Awareness of the unconscious. Empathy levels
There are many rumors and speculation about empathy. Some consider her to be something like extrasensory perception, others compare empathy with empathy for loved ones.
Although in fact it opens up empathic ability, high sensitivity and ability to empathize.
If you explain empathy in your own words, then this ability is not only to understand a person and sympathize with him, but also to completely penetrate into his inner world and feel specific situation on myself. It is a rare gift to look at the world with someone else's eyes and to accept someone's point of view.
Empathy is an understanding of the mental and emotional state of another person, that is, the ability to perceive the feelings of the interlocutor, while realizing that these are the emotions of another person.
An empath can very subtly distinguish between bouquets of feelings, emotions, relationships, which is not available to many people. People, more often than not, can hardly determine what feeling fills them in this moment... The empath feels all shades of feelings and not only those that the person himself is clearly aware of, the empath sees several "levels" of which the person himself does not even suspect, although no, everyone has heard about the subconscious, it is also available to the empath.
If a person perceives the partner's emotions as his own, then this is no longer called empathy, but identification with the interlocutor. Identification is an empath's tool, with its help he can understand a person in more detail.
There is a theory that mirror neurons, discovered in 1990 by a group of Italian scientists, are responsible for empathy, but this hypothesis has not been fully studied. Remarkably, mirror neurons were originally found in the frontal cortex of monkeys.
Real empathy is not about reading the mood of the interlocutor by his gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice. In order to master this method of reading the emotions of the interlocutor, you just need to read a well-written book about sign language.
Still, you may not be able to accurately understand the degree of despair, joy, or excitement in your interlocutor. A strong empath does not need to see a person's gestures and facial expressions; they can just look at a photograph, although this is not always necessary.
“Unfortunately, there are no specific methods that would allow one to learn empathy in a week or a month. Many world psychologists believe that it cannot be learned consciously at all. Empathy is what appears as a result of experienced sorrows and problems. This is our own bitter experience, which becomes a pass to understanding the suffering. In principle, charity, helping the elderly, children and animals help to develop in the course of time deep and strong compassion, that is, empathy ”.
To some extent, these words are correct, but another empath who has already gone this way can help to master the ability to empathy inherent in a person. You probably won't be able to learn from the book, you need practical training.
The empathic way of communicating with another person has several facets. It implies entering the personal world of another and staying in it, "like at home." It includes a constant sensitivity to the changing experiences of the other - to fear, or anger, or emotion, or embarrassment, in a word, to everything that he or she is experiencing.
This means a temporary life in another life, a delicate stay in it without judgment and judgment. This means grasping what the other is barely aware of. But at the same time, there are no attempts to reveal completely unconscious feelings, since they can be traumatic. This includes communicating your impressions of the inner world the other, when you look with a fresh and calm look at those elements of it that excite or frighten your interlocutor.
This implies frequent recourse to another to check your impressions and listening carefully to the answers you receive. You are someone else's confidant. By pointing out the possible meanings of the other's experiences, you are helping him to experience more fully and constructively.
To be with the other in this way means to leave aside your points of view and values \u200b\u200bfor a while in order to enter the other's world without bias. In a sense, this means that you are leaving your self. This can only be done by people who feel safe enough in a certain sense: they know that they will not lose themselves in the sometimes strange or bizarre world of another and that they can successfully return to their world whenever they want.
Maybe this description makes it clear that being empathic is difficult. This means being responsible, active, strong and at the same time subtle and empathetic.
Classification. Types of empathy
Strange as it may seem, but empaths can be classified. Divide kind into empath levels. After all, we were all born with a wonderful gift - to feel, to empathize. But over time, in the family, society, life, the level of empathy has changed. Someone developed intensively, while someone, on the contrary, suppressed all living things in themselves that could arouse sympathy.
There are 4 types of empaths:
1. Not empaths
Everything is clear at once. Non-empaths are those people who have completely closed their empathic abilities. It is possible that these abilities themselves atrophied, as they were never used. Such people deliberately shut out emotional information (for example, they cannot recognize verbal and non-verbal emotional signals). If empathic abilities are not used, they disappear.
2. Weak empaths
This type of empathy is possessed by most of the population of our Earth. They still have basic filters for receiving emotional information, but because they cannot control it, emotional overload often occurs. Especially if the weak empath is experiencing emotional distress or is in a crowded place. Such people are often in a state of constant stress, as if the whole weight of the world, emotions, problems, fears, fell on their shoulders. When compared physically, they feel tired, headaches, etc.
