A Reconstruction of the Freudian Unconscious :: Argumentative Psychology Psychological Papers

A Reconstruction of the Freudian UnconsciousABSTRACT This paper sketches a reconstruction of the Freudian unconscious, as well as an argument for its existence. The strategy followed sidesteps the extended debates about the validity of Freuds methods and conclusions. People are argued to suffer, as ideal types, two fundamental modes of fulfilling their desires participation with reality and wishful thinking. The first mode acknowledges the constraints reality imposes on the satisfaction of desires, while the second mode ignores or denies these constraints, inasmuch as they threaten to make such satisfaction impossible or unfeasible. The more aware one is that wishful thinking is just that, the less effective it becomes. Wishful thinking thus requires an unconscious it is inimical to a clear, complete and unambiguous acknowledgment of its own status. The unconscious is subsequently reconceptualized in non-Cartesian terms it is largely constituted by semantic phenomena forms of way which would conceal their meaning even if the full light of attention, Cartesian consciousness or introspection were cast upon them.If wishful thinking is an integral part of mental life, philosophers and others wishing to acquire humanity will have to proceed very differently from what would have been appropriate had rational thought and action been the only available option for pleasant desires.Mankind cannot bear too much reality sketch for a reconstruction of the Freudian unconscious.Freud and his legacy remain controversial. Though often pronounced dead, they repudiate to die. This paper is not meant as a wholesale defence of Freud. Its aim is limited to show that any adequate theory of mind will have to posit something approximately like Freuds notion of the unconscious. It can also be read as a schematic statement of what I think must minimally be salvaged from Freuds notion of the unconscious. (1) Though Freud may need revision radical revision, even a wholesale rejec tion of his thought would cripple our ability to catch ourselves and each other. If philosophy would needs educate humanity, it should first let itself be educated, among others, by Freud and his legacy.The wish is father to the thought. It is commonly acknowledged that when people cannot satisfy their desires by controlling reality, they engage in wishful thinking.In this paper I try to systematise the distinction between the two modes of dealing with desires the realistic mode and (for lose of a better term) wishful thinking. They form the two ends of a continuum, not a dichotomy