What does "unthought known" mean? the literal meaning.

bigbadbill

Is it a psychology term? Is it from an old philosophy book?

Stephen Flow

http://www.michaelrobbinstherapy.com/ar ... ection.pdf

The Unthought Known
What then is the “unthought known”? Christopher Bollas first coined this provocative phrase in
1987 (Bollas, 1987). Basically it refers to what we “know” but for a variety of reasons may not be able
to think about, have “forgotten”, “act out”, or have an “intuitive sense for” but cannot yet put into words.
In psychoanalytic terms, it refers to the boundary between the “unconscious” and the “conscious” mind,
i.e. the “preconscious mind.” In systems-centered terms, it refers to the boundary between what we
know apprehensively, without words, and what we know, or will allow ourselves to know,
comprehensively with words. (In many ways, although the methods are very different, the
psychoanalytic goal of “making the unconscious conscious” is equivalent to the systems-centered goal
of making the boundary permeable between apprehensive and comprehensive knowledge, .)
If we conceptualize the unthought known as what we already know but don’t yet know that we know,
there are several ways that we can excavate this knowledge. According to Wallin, one of the most
important methods is to pay exquisite attention to our bodies. The systems-centered methods for
undoing tension can go a long way towards this goal.
When we turn our mindful attention to our bodies we begin to uncover knowledge and experience that
has been buried for many years. When we make old, fixated patterns of tension conscious we begin to
dissolve blockages in the flow of energy and information at multiple levels of our bodies and mind. As
this energy and information begins to flow, we begin to decode the non-verbal information in our
present here and now environment as well as release energy and information that we may have
compartmentalized at some point in our past. Historically, it may have been important to wall off this
knowledge because to have allowed ourselves to truly know our experience at the time would have been
disruptive and perhaps even dangerous.
Another source of uncovering the unthought known is to explore the repetitive roles that we act out in
our interpersonal relationships and the corresponding redundant roles that we induce in others. When we
release the energy and information that is held in these roles, we travel a long way towards the goal of
liberating ourselves from unconscious fixations and patterns. Once we have done this we are free to
choose the roles that are adaptive for the situation that we are in at the moment and release the roles that
are maladaptive.
Perhaps the deepest level of the unthought known is the heart of the teachings of mindfulness
meditation. The heart of these teachings, which we know already but have forgotten, is that
fundamentally we are awareness itself, already liberated from our fixations, fears and redundancies,
without essential content, beyond subject and object, everything and nothing, and that whatever we are
in life we also are not. This is the “non-dual” consciousness at the heart of so many mystical and
meditative traditions (Wilber, 2003). In other words, the deepest level of the unthought known and the
edge of the unknown, are the same thing.

clockistotime

bigbadbill wrote:

Is it a psychology term? Is it from an old philosophy book?

http://committedparent.wordpress.com/20 ... ght-known/

bigbadbill

So it's what we know, but don't remember knowing that we know it. Gotcha!!

pretext

Fascinating. Would have interesting connection to trauma work. I freakin' love this song, by the way. The way it builds into something so incredibly cathartic, which works given the title. Thanks for passing this along.

HeyWayne

There was me thinking it was an ode to Donald Rumsfeld...

drop-the-leash

Wouldn't that be "Unthought Unknown"?

HeyWayne

drop-the-leash wrote:

Wouldn't that be "Unthought Unknown"?

You may have a point there - I guess we'll never know. Unless it's known of course....

slightofjeff

Probably most importantly, here's what Ed thinks it means:

"I think the thought of the song is that there are things that you know, and they're in us, but we just haven't thought of them. But they're there, and we base decisions on them.”