50 pages • 1 hour read
Dr. Joseph MurphyThe Power Of Your Subconscious Mind
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1963A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context: Self-Help Guides and the Subgenre of Mind Dynamics
As a seminal work in the self-help genre, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind contributes to the tradition of literature that empowers individuals to take control of their mental and emotional states and improve their lives. The self-help genre began in 1859 with the publication of the book Self-Help by Samuel Smiles, which promoted the Victorian virtues of hard work and thriftiness as paths to awakening one’s potential. Since then, the genre has grown to encompass topics such as parenting, spirituality, relationships, and personal growth, and publications in this genre collectively generate billions of dollars in sales every year.
Joseph Murphy’s book falls specifically into the self-help or self-improvement subgenre of altering habitual thought processes to achieve one’s goals—a concept that Murphy calls “mind dynamics.” Before the publication of Murphy’s work, the best-known and best-selling 20th-century authors in the field of mind dynamics included public speaking expert Dale Carnegie, author of the 1936 work How to Win Friends and Influence People; author Napoleon Hill, who wrote the 1937 book Think and Grow Rich; and minister Norman Vincent Peale, author of the 1952 book The Power of Positive Thinking.
Peale in particular was known for presenting examples of people who changed their lives for the better through Bible-based affirmative thinking, and as a minister himself, Murphy combines this approach with his background as a psychologist and a scholar of Hindu philosophy. His multifaceted approach to tapping into the power of the subconscious mind is heavily influenced by his belief that God resides in each person. Unlike Peale, however, he does not center his philosophy around the power of God to change lives; instead, he supports the idea that the subconscious mind itself holds this transformative power. More contemporary authors who promote the benefits of tapping into the power of the mind include Laura Day, who writes about using intuition to guide life choices, and Caroline Myss, whose books focus on the link between spirituality and healing.
Philosophical Context: The Subconscious Mind
From antiquity onward, numerous philosophers and scientists have discussed the idea that impulses do not arise from the process of conscious thought. The Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) popularized the concept of the subconscious mind, although he initially used the term “unconscious” to describe all thoughts, memories, feelings, and impulses that are normally unavailable to the realm of conscious thought.
In Freudian theory, the mind can be divided into three parts: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious. Freud contended that conscious thoughts are those of which people are aware. Additionally, preconscious thoughts are those that are not immediately in one’s focus but can easily be summoned, such as an address or a telephone number. By contrast, Freud asserted that the unconscious plays a major role in human personality, as it is the repository for what Freud called the “id”—a person’s most basic impulses and desires. Freud posited that the id was one of three elements that determined personality. He also posited the existence of the “ego”—the part that negotiates between the unregulated id and the demands of the external world. Finally, he described the “superego” as the conscience or the higher set of standards and values that a person internalizes over time, usually taking such concepts from external authority figures. Freud’s psychoanalytic therapy was rooted in analyzing a person’s dreams, associations, and memories to reveal the unconscious mind.
Freudian theory cannot be objectively proven and therefore has many critics. However, the concept of cognitive processes that affect behavior without conscious awareness is still a focus of research today, particularly when it comes to the question of how people process and respond to information. For example, a 2008 review of research into the unconscious mind concluded that unconscious processes “not only adapt us to the present situation, but influence the tracks we lay to guide our future behavior” (Bargh, John A., and Ezequiel Morsella. “The Unconscious Mind.” Perspectives on Psychologic Science, vol. 3, no. 1, 2008, pp. 73-79). While such reviews do not exactly prove the motivational use of the subconscious mind put forward by authors such as Murphy, the research nonetheless supports the potential power of the subconscious mind.
Cultural Context: Psychological Interests in the Mid-20th Century
Interest in psychology in the middle of the 20th century became intense as psychologists pursued increasingly specialized areas. Psychologist and researcher Joseph Royce observes that membership in the American Psychological Association grew from 3,000 members in 1945 to 13,475 members in 1955, with its structure changing “from a single society to an assemblage of societies which [took] the form of seventeen divisions” (Royce, Joseph R. “Psychology in Mid-Twentieth Century.” American Scientist, vol. 45, no. 1, 1957, pp. 57-73). Psychologists could be found in settings as varied as hospitals and military bases, and their research interests were just as diverse.
Broadly speaking, psychology during this time frame could be divided into two branches: physical and biological sciences and social sciences. These branches had more subsets; physical and biological sciences, for instance, explored how the brain and nervous systems work and which drug therapies are most effective for controlling conditions such as depression. By contrast, social sciences examined personality disorders, explored how organizations function, and determined the factors that contribute to personal growth, a field called humanistic psychology. Research in both branches stressed the importance of experimentation that produced measurable and applicable results.
Earlier in the century, psychological researchers had studied conditioning, learning, and perception, leading to developments in the field of cognitive behavioral therapy. Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) is a form of structured talk therapy developed in the 1950s. REBT is used to treat mental health challenges such as anxiety and substance use and focuses on identifying automatic negative thoughts and learning new beliefs. By the time The Power of Your Subconscious Mind was published in 1963, a person with behavioral conditions such as addiction no longer had to rely only on Freudian psychoanalysis or talk therapy; instead, they could also be treated through REBT and through an approach that advocated for modeling and reinforcing desired responses.
Humanistic psychology stood somewhat apart from the other subsets of the social sciences in the mid-20th century, and it is with this interest and with REBT that The Power of Your Subconscious Mind most closely overlaps. Humanist psychologists such as Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) studied conditions for healthy human growth and applied them to the fields of social work and education. The occasional use of meditation and the central focus on self-acceptance in humanistic approaches were ideas that Joseph Murphy incorporated into his techniques for tapping the power of the subconscious mind. He also drew on techniques from REBT to discuss treatments for phobias and addictions.
