The concept of the unconscious mind is central to hypnotherapy for many practitioners, but does it really exist or is it just a convenient metaphor? It’s a question that’s kept not just hypnotherapists but psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers busy debating for many years. And the answer could be important to how we work with clients every day. So, I decided to look at the evidence to see what I could find out.
What is the Unconscious Mind?
Have you ever had a gut feeling about something without
knowing why? Or found yourself reacting emotionally before you even have time
to think? Some people believe that this type of experience points to the
existence of an "unconscious mind" - a hidden part of us that shapes our
thoughts, emotions, and behaviours but is beyond our conscious awareness.
Sigmund Freud [1] was one of the first to talk about the
unconscious mind, though he subdivided it into the ego (that deals with reality),
the superego (the moral compass or conscience) and id (biological drives and self-gratification).
He saw emotional issues as something that arose from conflict between these
different elements.
Carl Jung [2] expanded on Freud’s work and also introduced
the idea of the collective unconscious - a genetically inherited store of knowledge,
ideas, and archetypes common to all human beings, regardless of culture or background.
The Case Against the Unconscious Mind
Early psychologists like Watson and Skinner dismissed the
unconscious mind as unscientific, because it lacked empirical evidence - something
that was expected more and more in research. [3]. In fact, both Behaviourism
and Cognitivism arose from attempts to provide this sort of evidence and bring psychology
more in line with other sciences such as biology and chemistry.
Behaviourism teaches that we are all born as a ‘tabula rasa’ – a clean slate – and that we learn all our behaviours through association and trial and error as we experience more and more of the world. Behaviourists are not interested in internal processes but focus on observable behaviours that can be measured and recorded.
As an example, an earthworm, after a couple of shocks, will
avoid touching an electric plate placed in its vivarium. But saying that it ‘learns’
or ‘remembers’ is a big step - it implies a kind of anthropomorphic consciousness
that we can’t know that an earthworm has. Behavioural conditioning explains
this perfectly adequately.
But there are limitations to the behavioural model. For one
thing, it fails to explain responses which seem to be inborn, or which involve
complex learning, like language. And it doesn’t really reflect our subjective
experiences which are often influenced by thoughts, memories, and perceptions.
Cognitive psychology [4] allows for this by admitting internal
processes as a valid part of research. They can’t be observed, but they can be reported
by the participant, measured on scales of one to ten and so on. Therefore, they
can be compared with different participants, over time etc. Statistics can be produced,
and conclusions can be drawn. (Always supposing, of course, that we are
consciously aware enough of our internal processes to report them.)
There is another approach, Predictive Processing Theory [5].a This suggests that the brain continuously creates predictions about the world
based on our experiences. These predictions come from a trial-and-error
process, and they constantly update based on new experiences. Predictive
Processing suggests that what we think of as our unconscious is simply
low-level, automatic processing that happens without us having to pay it any
attention.
These are pretty reductionist explanations due to limited
space, but you get the idea. And none allows for the existence of an
unconscious mind.
Evidence for the Existence of the Unconscious Mind
Too late for Freud and Jung to say, ‘I told you so’, neuroscience
is starting to provide evidence that the unconscious mind is perhaps more of a
reality than some would think. Some of this is about memory and the way we use
it.
Implicit memory refers to the sort of recollection that helps
us carry out familiar behaviours automatically: driving a car or writing our
name. Priming refers to how associative memory can shape our reactions. For
example, read this word.
Pepper.
Did the word salt pop into your mind? For many of you it
will have done, because they are so often linked together. Both priming and
implicit memory experiences happen without us being consciously aware of them, implying
that some sort of thinking or reaction is going on underneath conscious
awareness. [6].
In addition, fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) research
shows that, when we are making decisions, thoughts are happening in the brain up
to 11 seconds before participants are consciously aware of them. [7]
Professor Joel Pearson says that we may have thoughts ‘on
standby’, often from previous experiences, in parts of the brain we are
consciously unaware of: he called them ‘unconscious hallucinations’ [8]. When we
make a decision, the executive parts of the brain (traditionally connected with
the conscious mind) tend to choose the strongest standby thought. For example,
if you have a scary moment with a spider, then RUN AWAY may be the strongest
standby thought next time you come across one. As you’re not aware of the
standby thoughts, you’d be heading for the door before you consciously thought
about what to do.
It's not too much of a stretch to suggest that implicit memory, priming, and standby thoughts offer insight into unconscious processing.
The Unconscious Mind in Hypnotherapy
Does it really matter whether the unconscious mind exists or
not? Maybe, because whether you see the unconscious as a literal and influential
part of the client’s mind or simply a metaphor, you are often working with
those parts of the mind the client is unaware of.
The concept of the unconscious mind can be useful to explain
to clients why they might do things, like smoking, that they’re consciously
aware are harmful. It also shows why willpower isn’t enough to overcome them.
However, not all clients will identify with the concept of
an unconscious mind. In these cases, the alternative explanations - ‘working
with the automatic part of your mind’, ‘reshaping the predictions your brain
makes about the world’ or ‘tapping into the part of you that controls the
things you do automatically, like habits and reflexes’ - may be better.
The Role of Hypnosis and Unconscious Processes
Regardless of how we define it, hypnosis seems to engage
parts of the brain responsible for automatic and emotional processing.
Neuroimaging studies show that, during hypnosis, there are changes in activity
in areas linked to self-awareness and executive control, such as the anterior
cingulate cortex and default mode network [9]. This supports the idea that
hypnotherapy is capable of accessing mental processes that might otherwise
remain outside of conscious awareness.
While the idea of an unconscious mind in the sense that
Freud described is not exactly universally popular these days, the concept of ‘unconscious
processing’ is widely accepted and shows that there are thoughts, feelings and
responses that go on below our conscious awareness.
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References:
[1] Freud, S. (1915) ‘The Unconscious’, Collected Papers, Volume 4. London: Hogarth Press.
[2] Jung, C. G. (1921) Psychological Types. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[3] Skinner, B. F. (1953) Science and Human Behavior. New York: Macmillan.
[4] Baars, B. J. (1988) A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[5] Friston, K. (2010) ‘The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory?’, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), pp. 127-138.
[6] Schacter, D. L. (1987) ‘Implicit Memory: History and Current Status’, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13(3), pp. 501-518.
[7] Soon, C. S., Brass, M., Heinze, H. J. and Haynes, J. D. (2008) ‘Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain’, Nature Neuroscience, 11(5), pp. 543-545.
[8] cited in Gilbert, L. (2019). Our brains reveal our choices before we’re even aware of them: study. [online] UNSW Sites. Available at: https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2019/03/our-brains-reveal-our-choices-before-were-even-aware-of-them--st.
[9] Oakley, D. A. and Halligan, P. W. (2013) ‘Hypnotic suggestion and cognitive neuroscience’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17(10), pp. 576-586.
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Author: Debbie Waller is an experienced hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy trainer. She is the author of Anxiety to Calm: a Practical Guide to a Laid-Back Life, The Hypnotherapist's Companion, Their Worlds, Your Words, and The Metaphor Toolbox, all available from Amazon or direct from the author. Find out more about Debbie's services on
Yorkshire Hypnotherapy Training - multi-accredited hypnotherapy practitioner training, taster days and foundation levels.
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