superego performs an important role in reminding us of our morals and ethics. Thus, the function of the superego can be compared to the role of parents and elders in the socialization of a child. To illustrate, a boy’s id would encourage him to go ahead and eat candies without giving any consideration to the consequences of his action (for example, scolding from his mother), the ego would help the boy in finding a reasonable way to eat candies (for example, asking prior permission from the mother) and the superego would suggest that doing so would be moral and ethical and thus right.
Sigmund Freud was one of those great psychologists who understood the importance of our unconscious forces that guide our behavior. His deep-rooted understanding for the same was reflected in his contributions to the field as well. He is righteously known as the father of ‘Psychoanalysis’, popularly known as ‘Psychoanalytic psychotherapy’ which has proven to be an important tool in the treatment of mental distress and illnesses by the means of unraveling the unconscious forces reflective in our behavior. Freud was and still is renowned for his methods such as ‘dream analysis’ and ‘free association’ that helped his clients in becoming aware of their inner conflicts. Following free association, the client is made to lie down on a couch and close his/her eyes. Furthermore, the client is encouraged to share whatever comes to his mind without any censoring, thus having the freedom to freely associate one thought with the other. The client is also supposed to write down in detail what happened in his/her dream of waking up. Then it would be the responsibility of the therapist, the psychoanalyst in this case to interpret the content of the dream. Why these methods prove to help the clients is due to them using various defense mechanisms such as denial and repression to avoid knowing what their unconscious motives and feelings are as their revelation brings about pain and feelings such as fear, grief, anxiety, etc. Also, further posing a challenge to the therapist to unravel the same.
To conclude, the functioning of the unconscious mind to date doesn’t fail to fascinate humanity and is still an active area of research.