Talk:Unconscious mind

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"I was horrified by this definition of “unconscious mind” I found here in Wiki land. The words, “feelings, desires, and emotions” all mean the same thing and shows how there is no cogent modern theory of the mind in use. Thoughts and feelings certainly come from somewhere, the unconscious human mind is my choice for the main culprit, unless you choose to believe in “magic brain stuff that god makes”.

Group Processor Theory (GPT) is an explanation for the appearance of the human mind as a consequence of environmental factors over evolutionary time. To be most specific about our current definition of the mind, we each contain a Savannah adapted evolved mammalian modular mind, as opposed to “tree adapted avian mind”, that appeared sometime after 4.4 million years ago when the jungle adapted upright hominid, Ardipithecus ramidus, or “Ardi” as the skeleton has been nick named, was pushed out of the jungle and onto the encroaching Savannah.

What happened next is where the real magic began. Our concestor species, using the thought algebra involved in relating to relatives and "non related same species others" called “reciprocal altruism”, gained success because a small amount of cheating is always hidden under each individual’s group cooperation. It’s a balance that can be demonstrated in other cooperative species but the intense diverse conflicts of hominid evolution gave rise to conscious thought being driven by the war of the unconscious; the thief cheater versus the helper sharer.

The unconscious mind is not primitive, animalistic, or irrational; the origins of our darker side are the coldly calculating equations of our own self interest judging every interaction we have, in the context of how to achieve the maximum benefit for the individual and the group. Our conscious thoughts are the products of all these conflicts which arise to mediate and decide the best course given all the possible outcomes.

That’s why the definition of “unconscious mind” stated here in Wikipedia, though broken and incomplete, is still an illustration of how our culture is trapped with a broken theory of the mind and how we don’t seem to have sense to change our behavior in the light of better information.

If a Wikipedia work group would like for me to write an article explaining GPT, modular minds, and the truth about the “unconscious mind” for submission for possible publication, then I will be glad to try."

Michael G. Gorton, MD — This unsigned comment was added by Mikieginokc‎ (talk • changes). Moved by Griffinofwales (talk) 19:01, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Definition change

Psychology Today magazine has a definition(not attributed to anyone) that I think works much better for this context and this is it paraphrased: "the unconscious mind is where most of the work of the mind takes place; it holds automatic skills(things we do without thinking about them), it is the place dreams and intuition come from and it performs a lot of information processing(understanding the things we learn and experience)." A broader, easily applicable definition is more beneficial in this context.Heather-elizah (talk) 21:56, 3 May 2015 (UTC)heather-elizah

Psychoanalytic and Cognitive explanations

I would briefly explain that in psychology there are essentially 2 views of the unconscious: psychoanalytic realm and cognitive realm: in psychoanalysis(therapy) the unconscious mind is thought to control feelings and thoughts that are too uncomfortable for the person to think about." And then cognitively "there has been a lot of testing and experimenting that shows that people take in more information than they are aware of".Heather-elizah (talk) 22:02, 3 May 2015 (UTC)heather-elizah

Controversy and Freud

Something should be included about the controversy...that some people believe that the unconscious is an actual "area' or part of the brain, and others believe it is just a process of the brain, a particular way that the brain functions regarding certain information. The controversial nature of the "unconscious mind" is essential element of understanding the whole picture of the meaning of the term.

I would keep a snippet about Freud and the unconscious, but I would nix the long explanation about Freud's views and also the part about adaptive unconscious. I would put that on its own page. Too confusing if someone is trying to understand the basics of unconscious mind(which is confusing enough).Heather-elizah (talk) 22:07, 3 May 2015 (UTC)heather-elizah