Unconscious

Definition

The unconscious, in Freud's psychoanalysis, is the region of the psyche composed of wishes, memories, and drives that are repressed from conscious awareness yet continue to shape thought, feeling, and behavior. For architecture, the unconscious opens a dimension "where conventional research in architecture has little traction" (Abell): architectural preferences, spatial intuitions, and beliefs about proper design are not merely rational or cultural but are shaped by early developmental experience and the projection of the psyche onto external objects. Freud's late formula — "the psyche is extended" — means that "human experience is always influenced by the projection of the internal psyche outward onto relations with objects in the external world" (Abell). Architecture is thus a field of "aeffects": buildings can affirm unconscious wishes or function as unwelcome reminders of them.

Key Thinkers

• Sigmund Freud — the unconscious; the extended psyche; developmental phases.
• John Abell — the unconscious and architectural creativity, preference, and "aeffects."

Related Concepts

• Psychoanalysis — the discipline that theorizes the unconscious.
• Repression — the mechanism that constitutes the unconscious.
• Trauma — the unconscious residue of overwhelming experience.
• Aesthetic Experience — the encounter that the unconscious inflects.

Source Support

Sources in the wiki that discuss this concept:

• Freud for Architects — the unconscious and its architectural significance.