The Unthought Known

Sometimes, while writing, you may feel as if you are receiving a transmission from the universe; it seems you have written something that you had never thought before. The feeling is often profound and can be attended by an intense euphoria. The Greeks attributed this feeling to a god, the muse, and they would supplicate her as if at the beginning of a journey: Homer for example: “Sing in me O muse and through me tell the story…” Psychoanalysis retains the profound nature of such communication but inverts the transmission: this new thought is sent not from any heavenly realm but arises from the interior universe. This is something you had always known but had never consciously thought until you wrote it down just now; in this instance meaning is made in the hand. The unthought known is so immersed in your psyche that no mere thinking or remembering can locate it, only the strenuous action of bodily communication, by writing or speaking, can make the unthought thinkable. Perhaps this is one reason why it can be scary to write (or speak) and why it is easy to procrastinate (or remain silent): there may be some things that you wish would remain unthinkable.