Sigmund Freud is one of the distinguished psychologists of the twentieth century. He is considered the founder of the contemporary psychoanalytical school of thought. He has maintained profound curiosity into the complexities of the human brain and sustained brilliant insight into the functions and derives of the human brain that regulates personality’s activities. Freud was the first person to coin the terms id, ego and superego that he denotes to the unconscious, the conscious and the superego respectively. His innovative ideas and unique views on unconsciousness and sub-consciousness invite future theorists and scholars to make further experiments on the topic in order to examine and discover divergent functions and complexities of the human brain. “An ‘unconscious’ mental process or event, for Freud, is not one which merely happens to be out of consciousness at a given time, but is rather one which cannot, except through protracted psychoanalysis, be brought to the forefront of consciousness.” (Bettlelheim 1982).
Being a physiologist, Freud had studied the structure and functions of the human brain and nervous system. He did not want to provide the patients with temporary mental relief; rather, Freud was curious to find out the root cause of the neural disturbances in patients, so that all the mental, emotional and physical problems could be resolved to cure the body in a comprehensive way. Freud had developed great tastes for basic human drives especially the ones that cause physical and sexual pleasures and gratification. By this, he was eager to discover the sources that bring relief and pleasure to the mind of individuals. He had associated sexual pleasures with the unconscious, which according to him, maintained a direct link with sex desires. “Thus, instead of treating the behaviour of the neurotic as being causally inexplicable – which had been the prevailing approach for centuries – Freud insisted, on the contrary, on treating it as behaviour for which is meaningful to seek an explanation by searching for causes in terms of the mental states of the individual concerned.” (Encyclopaedia of Philosophy) He also declares dreams as the royal road of the unconscious, which describes suppressed and hidden wishes and desires an individual contains. It is, therefore, Freud give proper attendance to the words slide unconsciously from tongue or pen as well as the dreams one experiences while sleeping in an unconscious state of mind, because he insists that all these aggressive behaviours, slipping of words and other unintentional actions, reactions and uncontrollable behaviours have been stored in the unconscious mind.
Critics maintain divergent views regarding the reason behind the development of the concept of the unconscious by Freud. Stanley Fish (1986, 191) in his article, “Withholding the Missing Portion” argues that Freud’s primary concern in his writings is to convince the reader of the strength of his interpretations and the validity of his theory through his clever use of rhetoric. (Quoted in Maung 1990) Freud intended to project his own interpretations of dreams by declaring them the valid expression of suppressed sexual urges and unquenched wishes. By this, he aimed to explore the centre and source of the human brain that regulates these basic human desires. He declares dreams as the outcome of unfulfilled wishes and desires, which are stored in the unconscious and appear in dreams to quench some particular human needs and requirements. He illustrates the example of a hungry man, who always finds edibles of various kinds in his dreams. In the same way, an individual, forced by the call of nature, experiences the place to pass urine in the dream. Hence, Freud associates basic human needs with the unconscious and emphasises the development of the concept of consciousness in order to examine and observe keenly the sentimental and emotional problems of the patients, which they look quite unable to describe or express in a proper way through physiological treatment methodology. It is, therefore, Freud developed the concept of the unconscious in his works. “Freud was not content to speak merely of that-which-is- not-in-consciousness; he wanted to speak of an unconscious consisting of contents or processes. And he furthermore wanted to describe these contents or processes as ‘mental’ (in contrast to merely physical or physiological ones).” (Evans & Fudjack 1976, 93).
The concept of the unconscious has imperative effects on the everyday social behaviour of individuals. People unconsciously act and react to some particular situation, rather than doing everything and delivering every word deliberately. “Unconscious motives affect behaviour through symbolic and covert thought and action. Abnormal thoughts and actions provide clues to their sources to the trained psychoanalyst.” (Street, 2008) Hence, there are both positive and negative effects of the unconscious. The same is applied to university students. The students, seeking education at the university level, are regarded as the finest stratum of society and are considered as the most sophisticated, intelligent and talented people. Since the concept of unconscious has a direct connection with cognitive development, individuals enter into interaction with others on the basis of both innate and learned personality traits in their behaviour, it has significant effects on university students as well. At university, the students have sufficient knowledge regarding patterns of behaviour while interacting with teachers, fellow students, staff members, university employees and classmates. They unconsciously know to listen to the instructors, teachers and supervisors attentively in order to have command over their subject. They behave in a formal, moderate and modest way in the classroom. On the contrary, the students mingle and mix with their close friends and classmates in quite an informal way unintentionally. Through unconscious, an individual’s cognitive growth can be measured and his behaviour can be estimated and assessed. “The study of cognitive psychology is motivated by scientific curiosity, by the desire for practical applications, and by the need to provide a foundation for other fields of social science.” (Anderson 1990, 3).
