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.

Freud and the Unconscious Mind – Mrs Austin’s summary of the themes covered in class. (Part 1)

 

We have been talking about different ideas of what the nature of man is.  So far we have looked at what the Rationalist’s view is and what the Christian philosophers view of human nature is.  Now we are looking at what the Freudian view of human nature is.  To begin to understand Freud’s view of human nature is, he starts by telling us that our mind - what it is and how it works gives us a clue to human nature?  Freud says that the mind is made up of three parts that work together – the conscious mind, the preconscious mind and the unconscious mind.  But how do we know that the mind even exists?

• The conscious mind is easily provable, the very fact that we are aware of things around us and are able to interact ,process and respond to information “right here –right now” show us that there is something like a conscious mind that allows us to do that. 

•The existence of the unconscious mind is little more tricky to prove – according to Freud we are unaware of it, for the most part we don’t even know that it is there.

•To prove that the unconscious mind does indeed exist Freud provides us with a model of the mind. We need a model to give us an idea of what the mind is like. Since the mind cannot be seen or touched – the best Freud can do to give us a model of what his idea of what the mind is like is to give us an analogy.

•An analogy is like an example – it is not exactly the same as the thing we want to describe but it is very similar. An analogy is a mental picture that we use to make a difficult thing more understandable or make a concept or an idea clearer.

Examples of other analogies are like this

“I love you- like a hot, burning fire” or “My heart is on fire”

-to communicate the idea of what his love like, the romantic creates a mental picture of how  fiercely and passionately a fire burns. Obviously , neither his heart or his love is an actual fiery inferno. However when he compares it to a hot burning fire, his girlfriend gets an idea of just how intense his love is.

-A popular Nike Advertisement featuring the now infamous Oscar Pistorious – double amputee Olympic sprinter had a picture of Oscar in a sprinting stance – the caption below read: “I am the bullet in the chamber”. If we can imagine how fast a bullet fires from a gun, we can get an idea of how fast Oscar Pistorius can run.

 

-Freud paints a mental picture (makes an analogy) of the mind being like an Iceberg.

-An Iceberg sits in the ocean – only its tip pokes out of the water – this is the part you can see – you have direct awareness of it – it is undeniably there. This part of the Iceberg is like the Conscious  mind. Just like the tip of the Iceberg is the smallest part of the Iceberg, the conscious mind is the smallest part of the mind. You can only concentrate on things happening in the moment with this part of the mind, and it usually is limited to a small amount of things.

The preconscious mind is like the part of the mind that sits just under the water. Some of this part of the Iceberg is visible but it is a little murky. This part of the Iceberg is like the preconscious mind. When the letters “Pre” are at the beginning of a word – it usually means that something comes before – like the word “predict” – to predict something is to know something before it actually happens. So the Preconscious mind contains things that are stored in memory, that are there just before the conscious state of mind. You can access it if you want to - but it is not in your conscious mind yet. When someone asks you what is 2+2? Before they asked you that – the answer to that question was stored in your preconscious mind waiting, when they ask you and you “think” about it – you move the stored memory of the answer to your conscious mind (as mentioned earlier – it becomes something that you are concentrating on right now, and right here)

The biggest part of the iceberg sits deep underwater. If you were in a boat sailing toward it, you wouldn’t know that it was there, but it is there and it is big and it has the power to damage that boat if you would happen to sail over it thinking that because you couldn’t see anything, there was nothing there. This part of the iceberg is like the unconscious mind. It is the biggest part of the mind. It stores a record of everything you have ever seen, done, said or experienced in you life. It has a particular job though – and that job is to store memories of incidents or events in your life that have caused you mental pain, psychological conflict or things that you cannot consciously bear to deal with.

Freud says that certain events can cause mental conflict or dilemma.  When the event causes so much mental distress and conflict that the individual experiencing it might seemingly feel like there is no way to escape or consciously get around the conflict, the unconscious mind in steps in to help the person out.  Right now it might be hard to imagine what kinds of experiences or events would  make the unconscious “freak out” like that.  Perhaps you would be able to understand it better if we made a few examples -

Imagine a situation like this.  Imagine a child is at home one day when she hears a noise that is  frightening – she peeps around the door to see why and what she sees is her father stabbing her mother to death.  The little girl loves her mother, but the little girl also loves her father.  In her mind this might create a mental conflict – on the one hand she loves her father, and trusts him completely and trusts him to love and care for her, on the other hand she has just seen her father do a terrible thing to her mother that she loves and cares about as well.  Her father is good, loving and caring but her father is also a murdering monster.  In her mind this is mental conflict, her conscious mind cannot even begin to deal with the two opposing, contradicting concepts of her father.  In this case the unconscious mind might jump in to help the little girl solve her mental dilemma.

