The Unconscious

n Freud's model
Psychopathology of Everyday Life

n unaware but has effect on behavior

n Behaviorists problem

n change phenomenon

Psychopathology of Everyday Life

n http://www.yorku.ca/dept/psych/classics/Freud/Psycho/

Slip of the Tongue

n patient whose memory deserted her in the midst of a long-forgotten childish reminiscence. Her memory failed to inform her on what part of the body the prying and lustful hand of another had touched her. Soon thereafter she visited one of her friends, with whom she discussed summer homes. Asked where her cottage in M. was located, she answered, "Near the mountain loin" instead of "mountain lane."

Slip of the Tongue

n Before calling on me, a patient telephoned for an appointment, and also wished to be informed about my consultation fee. He was told that the first consultation was ten dollars; after the examination was over he again as what he was to pay, and added: " I don't like to owe money to any one, especially to doctors; I prefer to pay right away." Instead of he said play.

Errors??

n "I entered a house and offered my right hand to the hostess. In a most remarkable way I thereby loosened the bow which held together her loose morning-gown. I was conscious of no dishonorable intent, still I executed this awkward movement with the agility of a juggler."

n I know of an elderly man who married a young girl, and instead of starting at once on his wedding tour he decided to spend the night in a hotel.

n Scarcely had they reached the hotel, when he noticed with fright that he was without his wallet, in which he had the entire sum of money for the wedding tour; he must have mislaid or lost it.

n He was still able to reach his servant by telephone; the latter found the missing article in the coat discarded for the travelling clothes and brought it to the hotel to the waiting bridegroom, who had thus entered upon his marriage without means

n Chance or symptomatic actions occurring in affairs of married life have often a most serious significance, and could lead those who do not concern themselves with the psychology of the unconscious to a belief in omens. It is not an auspicious beginning if a young woman loses her wedding-ring on her wedding-tour, even if it were only mislaid and soon found.

What Is Consciousness?

n What are the appropriate and potentially fruitful methods for studying consciousness?

n Do modern tools in neurophysiology, PET scans, functional MRI, and the like help to clarify the nature of consciousness?

MRI of the Brain

What Is Consciousness?

n What role does inner life have in the theories of modern science (Skinner)?

n Can we reconcile our self view as active responsible agents with the different perspective on the self emerging from cognitive science (free will)?

n Implications of such a reconciliation for ethics and the orderly functioning of society?

What Is Consciousness?

n Study of consciousness can it provide clarification of insights derived from religious and contemplative traditions and vice versa?

n Must the purview of science be expanded in order to capture the essential elements of conscious phenomena, or are more traditional approaches up to the task?

Two Brains in One

n Pigeon experiments

n Early 1960s, Sperry and colleagues, including Michael Gazzaniga, studied epileptic patient who had had corpus collosum, the "bridge" between the left and right hemispheres of the brain split

n Roger Sperry discovered human beings are of two minds.

n Human brain has specialized functions on right and left, and the two sides can operate practically independently.

Roger Sperry

n Back of head

Split Brain Patients

n What are the differences
none to be found?
Man Who fought with himself

n To the casual observer, the early split brain patients appeared perfectly normal. They could talk and read and had no problems recognizing the world about them. The seizures gone, they seemed happy, alert and healthy.

n Then Gazzaniga made a startling discovery. If the patient held up something like a comb or a coffee cup in his left hand, he couldn't speak its name. Transferred to the right hand -- no trouble at all.

Gazzaniga

n He constructed a screen a patient could reach and touch objects but not see them.

n Then he focused a picture of one off in the patient's left field of view, signaling the right cerebral hemisphere.

n "Now, please match up the picture you see with one of the objects you can feel on the other side of the screen," the psychologist said.

Gazzaniga

n held up a card with a printed word

n visible only in the patient's left visual field,

n couldn't read it. Yet the left eye was fine.

n But Gazzaniga knew that the left visual field flashes only to the right side of the brain.

n when flashed in the right field, the patient immediately recognized it.

Talking to Each Hemisphere

n

Split Brain

n Patient's Response
Emotional Responses
Nude pictures presented to patients

n Bogen and Gordon studied subjects with one cerebral hemisphere temporarily numbed while the other remained awake.

n Evidence of some information seepage between the two sides.

n Just how much, varied from person to person, from a little to a lot.

Bogen and Gordon

n studied hospital patients who'd had the anesthetic, sodium amytal injected into the big carotid artery on the right side of the neck. The anesthetic raced up into the skull and soaked mainly the right cerebral hemisphere.

n Although some did flow over into the left side through a circle of connecting arteries it remained there only briefly.

n How could they tell?

n As long as a patient couldn't work the opposite side of his or her body,

n the hemisphere was under the influence of amytal.

n With the left brain on and the right off, had the patients sing;

n little trouble with lyrics from, say, "London Bridges" or "Mary Had A Little Lamb". And they could tap the beat fairly well.

n Melody?

n numb left brain a patient's attempts to sing came off like the atonal bellow of an abandoned calf.

Split brain in University Students

n Moscovitch studies

n reaction time differences

n two modes of thinking,

n verbal and nonverbal, represented rather separately in left and right hemispheres, respectively, and that our educational system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere.

n Roger Sperry - 1973.

Left-Brain Right-Brain differences

n The right cerebral hemisphere intelligent.

n And it was still blessed with imagination and a sense of humor.

n Illiterate, true! And it was mute.

n But it was as nimble in abstract geometric logic as the dominant left cerebral hemisphere was with words. It had learned early in life to specialize in certain kinds of memory. And it was word- lazy.

n Sperry and his many co-worker’s found dominant left cerebral hemisphere involved with the three R's.

n The right side, can handle some words, is the master of form and geometry and music.

n When the right hemisphere does learn to write, it favors shoulder and arm muscles over those of the wrist and hand.

Emotions

n Each half brain can hold different emotions about a subject. Split brain patients learn very quickly how to keep both sides in communication.

Conflict

n When potential conflicts arise about, say, who gets to use the voice box, the dominant hemisphere automatically wins, thus averting crises before they start.

Split Brain Patient

n How this can happen with a severed corpus callosum is a good question.

n Possibly, an impulse reaches down into the brain stem, crosses over to the other side and issues a sub-conscious "shut up!" to the independent but still somewhat meek and mild right cerebral hemisphere

Redefine Sub-conscious

n Brain stem

n perception without awareness

n lack of ability to verbalize

Implications or Hypotheses

n Creativity

n drawing on the right side of the brain

n Sex Differences

n Scientific Discoveries
telephone
rubber
X-rays

Other Phenomenon

n ESP

n predictors

n Deja Vu