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"I think therefore I am" - Descartes
To begin to understand what our cognitive processes are, it is a great service to think in terms of what we already know. I find that it is easiest to liken your brain to a computer and all it's components. Now I know what you might be thinking "That is a no "brainer" Sem! Why even bring this up?" Well, I've run in to many people who don't fully understand or comprehend how the brain works in tandem with its parts, which in return prompted me to want to write this out.
I find it is best to look some different schools of thought first, especially when it comes to how many different forms of psychology try and explain what the three states of consciousness are/could be.
Of noteworthiness first and foremost would be Freudian psychology that posited the "Ego, Id, and Superego" states of the mind. Freud thought that the Ego (Conscious), Id (Unconscious), and the Superego (Subconscious [or what he called the preconscious]) where all at constant odds with each other, vying for certain psychological controls but ultimately finding a common ground to manifest outwardly in the Ego.
Next I would say one of the most well known next to Freud would have to be Jungian Psychology that focused more on the Unconscious as the driving force of who we are. He hypothesized two different sets within the Unconscious mind; the individual/personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The distinction between the two is that the individual/personal unconscious is yours and yours alone, where as the collective unconscious is a derivative of the vast "minds" that each person shares between each other. Within the collective unconscious, there are specific archetypal personalities that are assigned to each individual as being the outcome of the conglomeration of said minds.
And I think I'll mention the school of thought that I have the least amount of disagreements with; evolutionary psychology. This branch of psychology looks at the outcomes of the human psyche and tries to explain what factors lead up to it developing in such a manner. Its approach to consciousness in general is a position that the Conscious, Subconscious, and Unconscious mind came to form relatively parallel with advanced brain development. It stresses that the three states of the mind aren't in anyway conflicting, but rather required to work together to maintain the whole.
"A computer, huh?" yes indeed a computer. The multifaceted structure of a computer is both elegantly managed and crafted to (what I'd say) mirror the mind as it is, so why not use it in more detail to explain our cognitive processes?
Let's start with the Unconscious first. When you think of the Unconscious mind, what's the first thing that lights up in your head? For me it is near unlimited amounts of information that pops up first. This is exactly what I posit that the Unconscious's function is; the hard drive of the mind. This is what holds the "long term" memory banks. Pretty simple stuff so far.
The Subconscious is a little bit more complex however. It deals with information transmitting between the Unconscious and the Conscious minds. In a way, as you grow older it's like you're starting to upgrade your computer with better and better RAM. As well each stage of development is also like upgrading the motherboard and CPUs for more refined information processing. It's also where the "short term" memory banks or the "cache" would be held.
And then we get to the Conscious part of the mind. This one is a bit more tricky for me to define in terms of computers. Picture you're a user trying to access a .exe file or a .jar file, etc...and you go and click on it. You're sending a signal to retrieve information from the storage. However, instead of being a user that is apart from the CPU, the Conscious mind is a user that's function is to be an information requester/receiver and stimulus requester/receiver. These two things working together for the Conscious mind are what make up the ability to comprehend both the duality of introspection and extrospection, while simultaneously maintaining the constant stream of information and stimulus.
I know this could be overly simplistic for most, or overly complicated for others. My hope though is that it can at least help others to understand that as a single unit that we call a "Human being" we require upkeep/maintenance and a balance across all three systems. Don't neglect your data storage's, don't neglect your transmitter's, and most of all don't neglect your user. [:
Please leave a comment down below if you have any questions, or generally just liked the post. I much appreciate everyone taking the time to read this. Have a good and most wonderful day!
