1. Escaping to the UnconsciousOn Sigmund Freuds article The
Unconscious
2. When people refuse to acknowledge that theyare living in the
real world, they often repressfeelings and choose to ignore them.
When this happens we say of the idea that it isin a state of being
unconscious (506). When people become too overwhelmed with theworld
and their emotions, they slip into theunconscious because it feels
safe and they donthave to bring those emotions to the
consciousworld. 3. Some people argue that in order for people to
experiencethe unconscious, they must have first experienced the
samefeelings and thoughts while conscious. This is called being in
a state of physical unconscious. For most people something physical
can only occur in astate of consciousness, while for others a state
of physicalconsciousness is a tangible idea. People who argue
against physical unconsciousness saythat, . . . the latent states
of mental life, whose existence isundeniable, are to be conceived
of as conscious mentalstates or as physical ones (507). 4. Freud
also talks about sense organs which come intoplay when people slip
into the unconscious. This is essentially when people turn off
their mentalactivities and their other senses are heightened. This
relates to schizophrenics in the sense that theyare mentally stuck
in the unconscious, but areactually relating to the conscious by
focusing onother organs other than the brain, such as thoughtsfor
example. In schizophrenia words are subjected to the sameprocess as
that which makes the dream-images outof latent dream-thoughts
(514). 5. This is why schizophrenics have such a difficult
timeidentifying what is happening to them. Their minds aregoing in
so many different directions and they oftenassociate what is going
on in their heads with some partof their body because that makes it
easier for them to stayin a level of unconscious that makes sense
to them. Freud wraps up his article by saying,It is a general
truththat our mental activity moves in two opposite
directions:either it starts from the instincts and passes through
thesystem Ucs. [unconscious] to conscious thought-activity;or
beginning with an investigation from outside, it passesthrough the
system Cs. [conscious] and Pcs.[preconscious] till it reaches the
Ucs. cathexes of the egoand objects (516). 6. This is why
schizophrenics have such a difficult timeidentifying what is
happening to them. Their minds aregoing in so many different
directions and they oftenassociate what is going on in their heads
with some partof their body because that makes it easier for them
to stayin a level of unconscious that makes sense to them. Freud
wraps up his article by saying,It is a general truththat our mental
activity moves in two opposite directions:either it starts from the
instincts and passes through thesystem Ucs. [unconscious] to
conscious thought-activity;or beginning with an investigation from
outside, it passesthrough the system Cs. [conscious] and
Pcs.[preconscious] till it reaches the Ucs. cathexes of the egoand
objects (516).
