The unconscious matters through the conscious

It’s also worth saying something at this point about the role of the unconscious. Many of a psychoanalytic bent also criticise the kind of analytic, philosophical account of personal identity I have presented for neglecting that of which we are not conscious. It would indeed be wrong to limit the psychological to conscious experience. There are unconscious drivers of our mental lives which are integral to their operation. Psychological continuity therefore requires some continuity in what is unconscious too. But it is important to realise that this is so only because the conscious cannot be the way it is without the unconscious. The unconscious matters because of its influence on the conscious, not in its own right.

Saved 23 April 2015

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