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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]].

[[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]].

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>

[[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.).

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."

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.

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]]."

===See Also===