41. Thank You Questions or ideas?Contact Steven Walden Senior Head of Research and Consulting Email: steven.walden@beyondphilosophy.com Tel USA: +1 678-638-3050 Tel UK: +44 158-263-5007
Editor's Notes
The unconscious and the subconscious are vastly different, though non-psychiatric professionals often incorrectly use subconscious. In contrast to the unconscious, the subconscious mind lies just below consciousness, and it is easily accessible if attention is paid to it. For instance, you might know someoneās phone number. This information is not stored in your conscious mind, but in your subconscious. If you think about it, you can produce the phone number, but it isnāt simply floating around in your conscious mind. You need to direct your attention to memory in order to dredge up the phone number. Those memories you can recall easily are not conscious unless you pay attention and focus. When someone asks you to describe your perfect day, you reach into your subconscious mind for these memories. However, if someone asked you to describe the worst day you ever had, especially if it was particularly traumatic, you might not really be able to describe the worst. Youād be able to discuss memories in your subconscious that were memorably bad, but a truly traumatic day could be in part, or completely repressed. In this way, one of the differences between the unconscious and the subconscious is that, at least in Freudās estimation, the unconscious worked as a protecting force on the mind, even if this protection was wrongly guided. Really finding the most traumatic day of your life might mean significant therapy to access layers of memory buried away from both from conscious and subconscious, deeply hidden in the mind.