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unconscious (inconscient) Although the term 'unconscious' had been
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{{Top}}[[inconscient]]]]''
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|-
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|| [[German]]: ''[[Unbewußte{{Bottom}}
  
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    used by writers prior to Freud, it acquires a completely original meaning in his
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==Sigmund Freud==
 +
Although the term "[[unconscious]]" had been used by writers prior to [[Freud]], it acquires a completely original [[meaning]] in his [[Sigmund Freud:Bibliography|work]], in which it constitutes the single most important [[concept]].  [[Freud]] distinguished between two uses of the term "[[unconscious]]."<ref>{{F}} "[[Works of Sigmund Freud|The Unconscious]]." 1915e. [[SE]] XIV, 161</ref>  The adjective it is very widely used to refer to any element of [[mental]] or [[psychic]] [[activity]] that is not [[present]] within the field of [[consciousness]]; as an ''adjective'', it simply refers to mental or psychic [[processes]] that are not the subject of, that occur in the [[absence]] of, [[consciousness|conscious awareness, thought, attention, perception or control]].  As a ''noun'', the ''noun-[[form]]'' designates one of the ''[[psychical]] systems'' described by [[Freud]] in his [[topology|topographical model]] of the [[psyche]], his first [[theory]] of [[psyche|mental]] [[structure]].
  
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work, in which it constitutes the single most important concept.
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[[Image:Freudpsyche.gif|thumb|300px|right|[[Unconscious|Freud's Model of the Unconscious]]]]
 +
==="Topological Model"===
 +
The "'''[[topographical model]]'''" [[divides]] the [[mind]] or [[psyche]] into [[three]] [[separate]] component parts -- or "[[scene|psychical localities]]":
 +
* the '''[[conscious]]''' ('''[[conscious|Cs]]'''),
 +
* the '''[[preconscious]]''' ('''[[preconscious|Pcs]]''') and
 +
* the [[unconscious]] ('''[[unconscious|Ucs]]''')
  
−
      Freud distinguished between two uses of the term 'unconscious' (Freud,
+
The [[unconscious|unconscious 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 [[distortion]].
  
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  19l5e). As an adjective, it simply refers to mental processes that are not the
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==="Structural Model"===
 +
[[Freud]]'s second [[model]] of the [[mind]] or [[psyche]] -- the "'''[[Structural theory]]'''" -- consisted of three "'''[[agencies]]'''":
 +
* the '''[[id]]''',
 +
* the '''[[ego]]''', and
 +
* the '''[[superego]]'''
  
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subject of conscious attention at a given moment. As a noun (the unconscious;
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In this model, no one '''[[agency]]''' is identical to the [[unconscious]], since even the [[ego]] and the [[superego]] have [[unconscious]] parts.
  
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  das Unbewuflte), it designates      one of the psychical systems which Freud
+
==Jacques Lacan==
 +
===Early Work===
 +
[[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]].
  
−
  described in his first theory of mental structure (the 'topographical model').
+
===Later Work===
 +
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]].
  
−
According to this theory, the mind is divided into three systems or 'psychical
+
<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>
  
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localities'; the conscious (Cs), the preconscious (Pcs) and the unconscious
+
He also insists that the [[unconscious]] cannot simply be equated with "[[unconscious|that which is repressed]]."
  
−
(Ucs). The unconscious system is not merely that which is outside the field of
+
===Biological Reductionism===
 +
[[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 [[biology|biologistic]] mode of [[thought]], [[Lacan]] argues that "the unconscious is neither primordial nor [[instinctual]];"<ref>{{E}} p. 170</ref> it is primarily [[linguistic]].
  
−
  consciousness at a given time, but that which has been radically separated from
+
===Language===
 +
This is summed up in [[Lacan]]'s famous [[formula]], "[[unconscious|the unconscious is structured like a language]]."<ref>{{S3}} p.167</ref>  [[Lacan]]'s analysis of the [[unconscious]] in [[terms]] of [[synchronic]] [[structure]] is supplemented by his [[idea]] of the [[unconscious]] opening and closing in a [[time|temporal pulsation]].<ref>{{S11}} p. 143, 204</ref>
  
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  consciousness by repression and thus cannot enter the conscious-preconscious
+
===Criticism===
 +
[[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>
  
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  system without distortion.
+
===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.).
  
