Neuroscience of Leadership

Personal Learning Paper

On

The Conscious and the Otherthan-Conscious Mind

Prepared by

Shantanu Paul
UH15106
MBA HRM, Batch of 2017

XIMB

Abstract

The "mind" and "consciousness" are both informal and somewhat overlapping terms that refer
to a broad collection of interrelated phenomena. On this basis, modern science identifies
consciousness with the mind and the mind with the brain. If consciousness is thought of as an
aspect of the mind (where the mind is all the stuff that happens as a result of having a brain)
then there is a lot of room for scientific study of the relationships between them -- and to
relate all of it to the physical substrate that makes them happen: the brain and the body.
What most people would agree on is that consciousness refers to the awake state (vs.
dreamless sleep or coma) and also to subjective perceptual awareness, which can shift,
change, and move around, e.g. modulated by attention or in "altered states of
consciousness".
The mind, which is a cultural term that is debated in philosophy and used in clinical
psychology, generally refers to consciousness plus the unconscious aspects of the human
brain. In this paper, the notion of a conscious and an unconscious mind, and how they actually
represent the conscious and unconscious processing by the human brain, is analysed. We will
also look into the concept of subconscious mind and understand its relation with the former
two.

The Human Mind

The mind is a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking,

judgement, and memory. The mind is the faculty of a human being's reasoning and thoughts.
It holds the power of imagination, recognition, and appreciation, and is responsible for
processing feelings and emotions, resulting in attitudes and actions. There is no universally
agreed definition of what a mind is and what its distinguishing properties are, although there
is a lengthy tradition of inquiries in philosophy, religion, psychology, and cognitive science.
The main open question regarding the nature of the mind is mindbody problem, which
investigates the relation of the mind to the physical brain and nervous system. Prescientific
viewpoints included dualism and idealism, which considered the mind somehow separate from
physical existence, while modern views centres around physicalism and functionalism, which
hold that the mind is roughly identical with the brain or reducible to physical phenomena such
as neuronal activity. Another question concerns which types of beings are capable of having
minds, for example whether mind is exclusive to humans, possessed also by some or all
animals, by all living things, whether it is a strictly definable characteristic at all, or whether
mind can also be a property of some types of man-made machines. Whatever its nature, it is
generally agreed that mind is that which enables a being to have subjective awareness and
intentionality towards their environment, to perceive and respond to stimuli with some kind of
agency, and to have consciousness, including thinking and feeling. Broadly speaking, mental
faculties are the various functions of the mind, or things the mind can "do":
Thought is a mental act that allows humans to make sense of things in the world, and to
represent and interpret them in ways that are significant, or which accord with their needs,
attachments, goals, commitments, plans, ends, desires, etc. Thinking involves the symbolic or
semiotic mediation of ideas or data, as when we form concepts, engage in problem solving,
reasoning and making decisions. Words that refer to similar concepts and processes include
deliberation, cognition, ideation, discourse and imagination.
Thinking is sometimes described as a "higher" cognitive function and the analysis of thinking
processes is a part of cognitive psychology. It is also deeply connected with our capacity to
make and use tools; to understand cause and effect; to recognize patterns of significance; to
comprehend and disclose unique contexts of experience or activity; and to respond to the
world in a meaningful way.
Memory is the ability to preserve, retain, and subsequently recall, knowledge, information or
experience. Although memory has traditionally been a persistent theme in philosophy, the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries also saw the study of memory emerge as a
subject of inquiry within the paradigms of cognitive psychology. In recent decades, it has
become one of the pillars of a new branch of science called cognitive neuroscience, a
marriage between cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Imagination is the activity of generating or evoking novel situations, images, ideas or other
qualia in the mind. It is a characteristically subjective activity, rather than a direct or passive
experience. The term is technically used in psychology for the process of reviving in the mind
images of objects formerly given in sense perception. Since this use of the term conflicts with
that of ordinary language, some psychologists have preferred to describe this process as
"imaging" or "imagery" or to speak of it as "reproductive" as opposed to "productive" or
"constructive" imagination. Things imagined are said to be seen in the "mind's eye". Among
the many practical functions of imagination are the ability to project possible futures (or
histories), to "see" things from another's perspective, and to change the way something is
perceived, including to make decisions to respond to, or enact, what is imagined.

Consciousness in mammals (this includes humans) is an aspect of the mind generally thought
to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, sentience, and the ability to perceive the
relationship between oneself and one's environment. It is a subject of much research in
philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Some philosophers
divide consciousness into phenomenal consciousness, which is subjective experience itself,
and access consciousness, which refers to the global availability of information to processing
systems in the brain. Phenomenal consciousness has many different experienced qualities,
often referred to as qualia. Phenomenal consciousness is usually consciousness of something
or about something, a property known as intentionality in philosophy of mind.

