Freud: Proving that the Unconscious Mind exists! (Part 2) - Mrs Austin’s summary of the themes covered in class.

Like we discussed in the previous summary – it seems to be quite difficult to prove that a mind exists since we cant see it, touch it or even smell or taste it.  The existence of the conscious mind is relatively easy to prove because we have instant and direct awareness of everything that we are paying attention to or we can directly experience the things that are happening around us in the moment.
The preconscious mind is also easy to prove because we know that there are things stored in our minds that we are not thinking of right now, but if we wanted to – we could bring that thought immediately from the part of the mind that stores it (the preconscious mind) to the part of the mind where we can have direct experience of that thought in the moment (the conscious mind).  For example right now I am not thinking about all the clothes I have in my closet.  But if I wanted to choose something to wear to work tomorrow – I could go quickly to the part of my mind that stores the memory information of which or what kinds of clothes I have in my closet, and when I start thinking about that – that information comes into my conscious mind.
We have access to both the conscious mind and the preconscious mind.  We can directly experience it so we know that is there.  As far as the unconscious mind is concerned though – Freud’s assertion that this big part of the mind that is that part that we are unaware of – makes it’s existence difficult to prove.
So Freud tries to prove that it exists by giving us examples of things in human behaviour that happen that seem to be odd or for which we can’t find directly accessible causes for.
One of the ways he uses to prove that the unconscious mind exists is by explaining the phenomenon of “Freudian slips”.  A Freudian slip is a verbal or memory mistake that you dont mean to make, you have no observable reason to make such a mistake, and even you might not realise that you have made it or are going to make it until after the mistake has been made.  That sounds complicated – so let us look at a few examples of what Freudian slip might sound like:
I once was doing some clerical work at a school I was working at.  Myself, an average looking male teacher and a young, very attractive and sexy teacher were organising school supplies into sets.  The male teacher was responsible for calling out the name of the set and what was in it.  The pretty female teacher was responsible for writing down the items in the set in the inventory logbook.  So it would go something like this – Male Teacher:  “Set B – chalkboard ruler, chalkboard duster, box of chalk….” etc.  The male teacher however kept saying “SEXY – chalkboard ruler, chalkboard duster, box of chalk….”  Once he said it he would get really embarrassed and blush and apologise profusely.  Freud would say that the male teacher saying “Sexy” instead of “Set B” was a Freudian Slip.  Freud would argue that the male teacher obviously found the pretty teacher very attractive and sexy, but at the same time regarded it inappropriate to either act or draw attention to his private thoughts or he might even be nervous that if he expresses his feelings she might reject him.  To deal with the conflict of having feelings and at the same time trying to not acknowledge them, the young man carries on with his work not trying to actively draw attention or concentrate on his feelings.  BUT THOSE FEELINGS ARE THERE and the unconscious mind knows it.  The man is struggling to contain his feelings of attraction so the unconscious mind tries to help out.  Like we talked about in the last summary – the unconscious mind is like your own inner champion, defender, protector and “wingman” – so when he wants to say “Set B” what comes out is actually “sexy” because that is what is in his unconscious mind, and that is the unconscious mind’s childish or irrational way of relieving the tension of having those feelings but not acting on it.
As you can see it can be shown from that example that beyond the explanation of the unconscious mind’s influence on that mistake, there is no real reason why the male teacher should’ve said “sexy” instead of “set B” – they are two different words, with two different meanings and neither of which have anything to do with each other.  So for Freud – the fact that we make “Freudian Slips” in everyday life and that the only way we can explain that is through the effect or influence of the unconscious mind – proves that there must be something like the unconscious mind.  Otherwise how would you explain such a strange mistake?
Another way Freud uses to prove that the unconscious mind exists is through what is known as momentary amnesia.  We will talk about that in Part 3 in the next post.