You can be an atheist and still follow the ten commandments as guidelines

[Aristocatt]

The problem with the 10 Commandments is that they're written in negative language, and I think that could actually cause the unintended consequence of the unconscious mind discarding the negatives and interpreting them as "kill," "steal," "adultery," "bear false witness," and "covet."

I can get on board with "Be sure to take time off and get some rest at least once a week," "Support your family," "Protect life," "Respect others' possessions," "Be faithful to your partner," "Speak the truth," and "Enjoy what you have."  The ones regarding worship, though, definitely aren't needed if you don't believe there's anything to worship.

So I get reformulating things "I am god, this is my day, respect it" into "Be sure to take time off and get some rest at least once a week"...
And I kinda get how a positive affirmation of something you should do, might be more desirable than claims of what you shouldn't.
But I'm not sure anyone who decided to commit murder would be like "oh shit, I just got the commandments confused...sorry".
The law works in a similar way, it isn't a duty to protect life, it is a duty not to destroy it unnecessarily.  I'm not really aware of people getting confused about that duty. 

Maybe you could expand on this a bit?  Some references explaining how the human brain tends to do something like this would be pretty cool.
I wouldn't be surprised if we fuck up like this all the time...but I would be surprised if it wasn't related to how often the negative instruction is reinforced.

I.e.
My mom tells me not to do X once, but a few years later I get it confused.
My pastor from when I was younger repeats the "Do Not Kill mantra" once a month, I am unlikely to confuse it with  " kill kill kill" in the future.