Consciousness Vs. Subconciousness

4 Pages 997 Words

One of Freud's initial theories on the levels of consciousness was that there were merely two states: the conscious and the unconscious. He emphasized the importance of those mental processes which took place in the unconscious, as being responsible for many aspects of human behavior; for instance, a man might think CONSCIOUSLY that his bumping into a woman was purely accidental in nature, but actually it may have actually been a manifestation of his UNCONSCIOUS sexual desire for her, as he managed to invade her intimate space and has brought his body into a sort of forceful contact with hers (perhaps an act symbolic of sexual intercourse).

Freud came to find this "black or white" definition of consciousness to be unsuitable, however, and redefined his theory on consciousness, incorporating a third level: the pre-conscious. The conscious level of mental activity is the level on which all thought processes occur. What one thinks, conceptualizes, or understands takes place on this level of activity. The pre-conscious is where information is stored away, but is easily obtainable. Fond memories and the knowledge of how to perform day-to-day activities are examples of information stored at this level. The unconscious is where memories and information are stored which cannot be accessed readily. Most of a person's past history is stored on this level of consciousness, as well as those thoughts and memories which have been put out of mind in order to preserve a person's mental stability and/or to prevent pain (repressed).

Perhaps the best way to illustrate these three levels of consciousness, and the way in which they function, is to compare it to computer technology - the way in which Windows 95 operates, for example. The conscious would be the page which is maximized on the screen: It's the page on which all the information you are currently processing is, and is very visible as it takes up most of the screen. The pre-conscio...