See more: An illustrated version of this article will be published within the next two weeks on our CultureLab books and arts blog
THE unconscious is not what it used to be. Modern science has transformed our understanding of what, for Freud, was a repository of repressed desires. He saw the unconscious, as described in a much-cited 1992 study, as seething with “lust and anger… hallucinatory, primitive, and irrational” (American Psychologist, vol 47, p 788). Thanks to recent work across psychology, neuroscience and other disciplines, we now see it as a powerful, efficient decision-maker critical to our survival.
“We now see the unconscious as…
