The omnipotent self, a study in self-deception and self-cureBousfield, Paul
Science
The omnipotent self, a study in self-deception and self-cure
Bousfield, Paul
Mental healing; Psychoanalysis
It is also common knowledge that a great many events and scenes of
considerable importance to us at the time of action are forgotten, and
that they can only be recollected if some sort of stimulus or reminder
be given. For instance, a person may have forgotten completely where
and how he spent a holiday ten years ago. No amount of racking his
brain brings anything to light. But having been reminded of a single
incident that occurred during that holiday, the whole of the rest may
come up from the unconscious in full detail.
There is a third kind of memory more important still, if one may
be permitted to call it memory, and that is the memory of facts
which no _ordinary_ stimulus of this sort will ever bring up into
consciousness again. The term “memory” is used here because we have
every reason to believe that somewhere in the unconscious all facts
have been registered, and in many cases may be partially brought into
consciousness again by suitable means, such for instance, as hypnotism
or psycho-analysis, (two very different methods, by the way). Yet,
though these impressions have been made on the mind, and though there
is this unconscious memory still in existence, in the ordinary course
of events we should never again be conscious of them.
_We may, however, be very conscious of actions and emotions emanating
from the unconscious memory._ Thus, suppose that as a child one had
lived in the country, and on several very happy occasions a bonfire
had been lighted at a picnic, and that later on one lived in a town,
and that this picnic which happened at the age of three or four years
had become completely forgotten, so much so that even photographs of
the scenes or conversations on the subject carried on by other people
brought no memory to light and seemed to touch no chord; it would still
be quite likely that the mere smell of a bon-fire in the distance or
any smell resembling this would be enough to cause a considerable
feeling of elation and happiness in the person, a feeling that
something pleasant was taking place, an idea that if only one could
remember, a pleasant picture could be called up. This is because it is
associated in the unconscious mind with these previous happy occasions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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