−
      In Freud's second theory of mental structure (the 'structural theory'), the
+
===Symbolic===
 +
All the references to [[language]], [[speech]], [[discourse]] and [[signifier]]s clearly locate the [[unconscious]] in the [[order]] of the [[symbolic]].
 +
<blockquote>Indeed, "the unconscious is [[structured]] as a function of [[the symbolic]]."<ref>{{S7}} p. 12</ref></blockquote>
  
−
  omd is divided into the three "agencies' of ego, superego and id. In this model,
+
The [[unconscious]] is the determination of the [[subject]] by the [[symbolic order]].
  
−
  no one agency is identical to the unconscious, since even the ego and the
+
===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> The [[unconscious]] is, so to [[speak]], "outside."
  
−
superego have unconscious parts.
+
<blockquote>"This exteriority of the symbolic in relation to man is the very [[notion]] of the unconscious."<ref>{{Ec}} p.469</ref></blockquote>
  
−
      Lacan, before 1950, uses the term 'unconscious' principally in its adjectival
+
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]].
  
−
form, making his early work seem particularly strange to those who are more
+
===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 [[law]]s of the [[unconscious]], which are those of [[repetition]] and [[desire]], are as ubiquitous as [[structure]] itself.  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.
  
−
familiar with Freud's writings. In the 1950s, however, as Lacan begins his
+
===Memory===
 +
The [[unconscious]] is also a kind of [[memory]], in the sense of a [[symbolic]] [[history]] of the [[signifier]]s that have determined the [[subject]] in the course of his [[life]].
  
−
.return to Freud', the term appears more frequently            as a noun, and Lacan
+
<blockquote>"What we teach the subject to recognize as his unconscious is his history."<ref>{{E}} p.52</ref></blockquote>
  
−
increasingly emphasises the originality of Freud's concept of the unconscious,
+
===Knowledge===
 +
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 "[[unconscious|unknown knowledge]]."
  
−
stressing that it is not merely the opposite of consciousness; 'a large number of
+
==See Also==
 +
{{See}}
 +
* [[Biology]]
 +
* [[Consciousness]]
 +
* [[Discourse]]
 +
||
 +
* [[Desire]]
 +
* [[Drive]]
 +
* [[Instinct]]
 +
||
 +
* [[Knowledge]]
 +
* [[Language]]
 +
* [[Linguistics]]
 +
||
 +
* [[Memory]]
 +
* [[Repetition]]
 +
* [[Signifier]]
 +
||
 +
* [[Speech]]
 +
* [[Structure]]
 +
* [[Symbolic]]
  
−
psychical effects that are quite legitimately designated as unconscious, in the
+
{{Also}}
  
−
    sense of excluding the characteristics of consciousness, are nonetheless with-
+
==References==
−
 
+
<div style="font-size:11px" class="references-small">
−
 
+
<references/>
−
 
+
</div>
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
out any relation whatever to the unconscious in the Freudian sense' (E, 163).
 
−
 
 
−
He also insists that the unconscious cannot simply be equated with 'that which
 
−
 
 
−
is repressed'.
 
−
 
 
−
      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' (E, 147). Against this biologistic mode of thought, Lacan argues that
 
−
 
 
−
'the unconscious is neither primordial nor instinctual' (E, 170); it is primarily
 
−
 
 
−
linguistic. This is summed up in Lacan's famous formula, 'the unconscious is
 
−
 
 
−
structured like      a language' (S3, 167;        see LANGUAGE, STRUCTURE). Lacan's
 
−
 
 
−
analysis of the unconscious in terms of synchronic structure is supplemented
 
−
 
 
−
by his idea of the unconscious opening and closing in a temporal pulsation
 
−
 
 
−
(S11, 143, 204).
 
−
 
 
−
      Some psychoanalysts 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 (S7, 44; for
 
−
 
 
−
Lacan's refutation of these objections, see THING). Lacan himself qualifies his
 
−
 
 
−
linguistic approach by arguing that the reason why the unconscious is struc-
 
−
 
 
−
tured 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' (S7,
 
−
 
 
−
32).
 
