Affects and Cognition in a Social Theory of Unconscious Processes

This paper argues that affects and cognition cannot be separated in human consciousness and human consciousness is a social phenomenon. Research into brain functioning indicates that those centres of the brain that deal with emotion also deal with the capacity to select rational and moral actions and that attachment and separation behaviours – social acts – are essential for the human body’s capacity to regulate itself. It is argued that ‘the’ unconscious is a fundamentally individualistic notion of what is unconscious in human action and as such is incompatible with the contention that human consciousness is a social process.