To understand what can go wrong, we must first look at how we store memories. The actual workings of
the brain, and the complex interactions that convert this biochemical/electrical organ are even now
only poorly understood. However, we can best describe it in terms of a simple model.
The Brain
The brain
is divided into two parts, the Left and the Right. It is also constructed a bit like an onion. The older,
more primitive parts lie deep in the centre. The Cerebral Cortex is that part of your brain where your
mind resides. It forms the outer layer on the top, and front part, of your brain. The dividing line
through the centre of your brain cuts the Cerebral Cortex in two. This means that your mind sits in
two separate places. We usually consider that on the left sits the Conscious Mind and on the right,
the Unconscious Mind, however, it is much more complex than this. (it may be more accurate to say that
the Unconscious mind occupies the deeper, more ancient, parts of the brain.
The Conscious Mind
This is where the logical, thinking, talking part of you lies. There is no emotion here. This is where
you plan, criticise, work out. Only this side has language, and you think in words.
The Unconscious Mind
This is where we feel - where your emotions, needs and wants are. This side has NO language - you think
in "lumps of thought" - sorry, but I can't think of a better expression.
The Super Ego (or ID)
The Super Ego is essentially your Conscience; your sense of right and wrong; your own Jiminy Cricket.
It doesn't really fit into either of the above "Minds" in that it is a logical part
of you, but it affects how you feel. It is your source of morals and religious or ethical
feelings. For example, if you see someone trussed up in the street, you need to work out
how to feel about it. Most people these days would feel the above was wrong, however,
it the person was a mass murderer, you may feel no compassion at all.
One of the main effects of hypnosis is that your critical faculty fades as your Conscious Mind withdraws.
This means that you tend to accept things that you're told. However, the Super Ego doesn't seem
to go into hypnosis at all! It is still checking for "wrongness". This means that
I can't do or say anything that would feel "wrong" in some way - Jiminy would whack you with his brolly
so you'd notice it instantly!
How Do We Learn?
We all hold in our brains a Model of the universe; the way things are. It is the sum total of all our
knowledge and experience - our long-term memory. All memories are a mixture of fact and emotion. This
means that both sides of the brain contribute to everything we learn.
It is our capacity to understand our environment that marks us out from all other animals. (Chimpanzees
make and use tools, but they don't dominate the planet). In the days before civilisation, this kept
us alive. E.g. we could recognise animal footprints and the direction in which it was going. (Pretty
useful if it happens to be a lion.) The day we got this model wrong could well have been the day we
got eaten! We are the descendants of people who were best at understanding their environment.
We follow one simple rule: Check the facts thoroughly before adding them to the Model.
The Conscious Mind is best equipped to check the facts. It tries very hard to reject all new information.
When it is satisfied with the facts, it passes them over to the Unconscious Mind to add some emotion.
(Note that this emotion could be simply "dead boring" - there is always some emotion.)
The next step is to add the new knowledge to the Model. Because the Unconscious Mind is holding the
new fact - it ends up its job to put it away. This can't be done straight away - the Model is so complex
that you have to "shut down" your brain before you update it. This is one reason why you sleep. The
Unconscious Mind puts the new knowledge into an "In Tray", or short term memory. When we are asleep,
the Unconscious Mind takes this new knowledge from the 'In Tray' and adds it to the Model.
The Conscious Mind doesn't even need to learn how to do this - it simply gets the Unconscious Mind to
retrieve all the information for it.
For example, if we are looking at a cup, the Conscious Mind sends a request to the Unconscious Mind
- "Tell me everything I know about a cup". The Unconscious Mind looks first at the Model and then checks
in the In Tray for any new knowledge. It "experiences" the emotional content, and passes the factual
information over to the Conscious Mind.
The information in the Model is all cross-referenced and indexed and so it can go straight to the relevant
entries. However, the information in the In-Tray is more like a set of unrelated cards. The Unconscious
Mind has to look at every card to see if there is any new information about a cup.
What Is a Repressed Memory?
We sometimes wish we didn't know what we know! For example, let's say we discover that "Mum doesn't
love me any more!" The Conscious Mind has worked out that this is why
Mum shouted at me today, when I had done Hypnotherapy means Listeningnothing wrong. This new thought
is passed to the Unconscious Mind to have the emotion added. This new thought, with a huge mass of negative
emotion, is then passed to the In-Tray.
This is where the problems start. To a child, this is about as traumatic as it can be. "My whole life
has just been turned upside down. After all, who will look after me, feed me and keep me safe? There
must be something wrong with me if even my Mum can't love me!"
The Conscious Mind realises that it would have been better not to think that thought. Things were better
10 minutes ago. "I don't want it to be this way!" Apparently you can't delete memories and
thoughts, so it does the next best thing: it instructs the Unconscious Mind not to add it to the Model
of the universe. It is to pretend that it never happened.
The Unconscious Mind does what it is told. It doesn't take the thought out of the In-Tray to add it
to the Model. It simply leaves it there! It adds a big red X and a notice:
"Information not to be passed to the Conscious Mind. "It stays in your short-term memory for the rest
of your life, as fresh as the day it was put there! Every time the Unconscious Mind requests information
from the memory system, the Unconscious Mind finds the repressed memory and feels the
associated emotion!
It also "knows" that information stored here is new and overwrites all "older" knowledge. It does this
hundreds of times a second and so you constantly feel the anxieties from these repressed memories. The
Conscious Mind is often also completely at a loss to know why we feel the way we do!
David Stocks -
Dalgety Bay Hypnotherapy Ltd
David Stocks
2 Crowhill Road,
Dalgety Bay,
Dunfermline
KY11 9LJ
Monday to Friday 9am - 7:30pm
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