How are our unconscious choices made? Does our mind tell us everything it thinks? Do we control our thoughts? In today's article we will deal with the workings of thought and the power of the mind.

So, do you know what your most secret dreams mean? No? Are you curious? Read on and find out how our mind works and how powerful it is!

The power of the mind

It is notorious to know that the power of the mind is very significant to better understand attitudes and behavior. Since humans experience many emotions, from happiness to sadness, from joy to depression, in other words, we feel everything!

Furthermore, the explanation of how the mind works is very complex, considering the popularization of Sigmund Freud's ideas, along with psychoanalysis, which is also often wrongly and distortedly conveyed. This, considering that everything goes through a process of wide dissemination.

Thus, it is necessary, first of all, to clarify the meaning of this expression. What is psychoanalysis? First of all, it is a theory that purports to explain the workings of the human mind Thus, from this explanation, it becomes a method of treatment of various mental disorders.

Psychoanalysis and the power of the mind

Having said this, it is good to know that psychoanalysis understands the great manifestations of the psyche as a conflict between the sexual tendencies or libido and the moral formulas and social limitations imposed on the individual. These conflicts generate the dreams, which would be, according to the Freudian interpretation, the deformed or symbolic expressions of repressed desires.

In addition, they generate the flawed acts or lapses, distractions falsely attributed to chance, but which refer back to or reveal those same desires.

Psychoanalysis, which is done through conversation, treats mental illness by interpreting these phenomena. It leads the patient to identify the origins of his problem, and is the first step toward healing. One of the phenomena that occurs during psychoanalytic therapy is the transfer of feelings (love or hate) from the patient to the analyst.

Studies on the mind and its power

Having said that, the concept "complex" does not belong to Freud, but to his disciple Carl G. Jung, who later broke with the master and created his own theory (analytical psychology). In the work "The Interpretation of Dreams", from 1900, Freud had already outlined the fundamentals of the Oedipus Complex, according to which the son's love for his mother implies jealousy or aversion to his father.

At the end of the 19th century, the milestone of psychology as a science occurred. At this time, the study was done through the mind, the consciousness. However, in the 20th century, theoretical matrixes emerged that went against the applied methodology, thus, the Methodological Bechaviorism was born, in 1903, by the American John Wattson.

In his conception, it was necessary to study human behavior, considering that all analysis should begin with behavior. For example, stimulus-response, and also being able to control human behavior in the social environment. Wattson did not value subjectivity such as: emotions, desires and perceptions.

On the other hand, Shinner, father of radical Bechaviorsimo, argues that man interacts with the world and his behavior. With this, he is sensitive in the sense of acting or not, in this way, he analyzes man in the form phylogenesis, ontogenesis and cultural, such conclusion was given after studies of rats in the laboratory.

For the gestaltists, to understand the parts, it is necessary to understand the whole, as: action-perception-reaction. For them, behavior can change according to the environment. In their theory, the human being can create an external reaction, because we have internal perception.

Freud and the power of the mind

Freud starts psychoanalysis, contradicting all these theories, and through his research he argues that the human mind is composed of three structures: unconscious, preconscious, and conscious. Together, for him, everything is stored in the psyche, more precisely in the unconscious, and every action of man comes from thought. Later, in his second topic, it became Id (instinct), Ego and Superego.

Based on this analysis, Freud creates the 15 defense mechanisms The most common are projection, sublimation, repression, and reactive formation.

The Mechanisms of the Mind

In summary, repression is the involuntary blocking of one's own consciousness, the unbearable feelings and experiences. When this happens, this mechanism reverberates in neurotic disorders, stereotypes, etc. Projection is the transference of feelings and emotions to another. This is typical of Brazilians, because many use this mechanism, like lying.

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Read Also: To Dream of Kissing a Known Person on the Mouth

Until then, Freud had proven the existence of the unconscious, desire, and repression in dreams and in the symptoms of neurotics. His goal with this work, now, is to show how the unconscious appears in everyday mistakes and failures, the so-called flawed acts.

It is important to note that despite the differences between the three types of failure acts, they have a unity in language. Not only linguistic failure acts, but also our forgetfulness in everyday life and our behaviors, such as stumbling.

Mechanism of the mind without consequences

Moreover, sublimation is a mechanism par excellence, because it does not bring consequences to the person who uses it and does not attribute it to others. It redirects drives or impulses, personally or socially improper, to constructive activities.

As an example, I cite the case of Australian Nick Vujicic, who is physically handicapped. He became a motivational speaker, sublimating all his difficulties. Another example is the case of Leonardo da Vince, when he painted the Mona Lisa in 1503, he sublimated his Oedipus complex problem.

Is the power of the mind only positive?

In addition, about the mind, I quote the narcissist. A disturbed mind that uses people to satisfy its whims. A mind that loves the person it has as a victim. In fact, the narcissist has no love for anyone.

Another example are psychopathic minds. These have no affection, no feelings, no attachment to the other. Therefore, the psychopath is a cold person because he has no remorse, no affection for anyone, he is not loyal. He is not only the one who kills, as we usually say, these are people with characters to get along in life. As an example, I cite most Brazilian politicians.

The perverse narcissistic mind usually cultivates its grandiosity at any price, be it in its professions, in its social or intimate life. In affective relationships, it usually holds its victims responsible for every immoral attitude it makes, it diminishes its victim who, for the moment, it has as a partner. When the narcissistic mind succeeds in diminishing its neighbor, it feels better and more important.

Conclusion

In view of this, the mind and unconscious psychic processes are dominated by our sexual tendencies: sex and libido, according to the definition of libido. Therefore, Freud designated sexual energy in a more general and indeterminate way. But in its first manifestations, the libido is linked to other vital functions. In the suckling baby, this act of sucking at the mother's breast provokes another pleasure besidesto get the food.

"Mighty and great is the human mind! It can build and it can destroy." Napoleon Hill.

In view of the above, it is up to each one of us to better understand the relevance of the power of the mind in its positive and negative aspects, in order to understand human attitudes and behavior, taking as a parameter the theorists who defend the theme addressed.

We conclude, then, that the human mind is indeed very interesting. Did you like this article and are interested in the issues addressed by psychoanalysis? Would you like to become a psychoanalyst, able to practice? Check out our 100% online course that will transform you into a successful psychoanalyst!

This article was written by Maria Célia Vieira, one of our students in the Clinical Psychoanalysis course.

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