Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/91

LEFT UNCONSCIOUS, THE 73 UNDERWOOD of the strata must have been more or less acted on by denudation, which has rendered them a nearly horizontal plane on which fresh strata can easily rest. Thirdly, these fresh strata have been actually deposited. Approximately to measure the interval of time which these changes have occupied, intermediate beds must be sought for in other districts or regions, or, failing these, note must be taken of the amount of alteration in life which has occurred during the unknown interval. This may be determined by comparing the fossils in the lower with those in the upper beds. Unconform- ability is of value in fixing the date of ancient seismic or volcanic action. If it tilted up the lower and had no influence on the upper strata, the irresistible in- ference is that it occurred between the deposition of the two. UNCONSCIOUS, THE, a theory, orig- inated by Dr. Sigmund Freud, forming the basis of a system employed in the interpretation and treatment of certain mental diseases. This hypothesis of the unconscious, countering to a large extent the former theory of the subconscious, was promulgated in 1893, and is to the effect that the conscious life, varying in its intensity from its clearness at the fo- cus of attention to the marginal states of sounds and sights and other condi- tions of the senses felt or known in different degrees, has its foundation in the unconscious, which never enters the condition of consciousness, but still, as the stage on which the senses act as a base, directs and conditions the selection of ideas that enter consciousness. The unconscious, according to the new doc- trine, is an instinctive force which does not reason in conscious modes. Its indi- cations in the field of consciousness are expressions too formless and elemental for acceptance in social intercourse. As a result there stands at the portal of consciousness an agent or censor whose function is the duty of so transforming the nascent desires or expressions as they raise that they shall not offend the moral sense in the conscious life. The unconscious idea is represented as one which is unable to penetrate conscious- ness no matter how powerful it may be- come; and one moreover which we do not perceive but whose existence we con- cede because of other signs and proofs. An intermediate state such as that out of which mental processes represented by much self-evident systems as are in- volved in pure mathematics is called the "foreconscious." The impelling influence of the unconscious is said to be illus- trated by such lapses as the forgetting of names, which is supposed to be occa- sioned by latent reluctance to admit them into consciousness owing to unpleasant associations. The influence of the un- conscious, however, is shown most pow- erfully in dreams, and their interpreta- tion according to what is called psycho- analysis is the leading element in Freud's system. The unconscious is con- sidered to be conditioned largely by he- redity, fulfilling the blind desire epito- mizing the mental evolution of the hu- man family. The primordial psychic de- sire or libido, ontogenetically developed, seeks satisfaction first in the respiratory, nutritive and eliminative activities of the infant, then in the auto-investigative or auto-erotic stage, then in the develop- ment of the ego, and at last in puberty and sexual love in which interest is transferred to the true mate in the op- posite sex. Various phases of the un- conscious mental life are labeled by Freud as the Narcissistic period, the cedipus complex, and the like, and a fun- damental type is supposed to be repre- sented in the frequent attitude of chil- dren toward their parents, making the mother the object of affection and re- garding the father as a rival. Not only in the individual but in the family and race are the effects of the unconscious seen, and such movements as Freemason- ry, alchemy, and the like are described as such manifestations. The doctrine of the unconscious is recognized at present merely as a working formula, to be im- proved and developed with the march of experience and to be tested by its prac- tical results in psychological treatment. UNDERWOOD, FRANCIS HENRY, an American author; born in Enfield, Mass., Jan. 12, 1825. He was an active abolitionist; clerk of the Massachusetts Senate in 1852; afterward literary edi- tor of the publishing house of Phillips, Sampson & Coi. He assisted in the management of the "Atlantic Monthly" for two years; was elected clerk of the superior court in Boston, which position he held for 11 years. In 1885 he was appointed United States consul at Glas- gow; in 1888 the University of Glasgow conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. His works include a "Hand-Book of American Literature" (1872); "Cloud Pictures," a series of imaginative stories musical in theme (1877) ; "Lord of Him- self," a novel of old times in Kentucky (1874) ; "Man Proposes" (1880) ; and biographical sketches of Longfellow (1882); Lowell (1882); and Whittier (1883). He died in Edinburgh, Scot- land, Aug. 7 1894. UNDERWOOD, LUCIEN MARCUS, an American botanist; born in New Woodstock, N. Y., Oct. 26, 1853; spent