ABSTRACT
Developing the brain and psychology aspect, this chapter explores the unconscious, what this means (and indeed whether it even exists), and the various different approaches to it – Freudian, Jungian or cognitive.
We do not see this as purely academic. Whatever model we may have of it, the unconscious affects us profoundly, influencing all the decisions that we and our clients or patients may make. It reveals itself in our language and our non-verbal communications, it can distort effective functioning and it affects the belief systems that may go to the very core of our or our clients’ or patients’ beings.
The power of unconscious thinking is particularly relevant to beliefs that may impact on people’s physical or mental well-being and competencies. Placebos may be regarded as fake medical interventions, but the concept of a transformative belief system has a much wider relevance – to professionals and to people generally.
These understandings provide a springboard to other concepts considered in the book.
