The Unconscious

According to Freud, the structure of our mind is divided into the conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious. The unconscious has several meanings among which the following stand out: that which is not attended to, felt, forgotten, or remembered; the unlearned; the innate; the unrecognized; and the involuntary.

Our skiing behavior is a partly conscious and partly unconscious process. The conscious encompasses all those experiences of which we are aware. Perception, thoughts, memories, and feelings are largely conscious acts. The preconscious is that which is easily made conscious, while the unconscious is hardly accessible to consciousness.

Freud argued that the unconscious does not govern time in the sense that a person who experiences an unpleasant or traumatic situation can relive it sometime later as if it were happening in the present. An example could be given when we are about to descend an unfamiliar slope. As we descend, we perceive other people and the characteristics of the environment through conscious processes. At a given moment we experience a sensation of anguish and apprehension, feeling uncomfortable we try to recover but it is not easy.

Every time we face a new slope, the same manifestations are repeated, but we do not know why: we are aware of our discomfort, but the cause that generates distress is part of our unconscious. The unconscious past coming from the experiences of our beginner stage can condition our present skiing.

The image of a painful event suffered in an unfamiliar place would remain engraved in our unconscious as an aversion to unfamiliar slopes. Perceived images of external reality are conscious while those of previous situational experiences that are hidden but believed to be forgotten and influence our skiing present are unconscious. These images present themselves in the form of fear, negative projections, distressing experiences such as, to cite an example, a severe fall while descending an unfamiliar run.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, only conscious processes in human behavior were studied. From Freud’s research on the unconscious, which opened up an enormous field of study, psychoanalysis was put into practice as a method to study it.

Based on these investigations, Freud reached certain conclusions about the unconscious. Briefly, the following is mentioned: at birth, the human being possesses instinctive tendencies considered as ‘pleasure-seeking impulses‘ oriented towards satisfaction and, as we are social beings, we are integrated into society through social groups. In the case of skiing, in order to be ‘accepted’, we must mold our skiing behavior according to the norms of the family, friends, group lesson, training group, or FIS Rules of Conduct, which implies regulating our constant search for pleasure.

From an early age, both parents and teachers use rewards and punishments to shape acceptable behaviors and exclude unacceptable ones. Therefore, we will have to eliminate from our conscience those unpleasant or unacceptable behaviors in order to adapt to the social environment. We will believe that forgetting them will be the solution but, in reality, they pass to the unconscious remaining latent and appearing in certain moments of our present.

Freud also discovered the relationship between unconscious meanings and bodily pain. Certain traumatic experiences leave psychic sequelae such as, for example, in an accident that produced a serious injury, we tend to forget it through repression. Through this mechanism we defend ourselves from the anguish it produces, but the remembrance left by the negative experience is not erased and remains stored in our unconscious, reappearing in the course of a similar situation that we are about to live.

In doing so, we experience symptoms such as legs’ trembling, knot in the stomach, intense fear, or compulsive avoidance of certain areas of the mountain, being consequences of the return of the ‘forgotten’ traumatic experience. Although forgetting is a psychological designation, there is no extinction of memory.

In certain cases, there is forgetfulness of the name of the area or run where the painful experience occurred, or the substitution by another. According to Freud, not only forgetfulness but also false memories occur. In conclusion, we may try to repress the lived traumatic experience, but since we cannot completely suppress it from our mind, it will return in the form of a memory or as a somatic symptom, that is, through certain bodily pains.

Eckart Tolle divides unconsciousness into ordinary and deep unconsciousness.

• Ordinary unconsciousness refers to the identification with the processes of thoughts and emotions, with our reactions, desires, and aversions, and maintains that it is the state in which most people find themselves. In this state we experience a low level of discomfort and discontent, and we may not be aware of it because it is normal. In this case, frequent resistance to what ‘is‘, which generates discomfort and discontent, is accepted by many as the ‘normal’ way of behaving.
• Deep unconsciousness is activated when faced with challenges or threats that generate heightened fears with which we identify.

Tolle argues that the best indicator of the level of awareness is in how we handle the challenges that arise. If we are dominated by our own emotional reactions toward skiing situations, we may experience a deep unconsciousness of what really “is”, becoming mentally trapped in what it “should be”; whereas if we become aware of the present moment, we tend to generate the energy needed to look at the situation from a realistic perspective.

Deep unconsciousness prevents us from being present in the here and now. We may have the tendency to prefer to be somewhere else because our “here” does not always satisfy us, and we may want something different, something better and are not satisfied with what “is”, that is, with the situation of the moment.

