Subconscious

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In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness. The term was already popularized in the early 20th century in areas ranging from psychology, religion and spirituality.<ref name="pratt">Template:Cite journal</ref> The concept was heavily popularized by Joseph Murphy's 1963 self-help book The Power of Your Subconscious Mind.<ref>Mitch Horowitz. The Power of Your Subconscious Mind and How to Use It (Master Class Series). p. 1935 and p. 1937</ref>

Scholarly use of the termEdit

The word subconscious represents an anglicized version of the French subconscient as coined by John Norris, in "An Essay Towards the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World” (1708): "The immediate objects of Sense, are not the objects of Intellection, they being of a Subconscient [subconscious] nature." A more recent use was in 1889 by the psychologist Pierre Janet (1859–1947), in his doctorate of letters thesis, Of Psychological Automatism (Template:Langx.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Janet argued that underneath the layers of critical-thought functions of the conscious mind lay a powerful awareness that he called the subconscious mind.<ref name="Henri F. Ellenberger 1970">Henri F. Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious (1970)</ref>

In the strict psychological sense, the adjective is defined as "operating or existing outside of consciousness".<ref name="Henri F. Ellenberger 1970"/>

Locke and Kristof write that there is a limit to what can be held in conscious focal awareness, an alternative storehouse of one's knowledge and prior experience is needed, which they label the subconscious.<ref>Locke, Edwin A.; Kristof, Amy L. (1996). "Volitional Choices in the Goal Achievement Process". In Gollwitzer, Peter M.; Bargh, John A. (eds.). The Psychology of Action: Linking Cognition and Motivation to Behavior. Guilford Press. p. 370. Template:ISBN. Retrieved 2014-12-08. "By the 'subconscious,' we refer to that part of consciousness which is not at any given moment in focal awareness. At any given moment, very little (at most, only about seven disconnected objects) can be held in conscious, focal awareness. Everything else - all of one's prior knowledge and experiences - resides in the subconscious." Compare memory.</ref>

PsychoanalysisEdit

Sigmund Freud used the term "subconscious" in 1893<ref>Freud, Sigmund (1893). « Quelques considérations pour une étude comparative des paralysies organiques et hystériques ». Archives de neurologie, citation in Psychanalyse (fondamental de psychanalyse freudienne), sous les directions d'Alain de Mijolla & Sophie de Mijolla Mellor. Paris, P.U.F, 1996, p. 50.</ref><ref name="LP">Template:Cite book</ref> to describe associations and impulses that are not accessible to consciousness.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> He later abandoned the term in favor of unconscious, noting the following: Template:Quote

In 1896, in Letter 52, Freud introduced the stratification of mental processes, noting that memory-traces are occasionally re-arranged in accordance with new circumstances. In this theory, he differentiated between Wahrnehmungszeichen ("Indication of perception"), Unbewusstsein ("the unconscious") and Vorbewusstsein ("the preconscious").<ref name=":0" /> From this point forward, Freud no longer used the term "subconscious" because, in his opinion, it failed to differentiate whether content and the processing occurred in the unconscious or preconscious mind.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Charles Rycroft explains that the subconscious is a term "never used in psychoanalytic writings".<ref>Charles Rycroft, A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (London, 2nd Ed, 1995), p. 175</ref> Peter Gay says that the use of the term subconscious where unconscious is meant is "a common and telling mistake";<ref>Peter Gay, Freud: A Life For Our Time (London 2006), p. 453</ref> indeed, "when [the term] is employed to say something 'Freudian', it is proof that the writer has not read [their] Freud".<ref>Peter Gay (ed.), A Freud Reader (London, 1995), p. 576</ref>

Analytical psychologyEdit

Carl Jung said that since there is a limit to what can be held in conscious focal awareness, an alternative storehouse of one's knowledge and prior experience is needed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

"New Age" and other modalities targeting the subconsciousEdit

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The idea of the subconscious as a powerful or potent agency has allowed the term to become prominent in New Age and self-help literature, in which investigating or controlling its supposed knowledge or power is seen as advantageous. In the New Age community, techniques such as autosuggestion and affirmations are believed to harness the power of the subconscious to influence a person's life and real-world outcomes, even curing sickness. Skeptical Inquirer magazine criticized the lack of falsifiability and testability of these claims.<ref name="csicop.org">[1] Template:Webarchive</ref> Physicist Ali Alousi, for instance, criticized it as unmeasurable and questioned the likelihood that thoughts can affect anything outside the head.<ref name=gazette>Whittaker, S. Secret attraction Template:Webarchive, The Montreal Gazette, May 12, 2007.</ref> In addition, critics have asserted that the evidence provided is usually anecdotal and that, because of the self-selecting nature of the positive reports, as well as the subjective nature of any results, these reports are susceptible to confirmation bias and selection bias.<ref name="Kaptchuck">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Psychologists and psychiatrists use the term "unconscious" in traditional practices, where metaphysical and New Age literature often use the term "subconscious".<ref>In his ("New Thought") work Power of Your Subconscious Mind (1963), Joseph Murphy likens the workings of the subconscious mind to a syllogism. Murphy states (p. 43), "whatever major premise your conscious mind assumes to be true determines the conclusion your subconscious mind comes to in regard to any particular question or problem in your mind." This means that if your major premise is true, then the conclusion that follows your premise must be true also. He shares the following formula.
"Every virtue is laudable;
Kindess is a virtue;
Therefore, kindness is laudable."
Murphy argues that because your subconscious mind operates like a syllogism one can reap great benefits by utilizing a powerful and positive major premise. He also warns that the opposite could hold true: if one uses a negative, self-defeating major premise, one could reap horrible consequences.</ref> It should not, however, be inferred that the concept of the unconscious and the New Age concept of the subconscious are precisely equivalent, even though they both warrant consideration of mental processes of the brain. Psychologists and psychiatrists take a much more limited view of the capabilities of the unconscious than are represented by New Age depiction of the subconscious. There are a number of methods in use in the contemporary New Age and paranormal communities that affect the latter: affirmations, autosuggestion, binaural beats, hypnosis, and subliminal messages.Template:Citation needed