  Here is another less serious example.  A little boy is playing outside his house at night when suddenly he hears a strange noise behind him – when he turns around he sees a grey alien.  The Grey alien reaches out and touches him.  Then the alien turns around and disappears.  The little boy runs into the house and tells everyone what he saw.  But no one believes him and everybody tells him that there are no such creatures, aliens do not exist and in fact they accuse of him of being a liar and a terrible person for trying to get attention with such a story.  They also say that he must be crazy or mad if he belives that that did happen.

The little boy is now in a terrible mental conflict – on the one hand he knows what he saw, he knows what he felt when the alien touched him.  He knows that he had that experience, on the other had everyone around him, including his parents, teachers, older siblings – basically everyone he trusts in the world is telling him that he is wrong, that this didn’t happen, that he is either imagining it or making up a lie.  Such a situation would cause a dilemma or a mental conflict – how can the boy stop himself from knowing what happened to him because everyone is saying that such a thing is impossible.  Even though he feels that he has had that experience – everyone in the world is telling that he has not.  Can you see how that would cause a “mental dilemma”?  Which should he feel – what he thinks happened to him or what everyone else is  telling him – that there is absolutely no way that could have happened to him because aliens do not exist.  In such a case the unconscious mind might jump in to help the boy just so that the boy does not have to deal with the conflict in his mind.   

Lets look at another real life example – a young woman confronted her mother on an episode of a popular reality talk TV show.  The young woman was really upset and resented her mother.  She claimed that she had been abused by her mother’s boyfriend and she told her mother at the time, expecting that her mother would protect her and make the abuse stop.  She had expected her mother to believe her and acknowledge her story as the truth.  She claims that the mother didnt do anything about it and in fact the abuse continued for many years afterward.  The mother on the hand who was also a guest on the show claims that she doesnt remember her child telling her that, that she has no memory of the incident and she didnt know that the abuse was going on.  As the show went on Dr Phil was able to ascertain that the mother faced an impossible dilemma – she too was scared and was being abused by the abuser. The abuser had on previous occassions, made threats to the effect that if the mother had ever ever tried to leave or get him into trouble in any way – that he would torture and kill the daughter and the mother.  The mother was placed in an impossible dilemma – on the one hand she wanted to protect her child from the sexual abuse, on the other hand if she tried to report the abuser, or kick him out, the abuser would torture and kill her daughter.  She did not know consciously how to deal with this.  For Freud it is possible that in the light of such a mental dilemma, that the unconscious mind would step in and try to help the mother out.  The mother’s inability to remember the daughter’s cry for help, or even the mother’s claim that she had no knowledge of the abuse could have been the effect of the mother’s own unconscious mind trying to help her solve an impossible dilemma.

When the unconscious mind “helps the person out” what it effectively does is sort of swallow up and lock away the memory of the dilemma that is causing the mental conflict.  The act of swallowing up and locking away is what Freud calls “repression”.  When we are talking about that happening – we say “the memory is repressed” or “the unconscious mind represses the memory”

The Unconscious mind is like a big vault that keeps the things that are in it securely locked away.  Once something is stored in the unconscious mind you will have no idea that it is there or that you have even had that dilemma.  As we said earlier, the unconscious mind is like a little inner helper or protector.  The unconscious mind thinks that you will no be able to cope or deal with the mental dilemma that is causing conflict so it tries its best to keep you shielded from knowing about it.

Sometimes the way the unconscious mind tries to help you is very irrational.  It is not as rational as the conscious mind which is able to come up with fairly reasonable solutions to problems.  We often say that the unconscious mind is childish.  Stopping someone from remembering that abuse is or has taken place is not a rational solution to the problem.  Sometimes when a child is abused by his or her father, the child loses the ability to speak, there is nothing physically wrong with the child’s vocal cords or her hearing or her tongue.  The loss of speech is usually related to the effect of the unconscious mind trying to protect the child from having to recount or remember the horrible incident.  Its an irrational way of trying to protect the child from reliving the trauma of the incident.  The unconscious mind probably reasons that if the child “talks” about it, the child will be reminded of the trauma and be hurt again.  So to protect the child from re-experiencing the trauma, it will make the child believe that she is mute.  Obviously this is not the best or rational way to help the child, but it tries any way to solve the problem in whatever way it can – which we have now seen to be quite irrational or childishly. 

