Subconscious response to symbols?

Question

How scientifically valid is the idea that the subconscious recognises, interprets and processes symbols? By "symbols" I mean representations of one thing using another. The context is the article "[The Inner Language of the Subconscious](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-flux/201301/the-inner-language-the-subconscious)" by Brenner in Psychology Today. I'm reading of attempts to coax certain behaviours/thought processes or eliminate bad habits by means of communicating directly with the subconscious, and I wanted to know if this is legitimate thinking or pseudoscientific claptrap.

Answer 1

Recent studies in neuroscience have shown clear evidence that factors can influence our behavior that are not available to the conscious mind. The place to start your search would be in psychology - as much as it pains me to say it, Freud was the one who first hypothesized that the unconscious mind can influence behavior. In the field of memory, a branch of cognitive psychology, there is a branch of memory called nondeclarative or procedural memory, which talks about the types of experiences we can have that will impact our behavior that might not be readily available to conscious awareness. The most common episodes of this kind of loss of memory to conscious awareness surround traumatic experiences, but sometimes we have experiences that are just not that salient to memory, but even though we don't remember what happened, the experience can impact our behavior. Similarly, recent studies in neuroscience have shown that there are parts of our brain that can store information, but that information may not be conscious. Those memories can still impact behavior.

However, as you might guess, a lot of snake oil salesmen trade on this kind of thing. But to directly answer your question, there is evidence that experiences we have can impact our behavior, and those experiences may not be available to our conscious mind. If you want to start exploring these concepts, you might want to start with studies of repression, related to traumatic experiences.

Hope this help!