I have spent a great deal of time lately considering unconscious versus conscious processes. This is mostly likely due to my book presentation, “Strangers to Ourselves,” by Timothy Wilson. The focus of the book is the adaptive unconscious, its processes, and how to adjust our behavior through understanding the goals of the adaptive unconscious. While reading the book and everyday since I finished it, I continue to ponder the importance or rather the power of the unconscious. Wilson uses several analogies to illustrate the varying points on the continuum of unconscious control of the self. I’m still trying to figure out which point on that continuum I subscribe to.
On one end of the spectrum is the extreme of the unconscious essentially controlling all aspects of whom and what we are while the conscious plays a very small, minute role in daily functioning. At first reading I thought this idea to be a bit too extreme, but upon further reflection is didn’t seem all that crazy to me. Perhaps our unconscious is so powerful and manipulative (maybe too strong of a word) it leads our conscious to believe that it is making the decisions, when in actuality the unconscious has already decided what the decision will be. According to Wilson, the goals of the unconscious are strong and are hard to break. If we are unaware of these goals, I suppose it is possible to move through life aimlessly directed by motivations that you are completely unaware of. This idea might explain why people occasionally (or maybe too often in some cases) act in strange, unexplainable ways. In attempting to explain why someone did something, the individual might suggest that he really doesn’t know; that he was acting outside of himself. If they are so unaware of their unconscious goals, that certainly may be true.
On the opposite end of the continuum the unconscious and conscious trade roles. The conscious is in complete control while the unconscious is there to perform basic tasks that the conscious can’t be bothered with. I think this would be the perspective that most people would and do subscribe to. The notion of being in complete control is often comforting, however I think to dismiss the idea that there are unconscious goals that push us in certain directions is dangerous. Do we really want to have all of the responsibility of controlling out destiny? Is it possible for our conscious to process, evaluate, interpret, and draw conclusions on all that we take in as humans? I would say no, it is not possible, and I think almost every scholar of psychology and neuroscience would agree. So it seems at this point, I’m leaning towards the other end of the continuum (I really didn’t feel that way when I started reading the book!)
There is one last point on the continuum that Wilson discusses. On this point the conscious and unconscious are a team, they work together evaluating and interpreting information. They divide and conquer, one working with specific information and processes, while the other does the same with another set of information. It often takes both to make an informed decision. This idea might be the most comfortable to me, but I’m not sure if it’s the most accurate. I think that I’m making a decision about what I want to have for dinner, but how can I be certain that my unconscious hasn’t made that decision?
The best conclusion for me at this point is that the roles of the conscious and unconscious lie somewhere in the middle of the continuum. This is a very interesting topic for me and I look forward to consuming more research and perhaps doing some of my own. Will we ever know the truth on this matter? It’s hard to imagine at this point.
