Revisiting the concept of the unconscious by psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Thomas Ogden

 

Revisiting the concept of the unconscious by psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Thomas Ogden

Written by Dr. Hanan Hassan Mustafa 🇪🇬

“… I see the ‘unconscious’ as neither a place nor a thing, but rather as a way of thinking, feeling, and living experiences. What we call the unconscious is nothing but experiences, dimensions of consciousness itself—a consciousness that should not be confused with what Freud meant by the conscious mind—dimensions that contain profound meanings for our lived experiences. Perhaps what is underestimated in Freud’s conception is his way of describing the quality of thinking he attributed to the unconscious mind. However, the profound meanings latent in dreams and other things are not proof of the existence of the unconscious, but rather evidence of our ability to penetrate the profound meanings of our conscious lived experiences. Consciousness, as the sum of the selves we live, is the only means we have of understanding the profound meanings of our experiences.

It might be objected: Aren't dreams a mirror of hidden desires and fears that we dare not think about? Haven't Freud and many analysts proven that dreams express what is not experienced in waking life? Aren't dreams another life in which we live what we dare not experience during the day? Aren't they a means of knowing ourselves and our emotions? Yes, I agree with all of that. However, these ideas do not provide proof that the unconscious is anything more than a concept.

Indeed, "dream-thinking" demonstrates that we experience ourselves differently and think differently when we sleep, and that we can learn about ourselves by contemplating the meanings inherent in this experience. Freud opened valuable doors to understanding the meanings inherent in the mental images that come to us during dreams. However, what we discover amounts to little more than a "deep, latent meaning," not proof that there is an independent entity behind it called the unconscious.

Understanding what is involved in uncovering deep meanings in dreams may become clearer if we compare it to what is involved in understanding deep meanings in literature. When reading a literary text—whether fiction or nonfiction, poetry or drama—there is no meaning behind or beneath the words. Rather, the meanings are in the words themselves and in the effect they have on us. We listen to the words, not through them. When we interact with the text, we do something with it, we live it, and sometimes we put into the words an expression of our understanding of the deep meanings within them, but nothing lies behind the words. 

Imagining the unconscious as a phenomenon located somewhere is a mistake similar to imagining the mind as something sitting in, next to, or anywhere else in the head. The mind—unlike the brain—is not a static noun, but an ongoing action, a living event, constantly changing and transforming. William James once saw it as “a flowing stream of consciousness.” The mind is not inanimate, but the movement of our lives: experiences lived, thoughts emerging, emotions ignited, and a continuous narrative. Yes, we can describe how we imagine the mind works, but in doing so, we make another mistake: we assume the existence of a physical object or entity that directs all our thoughts, feelings, and dreams. 

Ultimately, all we have is consciousness, which is different from Freud's concept of the conscious mind. I see consciousness as the experience of experiencing our thoughts, feelings, and sensations, and over time, the capacity for self-reflection is formed within us: to see and speak to ourselves from a dual position, where we are simultaneously both what we experience and witness, the "subject" and the "object." Nothing lies beneath or behind consciousness. […]

I find Paul Elwood's (1968) comment valuable in reconceptualizing Freud's concept of the "unconscious": "There is another world, but it is in this world." For Freud, the unconscious is another world, but it exists within this world, in consciousness itself, not behind it or beneath its surface. What Freud called the unconscious is a dimension of consciousness, not a kingdom beyond the barrier of repression.

"So how do we propose to think about our experience if the unconscious is just an idea? I suggest we say that we infer about consciousness, that whole embodied in what we know and experience. When we view our work as inferring about consciousness, we avoid falling into the illusion of another mind or another world that does not exist. We know that consciousness exists, and that it carries deep and hidden meanings. Saying this is not a problem with using the concept of the unconscious, but it is a reminder that when we use this idea, we must be aware that it is just an idea, not a place, not a second mind."

Sign of Excellence