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LS's picture

Denial in the Unconscious

Similarly I read an article in Scientific American Mind (April/May 2006) entitled Freud Returns.  This article is attempting to prove that there is some neurological basis for some (if not most) of Freud’s theories.  In this article there is an example of anosognosic patients who have damage to their right parietal region of their brain which makes them unaware of physical defects (such as paralysis.)  However when this region of the brain was activated the patients became aware of their deficit and when and how long ago the deficit occurred.  However when the stimulation wore off the patients returned to their previous state and subsequently remembered ever detail of the experiment and interview, except the part where they realized their deficit.  The link to Freud in this example was the repression of memories in the unconscious.  This example (and article) really caused me to take a new look at this.  (I mean we all value Freud’s contributions but for the most part think that a lot of his theories were off the mark.)

 

Maybe the conscious and the unconscious that Freud psychoanalyzed are our I-Function.  The I-function causes us to be aware of memory and events in our conscious life.  However if part of the I-function extends in to the unconscious maybe it represses these memories or events that the brain considers to be “dangerous.”   Perhaps the I-Function box exerts some control over the unconscious.  Just as the patients repressed the portions of the experiment where they recognized their physical deficit, perhaps our I-functions repress damaging memories in our unconscious I-function box.  Perhaps this unconscious I-function box may reveal some of it contents when our whole I-function is conscious during our dreams..hmm….

 Perhaps more to come….

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