The unconscious might be a lot smarter than we think. And that it's like language can get in the way. Can I read the lesson? I don't know if you want to. Let's go to the last paragraph. It says, the unconscious seems to know a great deal. What does it know about itself? Does it know that it's going to die? What does it think about that? The fact that it appears to be less than insistent upon our remembering every dream suggests that sometimes it may be working on itself. Is it really so good at solving problems or is it just that it keeps its own counsel about the failures? How does it have this understanding, which we
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
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