−
 
 
−
      Lacan also describes the unconscious as a discourse: 'The unconscious is the
 
−
 
 
−
discourse of the Other' (Ec, 16; see OTHER). 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' (Sll, 126). More pre-
 
−
 
 
−
cisely, the unconscious is the effects of the SIGNIFIER on the subject, in that
 
−
 
 
−
the signifier is what is repressed and what returns in the formations of the
 
−
 
 
−
unconscious (symptoms, jokes, parapraxes, dreams, etc.).
 
−
 
 
−
      All the references to language, speech, discourse and signifiers clearly locate
 
−
 
 
−
the unconscious in the order of the SYMBOLIc. Indeed, 'the unconscious is
 
−
 
 
−
structured as a function of the symbolic' (S7, 12). The unconscious is the
 
−
 
 
−
determination of the subject by the symbolic order.
 
−
 
 
−
      The unconscious is not interior: on the contrary, since speech and language
 
−
 
 
−
  are intersubjective phenomena, the unconscious is 'transindividual' (E, 49);
 
−
 
 
−
  the unconscious is, so to speak, 'outside'. 'This exteriority of the symbolic in
 
−
 
 
−
  relation to  man is the very notion of the unconscious' (Ec, 469). If the
 
−
 
 
−
unconscious seems interior, this is an effect of the imaginary, which blocks
 
−
 
 
−
the relationship between the subject and the Other and which inverts the
 
−
 
 
−
message of the Other.
 
−
 
 
−
      Although the unconscious is especially visible in the formations of the
 
−
 
 
−
unconscious, 'the unconscious leaves none of our actions outside its field'
 
−
 
 
−
(E, 163). The laws of the unconscious, which are those of repetition and desire,
 
−
 
 
−
  are as ubiquitous as structure itself. The unconscious is irreducible, so the aim
 
−
 
 
−
  of analysis cannot be to make conscious the unconscious.
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
      In addition to the various linguistic metaphors which Lacan draws on to
 
−
 
 
−
conceptualise the unconscious (discourse, language, speech), he also conceives
 
−
 
 
−
of the unconscious in other terms.
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
 
 
−
  g    MEMORY The unconscious is also a kind of memory, in the sense of a
 
−
 
 
−
symbolic history of the signifiers that have determined the subject in the course
 
−
 
 
−
of his life; 'what we teach the subject to recognize as his unconscious is his
 
−
 
 
−
history' (E, p. 52).
 
−
 
 
−
  e    KNOWLEDGE Since it is an articulation of signifiers in a signifying chain,
 
−
 
 
−
  the unconscious is a kind of knowledge (symbolic knowledge, or savoir). More
 
−
 
 
−
precisely, it is an 'unknown knowledge'.
 
  
 +
{{OK}}
 +
[[Category:Dictionary]]
  
−
==def==
 
−
''For the physiological state of "being unconscious", as when knocked-out or asleep, see [[unconsciousness]].''
 
−
 
−
In [[psychoanalytic theory]], the '''unconscious''' refers to that part of mental functioning of which the [[subject (philosophy)|subject]] makes himself unaware.  The psychoanalytic unconscious is similar to but not precisely the same as the popular notion of the [[subconscious]]. 
 
−
 
−
For psychoanalysis, the unconscious does not include all of what is simply not conscious - it does not include e.g. motor skills - but rather, only what is actively [[psychological repression|repressed]] from conscious thought.
 
−
 
−
As defined by [[Sigmund Freud]], the [[psyche]] is composed of different levels of consciousness, often defined in three parts as
 
−
*preconsciousness
 
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*the waking [[consciousness]]
 
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*and beneath both of these, the unconscious.
 
−
 
−
For Freud, the unconscious was a depository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of mind by the mechanism of [[psychological repression]]. However, the contents did not necessarily have to be solely negative. In the psychoanalytic view, the unconscious is a force that can only be recognized by its effects - it expresses itself in the [[symptom]].
 
