Basic Concept Explained -- Unconscious Mental Functioning

In order to understand psychoanalysis and its conceptualization of mental illnesses, we need to have a basic grasp of some core concepts and the first one I would like to introduce here is "unconscious mental functioning".

Much of mental life is unconscious

This is one of the basic premises of psychoanalysis which lays the foundation of this particular school.

In Freud's early writings, the topographic model of the mind was introduced which was characterized by a stratified hierarchy of conscious, preconscious and unconscious as illustrated in the diagram below.

Freud's view of the human mind: The mental iceberg

The unconscious is a huge reservoir that contains mainly instinctual elements such as instinctual drives, aggressive motives and immoral urges that are inaccessible to the conscious mind.  It also contains materials that have been censored or repressed for the protection of one's psychological well being due to the conflict and tremendous pain and hurt they caused.  For instance, some victims of early childhood sexual abuse may have difficulty in remembering the actual incidents as the experiences caused too much pain that they can hardly bear.  In order to help the victims survive the tragedies, the contents of such events were repressed, which is an unconscious process, as if they had never happened.  Yet, the materials did not vanish, but instead were stored deep down in the unconscious.

Preconscious contents like memories and stored knowledge is rather accessible and can be retrieved, though some effort may be needed.

Conscious materials like thoughts, perceptions and feelings are always accessible and we are quite aware of their existence.

 While conscious materials play a crucial role in determining our daily functioning and behavior, it is claimed that the force or influence of the unconscious is even more raging though we are totally unaware of it.


References

Gabbard, G. O. (2010). Long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy :A basic text (2nd ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Pub.