Expert: Michael J. Motta - 5/13/2009

Question
Hi Michael
Do you agree with the sentence below:
"We unconsciously reject or accept, and then subconsciously judge and react"

--- How do we know we unconciously accept or reject?
How can we determine the source and the actions, if it remains out of consciousness? Is it possible that unconscious mind can accept or reject. Besides, is there any difference between unconscious and sub-conscious?

Thanks, Michael!  

Answer
Hi Luke,

Wow! You sure knew how to give me a tough one this time! To be honest with you, even though psychology is a huge interest of mine, I'm undecided regarding how we should label all the "parts" of the mind, and whether there is an unconscious or not and all those "deep" issues about the mind. I tend to work more on concrete situations, interpersonal psychology, for instance, than I do on the really abstract stuff. Although incidentally I am currently reading Herbert Marcuse on Freud (Eros and Civilization).

Especially in regard to your last question, I would suggest that you look at this page:
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-the-unconscious-and-the-s...

Assuming that there is such thing as an unconscious, I don't think it can be the ultimate source of rejection or acceptance, but it would probably strongly recommend one way or the other. It might be what we call a "gut feeling". But we don't always allow our gut feelings to dictate what we accept and what we reject. We have the capacity to override this, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. We also have the capacity to reserve judgment and wait for more evidence. For instance, I might be unfavorably predisposed to having a teacher whose first language isn't English, but if I don't reject the teacher immediately, I allow myself the opportunity to discover that his/her English is good enough, and that furthermore he/she has a lot to offer in terms of educating me.

This is similar to subconscious judgments I think. Basically, the more experience we have with a person, thing, or phenomenon, I think the more likely we are to allow our conscious mind to work and the less important the "deeper levels" become. Little experience - gut feeling and/or subconscious rules, more experience - rational consideration. This is why we may "jump" when we hear a sudden sound or see something out of the corner of our eye, only to find afterwards that there was little to fear. We reject and react first, then we accept when we realize it was just a roommate coming home late or something like that instead of an intruder at the door.

Well, I don't think I've given you as rigorous and full a treatment as this deserves, but hopefully I've given you more than you had before. This is the kind of thing you should research in some seriously heavy duty academic texts if you really want to find out more. Read Freud, read Sartre, read Jung, and I'm sure there are a whole host of "minor" figures and secondary sources out there too.

R. D. Laing and Rollo May are the two psychologists I enjoy the most, but they're a little less technical and more applied than all of this, especially May.

Peace,
Michael