−
 
−
At the present stage, there are still fundamental disagreements within psychology about the nature of the unconscious mind (if indeed it is considered to exist at all), whereas outside formal psychology a whole world of pop-psychological speculation has grown up in which the unconscious mind is held to have any number of properties and abilities, from animalistic and innocent, child-like aspects to [[savant]]-like, all-perceiving, [[mysticism|mystical]] and [[occult]]ic properties.
 
−
 
−
==The psychoanlytic unconscious==
 
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Unconscious thoughts are not directly accessible to ordinary [[introspection]], but it is capable of being "tapped" and "interpreted" by special methods and techniques such as random association, dream analysis, and [[verbal]] slips (commonly known as a [[Freudian slip]]), examined and conducted during [[psychoanalysis]].
 
−
 
−
===Freud's definition===
 
−
Probably the most detailed and precise of the various notions of 'unconscious mind' - and the one which most people will immediately think of upon hearing the term - is that developed by Sigmund Freud and his followers, and which lies at the heart of psychoanalysis. It should be stressed, incidentally, that the popular term 'subconscious' is not a [[Freudian]] coinage and is never used in serious psychoanalytic writings.
 
−
 
−
Freud's concept was a more subtle and complex psychological theory than many. Consciousness, in Freud's topographical view (which was his first of several psychological models of the mind) was a relatively thin perceptual aspect of the mind, whereas the subconscious (frequently misused and confused with the unconscious) was that merely autonomic function of the brain. The unconscious was indeed considered by Freud throughout the evolution of his psychoanalytic theory a sentient force of will influenced by human drives and yet operating well below the perceptual conscious mind. Hidden, like the man behind the curtain in the "Wizard of Oz," the unconscious directs the thoughts and feelings of everyone, according to Freud. This unconscious mind is the primitive instinctual hangover we all suffer from and which we must overcome in a healthy way in order to become fully and normally developed, i.e., not [[neurosis|neurotic]] or [[psychosis|psychotic]] but merely unhappy (See Frank Sulloway's ''Freud, Biologist of the Mind'', Basic Books, 1983).
 
−
 
−
In another of Freud's systematizations, the mind is divided into the conscious mind or [[Ego]] and two parts of the Unconscious: the [[Ego, Superego and Id|Id]] or [[instinct]]s and the [[Superego]]. Freud used the idea of the unconscious in order to explain certain kinds of neurotic behavior. (See [[psychoanalysis]].)
 
−
 
−
Freud's theory of the unconscious was substantially transformed by some of his followers, among them [[Carl Jung]] and [[Jacques Lacan]].
 
−
 
−
===Jung's [[collective unconscious]]===
 
−
 
−
[[Carl Jung]] developed the concept further. He divided the unconscious into two parts: the personal unconscious and the [[collective unconscious]]. The first of these corresponds to Freud's idea of the subconscious, though unlike his mentor, Jung believed that the personal unconscious contained a valuable counter-balance to the conscious mind, as well as childish urges. As for the collective unconscious, which consists of [[archetypes]], this is the common store of mental building blocks that makes up the psyche of all humans. Evidence for its existence is the universality of certain symbols that appear in the mythologies of nearly all peoples.
 
−
 
−
===Lacan's linguistic unconscious===
 
−
[[Jacques Lacan]]'s [[psychoanalytic theory]] contends that the unconscious is structured like a language.
 
−
 
−
The unconscious, Lacan argued, was not a more primitive or archetypal part of the mind separate from the conscious, linguistic ego, but rather, a formation every bit as complex and linguistically sophisticated as consciousness itself.  (Compare [[collective unconscious]]).
 
−
 
−
If the unconscious is structured like a language, Lacan argues, then the self is denied any point of reference to which to be 'restored' following trauma or 'identity crisis'. In this way, Lacan's thesis of the structurally dynamic unconscious is also a challenge to the [[ego psychology]] that [[Freud]] himself opposed.
 
−
 
−
Lacan's idea of how language is structured is largely taken from the [[structural linguistics]] of [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] and [[Roman Jakobson]], based on the function of the [[signifier]] and [[signified]] in [[signifying chain]]s.  This may leave Lacan's entire model of mental functioning open to severe critique, since in mainstream linguistics, Saussurean models have largely been replaced by those of e.g. [[Noam Chomsky]].
 
