Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 12:55:33 +0100
From: artefact-AT-t-online.de (Michael Eldred)
Subject: Re: Zollikon: Unconscious


Cologne 02-Nov-2001

Michael Staples schrieb  Thu, 1 Nov 2001 18:23:33 -0800:

> Henry...?!? Is that you? The official, bonifide Henry? Well...Hi, Howdy!
>
> >>Michael,
> Echoing Henry, I'd like to say that the issue of consciousness/unconscious
> is
> not a "philosophical/technical argument about the terms consciousness and
> unconsciousness", but rather it is the point, i.e. the 'topological' shift
> in
> the site of human being from subjectivity (in which beings show up as
> representations in consciousness) to Dasein ex-posed to the play of
> disclosure
> and hiddenness.<<
>
> Well, I guess I knew I wasn't going to get away with side-stepping this so
> easily.
>
> >>Freud, who thinks entirely within metaphysics, is forced to postulate an
> unconscious, i.e. an "unbroken chain of explanation, that is, the continuity
> of
> causal connections". Beings can only be "explained" (metaphysically) in
> terms of
> other beings (causality). Freud posits the unconscious as a 'second-level'
> subject (an underlying instance of representation) behind the conscious
> subject.
> The notion of the unconscious is a negative (signified by the prefix un-)
> notion
> which is tied ineluctably to the positive concept of consciousness through a
> relation of negation.<<
>
> A "second level subject" is a very interesting way of putting it, michael. I
> do like that. But wouldn't you say there is a distinction between THE
> unconscious as that second level subject, and stuff-that-happens that is
> outside one's immediate awarness? What shall we call stuff-that-happens that
> is outside one's immediate awarness?

Michael,
Let's call it the world, and the self-showing and self-hiding of beings in the
world. This is to be essentially distinguished from the unconscious which is a
subject, i.e. a site of representation 'inside'. The stuff-that-happens outside
consciousness takes (its) place in the unconscious, in the Freudian metaphysical
conception. The unconscious thus underlies all the happens which is not
accommodated in consciousness. The representations may slip through
consciousness but are caught by the safety net of the second-level subject.

But what happens outside Dasein's awareness is simply most goings-on in the
world.

> And yet, as I ask this question I'm seeing myself already getting into
> trouble --e.g., there is a lot of stuff-that-happens that is outside my
> awarness that I would not attribute to being a part of my unconscious in the
> traditional sense of the word.
>
> But Michael, surely I know what I mean by "unconscious" stuff-that-happens
> if I'm not asked to explain it...it's only when I'm asked to explain it that
> I don't know what it means.
>
> What is the alternative way of thinking about stuff-that-happens outside my
> awarness that seems to be a part of my psyche (i.e., unconscious)? What do I
> call it? How am I to think about it?

What is outside my awareness is hidden to me. My psyche is not an inner
instance, located or functioning somewhere inside my body (brain, heart,
intestines...), but it is the openness of my being to the clearing of being.
This clearing out there is the site where world happens, where I can become
aware of beings, or remain oblivious to them or gain cognizance of them only
partially and distortedly. (I say "can" because Dasein is in the first place a
being-enabled, possibility, Seinkoennen.)

Because our attention is mostly absorbed by and focused on one matter, we are
unaware of most of what is happening around us in the world. Instead of
imagining what could be or could not be represented in a supposed instance, viz.
the unconscious, where, say, hidden or prohibited desires are at work, we need
to approach the problem of the psyche as the site for presencing and absencing.

Michael
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