The unconscious : $b The fundamentals of human personality, normal and abnormalPrince, Morton
Science
The unconscious : $b The fundamentals of human personality, normal and abnormal
Prince, Morton
Psychology, Pathological; Subconsciousness
Consider certain facts of every-day experience. A novel and difficult
question is put up to us for decision. We have, we will say, to decide
whether a certain piece of property situated in a growing district of a
city shall be sold or held for future development: or a political
manager has to decide whether or not to pursue a certain policy to win
an election; or the President of the United States has to decide the
policy of the government in certain land questions in Alaska. Now each
of us would probably say that we could not decide such a question
offhand; we would want time for consideration. If we attempted
voluntarily, at the moment the question is put, to recall to mind all
the different facts involved, to consider the given question from all
aspects, to switch the main facts into their different settings, we
would find it an impossible thing to do. We consequently take the matter
“under advisement,” to use the conventional expression. We want time.
Now what we apparently, and I think undoubtedly, do is to put the
problem _into_ our minds and leave it, so to speak, to incubate. Then,
from time to time, as we take up the matter for consideration, the
various facts involved in the different aspects of the question, and
belonging to their different settings, arise to mind. Then we weigh,
compare, and estimate the value of these different facts and arrive at a
judgment. All happens as if subconscious processes had been at work, as
if the problem had been going through a subconscious incubation,
switching in this and switching in that set of facts, and presenting
them to consciousness, the final selection of the deciding point of view
being left to the latter. The subconscious garners from the storehouse
of past experiences, those which have a bearing on the question and are
required for its solution, brings them into consciousness, and then our
logical conscious processes form the judgment. The degree to which
subconscious processes in this way take part in forming judgments would
vary according to the mental habits of the individual, the complexity of
the problem, the affectivity and conflicting character of the elements
involved. Under this theory we see that there is a deeper psychological
basis for the every-day practice of taking “under advisement” or “into
consideration” a matter, before giving judgment, than would appear on
the surface. There is considerable experimental evidence in favor of
this theory. In discussing above the subconscious solution of problems I
cited certain evidence, obtained from the memories of subjects in
hypnosis, for coconscious and unconscious processes taking part in such
solutions. I have been able to accumulate evidence of this kind showing
the coöperation of processes outside of consciousness in determining the
point of view and final judgment of the subject when a matter has been
under advisement; particularly when the subject has been disturbed by
doubts and scruples.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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