The unconscious

Human consciousness or mind is, according to many psychologists, seriously limited, and we need a concept of “unconscious” to help understand human psychology. Others, however, have argued that the specific descriptions of unconscious processes described by Freud and other psychanalysts are seriously flawed, and have led to erroneous predictions and harmful interventions. Alternative models of unconscious (or nonconscious) processes have been proposed in modern psychology.

Classic papers and historical discussions on Freud's theory of the unconscious

Brunius, T. (2003). Catharsis. In Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Available online:

• http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-36

Freud, Sigmund. (1913). The interpretation of dreams. (3rd ed.). (A. A. Brill, Trans.). Originally published in New York by Macmillan. (Original German work published 1900.)

• http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Dreams/index.htm

Freud, Sigmund (1914). The psychopathology of everyday life. (A. A. Brill, Trans.). Originally published in London by T. Fisher Unwin. (Original German work published 1901.)

• http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Psycho/

Freud, Sigmund. (1910). The origin and development of psychoanalysis. American Journal of Psychology, 21, 181-218.

• http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Origin/index.htm

Introduction to Freud (1910) by Raymond E. Fancher

• http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Origin/intro.htm

Commentary on Freud (1910) by Raymond E. Fancher.

• http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Origin/commentary.htm

Freud, Sigmund. (1917). The history of the psychoanalytic movement (A. A. Brill, Trans.). Originally published in New York by the Nervous and Mental Disease Pub. Co. (Original German work published 1914.)

• http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/History/index.htm

Bruner, J. (1956). Freud and the image of man. American Psychologist, 11, 463-466. Reprinted in J. M. Notterman (Ed.). The evolution of psychology: Fifty years of the American Psychologist (pp. 33-40). Washington, DC: Amiercan Psychological Association.

Hornstein, G. A. (2002). The return of the repressed: Psychology’s problematic relations with psychoanalysis, 1909-1960. In W. E. Pickren (Ed.). Evolving perspectives on the history of psychology (pp. 471-491). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. Reprinted from American Psychologist, 47, 254-263. (Originally published in 1992)

Messer, S. B., & McWilliams, N. (2003). The impact of Sigmund Freud and The Interpretation of Dreams. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.). Anatomy of impact: What makes the great works of psychology great (pp. 71-88). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Kihlstrom, J. F. (2006) The rediscovery of the unconscious. Available online:

• http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrm/rediscovery.htm

Criticisms of Freud's theory

Burying Freud (website with many links)

• http://www.human-nature.com/freud/

Kihlstrom, J. F. (2006). Is Freud still alive? No, not really. Available online:

• http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrm/freuddead.htm

Modern Ideas

Dacey, A. (2001). Metaphors, minds, and the fate of western philosophy: A conversation with George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Free Inquiry, 21, 39-41.

Reber, A. S. (1992). An evolutionary context for the cognitive unconscious. Philosophical Psychology, 5, 33-51.

Westen, D. (1998). Unconscious thought, feeling, and motivation: The end of a century-long debate. In R. F. Bornstein & J. M. Masling (Eds.), Empirical perspectives on the psychoanalytic unconscious (pp. 1-43). Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association.

Westen, D. (2000). Psychoanalysis: Theories. In A. E. Kazdin (Ed.), Encyclopedia of psychology: Vol. 6 (pp. 344-349). Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association.