-
The Web and the Unconscious
Most psychoanalytical models of the human mind use a depth metaphor to suggest the division between the conscious and the unconscious. Typically Jungian approaches use the idea that the mind is like an island jutting out of the sea with only so-much showing above the surface. The visible component represents the conscious, the tidal zone the personal unconscious and the zone below the collective unconscious.A sense of depth is itself a value laden construct. We envisage the bottom of the sea with ugly fish and black darkness. That’s a scary unconscious. There is another way of looking at this what I think is a more useful metaphor. Look at the…
- Uncategorised
Storytellers
We are all storytellers and we are the stories we tell The above is a quotation (in fact it’s the opening line) from a book I’m reading called Identity and Story Creating Self in Narrative by McAdams Josselson and Lieblich (2006) APA Washington.Why do we tell stories about ourselves?There are always at least two people involved the storyteller and the listener. I like to think about a self-story as a type of connection between two points in time and place. A bridge between two sets of events the narrative and the present -the moment of telling.Self-stories are constructed in the telling and they are an important fabric in the perpetual…
-
Jacques Lacan
1901-1981French psychoanalytical theorist who’ s influence continues today most notably advocated by Slavoj Zizek. Lacan in turn, reinterprets Freud and in particular, the difficult concept of the unconscious. Lacan links language and the unconscious and suggests that the unconscious is structured like a language. This resonates with some of Freud’s ideas as articulated in Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious and his earlier work on The Interpretation of Dreams. Lacan is also known for his theory of the Mirror Stage. This occurs in infants who at that stage develop a capacity that is evidenced by their reaction of recognition when they see their own image in a mirror. What…
- Uncategorised
Jung
Some notes Carl Jung and Motivation Jung and others emphasise the unconscious.The suggestion is that we need to question the contribution of the unconscious to motivation. Jung uses the terms psyche and psychic rather than mind and mental.Jung sees the unconscious aspect of the psyche as different but complimentary to the conscious. Jung sees the psyche as a dynamic system, in constant flux and self-regulating . He calls the psychic energy libido acting out a form of opposition and compensation. Forward (progression) and backward (regression) movement of the libido -think of adaptation (to one’s environment) and accommodation (change in mind). Some idea of flow between the conscious and the unconscious.…
-
The Question of Psychoanalysis
I face a challenge every time I engage with psychoanalytical theories and theorists. I’m never really sure as to the substance and value of the approach. I remain detached and skeptical and tend to apply a higher degree of critical appraisal. On the other hand I sense that there are some very important ideas in this field and that part of the challenge is the complex and intimate nature of what’s being studied.In this series of blogs I propose to review psychoanalytical thinkers and their theories and to work through their ideas to see what stacks up in. To begin with, I intend to look closely at three of the…
