Abstract

Did ancient thinkers have a notion of the unconscious? In this paper I contend that bishop Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) conveyed the unconscious mind in at least two of his works: On the Catechizing of the Uninstructed (chapter 2.3) and in his theory of three visions in The Literal Meaning of Genesis (book XII). We can detect in these works similarities which approach certain concepts from 20th century psychoanalysts. In other works of Augustine (such as The Trinity IX and X and Confessions X), the bishop goes to great lengths to attempt to describe the complex inner mechanisms of the human mind and memory. Formulations from these works will also be utilized to supplement my explanation of Augustine’s understanding of the unconscious in the aforementioned treatises.