Edward Said perceptively writes about the way that people's METHODS reveal their unconscious intentions, in his landmark work of literary criticism Beginnnings: Intention and Method:

"Intention, despite its conscious formulations, is never inconsistent with method, although conscious intention- when is it ever exclusively conscious? Is frequently at odds with method". page 13.

By being self-reflective, and scrutinising the WAY that we do things, we can reveal unconscious intentions operating just beneath the surface of our apparent intentions. (kind of like Freudian slips: you actually intended to do that accidental thing)

This self knowledge is important to improving ourselves and becoming better as human beings, and in critically analysing the way that society shapes us, and how we participate in this process of shaping ourselves.

I guess that I notice people's methods a lot - I am sometimes an extremely harsh judge of leftists who say one thing and do another- supporting values of social justice, yet their methods are overwhelmingly negative and disrespectful to other people etc. I especially notice it in pathological forms in organisational cultures of sectarian groups.

Yet what this says about individual intentions is beyond me. Perhaps it means that their greatest desire is to belong- to fit into a group rather than to bring about justice.