William Benjamin Carpenter

William Benjamin Carpenter MD MRCS CB FRS (29 October 1813 – 19 November 1885) was an English physician, invertebrate zoologist and physiologist. He was instrumental in the early stages of the unified University of London.
Carpenter was born on 29 Oct 1813 in Exeter, the eldest son of Dr Lant Carpenter, an important Unitarian preacher who influenced a "rising generation of Unitarian intellectuals". From his father, Carpenter inherited a belief in the essential lawfulness of the creation: this meant that natural causes were the explanation of the world as we find it. William embraced this "naturalistic cosmogeny" as his starting point.
Although qualified medically, he was best known for his work on marine zoology, notably the lower organisms such as Foraminifera and crinoids. These researches gave an impetus to deep-sea exploration, such as the 1868 oceanographic survey with "HMS Lightning" and later the more famous Challenger Expedition.
In the long term, however, he has become known as a founder of idea of the adaptive unconscious. He observed that the human perceptual system almost completely operates outside of conscious awareness. These same observations were also made by Hermann Helmholtz. Perhaps because these views were in conflict with the theories of Descartes, they were neglected for a hundred years. Carpenter noticed that the more he studied the mechanism of thought, the more clear it became that it operates largely outside awareness. He noticed that the unconscious prejudices can be stronger than conscious thought and that they are more dangerous since they happen outside of conscious.
He also noticed that emotional reactions can occur outside of conscious until attention is drawn to them:
He also asserted both the freedom of the will and the existence of the ego.
In the popular mind, he was perhaps better nown for his work against alcoholism, for which he won a prize of 100 guineas. It was one of the first temperance books.
In 1856 Carpenter became Registrar of the University of London, and held the office for twenty-three years. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.