Perhaps surprisingly, in these secular times, Radio 4 keeps up its annual (and very Reithian) tradition of holding a series of esoteric talks about faith and belief to mark the Christian season of Lent, those 40 days of preparation and penitence leading up to the events of Holy Week. In the first of this year’s Lent Talks (produced by Christine Morgan), the psychotherapist Anouchka Grose talked about the role of the unconscious in our behaviour and the peculiar tendency of human beings to repeat experiences they claim not to enjoy. You could say that unconsciously we influence our own fate, and that however hard we might try to tame our own impulses we are always liable to be thrown off-course.
We are pushed at times to act, says Grose, by forces inside us that can at times appear to go against who we consciously think we are. This behaviour is coded into us by the stories we grow up with, those early experiences of expectation and judgment. Our ‘cunning unconscious minds’ bring about certain situations without our being consciously aware of ever having taken action. Free will becomes illusory. ‘Where we think we are in control we’re not, and where we think we’re not in control, we are.’
Grose spoke for only 15 minutes but in that time took us through so many huge questions. What do we mean by destiny? How much can we control what happens to us? Are there bigger forces at work within us? This was a pure audio experience. No intrusive backing music needed. Just the human voice, speaking one-on-one about those discomfiting questions, those fears and insecurities which usually we keep hidden even from ourselves, dreading what answers we might find. Yet, says Grose, it’s precisely within such doubt we may find a kind of certainty.
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