Comparison Of Consciousness And The Unconsciousness

Olivia Cafferty

12/4/17

PHI 101

Understand the Unconsciousness One of the most fascinating topics for philosophers throughout time has been the topic of the human mind and how it works. Many have tried to understand where people’s thoughts come from and how they are influenced. A person’s mind is most popularly thought of in two parts: the consciousness and the unconsciousness. While the consciousness is typically easy to understand the unconsciousness is more of a mystery to people, and is most often shown through dreams. Despite both having their flaws, the unconsciousness is best understood through Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud’s views on it. When trying to understand how the mind works there are two main parts that typically must be looked at: the conscious and the unconscious. The conscious mind is the part of our mind that we are currently aware of. It is the things we are currently thinking about and all the memories we are actively remembering. The unconscious mind is the part of our mind that we are not currently aware of and have very little knowledge of. As described by one scholar, “the core of our being ‘is strange to us and yet so near, wholly ourselves and yet unknowable’” (Yetwin). This is filled with the memories we have forgotten or repressed. Some also believe

He believed the personal unconsciousness is your repressed memories and anything you’ve forgotten. It is filled with things that were once in your consciousness but were forgotten. Part of the things in the personal unconsciousness could be remembered easily but most cannot. This differed slightly from Freud’s idea of the unconsciousness because not all of the memories in the personal unconscious are repressed like in Freud’s unconscious. Also unlike Freud’s version, Jung’s idea of the personal unconsciousness is not based as much on sexuality but more on a variety of