The Unconscious's Access to the Outer World

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I like that the idea that dreams, because a lot of dreams are frivolous. No one's going to write an essay about when Kukule dreamed about a bird and it had no effect on his knowledge of the beds. I think it's arguing against an idea that we filter all sensory experience through language first before it can get to our unconscious. And I also love, does it know that it's going to die? Yeah. But maybe a lot of the times it's just like actually not concerned with that. That's the other thing. It's a black box. It's like chat GPT, non chat GPT. All right. Join us next time on Very Bad.

The Summer of Cormac McCarthy continues – this time we dive into his one piece of non-fiction, the short essay “The Kekulé Problem.” How does our unconscious mind solve problems that conscious deliberation can’t crack? Why does it often work elliptically, in code, rather than giving us the answer directly in language? Is McCarthy right that the unconscious doesn’t trust language because it’s such a newcomer to the human brain?

Plus we select the finalists for our listener selected episode – thanks to our beloved patrons for all their terrific suggestions!

"The Kekulé Problem" by Cormac McCarthy

Pinker & Bloom 1990

Dijksterhuis & Strick 2016