−
 
−
The starting point for the linguistic theory of the unconscious was a re-reading of Freud's ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]''.  There, Freud identifies two mechanisms at work in the formation of unconscious fantasies: condensation and displacement.  Under Lacan's linguistic reading, condensation is identified with the linguistic trope of [[metonymy]], and displacement with [[metaphor]].
 
−
 
−
==Controversy==
 
−
 
−
Many modern philosophers and social scientists either dispute the concept of an unconscious, or argue that it is not something that can be scientifically investigated or discussed rationally. In the social sciences, this view was first brought forward by [[John B. Watson|John Watson]], considered to be the first American behaviourist. Among philosophers, [[Karl Popper]] was one of Freud's most notable contemporary opponents. Popper argued that Freud's theory of the unconscious was not [[Falsifiability|falsifiable]], and therefore not scientifical. However, critics of Popper have underlined that Popper's exclusion of psychoanalysis from the normal domain of science was a direct consequence of his specific definition of science as being constituted by what may be falsifiable. In other words, Popper defined science in terms which necessarily led to the exclusion of psychoanalysis. Thus, defining science in another way may lead to including psychoanalysis into this domain of [[knowledge]].
 
−
 
−
Still, many, perhaps most, psychologists and cognitive scientists agree that many things of which we are not conscious happen in our mind(s).
 
−
 
−
John Watson criticizes the idea of an "unconscious mind," because he wanted scientists to focus on observable behaviors, seen from the outside, rather than on introspection. Karl Popper objected not so much to the idea that things happened in our minds that we are unconscious of; he objected to investigations of mind that were not falsifiable. If Freud could connect every imaginable experimental outcome with his theory of the unconscious mind, then no experiment can refute his theory.
 
−
 
−
The argument seems to be about ''how'' mind will be studied, not whether there is anything that happens unconsciously or not.
 
−
 
−
==Pre-Freudian history of the idea==
 
−
The idea originated in antiquity, and its more modern history is detailed in Henri F. Ellenberger's ''Discovery of the Unconscious'' (Basic Books, 1970).
 
−
 
−
Certain philosophers preceding Sigmund Freud, such as [[Gottfried Leibniz|Leibniz]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer|Schopenhauer]], and [[Friedrich Nietzsche|Nietzsche]], developed ideas foreshadowing the modern idea of the unconscious. The new [[medical]] science of [[psychoanalysis]] established by Freud and his disciples popularized this and similar notions such as the role of the [[libido]] (sex drive) and the self-destructive urge of [[thanatos]] (death wish), and the famous [[Oedipus complex]], wherein a son seeks to "kill" his father to make love to his own mother.
 
−
 
−
The term was popularized by Freud. He developed the idea that there were layers to human consciousness: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.  He thought that certain psychic events take place "below the surface", or in the unconscious mind. A good example is [[dreams|dreaming]], which Freud called the "royal road to the unconscious".
 
−
 
−
==See also==
 
−
 
−
* [[Carl Jung]]'s concept of a [[collective unconscious]]
 
−
* [[Jacques Lacan]]'s assertion that "the unconscious is structured like a language".
 
−
* [[consciousness]]
 
−
* [[mind's eye]]
 
−
* [[transpersonal psychology]]
 
−
* [[Unconscious communication]]
 
−
* [[Psychology of religion]]
 
−
 
−
==External links==
 
−
*[[Donald Olding Hebb|Hebbian]] [http://cogprints.org/1652/00/hebb.html Unconscious]
 
−
*[http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrm/rediscovery.htm The Rediscovery of the Unconscious]
 
−
*[http://cogprints.org/2130/00/dennett-chalmers.htm Unfelt Feelings]
 
−
 
−
 
−
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
 
−
 
−
 
−
unconscious 12-13, 19-36, 39-41, 43, 45-8, 56, 56-60, 68, 72, 76, 79, 82-3, 100, 102, * 104, 119, 125-31, 133-50, 152-5, 156-7, 161-2, 174, 176, 181, 187-8, 197, 199-200, 203, * 207-8, 217, 221, 224, 231-2, 235, 242, 247, 249-52, 257, 260, 263, 267, 274 [[Seminar XI]]
 
