In praise of subjectivity

My long standing point of view takes unconscious-thought (UT) as a given. I was thus somewhat discombobulated to discover that it is only a hypothesis and that the evidence in support of it is not robust.

The following list of six principles distinguishing UT from Conscious-thought (CT) is based on the Wikipedia article: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_thought_theory )

1. There are two kinds of thought – CT and UT
2.  UT is not confined to 7+/-2 items at a time
3.  UT uses a “bottom-up” style of processing that avoids schemas, and integrates information efficiently
4. UT is better than CT at appropriately weighting the relative importance of choice objects’ attributes
5. CT employs rule-based thinking whereas UT engages in associative processing
6. CT is focused and “convergent,” while UT is more “divergent,”

CT supremacy is linked to the European Enlightenment and to the growth of science in the modern era. Anything other than rational, empirical and reductionist thought was deemed unscientific and therefore not of much worth. Note that Sigmund Freud popularised the questionable notion that the unconscious was a seething hotbed of emotional unrest.

I trained as a scientist and this included some electives in psychology. In my youthful enthusiasm I absorbed a hard line in terms of the scientific method. Some of my lyrics from that period suggest that I perhaps overdid things: “He rationalised his thought about everything he sought and so he annihilated pleasure”.

I have a long standing awareness of and interest in the mindbrains of my self and others. This can be approached from several directions. There is

1.      Science: the secular investigation of the white coated scientist trying to figure how much is from nature and or from nurture. Note: this area has recently exploded thanks to the wide ranging interests of neuroscientists and psychologists (especially evolutionary ones).

2.      Politics: a political tangent in terms of cultural hegemony maintained by elegant power. This involves attending to the structure and function of advertising, propaganda and spin.

3.      Economics: the irrational manner of making economic choices – it has much more to do with UC than with CT.

4.      Education: an educational component in terms of enculturation and brainwashing v enlightenment and liberation.

5.      History: a story stretching across the far reaches of space and time. Big bang till the present with thoughts about the possible future.

6.      Philosophy: in particular phenomenology, existentialism and post-modernism.

7.      Theology and myth: a comparative review of stories (hypotheses) about creation

8.      Creativity: the non-egoic creative outpourings in poetry, tunes, songs, photographs, doodles and stories.

9.     Mindfulness: ongoing periods of peaceful, just-sitting and the experience of mindfulness

Now don’t get me wrong. I reckon that science is enormously cool and powerful but, within, it is still under the influence of middle aged, middle class white men. I have done my time in servitude to classic, old-fashioned, silo science. 

My present concern is to make better use of UC.

The new thing for a while was holistic, systems theory. This involved scientists from different disciplines working together - even with non scientists. This gave rise to the much maligned Socio-Biology which has recently been reborn as consilience. (Ref E O Wilson).

Latterly I worked on third world participatory development planning. The bottom line (profit) had been reborn as the triple bottom line (environment, society, economy). I was inspired to follow the holistic line with an eight point bottom line – STEEPLES (social, technical, environmental, economic, political, legal, ethical, spiritual). (ref https://sites.google.com/site/steeplessrds/ )

The last S (= spiritual) was added because it is at the root of all the other topics. It is the basis of the value systems that drive nations forward. BUT – I could sense the need of a methodology that did not involve magic. Guidelines for facilitating Multi-stakeholder processes (MSP) already existed but I sensed a shortfall in terms of practical activities that would help with changing minds - and thus of encouraging reconciliation between those with different points of view.

And the answer lay with mindfulness. I have still to sort out in my head the various lines of discussion that the topic generates. There is:

1. the ability to be non-attached to views – no need to kill or die for them.
2. non-egoic, creative operation in flow where the unconscious is left to use its highly developed decision making and prioritization abilities.
3. neuroscientific experimentation showing that the mindbrain has considerable reserves of neural plasticity. It is never too late to change your mind.
4. behavioural and economic psychology that are developing detailed understanding of cause and effect pathways used for fast reactions and for slower responses. There is also a wide range of cognitive and emotional biases affecting intuitions
5. growing acceptance of the modular and interconnected nature of the mindbrain and the origins of that nature being with the ancestors in the African savanna
6. the mindbrain in a constant state of churn such that present time sensations can be related to more or less effective memories of similar sensations in past times

SO – I withdraw from busy-ness and spend time calmly witnessing the thoughts, feelings and moods that pass through the attention centre. And I write about some of the stuff that comes to my senses and thus to my mind. Subjective anecdotes. Anecdotal evidence with potentially turning words. I may be a unique human being but there will be many commonalities with other people and, high in the rankings is a belief in unconscious thought theory (UTT).