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Unconscious

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{{Top}}inconscient]]'', [[German]]: ''[[das Unbewußte{{Bottom}}
===Sigmund Freud===
Although the term "[[unconscious]]" 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.
====Two Uses====[[Freud]] distinguished between two uses of the term "[[unconscious]]."<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Unconscious]]." 1915e. {{SE}} XIV, 161</ref>
===Mental Processes===As an ''adjective'', it simply refers to ''mental processes'' that are not the [[Freudsubject]] distinguished between two uses of the term "[[unconscious]]."<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Unconsciousconscious]]attention at a given moment." 1915e. {{SE}} XIV, 161.</ref>
As an ''adjective'', it simply refers to mental processes that are not the [[subject]] of [[conscious]] attention at a given moment. ====Mental Structure=========Topological Model=====As a ''noun'', it designates one of the ''psychical systems '' which [[Freud]] described in his first theory of [[psyche|mental]] [[structure]] (the "[[unconscious|topographical model]]").
According to this theory, the [[psyche|mind]] is divided into three systems or "psychical localities," the [[conscious]] ('''Cs'''), the [[preconscious]] ('''Pcs''') and the [[unconscious]] ('''Ucs''').
The [[unconscious|unconscious system]] system is not merely that which is ''outside '' the field of [[consciousness]] at a given time, but that which has been radically [[separation|separated ]] from [[consciousness]] by [[repression]] and thus cannot enter the [[conscious|conscious-preconscious system]]-without [[preconsciousdistortion]] system without distortion. --
=====Structural Model=====
In [[Freud]]'s second theory of [[mental]] [[structure]] (the "[[structural theory]]"), the [[mind]] is divided into the three "agencies" of [[ego]], [[superego]] and [[id]].
In this model, no one agency is identical to the [[unconscious]], since even the [[ego]] and the [[superego]] have [[unconscious]] parts.
--==Jacques Lacan==[[Lacan]], before 1950, uses the term "[[unconscious]]" principally in its ''adjectival form'', making his early work seem particularly strange to those who are more familiar with [[Freud]]'s [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|writings]].
[[Lacan]], before 1950, uses the term "[[unconscious]]" principally in its adjectival form, making his early work seem particularly strange to those who are more familiar with [[Freud]]'s writings.  In the 1950s, however, as [[Lacan]] begins his "[[return to Freud]]," the term appears more frequently as a ''noun'', and [[Lacan]] increasingly emphasizes the originality of [[Freud]]'s concept of the [[unconscious]], stressing that it is not merely the opposite of [[consciousness]].
<blockquote>"A large number of psychical effects that are quite legitimately designated as unconscious, in the sense of excluding the characteristics of consciousness, are nonetheless without any relation whatever to the unconscious in the Freudian sense."<ref>{{E}} p.163</ref></blockquote>
He also insists that the [[unconscious]] cannot simply be equated with "that which is repressed."
--===Biology===[[Lacan]] argues that the concept of the [[unconscious]] was badly misunderstood by most of [[Freud]]'s followers, who reduced it to being "merely the seat of the instincts."<ref>{{E}} p. 147</ref>
Against this [[Lacanbiology|biologistic]] argues that the concept mode of the thought, [[unconsciousLacan]] was badly misunderstood by most of [[Freud]]'s followers, who reduced it to being argues that "merely the seat of the instincts.unconscious is neither primordial nor instinctual;"<ref>{{E}} p.147170</ref>it is primarily [[linguistic]].
Against this ===Language===This is summed up in [[biology|biologisticLacan]] mode of thought's famous formula, "[[Lacan]] argues that "unconscious|the unconscious is neither primordial nor instinctual;structured like a language]]."<ref>{{ES3}} p.170167</ref> it is primarily [[linguistic]].
