Is Psychology: October 2011

Being acquainted with the philosophy of Plato, Freud might draw out ideas about the unconscious as Plato reflects on the problem of the unconscious person's knowledge. Yes, and other topics, developed in the framework of Greek philosophy and is directly adjacent to the problem of the unconscious, whether it be dream or motivations of human activity, could not interest the founder of psychoanalysis. It is no accident, justification or excuse for his psychoanalytic postulates it, though not often resorted to the authority of Empedocles and Aristotle.

In the philosophy of the eighteenth century XVII-to the forefront of understanding the fore issues related to the understanding of the nature of the mind, the definition of the role and place of consciousness in human life. One of the main question was about whether to consider the human mind as endowed with consciousness only if you can avoid it in the presence of something like that, that does not possess the properties of consciousness, or as part of the processes that take place automatically, unconsciously and spontaneously, it should make for mental limits of human life.

In Descartes (1596-1650) deals with this question are clear: he proclaimed the identity of consciousness and mental, believing that the human psyche, there can be nothing other than deliberately running processes. The maxim "I think, therefore I am" becomes the starting point of his philosophy. This does not mean an absolute power of the mind and reducing everything to a mental conscious. Descartes did not recognize the existence of passions of the human soul. On the contrary, in his treatise "The Passion of the soul," he attempted to understand the problem. In this treatise, Descartes not only provides a classification of the passions, but also writes about the struggle taking place between the "lower" part of the soul, which he called "sentient" and "higher" part of it - a "reasonable". However, he believes that the parts of the soul have no fundamental differences and, therefore, the soul actually is one. At the same between the two parts of the soul, there is no struggle, because the mind is the determinant. The struggle in the soul of man is only when one and the same is the passion and the reason which has an effect on the body. In this case, human passion is like an unconscious body movement, while holding back their soul.

Against the absolute power of intelligent design made in a man Spinoza (1632-1677) believed that "people would rather follow the leadership of a blind desire, than the mind...". In contrast to the Cartesian philosophy Spinoza proposed a provision that the inclination or desire is the very essence of man. These representations of the relationship between reason and passion, mind and instincts of man are reflected in the works of several philosophers who expressed doubts about certain provisions of the Cartesian philosophy.

One of these was the philosopher Hume (1711-1776), who opposed the restructuring of that any rational being is into conformity with the mind of his thoughts. Hume attempted to prove that, first, the mind itself can not motivate an act, and, secondly, that reason does not prevent the flow of emotions. Thus, Hume believed that, in principle, it affects the mind and can not stand each other or challenge each other priority in the management of human will, and therefore there is no need to talk about a struggle between them. In the arguments of Spinoza and Hume, there were many similarities with what was later expressed in the psychoanalytic Freud. This, above all, is that the position that human life in predetermining the role played by his unconscious desires or inclinations, than the consciousness of the mind. In addition, Spinoza treats desires and impulses of man as his most intimate, the fundamental fact entirely separate founder of psychoanalysis.

Along with the problem of the relation of mind and passions an important place in the philosophy of XVII-XVIII centuries, had the question of the relationship between conscious and unconscious perceptions, ideas and opinions, which refers to a philosophical understanding of the nature of human cognition. Descartes recognized the existence of man "vague" and "dark" perceptions that arise because of the dual origin of the perceptions themselves, because according to the Cartesian philosophy, some of them occur in the body, the other in the human soul. In turn, Spinoza distinguished between "clear" and "vague" idea.

In the philosophy of Leibniz (1646-1716), this problem was seen through the prism of the so-called "small perceptions," "subtle perceptions." In his view it is difficult to explain the emergence of conscious perceptions and ideas, if you do not admit the existence of something like that, that is not characterized by the property of consciousness, but still dormant in the human soul. Way of speaking about the need to recognize the unconscious and reasoning, which uses Leibniz and Freud, in many aspects is identical. Thus, if Leibniz indicates faulty connection between the processes of perception in the case of non-recognition of previous states of consciousness of the human soul, then, similarly are also constructed arguments by Freud. He proceeds from the assumption that the unconscious is necessary because of the existence of such acts of consciousness, which is required to explain the recognition of the other acts that are not conscious, because consciousness in the data, there are many gaps. Only in this case, he believes, is not disturbed psychic continuity, and it becomes clear the essence of the cognitive process, with its conscious acts.