Subconscious vs Unconscious

What is the subconscious?

The subconscious mind is a secondary mind system that regulates everything in our life. In psychological terms, we define subconscious as the part of our mind that is not currently in focal awareness. In simpler terms, it’s the barrier our mind makes because the brain is continually receiving information through our senses.

However, this barrier is not blocking everything. It stores the information in the brain for later retrieval. You may have heard the saying that our mind forgets nothing. The subconscious acts as a filter, so we’re not overloaded with stimuli from our environment.

Examples of Subconscious Behaviors...

Subconsciousness allows us to do things we don’t have to think about, but we can alter them if we choose to. A good example of subconscious behavior is breathing. We don’t have to think to breathe at all, but we can change how we control our breath and its pattern.

Other examples of the subconscious are subconscious memory or automatic skills. Pianists or typists don’t have to look at the piano keys or keyboard to know where the keys are. Automatic skill started as a learned skill, but as we repeat the movement, the executive function fades over time into the subconscious.

What is the Unconscious?

Contrary to the conscious mind, where we can and readily acknowledge feelings and cognition, we define unconscious as a deeper mental process. Scientists have agreed that it’s difficult and almost impossible to measure unconscious mind events because it’s not a neuroanatomical structure.

The unconscious is a process that happens automatically. Human’s conscious thoughts can’t examine this process because it occurs underneath the conscious awareness.

Hidden emotions, even though they are seen as accidental, reveals more than what it seems. Sometimes referred to as ‘slips’ show a much deeper and more real secret thoughts and feelings a person holds. It’s theorized that the more suppressed thoughts and feelings a person has, the more likely he or she to commit verbal errors. Conditioning is an essential factor in analyzing to know where our unconscious behaviors stem from.

The difference between unconscious and subconscious

The unconscious and subconscious are two distinct phenomena. The unconscious is a process that happens automatically and is not available for introspection. The subconscious, by contrast, is part of our consciousness process that is not actively in focal awareness.