ArticleIntegrative psychological & behavioral science2026
From Subliminality, to the Unconscious Mind: Philosophical Lineages, Evolutionary Paradoxes, and the Future of the Origins of the Unconscious.
Article in Integrative psychological & behavioral science, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In previous works, we provided empirical evidence and the theoretical foundations for a conceptual dissociation between subliminality, such as purported emotional responses to invisible-imperceptible elicitors, and the intelligent workings of the notion of an unconscious mind, such as involuntary and automatic physiological experiences and behavioural patterns that precede but eventually interact with conscious awareness and evaluation. In this manuscript, we address this differentiation from a Theory of Evolution perspective. We show and discuss that a singularly subliminal module of unconscious processing could not have led to phylogenetic and ontogenetic skill acquisition, conscious problem-solving, volitional social engagement, inhibition and affect, and the development of consciously actionable cognitive-behavioural personality traits and characteristics. We argue that unconscious processing in the complete absence of conscious involvement and awareness, meta-awareness, and meta-cognition, would constitute an evolutionary hurdle and limitation. In contrast, we discuss and provide evidence that unconscious responses that occur before but eventually involve and interact with conscious awareness is a necessary condition for ecological adaptation. We highlight that unconscious-and-conscious communication, and interactions can contribute to implicit and explicit skill-acquisition, immediate physiological responses to threatening and social-related elicitors, and the ability to evaluate, appraise, re-appraise and align our experiences and responses to real-life ecological settings and adaptive demands. We conclude our manuscript with a discussion concerning the lack and need thereof of an experimental paradigm with which to, firstly, properly and appropriately explore subliminality, and, secondly, systematically and validly explore the interactions and workings of consciousness and the unconscious mind.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.