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Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Difference between the Autobiographical Self and Middle Unconscious?

The most famous psychosynthesist, Robert Assagioli articulated that our unconscious realm was comprised of three parts: higher, middle, and lower unconscious. I suppose that the function of the middle unconscious is the same as that of the autobiographical self which is proposed by Damasio Antonio. So, what’s the difference is there between both of them? Regarding the middle unconscious, Assagioli (1965) explained: “This is formed of psychological elements similar to those of our waking consciousness and easily accessible to it. In this inner region our various experiences are assimilated” (p. 17). In other words, we can easily access the realm and retrieve our memory stored in it. 

On the other hand, Damasio (1999) explains about the autobiographical self that we can accumulate new knowledge or experiences as a “something-to-be-known” in this consciousness, and he defines such memory in the following way: “Sets of memories which describe identity and person can be reactivated as a neural pattern and made explicit as images whenever needed” (p. 174). For me, the function of both the autobiographical self and middle unconscious seems the same.

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