The Freudian Unconscious: Evolutionary Adaptation or a Mere Epiphenomenon?

Is the Freudian Unconscious – consisting of repression and other unconscious defenses – an evolutionary adaptation or merely epiphenomenal? This article argues for adaptation. First, it outlines plausible selective (reproductive) evolutionary advantages for those employing various unconscious defenses, particularly in propitious circumstances. But maladaptive uses of these same defenses are present too and quite obvious! The adaptive/maladaptive dilemma is resolved here in an unusual way. The article proposes that the unconscious defenses are biological processes, and like more studied biological systems, e.g. blood pressure and blood sugar, the unconscious defenses are adaptive when homeostatic regulation of them is properly functioning – this, both synchronically, preventing immediate deleterious changes; and diachronically, as too much or too little repression is clearly maladaptive. The article then suggests a template for properly functioning adaptive homeostasis, saliently involving signals and responses to them. Unconscious defenses fit the template surprisingly well. This is made clear in Freud’s 1926 work “Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety.” The article closes with a future-aimed addendum: a hope for possible future work on the mind/body problem, exploring the claim that the Freudian Unconscious is a biological entity.