and was the culmination of a collective
psychological evolution, far before psychoanalysis. The conscious
portion of our lives, or the tip of a very enormous iceberg, is the straightforward
part: ifwe decide to do something,we do it. In human life, however,
there are plenty of situations where we decide to do something
and then do not follow through, act in ways that contradict what we
say we intend, or sometimes do not make sense at all.We know of the
existence of the unconscious only by this gap, for by definition, the unconscious
does not let itself be readily known. Although on rare occasions
individuals may be able to recognize the discrepancy in their
thoughts or actions on their own, it often takes an outside observer to
accomplish this. Underneath our conscious existence, there are regulatory
mechanisms in place just as in the body—mechanisms to protect
us and to help us survive—that keep us breathing or respond reflexively
to dangerwhen there is no time for reflection.Unconsciousmechanisms
similarly try to aid the survival of the psyche by avoidingmental pain or
by controlling unacceptable impulses. The problem arises when it tries
to do so at the exclusion of real resolution, for unconscious drives are
necessarily more primitive (though not necessarily less comprehensive)
than well thought through, conscious actions. Therefore, while
their purpose is to protect and to promote survival, to leave important
decisions to these lower mechanisms can lead to self-defeating,
maladaptive, and even destructive behavior. We can resolve these incongruities
within the mind by becoming aware of them and by integrating
them with conscious intent, thereby aligning them with the
rest of our intentions.