During the initial weeks of EH 301, I became convinced that the approach emphasized by Professor Rockwood would be of dubious value as far as my own studies were concerned. As a political scientist, I have been instructed to stress only that which can be empirically proved by facts. As a result, the discipline tends to be very "hard-shelled," demanding rigorously high standards when analyzing basic theoretical concepts.
In emphasizing facts, one of the assumptions in political science is that all knowledge that is factual is connected with conscious experiences in such a way as to allow verification. Any concept that does not permit empirical observation such as unconscious experiences is usually rejected. Consequently, all our dreams become useless, if not detrimental, when presenting our particular point of view. Even though they may be extremely significant to the individual, subjective experiences cannot be useful under a behaviorist philosophy. In short, the discipline of political science greatly minimizes the important of unconscious information as a determinant of behavior. This is one problem that I am sure at least some of us encountered while writing compositions for this course, and one which the professor will have had to take into account when grading individual papers.
There is, however, another significant part of my life that has been favorably affected by the unique approach taken in this course. I strongly feel that I am a more complete individual because of the soul searching that I have had to do in order to write papers for this course. I have become aware of the fact that the unconscious is as important a part of our total self as is our conscious awareness. Furthermore, in examining my unconscious though the analysis of dreams, I have become increasingly aware that even though the information received from our unconscious may at first appear insignificant, it is in fact quite meaningful in that it reveals a store of knowledge that we never knew we possessed.
In addition, I feel that this approach has provided the basis for a more meaningful relationship with other people. For example, in discussing dreams as well as their implications with my friends, I have noted how similar in nature we all are. Rather than accentuating our differences, as the conscious mind often does (leading of course to racial discrimination and the like), our unconscious tends to emphasize the similarities inherent in all human beings. The approach taken here is therefore a great stride in bringing humanity closer together, and for this reason, it deserves to be made a part of other courses in the university.
The implications are quite clear, however. This approach cannot operate adequately in an intellectual vacuum. it must be taught in an environment that not only is physically pleasant for the student (perhaps in the outdoors, in something like the groves of Academe, where Socrates taught), but also one that is favorably disposed toward the analysis of the unconscious. Thus, many more courses in the curriculum should emphasize the significance of the unconscious in order for the approach taken here to be truly successful in fundamentally transforming the quality of the student's education.
© Copyright 2002 by Robert J. R. Rockwood. All rights reserved.