While we are fully aware of what is going on in the conscious mind, we have no idea of what information is stored in the unconscious mind. What is there in the unconscious mind? How can they influence human behavior? What methods can be used to reveal things in the unconscious mind? Discuss. When you hear the word unconscious mind you might wonder what it is. You might think how can there be a mind which I can’t control. Of course there is an unconscious mind which is responsible for all our inactive and unaware thoughts and actions related to our mind. May be the things we did in our childhood can be suppressed inside us. May be they can be some unpleasant memories. People think that they know everything they do and they are fully aware of their actions. But it is not true. According to Sigmund Freud who was a neurologist he acclaimed that there are main three parts in a mind. He Freud used the comparison of an iceberg to describe the three levels of the mind. (McLeod, 2009) They are conscious, preconscious and unconscious. Freud explained conscious mind, which consists of all the mental processes of which we are aware, and this is showed on the top of the iceberg. As an example if you are feeling tired then you will go and sleep. It is a quick act which we do according to our mind. It is something which you do under your conscious mind. The preconscious holds the thoughts and feelings that a person is not currently aware of, but which can easily be brought to consciousness if something happens. It exists just below the level of consciousness, before the unconscious mind. As an example we can take like currently if you asked to say your vehicle number you can recall and say it. Lastly, the unconscious mind consists of mental processes which are done without the control of consciousness but that influence judgments, feelings, or behavior. Many psychological scientists have claimed the unconscious mind as the shadow of conscious mind. This can be a very important hidden part in human personality which leads a person to behave in a certain manner. According to Freud, the unconscious mind continues to influence our behavior and experiences, although we have no any slight idea about how it can impact on ourselves. The unconscious mind can include repressed feelings, hidden memories, habits, thoughts, desires and reactions. If the conscious mind represents the top of the iceberg then unconscious mind consist out of a huge part under it. The memories and emotions that are too bad, distressing, sad, shameful and painful simply make the existence of the unconscious mind. Furthermore the violent fears, unacceptable sexual desires, violent motives, unacceptable urges, immoral wishes, selfish needs and shameful experiences are contained inside of unconscious mind. The unconscious mind holds all sorts of significant and disturbing material which we need to keep out of awareness because they are too threatening to acknowledge fully When someone faces one of these it is suppressed in inside. Basically we can consider that even though people are unaware of unconscious mind it controls human behavior to a certain extended level. We have no idea about which and what memory is kept inside by the unconscious mind. Sometimes we do things and then we don’t remember them at all. When we consider about all these facts and reasons we can see that unconscious mind is conclusively important for a human as it can control a huge part of our actions. It is not a dustbin or else any other unwanted thing that a human should ignore. Many people are unaware of these facts that there are no sources for them to learn them. It does not contain any meaningless or insignificant information. The most important thoughts are buried inside it. Freud also believed that this was the cause and the motivator for many actions and attractions in between humans. After all those thoughts have a huge impact and an influence on brains. There are defense mechanisms in unconscious level in order to protect from the threating thoughts which can arise in human brains. There can be an influence of ego and super ego on it. (McLeod, 2019) . They are repression, displacement, sublimation, regression, denial, projection, reaction formation and rationalization. So these mechanisms simply helps to stop those unpleasant thoughts in a person’s mind before they are executed as an action. Everyone once in a lifetime experience any of those unpleasant experiences. These defense mechanisms help to create a false sense of comfort in a person’s mind and it feels them a relief. If you are facing a very bad experience repression helps you to forget it completely. It helps you to wipe off the memory out of your mind. As an example in a situation like child abuse. Denial can be recognized as a most ordinary defense mechanisms among those eight. It helps an individual to cope up with an unpleasant incident by denying it. Human is protecting himself by putting an excuse on his immoral thought. If a person knows that a bad news is approaching him he avoid the situation and deny it. Thirdly if you take displacement a person tries to displace his stressful emotions on some other. As an example if husband was frustrated with his work in his office he would blame his wife on something and you will scold her. It will end by hurting some other. Projection is used to cope up unpleasant feelings by attributing your own thoughts to some other. They try to project their shortcomings, unacceptable feelings onto someone around them. As an example if someone dislikes their boss for some reason and tell others that his boss has a grudge with him. Moreover if you take regression you behave like a child. Like if you get into an argument then you feel bad and you start crying like a small child. Reaction formation is that a person behaves totally in the opposite way that unconscious mind asks a person to be. And sublimation helps a person to behave in a way that the community can accept the actions they make. These defenses can be categorized as immature, pathological, neurotic and mature. So these mechanisms helps to cope up with the situations arise as a result of impacts of unconscious mind. So these are the influences and ways to avoid them in regards to conscious mind. They are a collection of thoughts, impulses, reflections, realizations under unconscious mind. The psychological responses in related to unconscious mind can me mostly negative. They are always neglected and not dealt. Freud discovered that dreams are a way to unlock the unconscious mind. He believed that dreams perform an important functions related to unconscious mind and it serves as an open source to identify how it works. Freudian Slips is a way to identify it. It is that if someone slips the tongue and say something unintentionally then it can be something in his unconscious mind. For an example commonly if a girl blurts out her crush’s name unknowingly it can be something in her mind. Freud used dream analysis and also free association to get into the unconscious mind. (Cherry, 2019) Furthermore free association is not hypnotism. But many believe like that. In dream analysis by interpreting dream symbols and imputing meaning to those a psychologist can identify a person’s desires, hopes and wishes which holds under his unconscious mind. But many people believe that meditation would help you in order to access it. This is guiding influence for a human life and it is precisely important us to realize that there many benefits by accessing into this gradually. It helps to improve our health and wellbeing and it takes us to a serenity. It helps to create a relaxed and a tranquil mind which is less distressed. It may less emotional problems. And we are moved to do works which level up our creativity. Moreover we feel a positive vibe, a bliss and a happiness which lead us to spend a life with less stress. It is a key path to acquire better physical health. Also it expands our analytical skills. So we can see that there are so many benefits we get while us revealing our unconscious mind. So this unconscious mind plays a crucial role in our lives while collecting data during our whole lifetime. These memories which are stored there can be useful or not useful. But it surely affects human behavior. It affects a person’s normal thinking and behavior. (unknown, n.d.) In psychology also as per many psychologists it place a central role. Mental health is a key fact for one’s health in their lives. So we should consider about these things and work according to them. References Cherry, K., 2019. The Preconscious,Conscious, and Unconscious Minds. [Online] Available at: verywellmind.com [Accessed 27 april 2020]. Isenman, L., winter 2013. Understanding Unconscious Intelligence and Intuition. Perspectives in biology and medicine, Volume 56. Mcleod, S., 2008. SimplyPsychology. [Online] Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-roles.html McLeod, S., 2009. Unconscious Mind. [Online] Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html [Accessed 27 April 2020]. McLeod, S., 2019. Defense Mechanisms. [Online] Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/defense-mechanisms.html [Accessed 27 April 2020]. Nigel, B., 2015. What behaviors do we inherit via genes?. [Online] Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/201509/what-behaviors-dowe-inherit-genes unknown, n.d. Unconscious. [Online] Available at: psychologytoday.com