The students, at university, gossip, chat and share jokes of every kind with the fellows of the same sex, and perform a somewhat decent role in the presence of the members of the opposite sex. It is rarely learnt behaviour and is innate passion altogether. The researches conducted on gender ideology behaviour emphatically lay stress upon the fact that even the idea of girls’ presence, in the classroom, changes the efficiency level and heart beating of boys. “The strong psychical emotions of students are revealed in such subjective feelings as fear, grief, depression, nervousness, etc. This is often accompanied often by physical reactions (e.g. blushing, trembling, tachycardia, sweating and other symptoms of the vegetative nervous system) and should be attributed to the after-effects of the state in which strong demands are placed on the nervous system, i.e. stress.”(Rogozin, 2005) The students’ immediate reaction to some theory, provocation of curiosity, raising the questions and entering into class discussions, while learning some specific topic in the classroom, are often the products of the unconscious of the university students.
In the same way, students look quite different while sitting in the cafĂ© teria in comparison with their behaviour while attending the library under a peaceful and silent atmosphere. Thus, it appears very accurate that individuals establish and regulate their social relationships on the basis of their cognitive learning as well as memory storage hidden in their subconscious by making a comparison between their own self and other individuals called significant others. Significant others simply mean the individuals very close to a man having intimate relationships as well as constant and continuous interaction. The research conducted by Susan Andersen (1999) concludes that humans develop social cognition keeping in their memory the physical and emotional traits and features of the significant ones, which are preserved in their memory schema and help them while communicating with the people other than the significant ones, based on their resemblance with the significant others. Andersen introduced the idiographic presentation, which lay stress on the expectation of the same appearance and attitude in the person of significant others, which an individual has developed in his mind and memory. Divergence of some new person from the expected role from the significant one, not complying with the expectations an individual has preserved in his memory, as well as some different mode of behaviour and attitude may create disappointment and depression in man’s mind by disturbing his assessment as well as a judgment about the person in interaction with him leading him towards an uncertain mental and cognitive situation.
Making a judgment about an exemplar brings relevant categories (e.g., those the exemplar belongs to) to bear on information processing (Castelli, Zogmaister, Smith, & Arcuri, 2004). Hence, the mind stores the representation of significant others in the memory, and future behaviour is regulated on the basis of that positive (or even negative) unconscious perception regarding not only that person, but also some other individual resembling the significant others in even name, appearance, features and personality traits. For example, a child always motivates towards a person containing the name that resembles his parents, grandparents and siblings, and expects his appearance must be the same as his significant others maintain, though it is somewhat different from the stored memory regarding the behaviour attributed to the significant others. In the same way, the race and ethnicity of other persons stored in the “in-group” of the individuals’ memory, drives them to behave in some specific manner. Inter-group prejudice and biasedness are also the outcomes of the mental encoding and cognitive perception of individuals, which have been stored in their memory. Not only this, but also an event, incident or a place where an individual has interacted with others, is also stored in the memory, which he remembers and reminds either by visiting the previous place again, or the re-happening of the same incident, or while interacting with the individuals present there on some particular period of time. The same is the case with university students. The university students maintain special feelings for their classmates and unconsciously support them in the hour of need. They display their anger and wrath if any untoward attitude is being exercised against their classmate by some outsider. The students, quite unconsciously, are also very specific in respect of their subjects under study, and always seek the help of the faculty of their subject when required. They feel gratification on the publication of the topic of their subject in the monthly and annual periodicals and journals at university. The winning of a sports match, as well as a debate contest by their classmate especially, make them jubilant unconsciously. Similarly, divergence, diversification, distribution and difference in human societies on the basis of caste, class, communities, clans, regions, races, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, socioeconomic status—all are the outcome of unconscious social cognitive process, which not only has the ability to make a distinction between one’ own socio-cultural identity and that of others but also produces a sense of separation, superiority and prejudice in the individuals’ memory. The differences, competition, conflicts and antagonism between various groups are also the by-product of social cognition, which creates feelings, emotions and sentiments of love, hatred, liking, disliking and other sensations in humans. The university students maintain the passion of sacrifice and support one another in studies and remain friends in practical life too because they have unconsciously stored their classmates as their own group in their memory store or unconscious.
Similarly, sexual gratification and companionship of the member of the opposite gender also fascinate the university students without any prior intentions or deliberations. The trend, though, has witnessed a drastic change during the course of time, as same-sex preferences have also become a part of contemporary societies. Being the member of society, students also have the influence of the prevailing norms, values and mores both consciously and unconsciously. Hence, a student loves to attend and join the companies of those fellow students, with whom he has developed intimate cordial, sentimental, emotional, physical and sexual relationships. Wilson (2002) strongly believes in both adaptive and non-adoptive unconscious among individuals. “The Adaptive Unconscious, is our non-cognitive (or unaware and unknowable) filter that gathers, interprets, and evaluates information, emotions, and sets non-conscious goals quickly and efficiently into play. It plays a major executive role in our mental lives, but it is a mental feature that we do not have access to. Its evolutionary role is one of adapting one’s self to our environment and our environment to one’s self.”