3. Functional empaths
These are the most developed empaths who easily adapt to emotional information and can easily control emotions without suppressing them. Few people really know how to do this. Outwardly, these people are no different from ordinary people.
4. Professional empaths
Such empaths are easily able to recognize any emotions, moreover, the most complex emotional streams of information that are hidden in the depths of our soul. Such people can handle other people's emotions well. Good healers, as they see hidden energy channels. There are only a few such empaths, they rarely meet in their pure form. It happens that an empath heals well, but for some reason or his own fear does not know how to control other people's emotions.
A professional empath will be able to a person who is in pain to cheer up and help get rid of pain. In the period of grief, forget about grief. Believe in yourself when there is no more hope. Can you do the same?
How do you know if you are an empath?
I can feel, sense the feelings of another person, just by looking at their faces.
Am I an empath? Often you ask yourself a similar question when you cannot explain what is happening to you.
In this article, I want to tell you how to determine that you are an empath.
Empathy is the ability to feel people's emotions as if they were your own.
It could be a gift or a curse because who wants to feel sad with a sad stranger on the road? Who wants to have physical pain if someone is in pain because they fell. How and what do you really feel? But on the other hand, you can use this empathy as an opportunity to help people and develop an ability for yourself.
Here are some factors to help determine if you are an empath. But if you are still in doubt, you can take our empathy test, it certainly won't lie.
So, let's get started ...
1. Feel someone's emotions. This is the most common factor that says you are an empath. Look at the passers-by on the street, if you feel happiness, love, sadness, bitterness, pain in their faces, then you are definitely an empath. You can just as easily merge with them, do the same, what they want. For example, you are thirsty or you urgently want to go home for no good reason. Mood swings, and sharp
2. You feel tired when you are in a crowded place. Since you can feel the emotions of other people, you may get tired of all this. You get angry and irritable, which causes quick mood swings. Many empaths don't like crowded places, they immediately feel empty.
3. You can clearly say when a person is lying ... It is a kind of gift, to know if a loved one or a loved one tells you that he loves you. To determine whether a person is experiencing true feelings, only a real empath can recognize. By the idea of \u200b\u200ban empath, you cannot be fooled because he knows how you feel.
There are several ways to determine that you are an empath. Someone can see the aura of people, some can read people like an open book. But being an empath is harder, because constantly feeling a bunch of emotions in yourself and experiencing them like your own can drive you crazy!
Development of empathy, how to develop empathy?
People are divided into those who are already an empath and those who want to become an empath. We already know that there are several levels of empathy and in order to teach someone, to develop empathy, he needs to master one of the levels of empathy.
In fact, real empathy is harder to learn, especially for those who have never used it. You cannot turn the world upside down and say that I have changed and began to feel everything. It takes a long time to break your beliefs and learn empathy.
Empathy is not just feelings and experiences of someone, it is a complete understanding and realization that you feel it, as if it is happening to you. This is very thin world completely alien life. Not everyone wants to feel the emotions and desires of another person unnecessarily, but what is all this for? But let's not get into real empathy, but let's talk about the psychological component of empathy. About that empathy, which is written about in textbooks of psychology and business. This empathy is different in that you have to anticipate your opponent's actions and know what he wants from you through emotional reactions - this is much easier to teach. You will not feel everything on yourself, but you will be able to clearly realize what is happening to the person and empathize with him.
Therefore, we will divide this blog into two parts: real empaths who have a subtle sense of a person, and develops anyone and those who learn this. There will be a big difference between these empaths, since the first empaths can feel emotions on themselves without visual contact, while the second most likely will never be able to.
So how do you develop empathy?
1. Level of education
When communicating with a person, you should highlight emotional notes and gestures. For example, have you ever watched The Theory of Lies (Lie to Me)? If not, then look, this series clearly shows how with the help of facial expressions, gestures, reactions, tone of voice, you can determine what state a person is in, that is, what he feels. When you can focus correctly, without mistakes, your attention on such little things, you can see the emotional state of a person. But until you can shift it to yourself.
Practice on the street, with friends, acquaintances. Notice any little things: sloppiness, a hair on your jacket, hair, makeup on your face, all this can tell a lot more about a person than you think. Master this skill.
2. Level of education
So, now that you have certain skills, you can know what is happening with the person. Moreover, they must clearly know, and it does not seem to me that this is happening to him. No one seems to hone your skills, even if it takes years or months, but you should not be wrong.
