THE UNCONSCIOUS

The Unconscious



The Unconscious

Introduction

“What is important is not the 'Three Essays (of Freud) on the Theory of Sexuality……it is not the theory of development, it is not the sexual secret behind the neuroses and psychoses, it is the logic of the Unconscious” (Foucault, 2005, p.335).

The unconscious is a concept of psychology that refers to the activity psychic taking place outside the sphere conscious in the mind of an individual. This is a vast area of theory that identified as one of the essential feature, which cannot be easily recognized without being analysed (Freud, 1949, p. 32). However, with an acceptance into public understanding of psychology it could be argued that the theory of the unconscious reduced to a simpler form than that which Freud and other theorists described.

The origins and background of psychoanalytic thinking will outline so that the theory of the unconscious can be seen against a background of contemporary thought of consciousness. Following this, Freudian theory will discuss in depth. Freud was the theorist who popularised the concept of 'the unconscious' as it is understood today to indicate the hidden aspects of the individual psyche. Other theorists' work, including Freud's, Franz Brentano and Samuel Johnson contemporaries of unconsciousness and later these theorists were influenced by Freudian theory will then be discussed, detailing differences between Freud's and other's theories in this area. In many cases, the existence of the unconscious is observed in managers while making decisions in organisations has been explored, which become the cause of loss to the organization. A critical view will take throughout this essay, and it is therefore, prudent to mention critical theory as a concept before beginning.

Critical Theory

In order to conduct a critical analysis, it is important to avoid taking anything for granted in terms of concepts, knowledge or stated social 'facts'. Questioning one's assumptions and bracketing the experiential viewpoint is essential as we all have a sociocultural filter which needs to be bypassed in order to be goal oriented (Laverty, 2003, p.6). Impartiality and objectivity are the aims of the theorist. The origins of critical theory were in the questioning of authoritarian ideologies, so that political regimes, oppressive social policy and other forms of unquestioned authority were analysed (Hudson, 2000, p.179). In terms of psychoanalytic thinking, some of the fundamental concepts such as the unconscious and the structures existing in the Freudian theories, may be seen as facts that are unquestioned; however, it should always be remembered that these constitute a model to fit observed phenomena, not a scientifically proven fact. As such, they can be and have been developed and critiqued.

Most of the concepts that we think of as being real in society could be constructed differently in a different culture, and to remain critical we need to question why we consider certain aspects of life as immutable (Goulding, 2005, p.301). Occasionally a great social change occurs heralded by a small group of thinkers or even one single theorist, and the public understanding of aspects of life turn on its head, ...