Conscious and the unconscious – Who controls whom?

“The ego is not master in its own house” – Sigmund Freud’s famous dictum. The generally known how much our actions and thinking is controlled by unconscious processes. But apparently our unconscious awareness also can be checked.

That our consciousness is directed to a large extent by unconscious processes, there is no doubt. But how strong is the influence and the opportunities that we have? And vice versa: can we consciously control our unconscious, there is a questions. A new study has brought an interesting contribution to the debate.

With the help of measurements of brain activity in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers have shown that conscious intentions can control the work of our automated systems in the brain. The scientists demonstrated for the first time that such resolutions can control the unconscious flow of information in the brain. Thу blockage of unconscious processes through the conscious intentions of the subjects could be detected by measuring the brain activity.

Our expectations affect on perception.

Unconscious processes which are contrary to our intentions are largely blocked in our consciousness, while unconscious processes are amplified in the brain regarding our intentions. This fact lead us to conclusion that our will is freer than our thoughts. This control of the unconscious through consciousness was also reflected in everyday life: If I expect a pedestrian on the road, probably I can recognize him more likely. The conscious views and attitudes have a right to decide can it be run unconscious process. So we are never slaves of our unconscious.