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Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion pp 850–851Cite as

Existential Unconscious

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Definition

The existential unconscious is a term offered by Mercurio for coming to light the wisdom that lies within individuals and differs from Freudian psychological unconscious in some ways (Bonvecchi 1999). First of all, in counterpart to Freudian psychological unconscious that puts stress on early childhood period, the existential unconscious focuses on the period from the intrauterine to adolescence (Mercurio 2009). Secondly, the existential unconscious is a place where not only our greatest painful and traumatic experiences but also pleasing and satisfying things that influence ourselves and our acts are stored (Mercurio 2009, 2011a), whereas the psychological unconscious is a place where individuals’ repressed motives, unwanted desires, and memories reside (Muckenhoupt 1997). Thirdly, the existential unconscious composes of four components, the factual unconscious, reactive unconscious, decisional unconscious, and creative unconscious (Mercurio 2009, 2011a) (see Fig. 1),...

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Bibliography

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Department of Counselling Psychology, Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul, Turkey

    Duygu Dincer

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  1. Duygu Dincer
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Correspondence to Duygu Dincer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    David A. Leeming

  2. Blanton-Peale Institute, New York, NY, USA

    David A. Leeming

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Dincer, D. (2020). Existential Unconscious. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_200189

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