The Three Minds

The great mystery around the human mind is the Consciousness. This attribute separates us
from animals and makes us the dominant species on the planet. The problem of
consciousness is that it remains a mystery about its nature. Some neurologists describe it as
the result of firing neurons in our heads. But this is just a physical approach. Well, its
reasonable that consciousness is the result of brain electrical and chemical activity, but yet
this explanation does not answer the question what really is?
Another interesting topic that got much of attention and research was the States of
Consciousness. Despite the vague definition of Consciousness, Science has recognized that
there are many different states of it. Cases such as Sleep, Alertness, Dreaming, and
Meditating are some relevant examples. In the late 1950s, a strange behaviour during the
sleep state was observed. The eyes of the sleepers were starting to move rapidly every 90
minutes of sleep, which is at the end of a sleep cycle. This condition is called REM (Rapid Eye
Movement) and has a relation with the dreaming state. The experiment subjects reported that
they were dreaming when they were awakened during the REM. The interest in the Altered
States of Consciousness was born. Altered states include sleeping, dreaming, biofeedback,
meditation, hypnosis, drug-induced and generally speaking, anything that is different from the
normal waking state.
Understanding the human mind is at the core of psychoanalytic theory. Sigmund Freud, the
famous Austrian psychologist was probably the first to create a useful model of the mind,
which he separated into 3 tiers or sections the conscious mind or ego, the preconscious (or
subconscious), and the unconscious mind. Since the introduction of the theory of Sigmund
Freud in the early 1900s and despite the many advancements in the study of psychoanalytic
theory Freuds basic thoughts retain a strong hold on the shaping of views regarding the
theory of the human mind. It is Freuds premise that within the human mind is contained in
three levels of awareness or consciousness. It is the cumulative existence of these minds that
affect people, thus requiring more than simply talking about them. In the illustration below is
Freuds division of these three levels and the estimated usage of each level. Working together
they create our reality.

Although acceptance of Freuds psychoanalytical theory has ebbed and flowed over time few
professionals would suggest dismissing it completely. Within it are models or concepts that
have withstood the many tests of time.

The Conscious Mind

Since consciousness is best understood as having an awareness of something, being able to

call it to mind, it would seem simple enough to qualify only those events we can recall as the
activities of the human mind. However, here are two challenges to this view. First, there is the
estimate that only about 10% of the minds work is made up of conscious thought and
secondly, this view does not explain those random events created within the mind.
The two functions that the capabilities of the conscious mind can address are:

Its ability to direct our focus

Its ability to imagine that which is not real

While an important partner in the triad of the human mind, the conscious mind serves as a
scanner for us. It will perceive an event, trigger a need to react, and then depending on the
importance of the event, store it either in the unconscious or the subconscious area of the
human mind where it remains available to us. This mind has four essential functions.
First, it identifies incoming information. This is information received through any of the six
senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or feeling. Our conscious mind is continually
observing and categorizing what is going on around us.
The second function of our conscious mind is comparison. The information about the car that
we have seen and heard goes immediately to our subconscious mind. There, it is compared
with all of our previously stored information and experiences with moving automobiles.
The third function of our conscious mind is analysis, and analysis always precedes the fourth
function, deciding.
Our conscious mind functions very much like a binary computer, performing two functions: It
accepts or rejects data in making choices and decisions. It can deal with only one thought at a

time, positive or negative, yes or no. It is continually sorting impressions, deciding which
are relevant to us and which are not.
However, these actions are continuously aided by our other-than-subconscious minds, i.e. the
subconscious and the unconscious minds and it is practically not possible to estimate the
individual contributions accurately.

The conscious mind has limited processing capabilities, compared to the unconscious mind.
The conscious mind is dominated by the logic of natural language partitions represented in
the narrative of a linguistic description. George A Millers paper The Magical Number Seven,
Plus or Minus Two is often cited as a reference point for research into the limitations of our
capacity for conscious awareness. Miller suggests conscious processing is limited to just seven
plus or minus two bits of information. We refer to the conscious mind as the representation of
the immediate map we have conscious access to. Our conscious mind expresses itself through
our internal running commentary on the events we experience in any one moment.
Our conscious mind is the part of our mind that we use to read and process words. As we look
at a page we say the words in our minds, and as we derive meaning from the text, we
establish how the meaning relates to us. Our conscious mind is linear, sequential, and logical
and likes everything to make sense. The expression he has an overactive conscious mind
means the person seeks to logically understand everything (a real paradox), wants a label and
explanation for his experience, finds it difficult to be in the moment or go with the flow, does
not switch off from internal dialogue, and is often less aware of sensory experience.

