The Unconscious Mind & Unconscious Mechanisms

In the light of neuron models, we may say something about the unconscious mind as well.

As we have discussed in Neuron Models, when we are born, the connections between neurons are diffusive and loose. It is through life experiences, learning happens and CAs and neuron networks are formed. The later life experiences keep changing the strengths of the connections by weakening or strengthening. CAs representing different objects, concepts, thoughts and memories share individual neurons.

Those early objects, concepts, thoughts and memories that have been thought long forgotten, are not physically gone from the brain. The CAs associated with them still exist in the neuron networks though they have remained inactive for a long time, and the original connections maybe weakened. Later the neurons that are part of these CAs may be used to form other CAs representing other objects, concept, thoughts or memories. But these CAs can still be activated and brought back to participate in mind activities. Sometimes, they can be accidentally activated by active CAs with which they share neurons. And when the inhibition mechanisms are not fully in charge in sleep state, they are more likely to be accidentally activated due to its shared use of neurons with other CAs that represent active thoughts.

From this perspective, I would think the unconscious mind comprises of those CAs that remain inactive for a long time, and the conscious mind those CAs that have been more active and readily to be retrieved. Then, the unconscious mind and the conscious mind are really not so different because both are part of the neuron networks, they are physically linked by overlapping neurons, and their contents are exchangeable throughout life time. The unconscious mind doesn't include only repressed thoughts or desires though repression may have a role in putting some thoughts into inactive state.

However, unconscious mechanisms are a different matter, and they are not about the unconscious mind (defined as above). In the light of neuron networks, unconscious mechanisms can be explained in the following way: the CAs that represent thoughts are so well trained  through experiences, and have become so condensed that it takes a very short time to be activated when needed even with a small amount of input, as if no thinking were involved at all.

Have you ever been told by your advisor that "Even such a simple point you can not see?!" Please do not be upset. He is not as arrogant as you think. As an expert in his/her field, his/her knowledge has become so compactly encoded in the neuron networks that even highly complex issues become as if just "a thing". It is easy for him/her behave as if arrogant, but he/she really is not.

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