Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Paging Dr. Freud

The unconscious mind is a powerful force, but it only operates at full force when the conscious mind isn't in control, when you're on "autopilot."  For example, this morning I used up the last of the coffee; what I intended to do was do without coffee myself, but set up the coffee maker for Nancy, with a note asking her to buy more beans.  But when I set up the coffee maker, I unintentionally turned it on without noticing and ended up brewing myself a pot anyway.  So now I'm enjoying a fresh cup, and Nancy will be left to drink older coffee that's not nearly as good.  Sorry, darling.

Or another example of the unconscious mind at work is we'll buy a bunch of cookies, and what I intend to do is to put them all away in the cabinet, but what I end up doing is eating them all myself.  Pesky unconscious.

Or I'm going to register for a half-marathon in March, but instead I wind up browsing cute kitten videos online, all thanks to that darned old unconscious.

Or I'm dealing with some complete jerk, and I want to try to forgive him and be all Christian and everything, but instead, while I'm not even aware of what I'm doing, I kill him and dispose of his body out in the country, weighting him down with cinder blocks and throwing him in a lake.  But like I say, completely unaware of my actions, because of the unconscious.

That Dr. Freud was a genius.