It's easier to see this process if we use exaggerated examples. You're walking down the hall and someone sets off a firecracker behind you. This could be a mortal threat, so your mind pushes the thinker and thinking aside, no time for that right now.
5d — Jake
I don't accept theories of cognition that posit raw sense data; all human experience is concept-laden. To separate experience and thinking is possible only in the abstract. — Janus
I have already discussed the interesting contrast between the "controlled " thoughts we have In waking life and the wealth of imagery produced in dreams. Now you can see another reason for this difference : Because , in our civilized life, we have stripped so many ideas of their emotional energy , we do not really respond to them anymore . We use such ideas
in our speech , and we show a conventional reaction when others use them , but they do not make a very deep impression on us. Something more is needed to bring certain things home to us effectively enough to make us change our attitude and behavior. This is what "dream
language " does; its symbolism has so much psychic energy that we are forced to pay attention to it.
There was, for instance , a lady who was well Known for her stupid prejudices and her stubborn resistance to reasoned argument. One could have argued with her all night to no effect; she would have taken not the slightest notice. Her dreams, however , took a different line of approach. One night , she dreamed she
was attending an important social occasion. She was greeted by the hostess with the words: "How nice that you could come. All your friends are here , and they are waiting for you. "
The hostess then led her to the door and opened it, and the dreamer stepped through --into a cowshed !
This dream language was simple enough to
be understood even by a blockhead . The
woman would not at first admit the point of a dream that struck so directly at her self-importance ; but its message nevertheless went home , and after a time she had to accept it because she could not help seeing the self-inflicted joke .
Such messages from the unconscious are of greater importance than most people realize . In our conscious life, we are exposed to all kinds of influences. Other people stimulate or depress us, events at the office or in our social life distract us. Such things seduce us into following ways that are unsuitable to our individuality .
Whether or not we are aware of the effect they have on our consciousness, it is disturbed by and exposed to them almost without defense .
This is especially the case with a person whose extraverted attitude of mind lays all the emphasis upon external objects, or who harbors feelings of inferiority and doubt concerning his own innermost personality .
The more that consciousness is influenced by prejudices, errors, fantasies, and infantile wishes, the more the already existing gap will widen into a neurotic dissociation and lead to a more or less artificial life, far removed from healthy instincts, nature , and truth .
The discovery of carbon was an experience. The discovery of carbon is not, was not, and is/was in no way at all existentially dependent upon my birth. My birth was/is also an experience. — creativesoul
All my experience prior to this conversation cannot be existentially dependent upon this conversation. It didn't exist — creativesoul