Unconscious mind

The unconscious mind (also known as the unconscious) is comprised of those mental processes that occur automatically and are not accessible to introspection. These activities include thinking processes, memories, interests, and motives, among other things.

Despite the fact that these processes take place considerably below the level of conscious awareness, it is believed that they have an impact on human behaviour. The phrase was invented by the German Romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling in the 18th century, and it was subsequently adopted by the poet and writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge for use in the English language.

According to empirical data, unconscious phenomena include suppressed sentiments, automatic skills, subliminal perceptions, and automatic reflexes, as well as possible complexes, concealed phobias, and wants.

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and psychologist, is credited with popularising the notion. The unconscious processes, according to psychoanalytic theory, are believed to be directly portrayed in dreams, as well as in slips of the tongue and humour.

This may be seen as the originator of dreams and automatic thoughts (those that occur without apparent explanation), the repository of lost memories (which may still be accessible to awareness at a later time), and the store of implicit knowledge (the things that we have learned so well that we do them without thinking).

Other areas of the brain have been shown to have an impact on consciousness, according to certain theories. Unconsciousness as a personal habit, being unaware, and intuition are examples of such things. Despite the fact that symptoms such as sleepwalking, delirium, and comas are thought to be caused by unconscious processes, these processes are seen as symptoms rather than as manifestations of the unconscious mind itself. Some opponents have expressed scepticism about the existence of the unconscious.