Have We Been Correctly Dealing with Depression, Happiness, and Unhappiness?

Regardless of which cognitive science school we ascribe to, it’s universally agreed that we were born with a blank unconscious mind. While we had inherited our genetic Blueprint from both parents, such a genetic Blueprint serves only as “potential.” In other words, what is expressed depends on what experiences we have, which environments we get exposed to, all of which become the substance for our epigenetics, that then directs our genetic expression, otherwise known as our Ordinary Blueprint. Then, our unconscious mind draws from our Ordinary Blueprint and starts the automatic process of us navigating the world with the least effort possible, ensuring that the more regular, frequent, and intense an input, the faster and with more certainty will it make it to the long term, automatic, file storage of our unconscious mind. This process of automatism in and by our unconscious mind, therefore, serves both an economical and sustainable purpose. Can you imagine what our lives would be like if we always had to make a conscious effort to breathe, to make our heart beat, and for our food to digest? How about learning how to write each time we needed to write and send a message? What if we went without writing for some time? Would we need to go back and learn how to write all over again? Our unconscious mind spares us relearning how to ride a bike, drive a car, and tie our shoelaces.

This process of automatism is not without its downside. It means the moment an input becomes automated, we barely know it is there, yet it runs the show, and it is there to stay until a new input replaces it. Of course, in order to replace the input, a new input has to come along that is more regular, frequent, and intense. This automatism process works for our beliefs, behaviors, habits, and, therefore, for our identity and our self-concept. And, by the time we turn 5 or 7 years old, our Ordinary Blueprint is predictably set from which to be operated by our unconscious mind.

Now, how were we navigating the world before our Ordinary Blueprint? What were we relying on?

We were relying on our preconscious mind. Our preconscious mind is the part of our mind described by the well-known and distinguished physician and neurophysiologist named Josef Breuer. Breuer made significant contributions in Science related to understanding the relationship between the lungs and the nervous system. He also discovered and helped us understand that balance is managed by the information our brain receives from our inner ear.

These contributions help us make sense of Breuer’s contribution to understanding how our mind works, particularly before our organizations process, and before our Ordinary Blueprint is established. Breuer explained and termed the Preconscious mind as that part of our mind that is dormant, latent, but not repressed. This means, unlike our unconscious mind, our preconscious mind can be activated at any time and under any circumstances, and at will. We rely on our preconscious because it is, in fact, the part of our brain where reality-testing lies. We rely on our preconscious mind, which contains unlimited information for our cognitive processes. However, this type of information is not readily available to our conscious mind until it is properly activated. In other words, the preconscious can be considered the reservoir of all sorts of information we may need, when we need it and when we engage it.

It is well known and demonstrated in Science that children, generally and consistently, do better in specific topics in Science, including magnetism, compared to many science graduates.  It is also known that once they begin school and become socialized, these same children do worse in those exact sciences. Once they begin attending school and begin to be socialized, there is enough conscious input that is regular, frequent, and intense, to make its way into their unconscious mind to become automatic, and to then run the show. This means, while our preconscious mind does not become repressed, it does become dormant, allowing automatism to take place, through the unconscious mind, until it, the preconscious, becomes activated.

Now, what does this all have to do with depression, happiness, and unhappiness?

Everything.

No baby has ever been scientifically found to have been born depressed or unhappy. In fact, babies have been born with such a glow that we, adults, regardless of what mood we may be in, cannot help but smile when we see a baby. This baby, who has a blank slate in her unconscious mind, yet, who is completely loaded pre-consciously, triggers our our preconscious mind, through which we can identify with her, and where some of the highest states become conscious to us. This happens to all of us. Have you ever wondered why?

Here is part of the answer, which is the core message in this article. We’ve been dealing with happiness as if it were foreign to us, as if it were outside us, and as if it were not in us already, or in our mind. We have been dealing with unhappiness, and with depression, as if there were such a thing as unhappiness or as depression.

In other words, we have been investing almost half a billion of dollars each year in research, with numerous findings that are based on Breuer’s preconscious, on Francis’s consciousness, or on the work of the father of American Psychology, William James, without ensuring that these rigorous and replicable findings make it to clinical care.

When we are taught how to best translate in clinical care what Science has been informing us about, we will be making use of the following life-changing facts for ourselves, for our loved ones, and our patients and clients. They are the following:

1. Happiness is innate. Babies are happy because there is only their preconscious mind in action.

2. Our preconscious mind does not use our Ordinary Blueprint, rather, our Natural Blueprint. In other words, our preconscious is not contaminated by our psychology, by our experiences, by our environment, or by our genetics. Our preconscious is unalterable, which means happiness is unalterable and is always available to us. This means we do not need to change our Ordinary Blueprint to achieve happiness.

3. Depression or unhappiness is a function of the absence of happiness at a conscious level. This means the moment we become conscious of our happiness, by consciously activating our pre-conscious mind, depression or unhappiness will become part of our illusory-based thinking, which our Ordinary Blueprint has been making use of.

Have We Been Correctly Dealing with Depression, Happiness, and Unhappiness?

 You can now answer this question with more than enough certainty. From reading this, your preconscious mind has been activated, and you have been given a glimpse of that part of your mind that has been dormant. You may have even been transported back to your earliest years-those years your parents referred to you as “such a happy baby.” Of course, you were such a happy baby. Why not? What else could you be? And if so, why would that ever go away? If it cannot go away, why aren’t we activating it instead of searching for the wrong problem- the made-up problem- the symptom formation- the illusory-based thinking problem?

You can learn this. You deserve to know this for yourself, for your loved ones, and for your patients and clients. It is time to elevate our field, and elevate ourselves to a new way of practicing. More importantly, it is time to participate in ending suffering in the world. Are you up to the challenge?

If so, plAease join us for our Full Day Webinar on Depression. Register right now, and welcome to being a new you, and a new clinician.

See you then,
Karen and Mardoche