Consciousness, the unconscious, and the self.

Abstract

This article examines the various ways in which the self is (or is not) involved in conscious and unconscious mental life. The self may be construed as a cognitive structure representing a person's knowledge of him or herself. This knowledge structure may take the form of a concept, image, or a node in an associative network of memories. Conscious states are not just represented in working memory (e.g., the "global workspace"), but must be linked to a mental representation of the self (as agent or patient, stimulus or experiencer), also represented in working memory. In unconscious mental life, as exemplified by automatic processing or explicit-implicit dissociations, this aspect of self-reference is missing, giving rise to effects that occur outside of phenomenal awareness. At the biophysical level of analysis, the self may be represented by a single "grandmother" neuron, a sparse network of neurons, or it may be widely distributed across the cortex. Viewed phylogenetically, ontogenetically, or culturally, the development of consciousness may be intimately tied to the development of the sense of self.

On Personality Measures and Their Data: A Classification of Measurement Approaches and Their Recommended Uses

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“…In contrast, from a Western perspective, Kihlstrom (2022) suggested that consciousness has to do with monitoring ourselves and our environment, which is linked to voluntarily starting and ending both mental and behavioral activities. This monitoring allows for memory, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and desires to be represented in phenomenological awareness, suggesting that consciousness and self are inexorably intertwined.…”

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“…Already in 1890, James (1890) had declared that “Every thought [experience] tends to be part of a personal consciousness” (p. 225), suggesting that nonconscious processes by definition lack self-experience (see also Kihlstrom, 2022). He also indicated that the nature of personal identity is “the most puzzling puzzle with which psychology has to deal” (James, 1890, p. 330; see also Kunzendorf, 2022) and listed many aspects of the self, which included the body but also other aspects such as family, self-concept, and so on.…”