The second level of training is more difficult, since at this stage you have to shift onto yourself those feelings, habits, timbre of voice, body movements on yourself. As if you are the object that you feel. To make it easier for you to go into the image, you need a strong emotional reaction. Observe carefully the person, imagine that he is you, if you have completely merged with him, you are a part of his life, you know in advance what he will do and how he will act in a given situation. You seem to be living his life without judging it and not thinking what is wrong.
You are one. You are comfortable in this body and life. If he is in love, you also love; if he feels pain, you also feel it with every cell of your body.
This is much more difficult to learn. You do not need to master this skill, but you will never become a real empath until you can experience in your own skin what the person is feeling. You seem to look in the mirror of someone else's life and see yourself in it. Perhaps you think this is complete nonsense and impossible, you are mistaken. An empath is someone who perceives another person's feelings as if they were their own. And nobody said that feelings should always be good.
3. Level of training
This level gives you the opportunity to become a real empath. Empaths do not just feel everything on themselves, they know how to manage this state. The first opportunity is to easily take YOURSELF out of any negative emotional state. The second possibility is to deduce the OTHER from the negative emotional state. Influence emotions. This is where the similarity begins, what psychology and business are trying to teach us. Controlling emotions and manipulating others through emotional connection.
Once you've mastered the first two levels of learning and empathic skills, it's easy to control all of this ...
The labyrinths of the unconscious are an eternal road of numerous puzzles that will be solved by man someday. The unconscious is everything about our karma, our experience, our mind and our abilities. The role of the unconscious is great in our life. The role of the conscious is even greater. How do these undivided parts of our mind exist? We are used to using these terms in our lives, but in fact, many do not fully understand their meaning. After all, the unconscious is a "factory" for making Karma. And the conscious one is the “shop” for the distribution of karma, where they decide where to send it to the conscious or leave it again in the unconscious.
So, numerous reactions of human behavior, this is an integral experience of evolution, acquired by human ancestors. That is, if 100 people in one generic branch learn something, then this, what they learned, will be transmitted genetically to future generations. This is not only related to survival instincts and adaptation. This is also associated with what is called disease. Yes, this is how hereditary diseases, inherited by certain individuals of the genus, only by the fact that before them, many individuals of the same kind used such an unconscious experience for their own purposes.
The unconscious is everything that the mind remembers throughout life. There is a big difference between the conscious and the unconscious. If we take the average person, then his conscious in relation to the unconscious in percentage terms looks like this, unconscious 99% and conscious 1%. If you take an enlightened person, then it looks exactly the opposite. Why? Because most people live unconsciously. This means that their behavior is driven by spontaneous emotional decisions that are associated with unconscious experiences. They have always done and reacted that way. Therefore, the absence deliberate analysis does not lead a person to a form of awareness of certain actions in his life. And the difference between those who know and those who do not know is that the knower is trying to realize what he previously only understood. And the one who does not know is content with the knowledge that he will receive at the initial stages of his development. That is, living with old experience, reactions, behavior, a person does not think about why he does this. He can refer to heredity, to bad character, and to the fact that all this can no longer be corrected, "I was born like that." If we figure out what we live for, then the ultimate goal of any person is to know ourselves one day. But this happens when the karma experience is realized by a person.
Any action of the conscious and unconscious leads to the birth of new karma, that is, situations. It doesn't matter if they are good or bad in terms of what is good or bad, it is still karma. Therefore, in order to transform karma, it must be given the opportunity to enter a third, neutral state. And this already, knowledge !!! That is, in a neutral state, karma loses its power. And in the conscious and unconscious, it increases strength.
The unconscious is what we have accumulated for many millennia as experience. And in this experience, not only our individual experience, but also the experience of our ancestors. Our joy, kindness, our anger and resentment, this is an experience that we have acquired unconsciously. The moment a situation is present, the human mind makes millions of neural combinations about how to proceed. In fact, the mind finds these combinations among the experiences that were once acquired by a person. No more no less. So, since the active force of our consciousness is our choice, then we are guided by this choice in order to choose the unconscious, that is, what is in the field of the unconscious. Our resentment, jealousy, our kindness and our compassion are energies that cause a certain chemical reaction in the body that form our body in the likeness of these energies. That is, our body becomes consonance with what we are in the unconscious.
In fact, this path is not easy. This is the path that leads to knowledge. After all, if you thought badly 100 times, then at least 100 times you need to think well, so that what was previously unconscious becomes conscious. And then, in order to become aware of your actions, you need to give this conscious experience to be tested in life by gaining practical experience and strengthening yourself in awareness. And only then, this conscious experience, as the Spiritual quintessence of God, envelops the Spiritual body of a person.
