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Although the term "[[unconscious]]" ([[Fr]]. ''[[inconscient]]'') had been used by writers prior to [[Freud]], it acquires a completely original meaning in his work, in which it constitutes the single most important concept.
More precisely, it is an "unknown knowledge."
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The adjective is very widely used to refer to any element of mental activity that is not present within the field of the conscious mind at a given moment.
The noun-form is now usually used in the psychoanalytic sense, and refers to the unconscious system described by [[Freud]]'s first [[topography]] of the [[psyche]].
In the second [[topography]], the unconscious system is replaced by the agency of the [[id]], but [Freud]] continues to use "[[unconscious]]" as an adjective.
Although [[Freud]] is often credited with the discovery of the [[unconscious]], it is clear tha tthe notion of a non-conscious part of the mind has a long history in both [[philosophy]] and the psychological sciences.
A distinction has been made between the [[Freud]]ian [[unconscious]] and [[Jung]]'s concept of a 'collective unconscious'.
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[[Freud]]'s initial desriptions of the [[unconscious]] are based upon his analysis of dreams (1900).
Dreams are described as the royal road the the [[unconscious]] because they represent the fulfilment of [[unconscious]] [[wish]]es that are inadmissible to the [[preconscious]]-[[conscious]] system, usually because of their sexual nature.
Further confirmation of the existence of an unconscious system is provided by [[Freud]]'s study of phenomena such as [[parapraxis]] (101) and jokes (1905b); everyday phenomena such as slips of the tongue, bungled actions, lapses of memory and the inability to recall names all point to the existence of the [[unconscious]].
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The contents of the [[unconscious]] are described as representatives of the [[drive]]s and as [[unconscious]] [[wish]]es and [[desire]]s that are organized into imaginary scenarios and narratives.
Many of these elements have been subjecte to [[repression]] or have been refused entry to the conscious mind.
Others relate to [[fantasies]] or [[memories]] relating to the [[primal scene]] or the [[Oedipus complex]].
At times, [[Freud]] further speculates that the [[unconscious]] also contains elements of a phylogenetic heritage made up of residual elements of the vicissitudes of human history.<ref>1915d</ref>
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Insofar as it is a system, the [[unconscious]] is described by [[Freud]] as having a number of special characteristics.
It is governed by the primary processes of the free circulation of energy and [[libido]], and characterized by the mobility of [[cathexis]].
The [[unconscious]] is timeless, indifferent to external reality, oblivious to the notions of negation and doubt, and obeys only the [[pleasure principle]].
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Virtually all post-Freudian [[psychoanalysis]] may be regarded as contributing to an understanding of the [[unconscious]], but the most extensive reworking of the concept is that propounded by [[Lacan]].
In his celebrated "Rome Discourse" on the field and function of [[language]] and [[speech]] in [[psychoanalysis]] (1953), [[Lacan]] describes the [[unconscious]] as the censored chapter in the history of the individual subject.
The [[truth]] of this censored chapter can, however, be found elsewhere; it exists in the form of 'monuments' such as the nuclei of a [[neurosis]], the [[symptom]]s that can be read like some strange [[language]].
It can be found in the 'documents' of infantile memories, in the indivudal's character traits, and in the fragments that link the censored chapter to the chapters that precede and follow it.
[[Lacan]] remarks that [[psychoanalysis]] is quite literally a [[talking cure]], with speech as its sole medium, and goes on to describe the [[unconscious]] as being structured like a [[language]] (1957).
Drawing on the [[linguistics]] of [[Saussure]] and [[Jakobson]]'s work on 'aphasia', [[Lacan]] argues that [[symptom]]s and [[unconscious]] [[formation]]s such as the [[dream-work]] display the same formal properties as the rhetorical devices of [[metaphor]]/[[metonymy]], which he likens to the mechanisms of [[condensation]] and [[displacement]].
==See Also==
