Is it possible to probe your own unconscious mind from childhood on?

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RisingSun

Feb 2009
48
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Is it possible to probe the depths of your own mind, to psychoanalyze yourself, including your unconscious thoughts and feelings during childhood? For example, if I consciously loved playing baseball as a child, how would I know if I unconsciously hated the game?
 
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SWM

May 2008
2,314
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can you think of an example where you have consciously loved something and unconsciously hated it or vice versa?

is there something specific that you are thinking about from your childhood that you would like to understand?

personally i dont believe what you are asking is possible. accessing thoughts and feelings which you have experienced in childhood will be filtered and thus distorted by your current emotional and psychological condition. I think it would be possible to understand certain functions and processes based on broad psychological principles but these would be simply interpretations.

my opinion.
 
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Zepher08

Sep 2009
87
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I believe a person can crack into the unconscious.

My way of doing it is to begin with the question put to my own head.

What generally comes up is that there is no absolute hate nor absolute love. It is always a mix on both sides. I say this because while I may believe I love basket ball ... it may be all the things that come with loving basket ball that I love. Perhaps basket ball brings social connection ... perhaps there is familiarity and comfort. Perhaps basket ball brings self acceptance and acceptance of others all of which meets needs.

there fore I would be looking at all aspects of loving basket ball... all the things that come with loving basket ball.

By posing a question ... my unconscious will begin to bring the answer into dreams. Depending on how crucial I feel this love is to my existence will be telling as to how easily my defenses will begin to crack in order to get the truth.
 
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Enigma

Dec 2008
609
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[quote author=RisingSun link=topic=2228.msg16188#msg16188 date=1312855738]
Is it possible to probe the depths of your own mind, to psychoanalyze yourself, including your unconscious thoughts and feelings during childhood? For example, if I consciously loved playing baseball as a child, how would I know if I unconsciously hated the game?
[/quote]

Yes it is, with the aid of psychedelic drugs (like LSD) and a well-trained psychotherapist. If you're interested, Stanislav Grof has written about childhood experiences reemerging in high dose LSD psychotherapy sessions.
 
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slinkysally

Sep 2011
28
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Wisc
[quote author=RisingSun link=topic=2228.msg16188#msg16188 date=1312855738]
Is it possible to probe the depths of your own mind, to psychoanalyze yourself, including your unconscious thoughts and feelings during childhood? For example, if I consciously loved playing baseball as a child, how would I know if I unconsciously hated the game?
[/quote]

I should think so, although to which extent would definitely be a matter of the person in question, how they would do it, what kinds of issues they would be working with, etc. etc....
With your example, if it were the case, it'd be possible to review everything you remember regarding it and pay close attention to the feelings that you have... things like who was there and how it felt to relate with them, what brought you to play baseball in the first place and the way you felt about that, how it actually felt to run or swing or to wait, whether or not there were people in the audience that you wanted to pay attention to you in a certain way, etc. etc. etc...
One of the most crucial aspects of being able to do this I think would be honesty and not guarding yourself from either feeling bad or from seeing yourself in a bad light.
 
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