Everything around us is our karma. You think she just came. Not. She came so that we could understand her. After all, karma is WE! Believe that everything that is around us is the world of energies, which is our shadow. And the other half is contained in us. This is our knowledge. So, any situation, objects or subjects, this is a mysterious algorithm that we all need to solve. After all, our environment is what potentially expresses our world within us. That is, our contents of the mind, conscious or unconscious, are energies that have their own vibration, which in turn attract other types of energies. No, not like that. Similar, at a vibrational level. But the difference is that this kind of energy in us, causes a SHADOW. What do you think for what? In order for them to connect and a transformation occurs. It looks as if a person were irritable, then there will always be irritants around him, not because this is done on purpose, but because the person’s irritation causes his other half-shadow from space, as these people, as a different kind of energy. And the task of such a relationship is AWARENESS. As long as an irritable person does not understand the harm of his behavior, and that by his behavior he creates a conflict, until then there will be people around him that irritate him. Until a jealous person realizes that his jealousy is a manifestation of his Ego, and his greedy ambitions. Until he realizes that there is nothing in this world that he could own. Until then, there will be people on his way who will betray him and change him. For only in this way, a person gets the experience of awareness. And then, when a person comes to awareness, then this part of the realized karma is separated from his being and fills his Spiritual body. And the more such alchemy happens, the more a person will be freed from karma.
But in fact, what surrounds us is what we believe in. And this is also a product of our mind, like what is in our mind. We are what we believe in. Many people say that life is simple. But in order to simply understand it, you need to go through a very long path of knowledge. For example, why does a person get sick? Everything, of course, starts with what a person thinks about and what he feels. And the more he feels it, the more biochemical reactions occur in the body with a change in hormonal levels. Thus, the person gets sick. This means that for many years of life, a person unconsciously believed in something. For example, if a person has cysts, then he is touchy. So he for a long time believed that the world was to some extent cruel and could offend him. And the more often a person thinks about it and experiences unconsciously, the faster cysts will form. But the simplicity lies in the fact that everything that exists in this process is just the work of our mind, which unconsciously believed in its resentment towards the world around us. What you believe in is what you get. The entire material world is atoms and molecules. So, who controls this process, that this world in our field looks the way it looks? Our mind !!! It is our mind that creates this world as we imagine it and experience it inside ourselves. Therefore, in order to change the world, you need to change yourself.
Empathy - conscious or unconscious attachment of the psyche (feeling) to the current emotional state another person without losing sensation external origin this experience.
With the gift of empathy, you get the opportunity to look into other people's experiences. You can feel someone else's pain and it can bring you to tears, and you want to help this person.
There is hyperactive empathy.
This is when you have this gift, but do not know how to control it, you are open to all emotions and impressions of other people, but you cannot center your own feelings and needs. In society, you feel the entire emotional background, even walking down the street, you can feel what is happening with people passing by. Physical empathy can even lead to physical pain that is not yours (someone else's headache).
Empathy is a gift, and in most people it is expressed in varying degrees. If you have the gift of empathy, you need to know how to turn it into your helper and be able to turn it off. Ideally, you should be able to use it at will and "turn it off" when necessary. Some people intuitively know how to do this. Others do not know how to do this.
When you begin to empathize with someone (pity and sympathy), your field collapses.
In other words, when you are centered, you are like a solid bowl, after you start to empathize and get nervous, your field becomes like a colander.
You have holes in your energy body through which your energy goes to another person, so you start to feel like yourself. The opposite also happens when energy passes into you and you absorb everything that is happening around you; from other people, places and events.
When you know how to manage your gift, empathy becomes a real gift, because it allows you to see things and events happening with other people. Compassion evokes compassion in us, and compassion allows us to take care of others, to help people who turn to you. Empathy allows you to experience the experience of the unity of being, to feel what it is like to be a different person, to understand the actions of other people.
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If you don't know how to disable this ability, then it can greatly affect your life and destroy you.
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Disadvantages of having the gift of empathy if you don’t know how to “turn it off”: The spectrum is very large - from annoyance to debilitating physical and emotional state - for example, when you take on the physical and emotional pain of other people.
Are the following problems close to you?
* The presence of hyperactive empathy in a relationship:
Have you had a relationship in which you felt that someone was very upset when they had problems and you wanted to help them? This is certainly good if you want to help a person, but what if you want to help a person so much that you begin to "take over" his problems? What if your own boundaries become blurred, you take on someone else's responsibilities and do not understand where you are and where the other is?
