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The Eighth Lesson: The Highlands and Lowlands of Mind.617
Dr. Schofield says: “It is quite true that the range of the unconscious mind
must necessarily remain indefinite; none can say how high or low it may
reach…. As to how far the unconscious powers of life that, as has been
said, can make eggs and feathers out of Indian corn, and milk and beef
and mutton out of grass, are to be considered within or beyond the lowest
limits of unconscious mind, we do not therefore here press. It is enough to
establish the fact of its existence; to point out its more important features;
and to show that in all respects it is as worthy of being called mind as that
which works in consciousness. We therefore return to our first definition of
Mind, as ‘the sum of psychic action in us, whether conscious or unconscious.’”
Hartmann calls our attention to a very important fact when he says: “The
unconscious does not fall ill, the unconscious does not grow weary, but all
conscious mental activity becomes fatigued.”
Kant says: “To have ideas and yet not be conscious of them—therein
seems to lie a contradiction. However, we may still be immediately aware of
holding an idea, though we are not directly conscious of it.”
Maudsley says: “It may seem paradoxical to assert not merely that ideas
may exist in the mind without any consciousness of them, but that an idea,
or a train of associated ideas, may be quickened into action and actuate
movements without itself being attended to. When an idea disappears
from consciousness it does not necessarily disappear entirely; it may remain
latent below the horizon of consciousness. Moreover it may produce an
effect upon movement, or upon other ideas, when thus active below the
horizon of consciousness.”
Leibnitz says: “It does not follow that because we do not perceive thought
that it does not exist. It is a great source of error to believe that there is no
perception in the mind but that of which it is conscious.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes says: “The more we examine the mechanism of
thought the more we shall see that anterior unconscious action of the mind
that enters largely into all of its processes. People who talk most do not
always think most. I question whether persons who think most—that is who