Starting this lecture, I was quite confused on this week's topic and was struggling to figure out what I was going to write my blog post about. It wasn't until I watched Victoria Vesna's
Neuroscience-pt2.mov where I found a greater understanding on this week's topic. Fortunately for me, I have done an abundance amount of recent research on the state of consciousness and unconsciousness in the brain, due to the fact that my recent midterm project was based on the study of dreams that occur in our minds.
Have you ever wondered, "Why did I dream about that last night?" Well, Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and founder of the psychoanalysis approach to psychology might have an answer for that. He developed an interesting theory that divided the mind into three parts: the preconscious mind, the conscious mind, and the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is all the processes of the brain, which are not available to consciousness. In his book
The Interpretations of Dreams, Freud explains that the unconscious mind is an accumulation of thoughts, urges, feelings, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness, and a majority of these unconscious contexts are socially unacceptable or represent displeasing feelings. He believed that these thoughts and feelings of the unconscious part of the mind are expressed through human dreams. This is where the art of psychoanalysis therapy comes in; the investigation of the unconscious thoughts and the attempt to bring them into the conscious mind, ultimately to help the individual understand their own feelings better.
Another type of dreaming is called lucid dreaming, where we are fully conscious that we having a dream. In order to have a lucid dream, the person must be aware that they are experiencing a dream while they are dreaming. Like 95% of all dreams, lucid dreaming occurs in the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) state, which is the state of the deepest sleep. There are several different types of reactions to lucid dreaming, some people can recognize that they are in a dream and wake up right away, or some others actually have the ability to influence their actions and manipulate parts of their dreams. Essentially, I believe lucid dreaming is a type of creativity ability that certain people possess.
Sources:
Cherry, Kendra. “How Psychoanalysis Influenced the Field of Psychology.” Verywell Mind, Verywellmind, 30 Mar. 2019, www.verywellmind.com/what-is-psychoanalysis-2795246.
Online, UC. “Neuroscience-pt2.Mov.” YouTube, YouTube, 17 May 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFv4owX3MZo.
Cherry, Kendra. “What Are Freud's 3 Levels of Mind?” Verywell Mind, Verywellmind, 11 Mar. 2019, www.verywellmind.com/the-conscious-and-unconscious-mind-2795946.
Cohut, Maria. “Lucid Dreams: What They Are, and How to Experience Them.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 14 Sept. 2018, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323077.php.
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretations of Dreams. China Social Sciences Pub. House, 1999.
Hi Taylor! Awesome blog post. I totally related to your intro; I was also super confused as to where to start my blog post this week. Professor's Vesna's lectures were extremely helpful in grasping this interesting combination of topics. I loved your thoughts on Freud's explanation of the unconscious and conscious mind. Overall great job!
ReplyDeleteAbi