What if by doing this you prevent a person from accepting responsibility for these events and close to him the ability to change the situation, gain experience and create his own life? Hyperactive empathy is associated with codependency of empaths and others, as well as a lack of grounding and a weak sense of their clear boundaries in the empath.
* Hyperactive Empathy in the Social Environment:
When you are in society, you are so focused on the people around you that you can read them subtly, intuitively understand the meaning of all their actions. You seem to plunge into their world, into their energy, into their emotions and feelings. If everything in the room is in color, then you are in shades of gray, because you are not yourself, you are losing your integrity.
* Overactive emotional empathy:
Have you ever had situations where you were simply overwhelmed by someone else's emotional pain? When someone has a severe loss, for example, someone died, and you start supporting this person, and then you start to feel bad, cry all day and feel all the grief of that person. This kind of emotional empathy is completely unnecessary and inappropriate.
* Hyperactive empathy in certain places:
This is when you enter a building and begin to feel the entire emotional background of this place. This is especially evident in places with a large number of people (hospitals, schools, etc.).
* Physical Empathy: Do you feel other people's pain? You can get terrible headaches from physical empathy. It often happens that empaths are like sponges taking over the physical pain of others.
These are the most common types of empathy, although there are many more species empathy, such as intellectual compassion, empathy with animals and plants.
You can learn to manage your gift of empathy,
using three simple methods:
1. Pay attention to how you feel
To overcome empathy, you need to go back to yourself! To center yourself, you need to test yourself: at least once a day, tune in to how you are feeling. Keep a journal, and before you go to bed, write down how you feel and why.
When people ask you for something, then before you say "Yes", check what you think about it. Don't just automatically feel their needs, but first turn your attention to yourself before reacting. Take time to center and pay attention to your feelings. This will take time, but soon, when you are not so strongly attuned to others, your feelings will return to you.
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Meditation can also be good tool for centering if done regularly. Imagine how your energy comes back to you from other people and you feel whole again.
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When I feel that my energy is “out there” (especially after working on a computer and on the Internet all day), I often do visualization, in which I see how my energy returns to me from the Internet sites I visit, from people, with whom I spoke, from the spirits that I heard, from the clients with whom I worked. This visualization simply triggers the intention to bring your energy back to you. This is very useful exercise, it can be done before bedtime.
2. Get into the habit of asking your subconscious or Higher Self (angels, God, the Universe) to release energies that are not yours.
When you feel that you have “picked up” other people's energies or lost yourself in relationships with other people, try taking three deep, long breaths, and then say this little prayer: “Now I call on my Higher Self / subconsciousness / God / angels to help me remove from my physical body and mine thin bodies energies that do not belong to me. Done! Done! Done! Om! OM TAT SAT! "
You can come up with your own appeal or use this. You don't need to make it very complicated and long. It should be short and simple. Appeal to Higher Forces is very powerful and effective wayto clear your energy.
3. Allow yourself to enjoy life
Most empaths are very depressed and cannot enjoy life due to the constant emotional interaction with other people. They often think that they are only here to help those who are suffering. They feel responsible for the suffering and feelings of others, and they feel it is their duty to help everyone feel better.
To fix this, focus on the joy of interacting with other people. If you do not enjoy communicating with a person and feel that this person is draining your energy, then it is better to stop communicating. In everyday communication, prioritize your enjoyment of communication and pay less attention to other people than usual. This may sound incredibly selfish, but many empaths need to change the way they approach their gift.
Do you perceive other people very closely, as if you are your own? Perhaps empathy has awakened in you! Find out how to check it out!
What is empathy and how does it arise?
Empathy (empathy) ¹ - the ability to subtly feel the emotions of another as your own. People who can do this are called empaths. An empath is someone who feels the emotions and feelings of others. Sometimes empathy is accompanied by ability.
Naturally, people acquire this ability in two cases:
1. They are born empaths.
2. This gift awakens on its own during growing up and socialization.
Empathy is a great gift if you know how to use it properly. Not all empaths are capable of consciously manipulating the ability - in most cases it happens unconsciously.
Many people sometimes "catch" the sensations of other people. In most cases, the gift of empathy is not recognized: logical mind such manifestations are explained as conventional psychology or spontaneous NLP².
Signs of having a supernormal ability
If something like this happened in your life, and you suddenly felt unusual emotions, it is quite possible that it was a feeling received from another person - this is how empathy manifests itself!
Until you learn to manage and control it, you will absorb other people's emotions and experience them as your own.
