People are complex creatures. Within each of us lies a mysterious area of the unconscious. Neglect of the inner world is fraught with consequences: it can remind you of yourself with anxieties and mental pain. Psychiatrist Grigory Gorshunin talks about why it is important to establish a connection between the conscious and the unconscious.
There are people who are struck by the presence of a knee jerk. The doctor hits with a hammer just below the knee, the leg bounces on its own, and you can’t hold it. Like this?! There’s nothing you can do, an unconditioned reflex. Also, many sincerely believe that our internal censorship can and should control thoughts. Most live as if current consciousness and memory are the only realities of our Self. But it is not. Unexpected forgetfulness, confusion about important things, lateness, strange coincidences, injuries “out of the blue” are reminders of the powerful force that operates within us and determines the course of life no less than conscious efforts.
The presence of the unconscious is bad news and good news at the same time. Bad, because like a jack-in-the-box, uncertainty, fear, sadness, euphoria and anger jump out of it, sometimes so powerful that they flood the consciousness and subjugate it to themselves. “I couldn’t control myself”, “I don’t understand what came over me” — just about this, like crazy love or uncontrollable panic.
The good news is that the unconscious is not only a warehouse of repressed and rejected experiences, but also a repository of that unknown «I» that feeds our present. Intuition, insight, creative play — hardly anyone will undertake to claim that he evokes these forces through the concentration of the will.
It’s hard to face your pain, it seems easier to pretend it’s not there
It is not in our power to directly influence the area of the unconscious: it is difficult to control what is invisible to our consciousness. But psychotherapy is the tool that can show us those parts of the personality that have remained unrecognized, and therefore rejected.
We say: «the soul hurts», and this is not a metaphor. The soul has knowledge of its integrity, and if it is violated, we experience pain and anxiety, which force us to turn to our inner world. Actually, this is the meaning of pain — it indicates a conflict, the causes of which are hidden in the unconscious.
Unfortunately, instead of restoring the integrity of the soul, some resort to common «painkillers»: alcohol and chronic bodily diseases that substitute meanings and take us away from the situation that requires attention. This is understandable: it is difficult to be face to face with your pain, it seems easier to pretend that it is not there. But if we want to feel alive and enjoy life, there is no other way than to recognize that the psychic «I» exists, that the soul hurts more than the body, and that we have to build internal bridges between consciousness and the unconscious.