Sigmund Freud · Science

The Unconscious: The Mind in Conflict With Itself

Freud&rsquo;s founding discovery - that most of mental life is <em>unconscious</em>, that the mind is not a unity but a battleground of wishes and defences, and that slips, jokes, dreams, and symptoms are meaningful messages from a hidden self actively kept out of sight.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Freud made the unconscious dynamic : not merely what we happen not to be thinking, but wishes and memories held down by repression that return in disguise. Explain repression, the &lsquo;return of the repressed,&rsquo; and why Freud said nothing in mental life is accidental.

Leads to Arthur Schopenhauer.

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