There are several signs that a person is an empath:
1. Empaths feel the suffering in the world on a large scale and want to somehow help the world.
2. It is difficult for them to look at someone else's pain, because it feels like their own.
3. It is difficult for people with such an ability to watch disturbing news: they feel all the suffering and then cannot for a very long timerecover.
For example, it is enough to watch a news report about a disaster or some kind of catastrophe anywhere in the world, and such a person may feel pain (psychological and sometimes physical) from this event.
4. Empaths find it difficult to find themselves and become fully aware of their own feelings.
For example, when talking to another person, people with the gift of empathyfeel his emotions and feelings. Often, they know the answers to their life questions, but they do not find the answer to their own.
5. Often empathy can make a person shy because he knows very well what the other is feeling and what he wants.
6. If a person does not know how to control his ability, he may lose critical perception. Such people always say "yes" to all requests and demands, without thinking about whether they need it, whether they really want it.
The empath is so immersed in the other person's experience, knowing what he needs, that he cannot say no. And only then he realizes that he did not think about himself and his desires.
7. People with empathy help others at their own expense.
8. Empaths love from a distance as if a loved one was nearby.
9. They feel a deep intimacy with nature, animals and plants.
Such people are able to feel not only people, but also animals, for example, meeting a dog or a cat on the street.
10. The empath feels responsible for how other people feel, trying to help them feel better.
11. Such people are very sensitive: relationships and friendships can be taken too close to heart.
12. Due to empathy and inability to manage it, they often become an outlet for other people to dump their emotions on them.
13. While reading a book or watching a movie, the empath experiences events very emotionally, almost completely identifies with the characters.
14. Due to the constant workload, people with this gift forget what it means to have fun and enjoy life.
15. Empaths are generally deeply spiritual: the gift of empathyallows you to feel the unity of all being.
If you are close to many of the above signs, it means that you have the ability to empathy!
Answer the following questions:
- Can you control this gift?
- Do you know how to separate your own and other people's experiences?
- Are you able to manage your gift by “turning on” it only when you need it?
If you answered yes, then you yourself have learned to control your gift of empathy; otherwise, you need to learn how to manage empathy: in the notes to this article, there is a link to useful material on developing control over empathy.
Notes and feature articles for a deeper understanding of the material
¹ Empathy - conscious empathy with the current emotional state of another person without losing a sense of the external origin of this experience (Wikipedia).
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The creation of modern psychology as a science of psyche and behavior in all their forms and ranges became possible to a large extent thanks to the discovery and use of fundamentally new approaches to the study and understanding of the nature and essence of man.
The most significant of them, in terms of content and consequences, was Sigmund Freud's Copernican coup. The indisputable historical merit of S. Freud is that he laid the foundation for a systematic, proper psychological study of the unconscious mental, created the doctrine of the unconscious, psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic tradition. Awareness of the real achievements of Z. Freud presupposes an understanding of the important circumstance that it was he who was the first to overcome the internal limits of psychoanalysis and actually laid the foundations of depth psychology (E. Bleuler's concept), focused on the study of the unconscious mental, but by no means reduced to his psychoanalytically marked elements ...
To a significant extent, it is precisely as a result of these achievements that human psychology, hitherto directed almost exclusively to the study of the phenomena of consciousness and self-consciousness, acquired new dimensions and qualities that made it possible to relatively correctly determine its object and subject, goals and objectives, ideals and norms of research, explanatory principles, methodology, methods and methodological procedures, main branches, problem fields, functions and significantly supplement, update and strengthen the conceptual potential and categorical-conceptual apparatus.
A retrospective analysis of the problematic of the unconscious shows that it has a specific tradition. Some hints at the possible existence of such a problem were contained even in the early forms of folklore, the mythology of religion. IN different meanings and meanings, the problem of the unconscious was posed and developed in philosophy and psychology throughout their history.