Mrs Latecka's lecture on Freud and the Unconscious

2013 freud and the concept of the unconscious mind from C

Rationalism and Human Nature

Revised edition of Slideshow shown in class.

The Rationalist and Christian Philosophers perspective on human nature from C

Why are women at a higher risk of contracting HIV?

Here are the slides shown in the APHI112-2012 class today.  Click on the play, forward and back buttons on the slideshow below to go through the slides.

Biovulnerability hiv from C

a note for APHI 112

Hi everyone - The slidshow I wasnted to show you in class is up.

Aids Ahiv1

View more presentations from C.

Look on the top right-harnd corner of this page, you will see a title called: "PAGES". Underneath you will a subtitle called "POWERPOINT SLIDES shown in class". Click on that link and it will take you to a new page where there are a bunch of different slideshows related to the material we have covered in class. Also take time to scroll through the various posts in this blog, you will find interesting articles and information that is also related to the content covered in class. I hope you will find this helpful and please leave a comment if you can - so that we can get more support for this blog.

Here is an interesting article on discrimination against women in Religion

This article follows along the same lines of the issues we dealt with in class.

Religious discrimination against women
© G.M. Woerlee


The texts of the Torah, Bible and Koran preach discrimination against women, degradation and subjugation of women, and even violence against women! In other words, the texts of these "holy books" systematically ensure a second-class status for one half of the world population - women! And all these things are forced upon us by a "loving God", and preached by the prophets of this very same "loving God".

Many people might say that sanctified subjugation of women, discrimination against women, and violence against women are things of the past. They are wrong! These things are alive and well today, and are becoming ever more common with the current increasing worldwide tendency towards religious fundamentalism based upon literal interpretations of the Bible and the Koran. So let us examine how the texts of these loathsome books, and the evil religions derived from them, give rise to institutionalized and sanctified discrimination against women (this article is a supplement to the extensive chapter on "Holy Misogyny" in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham).

Jews, Christians, and Muslims all berate women for causing humanity to be driven out of paradise. As a result of the original sin of the first woman, people lost the gift of immortality, had to work hard to find food, and were no longer blessed by a direct interaction with God (Torah and Bible, Genesis, chapter 3). The fault of this first and original sin rests heavily upon the shoulders of womankind, justifying all manner of religion-justified nastiness directed against them. Indeed, many passages in the Torah and the Bible teach us that women are not only inferior, but also must obey men, because God tells us that men are their masters.

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. (Bible, Genesis 3:16)

And if anyone thinks this ruling was abrogated by Jesus or his disciples, then think again. For we read that the holy Saint Paul himself said:

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. (Bible, Ephesians 5:22-24)

And not to forget what Saint Peter also said about the necessity for women to submit to thier husbands:

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear. (Bible, 1 Peter 3:1-6)

This passage has profound consequences when interpreted very literally. For example, this passage could be interpreted to mean that if you are a woman married to a psychopathic, violent husband, you must submit to him, obey his every whim, allow him to abuse and beat you regularly, at the same time as you try to change his ways by means of the example of your long-suffering obedience, purity, and piety. Your reward for all this will be eternal life in heaven - shame about your life on earth. However it's probably all part of God's inscrutable, and undoubtedly wonderful plan for women. This brings us to another fascinating example of wondrous discrimination against women in the Bible - the stoning of girls who are not virgins on their wedding night …

The girl's father will say to the elders, "I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. Now he has slandered her and said, 'I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.' But here is the proof of my daughter's virginity." Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, and the elders shall take the man and punish him. They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver [a] and give them to the girl's father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl's virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father's house. You must purge the evil from among you. (Bible, Deuteronomy 22:16-21)

Oh…? And what about men who are not virgins on their wedding night? Why are only women stoned for not being virgins on their wedding night, and not men? Nowhere in the Bible does God talk of punishing men for not being virgins on their wedding night - God only tells us in these books that women must be punished. This is but one extreme example of the many, many instances of discrimination against women in the Bible.

And so it is that while women are considered as friendly little creatures, useful to have about the house for fun, sex, childbearing, cooking, and cleaning - they are also loathsome little creatures who try dragging men, (who are by implication holy and pure by nature), into the filthy pit of hell with them.

Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death. (Bible, Proverbs 7:26-27)

Women are considered by this verse as sinful, and many other verses in the Bible also tell us that women are also unclean, such as this example:

Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. And doth thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. (Bible, Job 14:1-4)

In other words, humans are doomed to die because they are born out of unclean women! Original sin, inherent sinfulness, and uncleanliness are all used as justification for the atrocities perpetrated upon women throughout history. All manner of Christian sects during the last 2000 years have found all manner of Bible verses justifying discrimination against women, violence against women, and even religiously sanctioned rape of captive women.

In the book of Deuteronomy in the enlightened Christian Bible, as well as in the old Jewish Torah, God gave Moses clear instructions as to when the followers of Judaism and Christianity could rape captive women after slaughtering their families …

When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her. (Bible, Deuteronomy 21:10-14)

As if this were not enough, the God of the Jews and the Christians also sanctions killing infants and ripping open pregnant women during wars.

Samaria shall bear her guilt; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. (Bible, Hosea 13:16)

Horrible, horrible. And to think that these are the everlasting laws of a "loving" and "merciful" God, meant to be applied for all eternity! Religions with such instructions are truly evil religions! Islam is no better. Even though many followers of Islam vehemently deny it exists, religious discrimination against women in Islam is embedded in the very structure of Islam, and is even plainly stated in various verses in the Koran. For example, the Koran tells the blessed followers of Islam that women are inferior to men, and require punishment for even suspected disobedience ...

Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great. (Koran 4:34)

This verse in the Koran has done more than any other to justify discrimination against women in Islam, to justify their inferior position, as well as actually encouraging violence against women. Many followers of Islam say that such verses should not be interpreted literally. Personally I find this a very strange attitude. After all, many followers of Islam state that the Koran is a perfectly exact and literal transcription of the revelations of God to his last and best prophet Mohammed. So if these are the exact instructions of God, then they should be obeyed by the good followers of Islam. Accordingly, discrimination against women in Islam is ordained by God, and to deviate from divine laws requiring disobedient women to be beaten is to commit heresy. Mohammed himself knew as no other how to treat women in the way God ordained. He was a compassionate man who told his followers to treat their women "kindly".

Narrated Abdullah bin Zam'a: The Prophet said, "None of you should flog his wife as he flogs a slave and then have sexual intercourse with her in the last part of the day." (Sunnah of Bukhari 62:132)

This is true evidence of divine inspiration of the last and best prophet of God! I am sure many generations of women have wept tears of joy and gratitude for this, among all the other clear proofs of "God's love" and "care" for women …



Modern examples of religious violence against women
Religiously sanctioned discrimination against women, and violence against women are still alive and thriving! Here are few examples.

The Bible tells us that women are forbidden to wear men's clothing (Bible, Deuteronomy 22:5). We read in the South African newspapers in the year 2007 CE, that women who dare to wear pants in some parts of Durban are stripped to their underwear or naked, beaten, and their houses burnt. All this for just daring to wear pants (read the newspaper report of this incident).

During 2007 CE in Pakistan a fanatical fundamentalist gunman killed a female politician for violating the Islamic dress code (read the newspaper report of this incident).

During 2002 CE a fire broke out in a large girl's school in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Religious police prevented girls who were improperly dressed, (according to the Islamic dress code), from leaving the burning school. The result was that 14 girls burned to death because they were improperly dressed according to the religious police, who actively prevented the fire brigade and police from helping these unfortunate girls. Shame! Unspeakable! Such monsters are no more than unspeakable instruments of a truly evil religion (read the true report of this "incident").

A list of examples of how religion profoundly influences our lives, and encourages discrimination against women is unending...



The Unholy Legacy of Abraham frees your mind
The situation of women in many fundamentalist communities, be they Jewish, Christian, or Islamic, has not changed from what is evident in these passages. Read more about similar topics in the The Unholy Legacy of Abraham. This is one of the few books in which you can learn all about those nasty places in the holy books of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, used by all vile fanatical slaves of these religions to justify violence against women, mistreatment of women, discrimination against women, and in general to justify regarding women as inferior to men. After reading this book you will no longer view these religions in quite the same way again, because you will have transcended the systems of thought forming the basis of these books. You will have achieved transcendence, you will be free of the mire of these religions, be free of enslavement to the cesspit of guilt in which fanatics try to force you to wallow, and you will learn the true nature of existence after death. By reading The Unholy Legacy of Abraham you will learn to rise above the mire of murky and misunderstood religious thought systems, and will be uplifted to a person whose thoughts transcend those of the world in which you live.

http://www.unholylegacy.woerlee.org/discrimination-of-women.php