Philosophy of the Unconscious  

Doctoral thesis submitted to St Andrew's Research Extension Fellowship, February 1962 

"The Unconscious mind fascinated man long before Sigmund Freud won his terrain triumphantly for science by opposing the idea that mind is brain. Freud later became known as the ‘father of psycho-analysis’. Inexplicable mental phenomena have been recognised, probably from the beginning of man’s co-habitation with man, but it was Freud who later stressed more emphatically than ever before, the inadequacy of physical-scientific method for explaining man’s behaviour.

In most subjects man has found difference of opinion in his search for truth; no less so in the subject of psychology where some of his ideas have been diametrically opposed. However, all diverse opinion has caused further research and produced a common denominator of substantiated fact - i.e., that there are instinctive forces within man striving for biological satisfaction and that man’s motivation is a result of these instinctive forces.

 Materialistic biology seemed to hold the answer at one time in man’s earlier history, but, gradually, the influence of environment on individual mental life, and the psychological factors created by this influence, became more fully recognised; it became necessary to examine the immense perplexity of man’s behaviour with greater scrutiny..."

 

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