In the European rational tradition, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe unconscious mental goes back to the era of the creation of philosophy (to the teachings of Socrates and Plato about anamnesis - knowledge-recall, the teachings of Aristotle about different parts souls, etc.). B. Spinoza (unconscious "causes determining desire"), G. Leibniz (interpretation of the unconscious as the lowest form of mental activity), D. Gartley (connection of the unconscious with activity nervous system), I. Kant ("dark ideas", the connection of the unconscious with the problems of intuitive and sensory cognition, "in the very deep sleep the soul is most capable of rational thinking "), Schopenhauer (ideas about unconscious internal impulses), K. Carus (the key of the unconscious in the subconscious), E. Hartaman (" Philosophy of the Unconscious "), G. Fechner (the idea of \u200b\u200bthe" soul-iceberg "), T. Lipps (" unconscious ideas "and" unconscious sensations "), W. Wundt (" unconscious thinking "," unconscious nature of perception processes "), G. Helmholtz (the doctrine of" unconscious inferences "), I. Sechenov ("unconscious sensations or feelings"), I. Pavlov ("unconscious mental life"), V. Bekhterev (the activity of the "unconscious"), A. Liebeau and I. Bernheim (post-hypnotic suggestion and behavior), J. Sharko (ideas about invisible and unconscious mental trauma), G. Le Bon (the unconscious nature of people's behavior; the unconscious as the dominant set of mental processes, always prevailing in the crowd and governing the "collective soul" of the crowd), G. Tarde ("laws of imitation"), P. Janet ( mental automatisms and bessos cognitive factors of neuroses), A. Bergson (intuitionism, unconsciousness, "superconsciousness") and many others. In general, these ideas and concepts can be understood as a kind of growth point in the awareness of the problem of the unconscious mental.
In the twentieth century, the most detailed and systematic idea of \u200b\u200bthe unconscious mental was developed within the boundaries of the psychoanalytic tradition, which now has a number of teachings, theories, concepts and models. varying degrees generality, reliability and heuristicity.
Fundamentally important results were obtained by Z. Freud, who created the correct psychological definition of the unconscious, the doctrine of the unconscious, the corresponding categorical-conceptual apparatus and methods of cognition; established some elements of the content, functioning and regulation of the unconscious.
Defining the unconscious as mental processes, "which manifest themselves actively and at the same time do not reach the consciousness of the person experiencing them," Freud proposed a well-founded understanding of the unconscious as the main and most meaningful system of the human psyche (unconscious - preconscious - conscious), regulated by the principle of pleasure and including various congenital and repressed elements, drives, impulses, desires, motives, attitudes, aspirations, complexes, etc., characterized by unconsciousness, sexuality, asociality, etc. According to S. Freud, in the unconscious there is a constant struggle between Eros (drives and forces of life, sexuality and self-preservation) and Thanatos (drives and forces of death, destruction and aggression), using the energy of sexual attraction (libido). According to classical psychoanalytic teaching, the content of the unconscious includes: 1) content that was never present in the consciousness of the individual and 2) content that was present in consciousness, but was forced out of it into the unconscious (desires, memories, images, etc.) ).
In fact, in the teachings of Freud, not two (as is usually believed), but three types of the unconscious are distinguished: 1) Latent unconscious, the content of which, in general, corresponds to the preconscious system of the psyche and can be realized by the individual, 2) The repressed unconscious, the realization of which presupposes the use of special (according to Freud, psychoanalytic) methods; and 3) Inherited universal human unconscious, represented, for example, in the immanent principles of mental life, universal Oedipus and castration complexes, drives, motivations, etc.
But, unfortunately, Freud did not qualify the inherited unconscious even with the degree of completeness, categorical definiteness and consistency that are characteristic of his interpretation of other forms of the unconscious, as a result of which additional and excessive incorrectness appeared in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic tradition. In this case, perhaps, it would be more expedient to state the fact of the existence of a phylogenetic (i.e., species, universal) and ontogenetic (i.e., individual) unconscious. Moreover, the representation of the unconscious in certain phylogenetic and ontogenetic hypostases almost automatically opened up opportunities for their concretization, the search for interrelationships and other potentially possible forms of existence of the unconscious.
In terms of cognition of the psyche, behavior and the unconscious mental person a special role was played and is played by the dialectical energy-informational model of the psyche (Unconscious - Preconscious - Conscious) created by Z. Freud. In the light of modern scientific concepts, this model can be understood, inter alia, as a psychological imperative and a prototype for the construction of the latest energy-informational models of the psyche, without which the effective development of modern psychology and borderline disciplines is hardly possible.
Taking into account the role that was attached in Freud's psychoanalysis to the cognition and interpretation of dreams as a "royal road" to the world of the unconscious mental person, it should be noted that in the psychoanalytic tradition, some important problems were not properly explained or were not even formulated with the desired degree certainty. These can include, for example, problems of understanding the nature and essence of dreaming consciousness and dreaming self-awareness (including self-control) and their interaction with unconscious forces and tendencies. As special problems, the problem of the possibility of controlling dreams (i.e. influencing their content and direction) and the problem of the possibility of achieving an artificial dream catharsis can and should be understood. The study of these problems seems to be all the more important, since the principle of external similarity and sexual symbolism of dreams proposed by S. Freud, as it turned out, do not at all have the universality that was attributed to them.