This author argues that, if the current situation does not satisfy us, there are three options: accept it, change it, or move away from it. In the face of every skiing challenge or threat, any action is generally preferable to no action at all, therefore, it is convenient to choose one of these alternatives and, of course, to accept the consequences.

Framework Matrix of On-Snow Examples of the Unconscious

Concept Name	Academic Core	On-Slope Example
1. Unconscious Conditioning	The psychological phenomenon where forgotten, unresolved experiences from a skier’s beginner stage covertly shape their present emotional state and skiing technique.	• An intermediate skier freezes up and loses their form on a gentle blue run without knowing why, unaware that their brain is secretly reacting to a minor, forgotten fall they had on a similar slope years ago.
2. Traumatic Spatial Aversion	The unconscious mind storing the visual memory of a painful accident in an unfamiliar environment, manifesting as an automatic fear response to any new or unvisited slope.	• You arrive at a new ski resort and feel an overwhelming sense of dread at the top of an easy trail you have never skied before, directly triggered by the repressed memory of a severe injury you suffered at a completely different resort.
3. Pleasure-Impulse Regulation (Social Molding)	The mandatory suppression of baseline, pleasure-seeking instincts to conform to the explicit safety rules and behavioral expectations of a social skiing group or governing body.	• A fast skier forces themselves to slow down and hold back their desire for a high-speed adrenaline rush in order to stay behind their instructor and comply with the FIS Rules of Conduct during a group lesson.
4. Behavioral Repression via Social Compliance	The psychological defense mechanism where a skier forces unpleasant or unacceptable behaviors out of conscious awareness to avoid social punishment and gain acceptance from peers or authority figures.	• A young racer completely hides and suppresses their urge to cry or quit after a bad run because their coaches and parents only reward toughness, pushing that emotional vulnerability deep into their subconscious mind.
5. Somatic Return of Repressed Trauma	The physical manifestation of stored, repressed psychological anguish appearing as real bodily symptoms when a skier faces a situation that mirrors a past accident.	• As you approach a steep drop-off identical to the one where you broke your leg years ago, your legs begin to tremble uncontrollably and you get a knot in your stomach, despite your conscious mind trying to tell you that you are perfectly safe.
6. Compulsive Avoidance Symptoms	An automated behavioral defense mechanism where a skier compulsively avoids specific zones of the mountain to escape the resurfacing of a repressed traumatic memory.	• You find yourself making up excuses to completely bypass the terrain park or a specific chairlift all season, masking a deep, repressed fear of an old injury under the guise of “just preferring groomed runs.”
7. Memory Substitution & False Memories	A psychological distortion where the mind masks a traumatic event by completely forgetting the name of the run where it happened or substituting it with a false, comforting narrative.	• You confidently tell your friends that you hurt your knee while slipping on ice near the cafeteria, completely blocking out and substituting the true, terrifying memory of tumbling down an advanced double-black diamond run.
8. Ordinary Unconsciousness	A baseline state of mind where a skier completely identifies with constant mental chatter, low-level discontent, and silent resistance to current snow conditions, accepting it as normal.	• You spend the entire chairlift ride and descent silently complaining in your head about the flat light and the slushy snow, completely unaware that this constant mental resistance is ruining your posture and making you ski stiffly.
9. Deep Unconsciousness	The total loss of presence that occurs when a sudden mountain threat or challenge activates intense, survival-based fears that completely hijack the skier’s identity.	• The moment you hit an unexpected patch of solid blue ice, you completely lose your connection to the present, get trapped in an emotional panic loop of “I shouldn’t be here,” and completely forget your technical training.
10. Reactionary Domination vs. Present Awareness	The conflict between being completely controlled by emotional reactions to tough terrain versus anchoring in the present moment to see the slope with objective, realistic clarity.	• Instead of panicking and screaming when caught in a sudden whiteout blizzard, a mindful skier anchors themselves in the present moment, assesses the exact visibility available, and calmly plans a safe, slow line down the mountain.
11. The “Here” Dissatisfaction Trap	A psychological refusal to accept the reality of the current skiing environment, causing the mind to wish to be anywhere else rather than managing the immediate terrain.	• While navigating a highly crowded, scraped-out cat track, you waste critical processing energy wishing you were on a powder day in Japan, causing you to trip over a basic snow ridge right in front of you.
12. Action Triad (Accept, Change, or Move Away)	The strategic psychological framework stating that when a skiing situation is unsatisfactory, a skier must actively choose to accept it, change it, or remove themselves from it, as any deliberate action is superior to paralysis.	• Facing a horribly icy and steep mogul field at the end of the day, you avoid dangerous mental paralysis by making a definitive, active choice: accept the challenge and ski it focused, change your technique by side-slipping down slowly, or walk away by taking off your skis and walking to the edge.