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== References ==
 
−
<references/>
 
  
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[[Category:Terms]]
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__NOTOC__
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[[Category:Concepts]]
 
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[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
 

Latest revision as of 02:58, 21 May 2019

French: [[inconscient]]
German: Unbewußte

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. Freud distinguished between two uses of the term "unconscious."[1] The adjective it is very widely used to refer to any element of mental or psychic activity that is not present within the field of consciousness; as an adjective, it simply refers to mental or psychic processes that are not the subject of, that occur in the absence of, conscious awareness, thought, attention, perception or control. As a noun, the noun-form designates one of the psychical systems described by Freud in his topographical model of the psyche, his first theory of mental structure.

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Freud's Model of the Unconscious

"Topological Model"

The "topographical model" divides the mind or psyche into three separate component parts -- or "psychical localities":

The unconscious system is not merely that which is outside the field of consciousness at a given time, but that which has been radically separated from consciousness by repression and thus cannot enter the conscious-preconscious system without distortion.

"Structural Model"

Freud's second model of the mind or psyche -- the "Structural theory" -- consisted of three "agencies":

In this model, no one agency is identical to the unconscious, since even the ego and the superego have unconscious parts.

Jacques Lacan

Early Work

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.

Later Work

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.

"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."[2]

He also insists that the unconscious cannot simply be equated with "that which is repressed."

Biological Reductionism

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."[3] Against this biologistic mode of thought, Lacan argues that "the unconscious is neither primordial nor instinctual;"[4] it is primarily linguistic.

Language

This is summed up in Lacan's famous formula, "the unconscious is structured like a language."[5] Lacan's analysis of the unconscious in terms of synchronic structure is supplemented by his idea of the unconscious opening and closing in a temporal pulsation.[6]

Criticism

Lacan himself qualifies his linguistic approach by arguing that the reason why the unconscious is structured 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."[7]

Discourse

Lacan also describes the unconscious as a discourse: "The unconscious is the discourse of the Other."[8] 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."[9] 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 formations of the unconscious (symptoms, jokes, parapraxes, dreams, etc.).

Symbolic

All the references to language, speech, discourse and signifiers clearly locate the unconscious in the order of the symbolic.

Indeed, "the unconscious is structured as a function of the symbolic."[10]

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."[11] The unconscious is, so to speak, "outside."

"This exteriority of the symbolic in relation to man is the very notion of the unconscious."[12]

If the unconscious seems interior, this is an effect of the imaginary, which blocks the relationship between the subject and the Other and which inverts the message of the Other.

Formations

Although the unconscious is especially visible in the formations of the unconscious, "the unconscious leaves none of our actions outside its field."[13] The laws of the unconscious, which are those of repetition and desire, are as ubiquitous as structure itself. The unconscious is irreducible, so the aim of analysis cannot be to make conscious the unconscious. In addition to the various linguistic metaphors which Lacan draws on to conceptualize the unconscious (discourse, language, speech), he also conceives of the unconscious in other terms.

Memory

The unconscious is also a kind of memory, in the sense of a symbolic history of the signifiers that have determined the subject in the course of his life.

"What we teach the subject to recognize as his unconscious is his history."[14]

Knowledge

Since it is an articulation of signifiers in a signifying chain, the unconscious is a kind of knowledge (symbolic knowledge, or savoir). More precisely, it is an "unknown knowledge."

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Freud, Sigmund. "The Unconscious." 1915e. SE XIV, 161
  2. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.163
  3. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 147
  4. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 170
  5. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book III. The Psychoses, 1955-56. Trans. Russell Grigg. London: Routledge, 1993. p.167
  6. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p. 143, 204
  7. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-60. Trans. Dennis Porter. London: Routledge, 1992. p. 32
  8. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 1966. p. 16
  9. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book XI. The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, 1964. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1977. p. 126
  10. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. The Seminar. Book VII. The Ethics of Psychoanalysis, 1959-60. Trans. Dennis Porter. London: Routledge, 1992. p. 12
  11. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.49
  12. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits. Paris: Seuil, 1966. p.469
  13. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p. 163
  14. ↑ Lacan, Jacques. Écrits: A Selection. Trans. Alan Sheridan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1977. p.52


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