The doctrine of S. Freud initiated and stimulated the emergence and development of many different approaches to the study of the unconscious mental, within which were formulated interesting ideas and important results were obtained (for example, ideas about intrapsychic communications, compositional features and stratification of the unconscious, the brain substrate of the unconscious, holographic elements of the unconscious, content and functional asymmetry of the interhemispheric interaction of the unconscious, the probabilistic nature of unconscious processes, etc.).
But at the psychological level proper, the most stable vector of development is still the psychoanalytic tradition, the evolution of which, in general, is aimed at moving from teaching to the modern scientific theory of the unconscious mental by successive approximations.
In this regard, it is essential important milestones and the results were the concepts of C.G. Jung, J. Moreno and E. Fromm.
According to the analytical psychology of C.G. Jung, the unconscious consists of three layers: 1) the personal unconscious - the surface layer of the unconscious, which includes mainly emotionally colored representations and complexes that form the intimate mental life of a person, 2) the collective unconscious - an innate deep layer of the unconscious, the common center and nucleus of the psyche, which has not an individual, but a universal nature, representing the experience of previous generations of people and including a supra-personal universal content and patterns that act as a universal foundation of mental life. The main content of the collective unconscious, according to C.G. Jung, is made up of archetypes, that is, inherited universal patterns, symbols and stereotypes of mental activity and behavior and 3) The psychoid unconscious - the most fundamental level of the unconscious, which has properties in common with the organic world and a relatively neutral character, why it is, being neither completely mental nor physiological, it is practically completely inaccessible to consciousness.
IN general view These ideas are, for the most part, a kind of psychoanalytic remake, since, ultimately, through updated designations, they reproduce the basic ideas of Z. Freud about the existence of the unconscious, its phylogenetic and ontogenetic forms, the stratification of the unconscious, the dominant role, etc. However, at the same time, C.G. Jung introduced certain innovations, mainly associated with the existence and functioning of archaic mental structures. By reducing the collective (i.e., phylogenetic) unconscious to the mental evolutionary archaic, expressed in archetypes, he significantly contributed to the understanding of the basic concepts and dimensions of the unconscious mental and significantly increased the heuristic potential of the psychoanalytic tradition. At the same time, it should be noted that C.G. Jung's assumptions about the existence of certain specific archetypes, their forms and roles need further critical verification and appropriate justification.
Developing Z. Freud's hypothesis about the possible existence of a direct relationship and communication between the unconscious different people, J. Moreno formulated the concept according to which an essential basis and mechanism of communication and interaction of people is the "common unconscious", which arises and functions with relatively long contact between partners and contributes to the removal of interpersonal role conflicts. Generally presented as a generalization cognitive activities and the results of practice, it has not received either theoretical or practical confirmation.
A significant event in the development of psychoanalytic and psychoanalytically oriented ideas about the unconscious was the creation by E. Fromm of the concept of "social unconscious", which is the repressed spheres characteristic of most members of society and containing what this society cannot allow its members to bring to awareness. However, the description and explanation of the social unconscious did not receive necessary elements organization, evidence and validity.
Unlike Freud's psychoanalysis (and partially the analytical psychology of C.G. Jung), the unprocessed and unconjugated concepts of the common unconscious and the social unconscious, with all their merits and heuristic potential, are a specific form of opinions and assumptions, and not grounded working hypotheses, and so all the more scientific theories that correspond to the standards of modern scientific knowledge.
Nevertheless, the introduction of ideas about the general and social unconscious into the psychoanalytic circulation gave rise to the seeming completeness of the psychoanalytic picture of the unconscious of the mental and the illusory ideas that modern psychoanalysis has a certain general theory of the unconscious.
The historically important achievements of the psychoanalytic tradition in the formulation, comprehension and private solutions of the problem of the unconscious are great and indisputable. But at the same time, at the present time there is no necessary and sufficient reason to believe that modern psychoanalysis has such a theory or opportunities for the exclusive creation of a general theory of the unconscious that meets the standards modern theory and practice. And in this regard, the actual withdrawal of the psychoanalytic community from discussing this fundamental problem is very indicative.
The currently existing fragmentation and approximation of ideas about the unconscious and the very significant role of this problem give reason to believe that the modern general theory of the unconscious mental is not a result, but one of the most urgent problems of theoretical psychology and borderline disciplines, the solution of which naturally presupposes the need to use the enormous potential of positive psychoanalytic ideas, approaches and results.
V. I. Ovcharenko