This is summed up in [[Lacan]]'s famous formula, "analysis of the [[unconscious ]] in terms of [[synchronic]] [[structure]] is structured like supplemented by his idea of the [[unconscious]] opening and closing in a language[[time|temporal pulsation]]."<ref>{{S3S11}} p.167143, 204</ref>
===Criticism===Some [[psychoanalyst]]s have objected to [[Lacan]]'s analysis of [[linguistic]] approach to the [[unconscious]] in terms of on the grounds that it is overly restrictive, and on the grounds that [[synchronicFreud]] himself excluded ''[[structureword-presentations]] is supplemented by his idea of '' from the [[unconscious]] opening and closing in a temporal pulsation.<ref>{{S11S7}} p.143, 20444</ref>
--[[Lacan]] himself qualifies his [[linguistic]] approach by arguing that the reason why the [[unconscious]] is [[structure]]d like a [[language]] is that "we only grasp the unconscious finally when it is explicated, in that part of it which is articulated by passing into words."<ref>{{S7}} p. 32</ref>
Some [[psychoanalyst]]s have objected to [[Lacan]]'s [[linguistic]] approach to the [[unconscious]] on the grounds that it is overly restrictive, and on the grounds that [[Freud]] himself excluded ''word-presentations'' from the [[unconscious]].<ref>{{S7}} p.44</ref> [[Lacan]] himself qualifies his [[linguistic]] approach by arguing that the reason why the [[unconscious]] is [[structure]]d like a [[language]] is that "we only grasp the unconscious finally when it is explicated, in that part of it which is articulated by passing into words."<ref>{{S7}} p.32</ref> ---===Discourse===[[Lacan]] also describes the [[unconscious]] as a [[discourse]]: "[[unconscious|The unconscious is the discourse of the Other]]."<ref>{{Ec}} p.16</ref>
This enigmatic formula, which has become one of [[Lacan]]'s most famous dictums, can be understood in many ways.
Perhaps the most important meaning is that "one should see in the unconscious the effects of speech on the subject."<ref>{{S11}} p.126</ref>
More precisely, the [[unconscious]] is the effects of the [[signifier]] on the [[subject]], in that the [[signifier]] is what is [[repressed]] and what returns in the [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]] ([[symptom]]s, [[jokes]], [[parapraxes]], [[dream]]s, etc.).
--===Symbolic===
All the references to [[language]], [[speech]], [[discourse]] and [[signifier]]s clearly locate the [[unconscious]] in the order of the [[symbolic]].
<bblockquote>Indeed, "the unconscious is structured as a function of the symbolic."<ref>{{S7}} p.12</ref></blockquote>
The [[unconscious]] is the determination of the [[subject]] by the [[symbolic order]].
--===Exteriority===
The [[unconscious]] is not interior: on the contrary, since [[speech]] and [[language]] are [[intersubjective]] phenomena, the [[unconscious]] is "transindividual."<ref>{{E}} p.49</ref>
If the [[unconscious]] seems interior, this is an effect of the [[imaginary]], which blocks the relationship between the [[subject]] and the [[Other]] and which [[invert]]s the [[message]] of the [[Other]].
--===Formations===
Although the [[unconscious]] is especially visible in the [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]], "the unconscious leaves none of our actions outside its field."<ref>{{E}} p.163</ref>
The [[unconscious]] is irreducible, so the aim of [[analysis]] cannot be to make [[conscious]] the [[unconscious]].
 
---
 
In addition to the various [[linguistic]] [[metaphor]]s which [[Lacan]] draws on to conceptualize the [[unconscious]] ([[discourse]], [[language]], [[speech]]), he also conceives of the [[unconscious]] in other terms.
Since it is an articulation of [[signifier]]s in a [[signifying chain]], the [[unconscious]] is a kind of [[knowledge]] ([[symbolic]] [[knowledge]], or ''[[savoir]]'').
More precisely, it is an "unknown knowledge." ===See Also==={{See}}* [[Biology]]* [[Consciousness]]* [[Dicourse]]* [[Desire]]* [[Drive]]* [[Instinct]]* [[Knowledge]]* [[Language]]* [[Linguistics]]* [[Memory]]* [[Repetition]]* [[Signifier]]* [[Speech]]* [[Structure]]* [[Symbolic]]* [[Topology]]{{Also}} ===References===<references/>  [[Category:Dictionary]]  __NOTOC__
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