The Implications of Conceptual Critiques and Empirical Research on Unconscious Processes for Psychoanalytic Theory

Abstract

The paper examines the implications of conceptual critiques and empirical research on psychoanalytic formulations of unconscious processes. Different conceptions of unconscious processes and states are discussed: as markers for brain states, as unformulated and not-spelled-out fleeting experiences, and as implicit knowledge. The author notes and discusses the interpersonal and interactional aspects of unconscious processes in classical theory as well as in contemporary formulations. Representative examples of empirical research on unconscious processes are presented and their implications for psychoanalytic conceptions are examined. The author then discusses the conception of unconscious processes that emerges in view of conceptual critiques, empirical research findings, and clinical phenomena. Finally, the emphasis of both early and late Freudian theory on integration of various aspects of the personality rather than (or at least in addition to) on conscious versus unconscious is noted, and various ways of understanding what it means to make the unconscious conscious are discussed.

Review of Creativity and the erotic dimensions of the analytic field.

“…"The nursing couple is libidinally engaged in their sensual interaction forming a primal template for developing sexuality as well as for the mind more generally" (p. 3). This contrasts with Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist, and Target (2002); Eagle (2013), and a host of other attachment system researchers who have empirically demonstrated the significance of the attachment system for affect-regulation and the development of the self. Whereas both the attachment system and Elise's position understand the tie to the other as critical, the nature of the tie is thought of quite differently.…”

Therapists’ experience of climate change: A dialectic between personal and professional

“…The participants that took part in this study have collectively articulated a compelling argument within the overall narrative of interviews conducted, for the profession and its constituent bodies, to urgently ‘take stock’ of the climate crisis—with its implications and imperatives—and ‘act now’ (Clayton et al., 2017; Orange, 2017; Randall, 2005; Rust, 2008; Searles, 1972).…”

“…Common to the cognitive behavioural (Gifford, 2011), existential (Dickinson, 2009; Langford, 2002; Pienaar, 2011; Pihkala, 2018a, 2018b; Solomon et al., 2004), psychoanalytic and psychosocial literature on the subject of climate change‐induced distress (Adams, 2016; Bednarek, 2018; Foster, 2019; Hoggett, 2019; Randall, 2009; Roszak, 1995; Rust, 2008; Searles, 1972; Weintrobe, 2013) is the view that climate change can evoke powerful feelings and experiences that culminate in responses that are either ecologically adaptive or maladaptive. There is consensus across the literature explored that maladaptive responses can act as psychological barriers to pro‐environment behaviours that would otherwise mitigate climate change.…”

“…As early as 1972, psychoanalyst Harold Searles lamented rather hauntingly that:

A technologically‐dominated, overpopulated world has brought with it so reduced a capacity in us to cope with the losses a life must bring with it to be truly human, that we become increasingly drawn to polluting our planet sufficiently to ensure that we will essentially have nothing to lose in our eventual dying. (Searles, 1972, pp.

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Psychoanalytic theory in psychotherapy.

“…Freud (1900) believed that most of human mental life occurs outside of conscious awareness, stating "the unconscious is the true psychical reality" (p. 613). He regarded biological drives and instincts as the basis for psychological motivation, and described the "dynamic unconscious" as encompassing "competing forces of instinctual wishes, desires, and impulses striving for discharge through access to consciousness and motility, and ego defenses such as repression working to prevent such access" (Eagle, 2013). Freud used the term "libido" to describe the drive toward pleasure, a sense of closeness, physical gratification, and sexuality.…”