The Operationalization of the Unconscious

Abstract

This paper presents a brief review of some formal approaches to the modeling of unconscious phenomena. These models allow for the operationalization of the concept of psychodynamic unconscious towards a possible inclusion in the fields of Cognitive Informatics and Cognitive Computing. In particular this paper presents the conceptualization proposed by Ignacio Matte Blanco of the functioning of conscious and unconscious thinking. In his original view the two ways of thinking are conceived as two distinct logics, “symmetrical” and “asymmetrical” logics. In this study the fundamentals of his concepts are identified and re-elaborated in a more formal way, with the aim of developing an operational and dynamic functional structure that evolves over time and that includes the affective value of objects. On this basis a computational implementation of the conscious–unconscious interaction that employs Learning Classifier Systems (LCS) is put forward.