In Defense of the Central Role of Consciousness Versus the Prevalence of the Unconscious in Bargh's and Kahneman's Models of Mind

One of the most common dichotomies in psychology is that of consciousness and unconsciousness. Various theoretical proposals dealing with this dichotomy are available and this diversity reflects a certain elusiveness of these concepts. Such a situation turns out to be problematic, in that critical analyses of this dichotomy rarely progress towards a specific theory or position but, instead, refer to a wide class of theories which in essence deal to the dichotomy in the same manner. In order to avoid this problem, this paper addresses Bargh’s and Kahneman’s proposals on the conscious-unconsciousness distinction and their relations. On the basis of such an analysis, our aim is to assess how conscious processes are influential in explaining human behaviour, despite the emphasis placed on the unconscious dimension. This paper proposes to closely examine consciousness and subjectivity, in that they are fundamental dimensions for explaining the unitary nature of human behaviour.