Without solving the ontological mysteries of the Freudian unconscious (e.g. "where is it in the brain?") we might admit this new namespace solved a lot of issues. Finally, the medical class had figured out a way to break into "soul engineering" i.e. psychology in an amped up form. Taboo topics (i.e. repressed) could now be introduced in polite society, in the company of a certified guide. Why should mesmerists have all the fun?
In other words, by opening the namespace of the Unconscious, the Victorian consciousness was able to confront taboo topics in good conscience, as a medical matter. The idea that we are driven, behaviorally, by phenomena we don't see (by definition: they're unconscious) is likely a grammatical requirement of densely packed urban lifestyles. We need ways to override what people tell us is true about themselves, a way to "analyze" that bypasses so-called normal narratives, if need be.
One of our big discoveries of 2023 over on TrimTab was Bucky Fuller's attitude towards Freud, for precisely these reasons. A rabbi asked him to name the most influential figure in our era, fully expecting him to say Einstein, but he said Freud instead, giving the reason that quantum physics would not have had a powerful role in our collective consciousness if we did not already believe in the invisible determining and/or manifesting the visible.
Freud had paved the way. We were already conditioned to accept "the unseen" even minus the usual suspects inside of what now appeared as superstitious belief systems of a bygone era: demons and angels and whatnot.
The metaphor Fuller went with came from electromagnetism and the fact that our naked senses give us access to only a narrow band, and yet with instrumentation we're able to augment our experience by taking in more of the invisible frequencies.
Egoic consciousness would now become like that narrow band, the everyday / ordinary, sandwiched between twilight zone quasi-luminous content and fading into an adjacent unconsciousness we could nevertheless manifestly access (tune in), by fiddling with the radio dial.
Is it allowed to use science language and concepts to create resonant literary agglomerations that invite "reading between the lines"? Many escape to STEM subjects to avoid what seem to them to be impossibly subjective readings, leading to imaginary interpretations no better than superstitious beliefs.
Truth, for these refugees, is in what's literally the case in egoic consciousness, the unconscious be damned. But are the metaphorically minded thereby banned from STEM world, or might this constituency find ways to fit in also, perhaps as cryptanalysts with an ear for double meanings?
A good example of "double meanings" taken literally was the hypothesis hatched around "pizzagate". The more or less taboo topic of minor sex workers, many impressed (in the sense of enslaved), became a central focus as internet-savvy junior detectives claimed to have detected a secret code in the namespace of pizza party organizing.
These adult party-goer politicos were really engaging in pedophilia, went the theory, a theory widely ridiculed and with good reason. Pizzagate itself was an eruption of the collective unconscious into popular discourse. Its momentum has not abated, in the sense that the topic of sexually exploited minors is no longer taboo. Breakthroughs were achieved.
The Germanic attitude towards both psychoanalysis and quantum physics was colored by Germanic anti-semitism. Freud and Einstein were the respective founders of these “Jewish sciences” (nuclear physics and psychoanalysis) which many scholars (not only German) considered socially corrosive and/or intellectually decadent.
Egoic consciousness suddenly felt under siege in some circles, as now these new voices of authority were anchoring themselves in phenomena invisible to the naked senses, and thereby challenging the conscious consensus. Emotions that politicians had always counted on (fears and phobias) to help steer mob psychology, would now become matters of introspection and second guessing, thereby undermining or diluting their effectiveness. A new kind of folk rationality was taking hold, the evolution of new literacies.
The "military-industrial complex" was fated to become a "complex" in the psychological sense. Believing oneself to be acting on behalf of an indomitable superpower became more of a treatable disorder, a kind of lingering egomania or narcissism encouraged by the ambient culture. Even dime store psychologists, let alone pricey consultants, could now question the Pentagon's postures in terms of "body language" e.g. the uncomfortable squirming associated with having no handle on one's budget and expenses.
That sense of an out of control machine, running blindly, is the very personification of AI. But the term "artificial" is so close to "phony". People in charge of a superpower suffer from repressed and/or expressed imposter syndrome, and we all pay a high price for these pathologies when unaddressed i.e. not dealt with or treated (countered).
