The emotional unconscious mind of intentional agents

My project will focus on the hypothesis that most of our unconscious responses to affectively-laden situations – for instance our behavioral adjustments when we encounter another person – reflect our inner goals and are based on the implicit anticipation of future consequences. In other words, such responses might be, counterintuitively, unconscious and intentional at the same time. Such position contrasts with a long tradition in modern psychology, which goes back at least to William James and postulates that intentionality is the defining characteristic of a conscious mind, while unconscious responses would mostly consist of innate reflexes and learned habits. Such tradition has permeated the scientific study of emotional responses, which are often considered automated stimulus-driven reactions. On the other hand, the idea that our emotional behavior can tell us something concerning our unconscious affective goals is not new in the domain of clinical psychology and psychiatry. Nonetheless, these different disciplines often fail to communicate, rendering more difficult a comprehensive view of humans’ affectivity. The main objective of my project is to find a synthesis of different theoretical positions concerning unconscious emotional responses and intentionality. Second, I will seek to elaborate new experimental paradigms to test how responses to emotional stimuli can vary as a function of different unconscious goals and how such goals can interact or interfere with conscious ones.