The Other-than-conscious Mind

The other-than-conscious or unconscious mind is everything else in the mind body system
that is not conscious in that moment. We say that somehow our unconscious mind has the
complete knowledge of the system that is us. Our unconscious has amazing processing
capabilities compared with the conscious mind. Research shows the unconscious mind
absorbs millions of bits of sensory information through the nervous system in any one second.
Given the name unconscious mind we will not be aware of a lot of the processes that the
unconscious mind engages in. Some people are more aware than others of the functioning of
the unconscious mind. These people have whats called good communication with their
unconscious.
The unconscious mind is where all of our memories and past experiences reside. These are
those memories that have been repressed through trauma and those that have simply been
consciously forgotten and no longer important to us (automatic thoughts). Its from these
memories and experiences that our beliefs, habits, and behaviours are formed.
On the physical side, at every moment our unconscious is regulating the functioning in our
bodies, pumping blood from our hearts, digesting our food, cleansing the lymph cells healing
any cuts, counteracting any antibodies that come into the system and so on. We dont
consciously have to think about making our hearts beat; our eyes blink or our lungs fill with
oxygen. All this happens unconsciously.
The components of our past experiences and what we have learned in life physically and
mentally are within our unconscious. If we are asked to think of our first day at school, our

first kiss, a representation or series of representations may come to conscious attention.

These representations of past events are located in the unconscious mind. The past
representation came from the unconscious and was then brought to conscious attention, what
was previously in our conscious mind was replaced (an example of the seven plus or minus
two).
If someone has a phobia, every time he experience that phobia he is physically and mentally
matching current stimuli (VAKOG) with an unconscious reconstruction of a past
representation. The unconscious mind is habitual and learns easily when stimulated. In the
case of the phobic its usually one experience that creates the learned behaviour of a phobia.
Its amazing how the unconscious mind remembers to activate a fight or flight response every
time the phobic comes into contact with the phobia stimuli. Introduce the phobia stimuli and
no matter what the phobic is doing, his conscious attention will be jammed with the fight or
flight response. Even though intellectually the phobic understands the spider/mouse cannot
hurt him, he cannot override the unconscious response with conscious will. The logic of the
conscious mind does not work when dealing with problems.
Our unconscious mind expresses itself through feelings, habits, and sensations in our body i.e.
pain, light-headedness, muscle tension. So-called emotions such as happiness, sadness etc.
are the conscious mind labels assigned to unconscious processes such as electrical chemical
reactions in the nervous system. The emotion is felt in the body as sensations; we nominalise
the experience in the body and talk about emotions, often losing touch with the true feeling.
There are many ways of working with the unconscious mind including establishing an
involuntary signal, metaphor, behavioural tasking, hypnosis and dreams, All of these
processes (and there are more) engage the unconscious mind whilst cleverly occupying the
conscious mind. The unconscious mind has within it enormous potential for change and is able
to learn positive new responses easily as well. Its a question of stimulating the unconscious
mind through effective communication with it to create change.
A review of the earlier illustration shows the unconscious is sitting a layer deeper in the mind
under what is called the subconscious. Although the subconscious and unconscious has direct
links to each other and deal with similar things, the unconscious mind is really the cellar, or
the underground library, of all our memories, habits, and behaviours. The concept of the
subconscious mind, however, is highly debated and will be touched upon in the next section.

The Subconscious

The concept of a sub-conscious mind has been developed by scientists although some say
that it is basically a part of the unconscious mind. If we imagine at the very tip of a solid
triangle is our conscious mind, it occupies only a small portion of space at the top, a bit like an
iceberg where only a fraction of it is showing above the water. It probably represents about
10% of our brain capacity. What links this with the unfathomable that is the unconscious is a
slightly larger section that Freud called the preconscious, or what some refer to as the
subconscious. It is much larger than the conscious mind and accounts for around 50-60% of
our brain capabilities. The subconscious is the storage point for any recent memories needed
for quick recall, such as what a persons telephone number is or the name of a person we just
met. It also holds current information that we use every day, such as our current recurring
thoughts, behaviour patterns, habits, and feelings.
If we draw an analogy of the human mind with a computer, our conscious mind is best
represented by the keyboard and monitor. Data is inserted via keyboard and the results are

thrown up on the monitor screen. That is how our conscious mind works information is taken
in via some outside (or internal) stimulus from our environment and the results are thrown up
instantaneously into our consciousness. Our subconscious is like the RAM in the computer. For
those who dont know, RAM is the place in a computer where programs and data that are
currently in use are kept so they can easily be reached quickly by the computer processor. It is
much faster than other types of memory, such as the hard disk or CD-ROM. Our subconscious
works in the same way. Any recent memories are stored there for quick recall when needed,
such as what a telephone number is or the name of a person or our regular habits and
emotions etc. Finally, our unconscious is like the hard disk drive in our computer. It is the long
term storage place for all our memories and programs that have been installed since birth.
Our unconscious mind (and ultimately our subconscious mind) then uses these programs to
make sense of all the data we receive from the world and to keep us safe and ensure our
survival.

If we want to affect change in our lives at a core level then we will have to work on our
programs that are held in the unconscious mind. By continuously being in charge of our own
thoughts through directing our focus and using visualization, we can influence what programs
the other-than-conscious mind constantly runs. All three minds are deeply intertwined with
each other and they constantly collaborate to shape our thoughts, our lives and our perceived
reality.