Freud, Buddhist psychology and the Unconscious

Sigmund Freuds major contributions to psychiatry were his theory of the

unconscious and theory of dreams. Like the Buddha, Freud used first-person
research methods. He concentrated on his dreams and childhood memories to
deepen his theoretical insights. Much of this reflection occurred during a
particularly difficult period of Freuds life when after the death of his Father he
suffered cardiac irregularities and bouts of depression. Linking this loss with the
onset of mental and physical distress, Freud decided to look within his own mind
to heal his suffering. That does sound to me just like a Buddhist psychological
prescription for relief of suffering.

Another area of agreement between Freud and Buddhist psychology is the

postulation of an unconscious. Freud visualized the unconscious as a storehouse
for repressed concepts, feelings, and instincts, too unacceptable to reside freely
in the preconscious, from where all mentation arises into conscious awareness.
Freud did not view repression as a problem in and of itself and even advocated
repression of primitive sexual and aggressive urges to aid maintenance of
societal norms. But he also believed that excessive repression of libidinous
desires was most likely a result of unwarranted societal restrictions of his time.

Professor William Waldron wrote a fantastic book called, "The Buddhist

Unconscious". According to Waldron, Buddhist psychology espouses several
competing topological theories of mind all of which include some form of an
unconscious. The Abhidharmic model conceptualizes the unconscious as
bhavanga-citta, a ground consciousness that is conditioned by karma and acts as
a conditioning factor for current life habitual tendencies. Later revisions of that
model view the unconscious as laya-vijna, a store consciousness containing
the individuals karmic seeds of suffering. Like Freuds unconscious, bhavanga-
citta and laya-vijna are thought to motivate the mind to produce destructive
habitual mind states. However, Buddhist psychology has no concept of active
repression, which would force these seeds to remain in the unconscious. Instead,
birth itself is the proximate cause for the existence of bhavanga-citta and laya-
vijnas karmic contents.