The concept of the unconscious has its connection with the cognitive development of human personality. “It is the nature of education that students learn both by observation and by doing. We place a great value on developing a sense of professionalism in our medical students, and we expect faculty to follow policies about informed consent so medical students can emulate what they see in a positive way.” (Maya Hammoud, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology) The awareness of personality traits and developments being made in the personality is dependent on basic needs and desires. An individual is anxious to meet his basic needs whatever source they are to apply. It is why the study of the unconscious is highly supportive in respect of examining personality development and social behaviour. “One of the Freudian assumptions or unconscious is a romantic view of humankind. This is the idea of a non-social individual who possesses endogenous ideas, feelings, and motives but who cannot express them in an intolerant society. However, the person valiantly manages to circumvent this social pressure.” (Ratner 1994, 326) Since the unconscious is highly beneficial for the assessment and regulation of inner conflicts particularly for the students, its importance multiplies for the students to a great extent. “Freud recognises that a comprehensible means of explaining certain neurotic behaviour and the nature of dreams is to postulate the partitioning of the mind into a functional component that is accessible to awareness, and a functional component that is inaccessible.” (Muang, 1990) It is, therefore, scholars regard the concept of the unconscious as one of the most beneficial methods of cure in a comprehensive way. Thus, Freud declares unconsciousness as the most imperative part of the brain that serves as the stimulus behind all human actions and behaviour. The concept of the unconscious has imperative significance for all strata of society.
A healthy society is the sign of productive, creative, healthy and successful nation-building. It has often been said that students are the future builders of a nation as well as a society. Freud worked on fear and anxiety, but only a few thoughts reveal the sudden actions of the human soul without any predetermined feelings. He considers unconsciousness as the pivotal point around which all urges and motives resolve. It is why he declares unconsciousness as the most dynamic and interesting part of the human mind. Freud views the actions taking place in a state of consciousness as the outcome of unconscious thoughts prevailing in the mind. “According to Freud, human personality consists of Unconscious mind and Conscious mind. The greater part of “personality” is Unconscious mind. Conscious mind is a small part of the Unconscious mind and is wholly dependent on it.” (The Cyber city-online) Freud proclaims the thoughts hidden in the brain as the motives that stimulate and regulate human activities and help in discovering the realities around them. “Forces of which the person is totally unaware motivate most human behaviour, according to Freud. They are kept out of unconsciousness. These unconscious thoughts enter consciousness only in disguised or symbolic form and often with great difficulty, unlike preconscious thoughts.” (Liebert & Spiegler 1990, 89)
This unconscious part of the human brain can have access to the external world through the conscious mind only. The id is the part of the human brain, which has a relationship with the fulfilment of sexual and physical desires as well as all pleasure-seeking activities. On the other hand, consciousness or ego regulates the realistic and rational feelings of the human mind. Hence, the unconscious maintains superiority over consciousness. In the same way, the superego supports the consciousness in respect of performing ideal conduct. Freud regards the id, ego and superego in different ways i.e. he does not believe that they have any physical existence; rather, he regards them as containing a connection with the neural structure of human physiology. Unconscious is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that exist outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. According to Freud, the unconscious continues to influence our behaviour and experience, even though we are unaware of these underlying influences. (Wagner: retrieved in about.com) According to Freud, individuals unconsciously have innate desires of seeking pleasures and fulfilling their physical desires. “These desires come under the fold of id. The id is an important part of our personality because as newborns, it allows us to get our basic needs met. Freud believed that the id is based on our pleasure principle.” (Psychology 101)
Bibliography
Anderson, J. R. 1990 Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications Third Edition, W.H. Freeman & Company, New York.
Andersen, Susan M. 1984 Self-Knowledge and Social Inference: The Diagnosticity of Cognitive/Affective and Behavioral Data.
Cavell, M. 1993. The Psychoanalytic Mind: From Freud to Philosophy. Harvard University Press,
Evans, C.O. & Fudjack, John 1974 CONSCIOUSNESS: An Interdisciplinary Study: Addendum B – The Preconscious and Unconscious in Freud 93. Web.
Fish S 1986. “Withholding the Missing Portion: Power, Meaning, and Persuasion in Freud’s ‘The Wolf Man’.” in Meltzer F (ed.), The Trials of Psychoanalysis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 183-209.
Liebert & Spiegler 1989 PERSONALITY: Strategies & Issues. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company New York.
Maung, Hane Htut. 1990 Freud’s Unconscious: A Concept or a Rhetorical Device?(Quoted in Symposia On-line).
Hammound, Maya. 2003 Don’t ask, don’t tell: Medical students’ shifting attitudes about permission to examine. Web.
Rogozin, Georgy G. 2005. An Analysis Of Student Behaviour In Light of H. Selye and C.G. Jung’s Theories: Causes, Consequences and the Search for Solutions to theProblem. World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education Vol.4, No.1.
Street, Warren R. 2008 About Sigmund Freud’s An Outline of Psychoanalysis. Web.
Thomas, Henry & Thomas, Dana Lee. 1971 Great Philosophers. Bhavan’s Book University Bombay 232-240.
Wilson, Timothy. 2002. Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
The Theory of Unconsciousness. Web.
Wagner, Kendra Van. The Conscious and Unconscious Mind. Web.
Freud’s Structural and Topographical Models of Personality. Web.
Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Sigmund Freud. Web.
www.humboldt1.com
www.skepdic.com
www.gateway.nlm.nih.gov